Midorikawa Nao

Midorikawa Nao (緑川 なお) (April in the English Dub Glitter Force) is one of the main Cures in Smile Pretty Cure!. She is a girl with a strong sense of justice, and has no tolerance for wrongdoers. An older sister-type, she is popular even with the girls. While tough, she also has a feminine side, as she loves cute things.

Her alter ego is Cure March (キュアマーチ), or Glitter Spring in the Glitter Force dub. She controls the power of Wind.

Appearance
Out of the five girls, Nao is the tallest in terms of height. She has dark green hair worn in a ponytail at the top of her head with a yellow bow and bangs parted down the middle. Her eyes are a dark shade of green. Her casual outfit consists of an elbow sleeved yellow-green button-down shirt with multiple decorative badges, olive khaki shorts, orange socks and black boots with red laces.

Her summer outfit consists of a short-sleeved light green blouse, a blue short denim skirt, khaki socks and light brown shoes. She wears her school uniform with a green tie and a pale green sleeveless pullover.

As Cure March, Nao's hair becomes bright green and much longer. The side of her bangs curl in towards her face, and her back hair is worn in a very long ponytail held with a gold barrette with an angel wing attached. Part of her hair is also worn in high twin tails held up with smaller yellow barrettes. She wears her tiara on her forehead, and her earrings on the helix of her ears. Her outfit is mainly light green, with dark green 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 green frilly piece. Her arm protectors are elbow length with light green folds on top and dark green ribbons at both the wrists and elbows. Her boots are short, with light green legwarmers, tipped with green as well as her heels, and small dark green bows.

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 green jewel, and the angel wing on her barrette turns golden as well. Her white angel wing earrings are replaced by gold ribbon-shaped earrings with green hearts in the center, and she now wears them on her earlobes.

In her Princess form, she wears a light green dress with a long back bow over her Cure uniform with a big green and white-striped bow in the center replacing the usual ribbon. Her hair becomes slightly longer and her ponytail and bangs curl at the ends. Her tiara is replaced with the same one as in her Tiara mode and the white feather-like decorations in her hair glow yellow-gold. The green ribbons around her wrist become slightly wider. The tips of her boots, the heels, the legwarmers, and the green top of her arm warmers become light green.

Personality
Nao is said to have a strong sense of justice and does not easily forgive one's wrong actions. She is also known for her exceptional courage. Despite her bravery, she is secretly a scaredy-cat and is scared of bugs (especially pillbugs), heights and ghosts.

Nao values her family very highly, as evidenced in her interactions with her parents and siblings, and her worst fear is losing them. She often takes care of her siblings when her parents cannot, and enjoys playing with them.

Meeting Miyuki
Nao meets Miyuki for first time in episode 1, when Akane introduces her to Miyuki. Later in episode 4, Nao plays soccer and Miyuki watches her game. Miyuki wants to meet Nao, because she thinks Nao is the fourth Pretty Cure. Miyuki meets her the next day when she is coming from the market. Nao calls Miyuki for dinner at her house. Miyuki meets Nao's brothers and sisters and they become friends.

Becoming Cure March
Nao found Miyuki while returning home from grocery shopping. After Miyuki offered to carry her bags, Nao invited Miyuki for dinner at her house. Miyuki was impressed because Nao can cook. When Nao's brothers start to annoy Miyuki; she runs out of the kitchen with a wooden cooking spoon yelling at them to stop bullying her. Later, Miyuki and Nao are watching her siblings play soccer when Akane and Yayoi, who is holding Candy, show up. The Midorikawa Siblings decide to have a soccer challenge against Miyuki, Akane and Yayoi, but as they started the challenge, Akaoni appears. Akaoni decides to collect Bad Energy from them. When Cure Happy is caught in the Akanbe, Nao wakes up. She then identifies Miyuki, Akane, and Yayoi. The Akanbe flies toward Nao's siblings, intending to hurt them. Nao stops it in time by kicking a soccer ball at it. When she yells that she will not let her family bonds be destroyed, she transforms. Now Cure March, she goes after the Akanbe, but instead runs into a wall. This makes Akaoni fall because of the impact since she could not slow down. She is still surprised by becoming a Cure. Nao finishes off the Akanbe with her basic attack, March Shoot. After everything has gone back to normal; her siblings are playing soccer again. She thanks Miyuki and the others and asks Miyuki if she can join their team as well as asking to them to call her Nao.

In episode 6, they succeeded in bringing together the Pretty Cures and when asked Candy what to do, as Candy said she doesn't know, shocking everybody. Just then, a book flew in, and like in episode 1, the book crashes in her face and Pop, Candy's big brother, comes out to tell the Pretty Cures what their destiny is. He gives the Decor Décor to the girls and showed them the Magical Library. He tells the story about the Bad End Kingdom.

In episode 11, they shrunk by Majorina's inventions. They went through many obstacles trying to find a way to get to Candy who had the mallet that turned them tiny. During their journey, Nao faced some bugs that terrified her. The bugs weren't the only thing she feared, she also reveals that she was scared of heights, along with Akane. When they finally landed on the grass, they found themselves surrounded by bugs scaring Nao to the top limit and every time she ran around, she encounters several insects. From a ladybug incident, she was saved by a group of pill bugs and passes out. She had become shy around her friends as they now knew her fear. Reika tries to help Nao with her fear and introduced the world of bugs and insects to her in a different light that Nao begins to understand. When Majorina attacked and sucked the Bad Energy from the insects, she saw the sufferings of them and decides to fight to save them. At the end of the episode, Nao says she isn't afraid of bugs anymore, as a lady bug flies on her nose and Nao runs away while screaming, still knowing that her phobia has not been erased.

In episode 12, the girls were ready for a trip to Kyoto and Osaka. Candy wanted to go, but when she made a mess, she ran away until she captured by Wolfrun. The Blue Nose Akanbe was too powerful for the Cures, until Candy unleashed the Miracle Decors and the Pretty Cures gain their Tiara mode to use their group attack, "Rainbow Healing". In episode 13 and 14, the Pretty Cures go on the class trip to Kyoto and Osaka. In Kyoto, everyone got good fortunes except for Miyuki for her fortune was "Great Curse" and encounters many bad things happening to her and her friends making her happiness go to its limit. When Akaoni came and made a Blue Nosed Akanbe with a bad fortune, it made Miyuki's luck worse and lost her Smile Pact to activate Rainbow Healing and blames herself and her curse for her friends injuries, but the Pretty Cures said that they were blessed around her and Cure Happy now happy and found her Smile Pact and together defeated the Blue Nosed Akanbe. After the fight, Miyuki thanked her friends for having her luck and happiness back and saw a couple of Maiko and took a picture with them making it the best thing that happened to Miyuki. When Miyuki and the Pretty Cures visited Kyoto next and planned to go to Kyoto Castle, Nakanoshima, and the Tennouji Zoo. Candy asked Miyuki and Yayoi to tie her hair resulting being separated by Nao, Akane, and Reika. They went around Kyoto to the places the girls had planned while Rieka, Akane, and Nao were looking for them and going to the same places they had went to. Miyuki, Yayoi, and Candy visited the Tower and looked out the window until Majorina appeared and turned the tower into an Akanbe with Miyuki, Yayoi and Candy trapped inside. Luckily, Cure March, Cure Sunny, and Cure Beauty used the butterfly Decor, which Nao was not fond of because of her fear of bugs, and tired the Akanbe until they got the girls out and defeated the Akanbe.

In the next episode, she had made a cute cover bag for on-the-go tissue paper for her mother for Mother's Day and her mother was happy about the gift from her daughter.

Nao volunteers herself and the girls to the baton relay race. Nao trains them for the race. At the race, everyone was set and the girls were confident to start training except for Yayoi from hearing gossip about her causing everyone to lose the race. Suddenly, Akaoni appeared sucking everyone's Bad Energy. The Pretty Cures then battle the Akanbe at Tug-a-War. Peace was still in doubt that they'll win, until March shouted that if they work together, they'll win. When the race began, after the Akanbe was defeated, Yayoi suddenly lost speed until her classmates cheered her on and Yayoi managed to give the baton to Nao, but after running for a while, she tripped causing her to lose.

In episode 23, Pop came back to tell the Pretty Cures that they have one more Decor to revive the Royale Queen. The girls began to hang their tanzaku on the bamboo tree and Miyuki decided to use the Star Decor piece as part of the decorations. When they went to the park to see the shooting stars, an Akanbe attacked and the Pretty Cures managed to defeat it and get the last Decor, but it was quickly stolen by Joker as he kidnapped Candy and disappeared, leaving the Pretty Cures depressed.

Going to the Bad End Kingdom and Pierrot's revival
The Pretty Cures were sad about Candy's kidnapping. Miyuki discovered that they still have one Decor they used for the tanabata decoration and decided to go to Märchenland to go to Bad End Kingdom to rescue Candy and the Decor Decor. When the Cures traveled to Märchenland, there was no one around and Joker appeared to fight them. The girls transformed, but were defeated by him and had their Bad Energy absorbed, leaving them hopeless. They don't know what to do and Miyuki suggest they separate to think about what is most important to them. When Miyuki and the gang were by themselves and each think about it, they read the tanzaku that Candy had written about them. With their resolve strength, the girls united and prepared to venture to the Bad End Kingdom and promised to rescue Candy and and everyone will return home safely. When they went to Bad End Kingdom, the commanders, Wolfrun, Akaoni, Majorina and Joker were waiting for them. The Cures were fighting the 4 commanders, Happy rescues Candy. March faces Majorina but becomes shocked when Majorina transformed younger. Because of her transformation, she was a difficult opponent and used her magic and strength to hurt her. March was defeated but her will told her not to give up because she promised to go home with Candy and her friends. She uses her feelings to become stronger and uses March Shoot. She missed Majorina as there were clones of her, but making it a fair match for March, she made many balls of energy to kick at all the clones and Majorina to defeat her.

As the Cures united and put the last Decor in the Decor Decor they recovered, but they find it doesn't seem to do anything with all the Decors inside, Emperor Pierrot reveals himself. Just as the Cures are overwhelmed by Pierrot's power, the Decor Decór glows and the Cures are contacted by the Queen of Märchenland, who grants them the power of the Princess Candles, allowing them to evolve into their new Princess Forms and defeat Pierrot.

Going back to Märchenland
The Cures traveled back to Märchenland and met Royale Queen. Unfortunately she was still in asleep and nothing happened. When they got out of the castle, Miyuki and the girls met the first inhabitants they meet were the soldiers, but were scared of the girls because they were human. Pop turned the Cures into fairies. Miyuki thought they should add a signature phrase behind their sentences like Candy and made the phrases for them, Nao's being "-nao". While Pop researched why the Queen wasn't revived, Nao, Candy and the four other Cures decided to take a tour around Märchenland. They saw characters from stories and doing the scenes from the stories like Red Riding Hood and Ali-Baba and the 40 Thieves. While watching, Miyuki tripped and fell on a hill, but rescued by Puss in Boots and played with the inhabitants. When they arrived at a house made of candies, they went to eat it. Puss wanted to get a candy and Miyuki tried to helped him until she sneezed causing everyone to revert their human forms. The fairies were afraid at first but Miyuki gave Puss the candy he tried to get and soon the fairies realize they are nice and accepted them. They heard about the Miracle Jewels from the fairies that they would grant any wish. Suddenly, Wolfrun appeared for the Miracle Jewels and absorbed the Bad Energy from the fairies. The Pretty Cures transformed and Wolfrun used the Super Akanbe and it was too powerful for the Cures and almost defeated, but heard the fairies despair and stood up again. Suddenly the Princess Candles reappeared again and they transformed to Princess Form. They defeated the Akanbe using Rainbow Burst and it released two Cure Decor pieces. After Wolfurun retreated, the girls heard Royale Queen's voice and headed back to the castle. Royale Queen was speaking through telepathy and explained that the original Cure Decor pieces which was supposed to revive her was instead given to Pegasus, so that the girls could attain Princess Form. She also informed them that Pierrot is still alive and they had to gather more Cure Decor pieces to revive her. Everyone was troubled with the thought of more battle, but Miyuki encouraged everyone to work harder and revive Royale Queen. They then said goodbye to the fairies as the girls and Candy returned to the human world. Back in Earth, Nao was selling shaved ice at the beach and next door was Akane's okonomiyaki shop and soon Nao and Akane started rivalry between each other. Nao and Akane make a competition.

Summer was almost over and Miyuki went to school where Nao was being a scary cat from reading a scary book. Miyuki was not good with scary stories and Akane suggested they go around the school explore some rumors of strange sightings in their school. The next episode, while going to the amusement park, the girls meet with their teacher, Sasaki Sensei, who reminds them to complete their homework before school starts. Miyuki, Akane, Yayoi and Nao got worried as they had not finished theirs. Candy and Miyuki found a strange dice and roll it. Everyone got sucked into a strange world and saw the commanders in and they told the girls if they don't finish by 6:30, they'll be stuck there forever. Cure March challenges Akaoni to a game of baseball. She successfully hit the ball, but the scoreboard Akanbe blew the ball to Akaoni's direction to catch it. March uses March shoot to redirect the ball away from Akaoni, flew over the Scoreboard making it a Home run and win the game. All of the Pretty Cures manage to win all games, but one. They have to remain happy at the end of the ride in the ferris wheel. When they got on, they saw an image of Sasaki Sensei scolding them for not doing their summer work and shows an image of playing with her siblings instead doing her homework. All of them were now depressed seeing this. From the encouragement from Beauty, they remain happy and won the game. After beating the Akanbe, got out of the game and doing their homework they didn't complete all of it and get an extra lesson by Sasaki Sensei and all of them are now depressed of getting what they deserved.

In the next episode, all of them state that they didn't get to go overseas during the summer. Nao says she wanted to run through the vast plains of Mongolia and others want to see places they dreamed of. They took advantage of the Magical Library and gone to many places they dreamed of going. After seeing all the places they wanted to go, their last stop was the Amazon River. While on the boat ride, Akaoni attacked and summoned Piranha Akanbe and ate Candy. It was too hard for them to swim, but Candy used the Dolphin Decor and turned them all to mermaids. They manage to defeat the Akanbe and collected the last 2 Decors. Back at the Magic Library, when putting the Decors into the Decor Decor, appeared was a mysterious clock.

Relationships
Hino Akane - The two seem to share a close friendship; possibly due to their similar personalities and are often seen together. Because of their similar personalities, they have a rivalry and compete with each other to see which one of them wins.

Aoki Reika - These two are childhood friends and almost seen together. They are on good terms with each other and help each other. They sit next to each other in class. Coincidentally, their relationship is similar to Karen and Komachi from Yes! Pretty Cure 5 (GoGo) as well as share the same colors as them. Whenever Nao is scared, she has tendency to cling to Reika.

Cure March
"Intense courage, a straight-up bout! Cure March!" 勇気リンリン直球勝負！キュアマーチ！ ''Yūki rinrin chokkyū sh ōbu! Kyua Māchi!'' Cure March (キュアマーチ) is Nao's Pretty Cure alter ego. Cure March holds the power of Wind, which grants her the ability to run at super high speed. Her speed shows when she is attacking, making gust around her punches. She is the fastest out of the 5 Smile! Cures, having the most enhanced speed and can run on walls. In Glitter Force, her introduction is "A Force as Strong as Life Itself! I'm Glitter Spring!"

Princess March
After receiving the Green Big Clover Princess Decor and Princess Candle, Nao can transform into her princess form named "Princess March!" She transforms by putting the Green Big Clove Princess Decor in the Princess Candle and yelling out "Pegasus, Grant Us The Power!" With the other Smile Cures in their Princess Form, they can perform the group attack called Rainbow Burst.

Cure March
The Smile Pact is first opened, and Nao sets her ribbon Cure Decor piece into the recess. This causes her individual green light to light up first, followed by the seven lights inside the Smile Pact in sequence. A background voice asks, "Ready?", and in response, Nao shout out the transformation phrase "Pretty Cure! Smile Charge!". The Smile Pact produces a powder puff, which Nao taps on the Smile Pact to collect up magic powder. Nao uses her puff to draw a triangle of magic powder, which then explodes into wind that forms her arm warmers, shoes, dress and the Smile Pretty Cure brooch. Her hair lengthens as its color shifts from dark green to light green. Lastly, she pats the powder puff onto her cheeks to give them a rosy glow. After transforming, Cure March flies down from the sky, lands on her feet and recites her introductory speech.

Attacks
March Shoot - Cure March first charges up her Smile Pact with fighting spirit, making it glow and granting her power. When enough fighting spirit has been collected, the Smile Pact explodes with wind energy that lifts Cure March off the ground and into the air. March then compresses the wind into a ball and kicks it at the enemy, soccer-style. She can also summon more than hundreds of spheres of wind and kicks them all in outstanding speed. For Glitter Force, the attack is renamed Sparkle Shot.

March Shoot Impact - An upgraded version of March Shoot.March spins around in a gust of wind then kicks her enemy with full power. The effect sends the enemy high into the sky. This effect also applies to convert ominous winds into her own and reflects it back. For Glitter Force, the attack it renamed Sparkle Shot Maximum Impact.

Fire Shoot - Her combination attack with Cure Sunny's Sunny Fire attack. In Glitter Force, the attack is renamed Sparkle Fire Shot

Rainbow Healing -is the group attack, which appears on episode 12, and once the Cures gain the Miracle Jewel Decor, and all are on Tiara Mode, they are capable on defeating the Blue Nosed Akanbe. In Glitter Force, it was renamed Tiara Mode Torrent.

Rainbow Burst - is the second group attack, which appears on episode 23, the attack could be done with the Princess Candle, and also when they are on Princess Mode, and they are capable on defeating the enemy. Royal Rainbow Burst -is the third group attack, which appears on episode 32, you need the Princess Candle, and the Royal Clock, and when they are on Princess mode, they are capable on doing the attack.

Along with the other four Smile! Cures, Cure March can summon a huge rainbow shield or barrier in the movie "Mirai no Tomodachi". This is further enhanced by Fu-chan's last bit of power.

Etymology
Midorikawa (緑川): 緑 means "green", while 川 means "river".

Nao (なお): Nao has the meaning of "straight" (直), as in "straightforward". In episode 19, it was revealed that her father Genji gave her this name, because he wishes to bring her up to be a straightforward person.

Her name means, "green river straight." or "green river straightforward."

Cure March - Cure March's name could refer to the fact that the month of March marks the beginning of Spring in the northern hemisphere in meteorology. This relationship to Spring could explain her name and theme color. There is also a general assumption that March is the windiest month of the year therefore establishing a link between her name and power over wind. It could also do with the fact that marching is related to courage, which is what her personality shows.

Her English dub name April is the fourth month of the calendar year, and usually considered the second month of the season of spring, to match her identity as Cure March/Glitter Spring.

Songs
Nao's voice actor, Inoue Marina, has participated in several image songs for the character she voices. Many of them include duets with Fukuen Misato, who voices Hoshizora Miyuki, Tano Asami, who voices Hino Akane, Kanemoto Hisako, who voices Kise Yayoi, and Nishimura Chinami, who voices Aoki Reika.
 * Always With A Smile
 * SMILE FOREVER

Duets

 * The Best Smile (Along with Fukuen Misato, Tano Asami, Kanemoto Hisako, and Nishimura Chinami)
 * Rainbow Colored Every Day (Along with Kanemoto Hisako, and Nishimura Chinami)
 * Let's Laugh, Just Laugh And Laugh♪ (Along with Fukuen Misato, Tano Asami, Kanemoto Hisako, Nishimura Chinami and Ootani Ikue)

Trivia

 * In her introductory speech, Cure March says "rinrin", which has multiple meanings. Rinrin can mean "severe" or "intense", which corresponds with Nao's personality. It can also mean "piercing and cold", which may be a reference to March's power over wind.
 * Nao is the oldest Pretty Cure in Smile Pretty Cure!.
 * Nao appeared as Cure March to give the 10th anniversary congratulatory message at the beginning of episode 11 in Happiness Charge Pretty Cure!
 * In early stages of Smile Pretty Cure, Nao was was originally meant to be purple-themed, not green.
 * Nao shares her name with Tabata Nao, a supporting character from Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart.
 * Nao is the third Cure overall to be afraid of ghosts, preceded by Rin and Ellen and followed by Kaido Minami.
 * Her voice actress is Inoue Marina, who is infamous for doing the voice of Naruto in Naruto, and Armin Arlert in Attack on Titan. She's popular among anime fans.

Gallery

 * Main page: Midorikawa Nao/Image Gallery