Akanbe



Akanbes (アカンベェ) (known as Buffoons in the English dub Glitter Force) are the main monsters of Smile Pretty Cure!. To summon an Akanbe, a series villian shouts out "Come out, Akanbe!". Akanbes can only emit cries of "Akanbe", "Aka" or "Beh", as well as "Super" or "Hyper" if they are of the appropriate type. Some Akanbes can speak in a more complex manner if appropriate to the situation, such as the Workbook Akanbe which would ask its questions aloud. They are voiced by voice actor Sasaki Hiroo (佐々木 啓夫).

Akanbe literally means the action of "pulling one's eyelid down and sticking out one's tongue".

Appearance
Although each Akanbe is unique in design, they possess some similarities in their appearance. Most are distorted versions of their possessed object, and possess a clown's eyes, hands and legs.

The earliest form of Akanbe are created from Red Noses, which contain a Cure Decor piece and Pierrot's power. A unique feature of this Akanbe type is a long tongue sticking out of its large red mouth. The eyes are heavily lidded, with a single vertical red stripe running through each eye. The Red Nose Akanbe can be defeated by the Cures' individual purification attacks.

Somtimes, the second eyecatch, which normally shows Candy, shows an Akanbe instead, scaring the girls in the process. This also happens on episodes 10 ( it is rumored that one TV Asahi station showed it on episode 9), 17, 28, 33 and 39, due to those episodes' themes (the villians venturing to the human world to seek food to Pierrot covering the world in a Bad End). It is well worth noting that the commercial that aired before said eyecatch was for  Tanoshi Yōchen  magazine on all episodes featuring it, except for episodes 39 and 47, which, on episode 39 featured two SunStar products-Color Wonder and Secret Jewelry Box, and on episode 47, it aired after an ad for a Seiban backpack.

In Episode 12, a second type of Akanbe are created from Blue Noses. As the Blue Noses do not contain Cure Decor pieces, it makes them resistant to the Cures' individual purification attacks. They lack the long tongue which Red Nose Akanbe have, and have sharp teeth instead. Their eyes are half open, and surrounded by a spiked design. They also have a frilled collar around their necks. The Blue Nose Akanbe can be defeated with group attack Rainbow Healing.

In Episode 23, a new type of Akanbe with a Yellow Nose was revealed. This type of Akanbe is characterized by smiling eyes and mouth. They are the same as the earliest Akanbe except Joker is the one summoning them.

In Episode 24, another new Akanbe is introduced made of two noses, when used it creates a Super Akanbe twice as strong as the others. This Akanbe is defeated by the group attack Rainbow Burst, this Akanbe is characterized with sharp looking eyes, three red streaks on one eye and three blue streaks on the other; the mouth has a full set of vampire looking teeth.

Green nosed Akanbe appeared in Episode 29, only appearing in the games the Cures are sucked into and has various purposes:


 * Whack-a-Mole: Game timer and moles


 * Go-kart: Starting Signal


 * Bowling: Bowling Pins


 * Baseball: Scoreboard


 * Swimming: Whistle and Shark

In Episode 31, a new type of Akanbe appears, Hyper Akanbe, which are created from coating Red Noses in pure darkness. It has a Black Nose, violet lips, and its tongue is outside of it's mouth. Unlike other types of Akanbe, these swallow their creator upon formation, causing them to serve as a pilot for the Akanbe. Each Hyper Akanbe gains a sigil on its forehead in the shape of its creator, as well as special characteristics:


 * Wolfrun: The Akanbe gains his wolf ears and tail.


 * Akaoni: The Akanbe gains two red horns and sharp teeth.


 * Majorina: The Akanbe gains her hood and its nose changes shape to match hers.
 * Joker: The Akanbe gains his closed eyes.

The pilot of a Hyper Akanbe gains a marking across their eyes while within the Akanbe, and suffers from debilitating side effects afterwards.

Abilities and Powers
Akanbe's abilities have not yet been fully revealed, but each Akanbe's powers depends on their possessed object. For example, many Akanbe monsters can fire high-speed missiles of their possessed objects, while the mirror Akanbe can reflect itself to create multiple images to create confusion.

They have been shown to be able to jump to great heights, as well as engage in hand-to-hand combat. Akanbe can also use their long tongue in combat.

It was shown in Episode 10 that an Akanbe's strength is directly related to its creator. In this episode, after Wolfrun feasted on okonomiyaki and regained his energy, the Akanbe he created grew larger and stronger as well.

When an Akanbe is defeated, the Red Nose explodes to free the Cure Decor piece trapped within. The piece will be kept inside the Decor Décor.

In Episode 12, Joker gives the Bad End Kingdom commanders an upgraded version, the Blue Nose, which creates Akanbe monsters that, while weaker than the ones with red noses, cannot be defeated with the Cures' individual purification attacks. This is because the individual purification attacks aim to purify the Cure Decor piece within the Nose, and since the Blue Nose does not contain any Cure Decor piece, the attacks have no effect on the Akanbe.

In Episode 24, when the Super Akanbe is deafeated two Cure Decor are released, revealing that there are more than 16 Cure Decor.

In Episode 32 it is shown that a Hyper Akanbe can be created from any other kind of Akanbe by swiping Bad End paint on its nose.

Trivia

 * Due to the plot, some later Akanbes mirror the earlier ones:


 * The first Super Akanbe mirrors the first Akanbe as a house-like Akanbe and summoned by Wolfrun.


 * The Hyper Akanbe from SmPC44 mirrors the first Akanbe as a house-like Akanbe, summoned by Wolfrun and as Cure Happy's enemy. While the normal Akanbe is Cure Happy's first enemy, the Hyper Akanbe is the enemy, when she got her upgraded attack Happy Shower Shining.


 * The Hyper Akanbe from SmPC40 mirrors the Akanbe from SmPC02 as a volleyball-like Akanbe and summoned by Wolfrun. While the normal Akanbe is Cure Sunny's first enemy, the Hyper Akanbe is the enemy, when she got her upgraded attack Sunny Fire Burning.


 * The Hyper Akanbe from SmPC41 mirrors the Akanbe from SmPC03, both are originally Kise Yayoi's artworks and summoned by Akaoni. While the normal Akanbe is Cure Peace' first enemy, the Hyper Akanbe is the enemy, when she got her upgraded attack Peace Thunder Hurricane.


 * The Hyper Akanbe from SmPC42 mirrors the Akanbe from SmPC04, both of them attack Midorikawa Nao and her siblings. While the normal Akanbe is Cure March's first enemy, the Hyper Akanbe is the enemy, when she got her upgraded attack March Shoot Impact.


 * The Hyper Akanbe from SmPC43 mirrors the Akanbe from SmPC05 as a mirror-like Akanbe. While the normal Akanbe is Cure Beauty's first enemy, the Hyper Akanbe is the enemy, when she got her upgraded attack Beauty Blizzard Arrow.


 * The Akanbe are the first monster to have named upgraded forms. However, the monsters Nakisakebe and Sorewatase are not upgraded forms of Nakewameke.

Gallery

 * -|Pretty Cure Online = {|