Hino Akane


 * This article is about the Smile Pretty Cure! character Hino Akane. For the Futari wa Pretty Cure! and Max Heart character, please go to Fujita Akane.

Hino Akane is one of the main Cures in Smile Pretty Cure!. An unusually passionate girl, she is able to get into any mood easily, and loves to make others laugh. Her family runs an okonomiyaki restaurant, and she often helps out there. In school, she is part of the volleyball team. She was born in Osaka and thus speaks in the Kansai dialect, like Tarte from Fresh Pretty Cure!.

Her alter ego is Cure Sunny (キュアサニー). She controls the element of Fire.

Personality
Being born and raised in Osaka, Akane speaks in the Kansai dialect, and refers to herself as "uchi" instead of the usual "watashi". Her catchphrase is "aka~n", the Kansai equivalent of "dame da" or "This won't do". She is also fond of saying "uchi no deban ya!" or "It's my turn now!". She possesses a boyish personality, often reflected in the way she stands or sits. However, she seems to love cute things, and has an especially soft spot for gorillas.

Akane is a passionate girl who loves making others laugh. The first impression she gives is that of the class jokester, always full of puns and jokes to make her classmates laugh. As such, she appears to be generally popular and well-liked. Her friends see her as an interesting girl who always manages to make them laugh. She has a habit of speaking her mind, which can get a little out of hand sometimes, such as when she introduced Nao, Reika and Yayoi to Miyuki as being a "female gang leader", "Miss Popular" and "crybaby" respectively, causing visible discomfort to the three. Yayoi, with her crybaby personality and fascination with superheroes, is often the target of Akane's jokes. However, there does not seem to be any ill meaning behind the teasing, and the other girls seldom take offence.

Despite all the teasing, Akane is extremely loyal to her friends. She also has a tendency to act before she thinks. For example, when she witnessed Cure Happy being defeated by an Akanbe, she remembered how Miyuki had helped her out, and immediately went to help Happy even though she had no chance of winning against the Akanbe. Her strong wish to help her friend earned her the Smile Pact and allowed her to transform into Cure Sunny.

With regards to being Pretty Cure, Akane was initially against the idea, turning down Miyuki's bold invitation. When she did become a Cure, she seems quite cool about the whole idea, ready to do her best in battle, though not overwhelmingly enthusiastic like Miyuki or Yayoi. Similar to Nao, she does not understand why Miyuki and Yayoi are so hyped up about being "superheroes", and gave Miyuki a cool reception when she insisted on the group coming up with a signature phrase. Ironically, though she loves to make puns, she was initially embarrassed by the ones made in her own Cure introductory speech.

In terms of sports, Akane is excellent at volleyball, easily beating her classmates in a friendly match. She aims to become the ace attacker of the school volleyball team, and comes down hard on herself when she is unable to perform well. She is also an independent girl, as she told Miyuki that she does not normally allow others to help her out, but gave Miyuki a chance to help her with volleyball training due to her enthusiasm and willingness. She can also be extremely focused, as she turned down Miyuki's offer to become Pretty Cure (or "kiripura" as she mistakenly calls it) as she wanted to focus on her volleyball training.

Akane's family runs an okonomiyaki restaurant, and it is probable that Akane enjoys cooking.

Meeting Miyuki
When introducing herself to the class Akane makes a joke about her name. Also introducing the future precures names and persona's. Helping to remove the nervousness away from Miyuki and from that day forward Miyuki depends on Akane for explaning anything that comes new to her.

Becoming Cure Sunny
The first time Akane hears about Candy was in Episode 1, when Miyuki mentions it to her. In the next Episode, Miyuki further explains about the Pretty Cure and Candy and tries to get her to join in. Later in the episode, Wolfurun appears, and collects negative energy from the people playing on the field, including Akane. When Cure Happy fails to hit the Akanbe with Happy Shower and is helpless, Akane "wakes up" from her nevative state and tries to defend Cure Happy, despite not having the power to do so. Her strong will for friendship caused an "explosion" and Akane finds herself in a realm. Candy mentions she proved herself worthy of being the next Pretty Cure and Akane proceeds to transform into Cure Sunny. In the battle, she hits Akanbe with Sunny Fire, and purifies it.

In Episode 12, all the Pretty Cures get new power called tiara mode. With it, she uses their first group attack, Rainbow Healing.

Relationships
Hoshizora Miyuki - Akane describes Miyuki as being a scatterbrain who can be serious when she wants to. Miyuki often showers her with hugs and encouragement whenever she feels down, and Akane values her as a true friend, risking herself to help Cure Happy, which gained her the Smile Pact to become Pretty Cure. However, she does not understand Miyuki's enthusiasm sometimes.

Kise Yayoi - Despite teasing Yayoi lots about various things, the two seem to be good friends. Akane acknowledges Yayoi's talent in drawing and often praises her about it, making the latter blush with embarrassment.

Midorikawa Nao - Akane respects Nao as a fellow sports ace, and teasingly calls her a female "gang leader". The two seem to share a close friendship, probably due to their similar personalities, and are often seen together.

Aoki Reika - Akane seems to respect Reika, expounding her position as a member of the class committee and school council. She also describes Reika as being excellent at studies and calls her "Miss Popular".

Cure Sunny


"The Sun, sansan, hot-blooded power! Cure Sunny!"

太陽サンサン熱血パワー！キュアサニー！

''Taiyou sansan nekketsu pawaa! Kyua Sanī!''

Cure Sunny (キュアサニー) is Akane's Pretty Cure alter ego. Cure Sunny has the power of Fire. Out of the 5 Smile! Cures, Sunny has the most physical strength, and can lift up Akanbe monsters single-handedly and fling them a fair distance away.

Her basic purification attack is Sunny Fire. Aside from this, she can also generate fire at will when in battle, either in offence when attacking an enemy, or in defense when she forms a barrier of fire around herself to neutralize others' attacks (eg: Beauty's Beauty Blizzard in Episode 10). In the Ep.12, she gains the Miracle Jewel Decors to transform her into Tiara Mode and combine her power with the other cures to use their group attack, Rainbow Healing. In Ep. 23. she gained a Decor to transform her into her Princess Form and have the Princess Candle to combine her power with the other precures to perform their second group attack, Rainbow Burst. She can also perform Special Protecting Shield with other ''Smile! ''Cures ,and with Fu-Chan's power even powerfull version of it.

Appearance
Akane has short red hair worn in a small ponytail with long bangs on both sides of her face, held with 2 yellow hairpins on the right side. Her eyes are a matching shade of red as well. Her casual outfit consists of a loose long-sleeved orange dress-top with crisscrossing yellow stripes, red pockets and a red ribbon at the back, blue skinny jeans and red flats. her summer outfit consists of a short-sleeved wide-necked shirt under a light orange tank top, khaki shorts, white stockings and beige open toed boots. She wears her school uniform with a red tie, and a orange sweater tied around her waist.

Cure Sunny has bright orange hair, the upper part of which is worn in a single bun on top of her head with a few loose strands, while the rest is around chin-length and is let down loose. Her eyes also become a bright orange. Her tiara has one angel wing attached, and she wears it on the right side of her head. Like March, she wears her earrings on the helix of her ears. Her outfit is mainly light orange, with bright orange lining and white highlights. Her sleeves are single-layered, and the bow at her chest is small with a large frilly piece behind it. The back of her top extends out in a single pastel orange frilly piece. Her arm protectors reach past her elbows, and are decorated with orange ribbons at the top and light orange folds at the wrist. Her boots are long as well, reaching past her knees with orange ribbons at the top.

In Tiara mode, her white tiara is replaced by a golden crown worn in the center of her head. The centerpiece of her tiara is a red circle, and the angel wing at the side of her tiara turns golden as well. Her white angel wing earrings are replaced by gold ribbon-shaped earrings with orange hearts in the center, and she now wears them on her earlobes.

Transformation
'''Pretty Cure! Smile Charge! '''- "Pretty Cure! Smile Charge!" is the official transformation phrase used by Akane to transform into Cure Sunny.

The Smile pact opens, and the girls set their ribbon Cure Decor piece into the recess. This causes their individual light to light up first, followed by the seven lights inside the Smile Pact sequence. A backgrounds voice asks, "Ready?" and in response, Akane shouts, "Pretty Cure! Smile Charge!" The Smile Pact produces a powder puff, which Akane taps on the Smile Pact to collect up magic powder. Akane snaps her fingers to light her puff on fire and applies it once onto her chest, surrounding herself with fire which then forms her arm protectors, shoes and dress. Her hair then changes from red to orange and gets styled and their eyes become a brighter shade as well. Lastly, she pats the powder puffs onto her cheeks to give a rosy glow. After transforming, Cure Sunny flies down from the sky, lands on her feet and recites her introductory speech.

Attack
Sunny Fire - Cure Sunny charges up her Smile Pact with enough fighting spirit to make it glow and grants her power to perform the attack. When enough fighting spirit has been collected, the Smile Pact explodes in fire to form a fireball in the sky. Cure Sunny then does a run, jumps into the air, spins and blasts the fireball at the enemy in a volleyball strike.

Etymology
Hino (日野) - 日 has multiple meanings, but the one that fits the best will be "sun". 野 means "field" or "plain".

Akane (あかね) - Akane means Madder Red, the name of a shade of intense red. It is used mostly to describe the sun and sunset. In Episode 19, it was revealed that her father Daigo gave her this name because he wanted one that was easy to call, and just went with the first name he came up with using あ ("a"), the first character in the Japanese alphabet. Her mother Masako gave her this name because of a beautiful sunset (茜 or "akane") she saw on the day Akane was born, and hopes that Akane will possess a heart as beautiful as the sunset.

Trivia

 * The color of the circle depicted on the Japanese national flag is officially madder red ("akane"), and the translation of Japan's name "nippon" is incidentally "Land of the Rising Sun". Coincidentally, the shape of Sunny's Cure Decor is a circle.
 * Cure Sunny is the first cure to have orange theme color. However, her transformation Cure Decor is red.
 * Akane is the first Cure to come from Osaka and speak in the Kansai dialect. She is the second character overall to speak in Kansai dialect, after Tarte from Fresh Pretty Cure!.
 * The air date of Episode 2, in which Akane becomes Cure Sunny for the first time, is coincidentally the birthdate of her seiyuu Tano Asami.
 * Like Akane, Tano Asami is also a Kansai native, born in Hyogo Prefecture.
 * Akane is the second Cure to be voiced by a Japanese pop idol, following Tsubomi (VA: Mizuki Nana) from Heartcatch Pretty Cure!.
 * Tano Asami was the main vocalist of former vocal/dance group BOYSTYLE, whose work includes anime One Piece's past opening theme "Kokoro no Chizu".
 * Cure Sunny is the second Cure to control fire, after Cure Rouge from Yes! Pretty Cure 5.
 * Overall, Cure Sunny is the third pyrokinetic in the franchise after Moerumba and Cure Rouge.
 * Cure Sunny, along with Cure March, are the only Cures to wear their earrings attached to the helix of the ear instead of at the earlobe.
 * Cure Sunny is the first Cure to have her Cure hair styled into a bun.
 * In Episode 11, Akane is shown to have a fear of heights.
 * The Hino family's okonomiyaki restaurant is named after Akane.
 * Akane shares her first name with Fujita Akane from Futari wa Pretty Cure and Max Heart, and like her, Hino Akane is skilled at cooking.
 * Akane shares her name "Hino Akane" with the female heroine from anime Cannon God Exaxxion, as well as one of the idol girls from The iDOLM@STER's Cinderella Girls series. The characters from Cannon God and The iDOLM@STER have their first names written in kanji (茜), while Smile! Akane has her first name written in hiragana (あかね). However, all their surnames are written in exactly the same way (日野).
 * Akane shares her family name with Rei Hino, aka Senshi of Fire Sailor Mars from the anime Sailor Moon.
 * Akane shares many characteristics with Aiko Seno from anime Ojamajo Doremi.
 * Aiko and Akane both came from Osaka.
 * They both speak only in the Kansai dialect.
 * They are both transfer students.
 * They both make fun of the main protagonist Doremi and Miyuki on their first day.
 * They are both magical girls.
 * Most of the episodes that revolve around her have the word "Nekketsu" (lit: Hot Blooded).