Misumi Nagisa

Misumi Nagisa (美墨 なぎさ) (or Natalie Blackstone in the English dub), is one of the main characters in the series Futari wa Pretty Cure. Because of her role as narrator and the amount of attention she gets in the series, she is considered the main heroine. Her Pretty Cure ego is Cure Black (キュアブラック). Although she was previously almost unaware of her existence, Nagisa eventually became best friends with Yukishiro Honoka because of their shared roles as Pretty Cure, admiring her for her intelligence, kindness, and understanding. She has a habit of saying "Arienai!" (ありえなーい！！) when she is upset, which can be roughly translated to "Unbelievable!" or "I don't comprehend this!" and also "Lucky!" (ラッキー！) whenever things go her way. Her catchphrase in the English dub is "Give me a break!"

Although she is sporty, Nagisa is actually more girly and image conscious. She has a large collection of stuffed animals and is weak in academics, but makes up for it with pure spirit and energy as well as in lacrosse. She also has a large appetite and loves to eat chocolate and Fujita Akane's takoyaki and, according to Honoka, foods with the word "yaki" in the name. She likes shopping, but tends to squander her money and ends up having none when she needs it most. She also loves playing on the grass and sunny days, and she hates fighting with her friends. Nagisa has a crush on Honoka's childhood friend, Fujimura Shougo, and gets flustered whenever he is around. To her dismay, Nagisa is more popular with the girls than the boys, and is sometimes shown to be jealous toward Honoka, who gets confessions and love letters from boys more than twice a month.

Nagisa has a great sense of justice, but it is hidden inside of her and only comes out when someone is in danger. She hates that innocent people get hurt for things they had nothing to do with.

Futari wa Pretty Cure
Nagisa starts her adventure when she finishes a training session for lacrosse. While she is getting her shoes after school at Verone Academy, she and her friends talk about an upcoming meteor shower, which is when Honoka comes and explains that meteors are not dangerous. This is when Nagisa gets to know a little more about her, and gets a little jealous of her, since Honoka is more popular with the boys and is quite smart. When she opened her shoe drawer, there were letters. Nagisa hoped it was from boys who were confessing to her, but it was just fan letters from girls.

When she got home, she jumped on her bed and put a pillow on her face and threw a little fit that she wants to be popular with boys. Suddenly, she sees the meteor shower, and hurries to make several wishes. Just then, one of the meteors come shooting toward her, hitting her in the forehead. Eventually, the "meteor" was revealed to be Mepple, a strange creature from the Garden of Light. He stays inside what looks like a cellphone, since he is from another world and does not have much energy to stay in his true form on Earth. In the meteor, from which he came from, also came a few cards, revealed to be for transformation (for Nagisa), feeding, sleep and aid for Mepple whenever Nagisa slides one of those cards across the strange cellphone object. Although Nagisa finds Mepple scary at first, she agrees to help when Mepple asks her to go to the amusement park to meet his friend Mipple. Soon, they find her as well as Honoka. There, they get attacked by a creature of the Dusk Zone and suddenly transform into the legendary warriors, Pretty Cure. They manage to defeat the creature, but Nagisa is against the whole thing about being Pretty Cure.

As the story progresses, Nagisa comes to accept her role as Cure Black, and becomes good friends with Honoka. Throughout the season, they defeat enemy after enemy, and Nagisa also begins to realize what is important to her, and her view of life and justice changes. It is thanks to this that she manages, together with Honoka, to defeat Pisard and Gekidrago. The battle becomes tougher when the vampire-like creature Poisony appears, as she easily manages to trick the girls. However, they manage to defeat her as well. They never realized, however, that they had killed the older sister of Kiriya, who has been their friend up until now to spy on them. When Kiriya tells this to Honoka, Nagisa is informed the next day, and they are soon forced to fight their former friend. This does not stop Black from trying to bring reason into Kiriya, and stop him from hurting Honoka's feelings in the fight. In the end, Kiriya finally understands and willingly gives Cure White his Prism Stone before he is taken away by Ilkubo. Cure Black tries to stop Cure White, who tries to follow him in order to stop him. The following day, Nagisa worries over her friend, who is crying by herself every night.

After finally defeating the last servant from the Dusk Zone, Nagisa and Honoka are overpowered by the Dark King. However, their courage and hope makes them want to fight, and in the end the Queen comes to the rescue, helping them defeat the Dark King. The battle is now over, however, they soon get a visit from Pollun, the Prince of Light, who is going to stay with Nagisa in order to help the duo fight against the Seed of Darkness, which are creatures that the Dark King managed to make right before he got destroyed. When they awaken, they begin working together in order to revive the Dark King. They eventually kidnap Wisdom, who is able to give the Rainbow Stones to Pollun right before he is taken away, which, in turn allows him to to power up Cure Black and Cure White with the Rainbow Bracelets.

After fighting with Pretty Cure for a long time, the Seeds of Darkness eventually realize that Pretty Cure cannot fight at their strongest without each other, and thus manage to kidnap Cure White and put her in a pit made of darkness. While looking for Cure White, Cure Black realizes that, although she always seems to be the strongest and best, she cannot do anything without Cure White's support and presence. She then calls out Honoka's name, and is met by Juna. He tells her that her partner soon will disappear in the darkness, which makes Cure Black's power go out of control. When she finds the direction toward the core of darkness that surrounds Cure White, she is met by numerous Zakenna. However, her will to rescue Honoka drives her to defeat them all alone, and she eventually manages to save Cure White. Calling Honoka's name, and not Cure White's, she runs over to her and cries, telling her how worried she was.

At the end of the series, when Mepple and Mipple say goodbye to them, Nagisa has become such good friends with them that she cries when they go into their eternal sleep. Although they no longer are Pretty Cure, she and Honoka continue being best friends, and still keeps the Card Commune that Mepple now sleeps in.

Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart
At the beginning of their third year of middle school, Nagisa and Honoka start out a little awkward. However, a new Zakenna suddenly comes forth, and they have to run away from it. While they seem to be trapped, light suddenly shines from their cell phones, and Mepple and Mipple appear. They transform into the Card Communes again, though they look different; they are now Heartful Communes, and the cards have become diamond-shaped. Upon transforming, they notice that they look different from the last time, but have to fight before figuring it out properly. During the fight, they realize that they have gotten an amazing power-up in strength, and when they try to do their attack Marble Screw, they add in a "Max" so it becomes even more powerful.

Some time later, they meet a mysterious first year middle school student named Kujou Hikari, who tells about the place Nagisa has drawn on a paper for the class. Eventually, it is revealed that she can transform into Shiny Luminous and that she has her own amazing powers. The Elder and Wisdom later return in order to explain these events to the girls, and to also tell them the sad news: the Queen has disappeared and is now separated in three representatives of her will, heart and life. They soon figure out that Hikari is the representative of the Queen's life, and that is why she seems to be so confused in the Garden of Rainbows.

Throughout the season, the duo go through hard times against the new evils, who are guarding the representative of the Dark King's life, who looks and acts like a little boy. Eventually, the Dark King is resurrected, despite Hikari's efforts to not sacrifice the little innocent boy. Pretty Cure tries to defend the Earth while Hikari goes into another dimension in order to try become the Queen again to help the girls. During the fight, however, Baldez actually absorbs the Dark King into himself, and in doing this, becomes the new Dark King. Pretty Cure are utterly defeated, but then Cure Black remembers how she once hurt herself pretty badly in a race when she was young, and how her parents told her not to lose courage just because something went wrong. Together with Cure White remembering Honoka's grandmother's words about hope, they stand up and continue fighting.

Using Marble Screw Max Sparkle, they think they have won, but it is in vain when Baldez tells them that he is impossible to destroy, and destroys the whole city. In depression, Pretty Cure stand beside the tree Honoka's grandmother loves, and begin remembering things they have forgotten to do that day; Nagisa has yet to finish her homework, and has not done all the preparations for the graduation yet. In the end, when Cure Black tells Mepple that they must be allowed to talk about it even in a situation like this, Cure White realizes that every heart has the right to live, and live it like they want. With new power, Pretty Cure tries to fight against Baldez once again. Just as they are about to be crushed by the now giant Baldez, the Queen is regenerated and saves them. An illusion of Shiny Luminous tells them that this is their final moment, and they combine all of their powers to use the ultimate attack: Extreme Luminario Max. After Baldez is defeated, Pretty Cure realize that they will never see those from the Garden of Light again, and that they will never become Pretty Cure again, either. They then de-transform back to Honoka and Nagisa, and are sent to the graduation ceremony. Although they wonder how they got there, they remember their little mascots, and become depressed. They still feel down at Akane's shop, where they suddenly meet Hikari again, telling them how incredible the graduation was. Mepple and Mipple also show up, and Hikari also has with her the boy who represents the Dark King's life, now named Hikaru. It is revealed that Hikari and the Queen managed to separate, and that Mepple and Mipple are now able to fully live in the Garden of Rainbows. Happy that she and Mepple will always be together, Nagisa cries in joy, though ends the whole series by saying "I can't believe this!" when Mepple mentions that he is still hungry.

Appearance
Nagisa has short, pale orange hair that she usually wears down and has brown eyes. Her casual outfit consists of a pink, zipped vest jacket with a white and red shirt underneath, a grey skirt, yellow and orange socks, blue and white sneakers and a black wristband on her right wrist.

In the Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart movie, Nagisa was seen wearing a long, turtle neck, pink dress, with red and pink hearts, outlined with white, at the bottom. The dress itself was outlined with black, and had a dark pink color at the top. Along with it, Nagisa wore pale pink gloves and black shoes with small pink bows. In the Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart Movie 2, she wore winter clothes which was a pale pink hat, pink snow goggles, a pink coat, purple and red gloves, dark blue snow pants and red shoes. Nagisa was seen in her yukata as well. It is white with a purple bow around the waist, and had lavender designs at the bottom. On her feet she wore black and red sandals.

When she is practicing playing lacrosse, she holds some of her hair up with a pink heart-shaped scrunchie and is seen wearing a red and white shirt with a number '7' inscribed on the front and 'Verone 7' on the back, black gloves, a black skirt with under shorts and red and white sports shoes.

In the first season, Cure Black's outfit is a black and purple midriff-bearing top with pink ruffles lining the sleeves and a light pink bow on her chest. On her arms are elbow-length black arm warmers as well as black fingerless gloves. The warmers are lined in pink and each feature a heart at the wrist. She wears a black skirt atop black mini-shorts that features ruffle trimming of each layer and she has a pink belt with a heart-shaped buckle around her waist. Lastly, she wears black legwarmers with a heart at the top of each one and red shoes. Her earrings and buckle are silver. Her hair bangs move to the left.

In Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart, Cure Black's outfit, along with Cure White's, is slightly upgraded. Her midriff gets covered in black cloth, and the upper part of her top becomes red. Her skirt, gloves and leggings have extra pink ruffle trimmings. There is also now a tiny pink heart in the center of the bow. Her earrings and belt buckle are now gold.

Cure Black
"Emissary of light, Cure Black!" 光の使者、キュアブラック！ Hikari no shisha, Kyua Burakku!

Cure Black (キュアブラック) is Nagisa's alter ego, and she addresses herself as the emissary of light, like Cure White. Being the strongest in the duo, she is usually the one laying the most attacks, though she is not as agile as Cure White. She uses her fists more than Cure White while Cure White uses her legs more when attacking. As a Cure, she becomes much more serious, and reveals more of her views on justice. Together with Cure White, she can perform the Marble Screw and Rainbow Therapy attacks. Later, when the duo is powered up by the Rainbow Bracelets from Pollun, they can do a new attack called Rainbow Storm.

In Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart, the Pretty Cure's power has increased in speed and strength from their original power, and their special attack is powered-up to Marble Screw Max, and later to Marble Screw Max Spark with the Sparkle Bracelets. Together with Shiny Luminous, they can also do the Extreme Luminario attack, which in the final episode is upgraded to Extreme Luminario Max.

It is also revealed that even though Cure White is not around, Cure Black can use incredible powers by herself, but this depends largely on her emotions and will. The most significant time this is shown is when the Seeds of Darkness kidnap White and tell Black that she (Cure White) will soon die. They recall this event often in the later season, and Cure Black's power will often spike when she is in great indignation. Additionally, while Cure White and Cure Black have both shown to have fairly impressive physical feats while de-transformed, Cure Black has actually been able to defend direct attacks from one of the Seed of Darkness, Regine without getting hurt.

As her and Cure White have grown stronger, they have learned certain auxiliary abilities as well. Near the Max Heart finale, Black and White learn to use wind blasts through their palms just like the enemy to blast Uraganos away, and have used this ability to attack and destroy even destroy weaker enemies in movies after.

The Ultimate Power of the Queen
While this power was never given a clear name, the Dark King identified this power as 'The ultimate power inherited from the Queen'. This power only appears in the finales of Futari wa Pretty Cure and Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart. When Black and White's powers are maxed out well beyond their prior limits due to their resolve, for a brief period of time a gold aura will appear and their power will increase even further by enormous degree.

The first time it was used by themselves on the Dark King, their already enhanced Rainbow Storm nearly quadrupled in size and overwhelmed the Dark King despite absorbing the power of creation.

The second time is it was used was fighting Dark King Baldez in the finale of Max Heart. Their Sparkle Bracelets suddenly glows gold, and despite the Dark King maxing his fighting form to its limit, Black and White completely overpowered him and then deliver a double kick with a red meteor-like aura that nearly kills him.

Golden Powers
In the first movie of Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart, Cure Black, along with Cure White and Shiny Luminous, gains an upgraded version of her outfit thanks to the power of the Diamond Line, accessories of the queen in the Garden of Hope. With these powers, her outfit gets a golden color, and her earrings and other small hearts on her clothes become diamonds. This form is not seen again after the movie, most likely because it needs the power of the accessories to be activated, and it is no longer possible for the girls to visit the Garden of Hope again.

Power of the Phoenix
In Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart 2: Yukizora no Tomodachi, when Cure Black and Cure White give all of their strength to protect Hinata from Frozen and Freezen, they do not have enough energy left to fight, and in their last try to keep the two villains away from their friends, they freeze the girls. Hinata, touched that it is possible to care so much for a friend, awakens from her icicle and sends her warmth to Pretty Cure, melting the ice and giving them a new power.

Cure Black's hair grows longer and slightly wilder, and feathers are hanging off her skirt and shoulders. Her bow has also changed to a golden color. She also gets boosted powers, as she easily manages to fight Frozen with closed eyes without getting hit once. It also seems like their minds are much calmer in this form, as neither of the girls do anything rash or fast; they just dodge and wait for the final strike.

In this form, they use an even stronger version of Marble Screw Max Sparkle, demonstrating their great friendship against Frozen and Freezen's friendship. After defeating the ice duo, this upgraded version of Black and White disappears, and has never been seen again. This may be because it was summoned by Hinata, who now is in the Garden of Clouds as a fully realized phoenix. However, in Pretty Cure All Stars DX 2: Kibou no Hikari - Rainbow Jewel o Mamore!, Cure Black's Cure Rainbow form resembles this upgrade.

Cure Rainbow Black
Cure Rainbow Black (キュアレインボーブラック) is an upgrade Cure Black gains in Pretty Cure All Stars DX 2: Kibou no Hikari - Rainbow Jewel o Mamore!. Together with the others' upgrades, the group of seventeen girls form the group Cure Rainbow. This upgraded outfit resembles that of Cure Black's upgrade in Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart 2: Yukizora no Tomodachi, except not using feathers on her clothes, but rather extra cloth, and now has a pair of small, golden wings.

Relationships
Nagisa is a popular girl in Verone Academy for her sporty spirit and she is (captain) in the Lacrosse team.

Yukishiro Honoka - Although they did not know each other previously, Honoka soon became a good friend of Nagisa after the two of them became Pretty Cure together. At the end of the series, they remained best friends, and Nagisa cannot forgive anyone who hurts Honoka; this is sometimes seen when they are in their Cure forms, as Cure Black gains enormous powers whenever she sees or gets a hint that Cure White is hurt.

Fujimura Shougo - She also has a long-time crush on Fujimura Shougo, who coincidentally is Honoka's childhood friend. Through Honoka, Nagisa is able to come closer to Shougo, and easily blushes whenever he is around.

Family - Her relationship with her family is good. Both of her parents care and worry for both her and her brother Ryouta. Nagisa herself always gets irritated at Ryouta, and often uses her "Cobra Twist" to get him to shut up. Despite this, she loves him and will do anything to protect him from danger.

Kujou Hikari - In Max Heart, Nagisa views Hikari as a mysterious girl when she first sees her. However, the two become good friends and their friendship grows to the point where Cure Black refuses the idea of protecting Hikari only for the resurrecting the Queen. Along with Cure White, she declares their friendship is the only reason they protect Hikari.

Mepple - Mepple is Nagisa's Fairy. She keeps Mepple in her Pink cellphone. In the last episode, Mepple and Mipple say their last goodbye to Nagisa & Honoka. They promise someday they will be returning to the human's world.

Transformations
Dual Aurora Wave! - Misumi Nagisa transformation with Yukishiro Honoka. She can only transform when she is with Honoka.

Attacks
Marble Screw - Cure Black holds hands with Cure White, and she initiates the attack by summoning crackling black lightning from her hands, and in turn, Cure White does the same with her respective color. They declare the attack's accompanying catchphrase and name and together, they fire the lightning blast at the enemy.

Rainbow Storm - With the power of the Rainbow Bracelets, Cure Black and Cure White hold hands and shoot a beam of rainbow-colored energy in a similar manner as Marble Screw.

Marble Screw Max - A powered-up version of Marble Screw, with Cure Black and Cure White charging their lightning energy and then shouting out "Max!", before bringing forth a powerful beam of black and white lightning.

Marble Screw Max Spark - An even more powerful version of Marble Screw Max, greatly enhanced by the Sparkle Bracelets. The lightning beam in Marble Screw Max grows into an even larger blast of rainbow energy with black and white lightning being emitted in the attack.

Extreme Luminario - A group finishing move done by Cure Black, Cure White and Shiny Luminous. Shiny Luminous summons the Heartiel Baton, in order for Cure Black and Cure White to start the attack incantations after their individual poses. Cure Black and Cure White hold hands, draw back their hands and a giant rainbow heart appears before them. A shining explosion of light is shot out from the heart.

Extreme Luminario Max - The ultimate version of Extreme Luminario. When Cure Black and White thrust their hands forward, this time, they shout out "Max!" before a surge of bright, shining light fused with black and white lightning bursts out and continually grows larger and larger.

Etymology
Misumi (美墨): The mi (美) translates to beauty, and the sumi (墨) translates to ink, which may be referring to her alter ego as Cure Black in that ink is most commonly black in color.

Nagisa (なぎさ): A common girl's name in Japanese. While it can be partially translated into many different kanjis, the most common translation as a single kanji is "渚", which means water's edges; beach; shore.

Her name means "beautiful ink shore."

Her name was changed to Natalie Blackstone, also called Nat by her friends, for the English dub.

Natalie means "Christmas Day" in Latin natale domini. It may also come from the French given name, which is derived from the Latin "Dies Natalis," meaning "Natal Day" or "birthday" in reference to the birth of Christ, and was traditionally given to girls born around Christmas. Nat is the nickname her friends use, and upon becoming friends with Hannah Whitehouse, she lets her call her that instead of her full name. This nickname was created in order to properly edit off the fact that in the original, they began calling each other by their first names rather than by their surnames, which is a special honor in Japanese culture.

Blackstone is a pun about her alter ego as Cure Black.

Cure Black Nagisa's Cure name may be from the symbol "Yin" from the symbol Yin & Yang, in which "Yang" is white, just like Black's partner, Cure White who she is almost exactly opposite from.

Songs
As a main character, Nagisa's voice actor, Honna Yoko, has participated in several image songs for the character she voices. Many of them include duets with Yukana, who voices Nagisa's partner Yukishiro Honoka, and later also Tanaka Rie, who voices Kujou Hikari.
 * Hikari ni Naritai ~like a diamonds~
 * A HEART KNOWS IT
 * Delight hurray!!
 * Shinjiru Chikara de Yuuki 100 Bai!!

Duets

 * DANZEN! Futari wa Pretty Cure ~Naginagi and Honohono version~ (Along with Yukana)
 * Pretty Cure Toujou! ~VOCAL RAINBOW STORM~ (Along with Yukana)
 * Jet Coaster na M M (Along with Yukana)
 * Aritake no Egao de (Along with Yukana)
 * Happy ending (Along with Yukana)
 * Onaji Yumemite ~SET ME FREE~ (Along with Yukana)
 * Max Heart de GO GO GO!! (Along with Yukana and also Tanaka Rie)
 * Pretty Exercise (Along with Yukana and also Gojou Mayumi)
 * Challenge☆Change (Along with Yukana and Gojou Mayumi)

Trivia

 * In fighting, Cure Black uses her fists more than her legs, while Cure White uses her legs more than her fists.
 * Nagisa's birthday is on October 10 therefore, Nagisa's zodiac is Libra.
 * Nagisa's blood type is O.
 * Cure Black has the shortest hair out of all the lead Cures.
 * Nagisa is the first Pretty Cure to be good at sports.
 * Cure Black is the first Pretty Cure to not change her hair color but to have her hair grow.
 * Cure Black is the only Pretty Cure so far never to wear any hair ornaments; although Cure Lemonade had no hair ornament in her first season, this was changed in the sequel.
 * Nagisa is pictured to dislike onions in a few episodes.
 * Cure Black is the first Pretty Cure to have a midriff in Cure form.
 * In the Pretty Cure All Stars Suite Flower Card Collection, Nagisa is represented by the pansy, which symbolizes trust and pure love in the Language of Flowers.
 * Nagisa's Japanese voice actress has had live acting roles in the tokusatsu series Kamen Rider Black, and it's sequel Kamen Rider Black RX when she was younger. This has led to several Kamen Rider/Pretty Cure jokes, including that Nagisa is the successor to Minami Kotaro, Kamen Rider Black/Black RX's civilian identity.
 * Cure Black is the only lead Cure who does not have pink as her main theme color, keying that her color scheme is black.
 * Cure Black is also the first lead Cure that have the color black in her Cure form costume, followed by Cure Lovely.
 * Cure Black is one of the 9 Cures not to have their Cure hair color matching their theme color. She has ginger hair whilst her theme color is black.
 * Nagisa is the first Pretty Cure to break 4th wall in the Pretty Cure franchise, followed by Cure Marine. In FwPC14, Nagisa breaks the fourth wall during cooking class when she is seen looking towards the viewing audience and Shiho asks her what she's looking at.
 * Nagisa breaks the fourth wall the second time in the sixteenth episode in Max Heart.
 * Nagisa breaks the fourth wall the third time as she appeared as Cure Black to give the 10th anniversary congratulatory message at the beginning of the first episode of Happiness Charge Pretty Cure!.
 * Although Nagisa's name is pronounces as (Na-gee-suh), some people pronounce it as (Na-jee-suh).
 * Nagisa is the only Cure to freak out of being in fairy form (this is an imagination though). The Smile! Cures are the only ones who do not panic in their fairy forms in their 24th episode.
 * Nagisa is the first character to be frightened by a fairy, when first meeting Mepple. She is before Yamabuki Inori from Fresh Pretty Cure!, who first met Tarte; precisely, Inori had a phobia of ferrets.
 * Nagisa is the only Cure in this season to be terrible at studying at school.
 * Although she fails every time at school, there might be other lead Cures who did not study, except for Hanasaki Tsubomi and Aida Mana.
 * Nagisa and Haruka are the only Cures who have two catchphrases.

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