User blog:GlitterInformer/Smile Pretty Cure!/Glitter Force SDC: Episode 1

'Japanese title: She's Born! The Perfect Smile, Cure Happy!!'

English title: An Exciting Beginning

The Japanese episode starts with all five members of Pretty Cure posing. Then it turns out they’re in a book, which flies away into the sun… OK? Then we meet our protagonist, Hoshizora Miyuki, who loves picture books. Unfortunately, she’s late on the first day at her new school. Despite this, she’s feeling like she’s going to have a great encounter. And she does – the book from earlier flies towards her, and a fairy comes out of the book and hits her in the face.

But no worries; Miyuki’s in love with the fairy. The fairy, who ends all her sentences with “kuru,” introduces herself as Candy, a denizen of the land of picture books, M ä rchenland. Candy then runs away, but leaves the book behind, proof that Miyuki wasn’t dreaming.

As Miyuki runs to school, the opening theme starts. The theme song is called ''Let’s Go! Smile Pretty Cure!'' It’s a very cheerful song, one that I imagine will be stuck in my head as I continue to watch the series. The opening shows all five of the protagonists doing what they love. Then, it shows their Pretty Cure forms (the song even does a roll call of all their names!). We get a preview of the villains of the series, and some quick fight scenes. It’s a great intro.

The English episode, however, starts with the Netflix logo and a rainbow-colored screen that says, “A Netflix Original Series.” From what I hear, all series exclusive to Netflix, whether or not Netflix created them, have the text “A Netflix Original Series” at the beginning of each episode. I believe that for Glitter Force, it should be “A Netflix Exclusive Series” instead. The opening text that exists here means that it will be harder for people to know about the original Japanese version. In fact, it has led some detractors of Glitter Force to believe that Netflix was stealing Smile Pretty Cure!

This sequence displays before every episode. Here are your images:



The music is oddly sentimental in the English dub of this scene. It’s more of a comedic than a heartwarming moment, so I feel that the goofier Japanese music is a better fit.

In the Japanese version, Miyuki has an inner monologue in which she fidgets around, trying to get herself to say something but is too nervous to do so. This scene is cut from the English version.





In the Japanese version, a kid in the class says, “We’re waiting! Introduce yourself!” In the English version, the kid says, “Is this charades? Because I’m really good at guessing!” I don’t understand why he’d say that, given that Emily doesn’t make any weird movements like Miyuki does.

In the Japanese version, Miyuki stutters out her name and that she’s pleased to meet the class. In the English version, Emily gets disoriented and starts saying the pledge of allegiance, the corrects herself and introduces herself to the class. Both scenes are funny.

Then, the red-haired girl introduced in the opening and Emily’s dream as one of the members of the team gets up and does the introduction for Miyuki/Emily. Why would she do that? That’s kind of rude. In the sub, she’s shocked that Miyuki didn’t include a punchline, but she doesn’t say this in the dub.

In the sub, the red-haired girl makes guesses about Miyuki, including that she looks like an airhead but is really focused, and that she has a little brother named Hoshizora Mitarou who enjoys looking at the stars (“Hoshizora mita” translates from Japanese to English as “I looked at the starry sky”, and "tarou" is an ending of many male Japanese names.) This pun gets the entire class laughing.

In the English version, Emily recognizes the girl as Glitter Sunny from her dream, whereas in the original, they’re strangers. The girl guesses that Emily is a transfer student who’s bad at public speaking, is pleased to meet everyone, and waves her hands a lot. That last one gets the class laughing. I don’t like this version as much because the joke is at Emily’s expense, rather than a pun about a made-up brother.

Name Change: In the Japanese version, the red-haired girl is Hino Akane. In the dub, she’s Kelsey.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">In both versions, two other girls shown as being part of the team tell Akane/Kelsey to cut it out. In the English version, Emily recognizes the green-haired one as Glitter Spring and the blue-haired one as Glitter Breeze, saying that “This is freaky-deaky.” (Maybe they did that to match with the lip flaps, but I’ve never heard anyone say that before.) Just like with Akane, these two are strangers to Miyuki in Smile Pretty Cure! Then, Akane/Kelsey decides to introduce them to Miyuki.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Name Change: In the sub, the green-haired girl is Midorikawa Nao. In the dub, she’s April.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">In both versions, Akane/Kelsey says that Nao/April is really good at sports. In the sub, Akane says that Nao is soft-hearted, has a sense of duty, and is like a gangster. Nao takes offense to that last one, and Miyuki repeats it in shock. In the dub, Kelsey says that April is tougher than most of the boys. April, offended, says that she’s not that tough (though why that would be an insult, I don’t know) and Emily quietly says it’s nice to meet her.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Name Change: In the sub, the blue-haired girl is Aoki Reika. In the dub, she’s Chloe.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">In the sub, Akane says that Reika’s the class rep and vice president of the student council, and that she’s a top student whom all the boys think is a hottie. Reika repeats, “Hottie?” in shock, and Miyuki gasps in amazement. In the dub, Kelsey says the same thing, as well as that Chloe is “so perfect, it’s kinda scary.” Chloe says she’s not perfect, and Emily giggles.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">In the Japanese version, Akane says she moved from Osaka, so she understands Miyuki’s situation. Kelsey, on the other hand, doesn’t say where she came from, but says that she was tongue-tied and nervous just like Emily. Then, the teacher cuts Akane/Kelsey off.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">The yellow-haired girl from the intro talks to Miyuki/Emily. In the sub, she tells Miyuki not to worry about it, because Akane was trying to get her to loosen up a bit. In the dub, she says she thought Emily did a good job, and like that she said her name was Emily because she had a hamster named Emily (That’s cute!) Also, in the dub, Emily recognizes her as Glitter Peace. This doesn’t happen in the original.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Name Change: In the Japanese version, the blonde is Kise Yayoi. In the dub, she’s Lily. (That means that April is the only one in the group whose name doesn’t end in an “y” sound.)

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Akane/Kelsey introduces Yayoi/Lily on her way back to her seat. In the sub, she says Yayoi’s a crybaby who bursts into tears if you tease her even a little bit. Yayoi retorts that she’s only cried three times. Kelsey says something similar in the dub, and Lily says she hasn’t cried once today… “actually, maybe once… three times at the very most.” <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Miyuki/Emily says she’s not nervous anymore and tries again. Miyuki says she loves picture books and how they always have a happy ending, and she looks for that happiness every day. Emily says the same thing, but that she likes fairy tales instead of picture books. Not all fairy tales have happy endings, though, Emily. In fact, a good number are brutal! <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Akane asks what happiness means to Miyuki, and she responds that if everyone had a twinkle and was excited, everyone would be ultra-happy. (“Ultra-happy” is Miyuki’s catchphrase.) The exchange is similar in the dub, but Kelsey wonders if Emily’s happiness is like if the cafeteria serves fries instead of creamed spinach puffs, and Emily describes happiness as a warm feeling in your heart. In the Japanese version, Akane says she doesn’t get it. In the English version, Kelsey says she thinks that’s called sunstroke. <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">When the teacher decides where Miyuki/Emily will sit, Akane/Kelsey says that the desk behind her is open. In the dub, Kelsey adds that it’s “marginally clean,” which I found to be a humorous touch. <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">In the Japanese version, Miyuki looks out the window and sees Candy flying through the air, searching for Pretty Cure. Miyuki shouts Candy’s name, but when she gets Akane to look, Candy is already gone. This scene is cut from the dub.