Kotozume Yukari

Kotozume Yukari (琴爪ゆかり) is one of the six main characters of KiraKira☆Pretty Cure A La Mode who is a second year high school student. She is rather selfish and above everyone else like a "cat". Yukari's alter ego is Cure Macaron (キュアマカロン) and she is based off macarons and cats.

Her catchphrases are "How Interesting" (「面白いわ」) and "Fufufu..." (「フフフ…」).

Appearance
Yukari has sharp purple eyes and long, wavy light purple hair with thick bangs. She wears a stylish lilac trench coat held shut with a lavender ribbon over a purple top and a short gray pencil skirt. To accent this she wears purple boots and magenta earrings and sometimes wears a wide-brimmed lilac hat with a purple band around it. In the summer, she wears a long short-sleeved light purple dress with a lilac sash around the waist that ties on the left and light purple high heels. In the winter, she wears a light purple cowl-neck sweater dress accented with a thin dark purple belt along with indigo tights and short purple stiletto-heeled boots. She sometimes wears a short lighter purple jacket accented with a lilac sash and purple gloves.

As Cure Macaron, her hair becomes longer and slightly darker. She wears a large purple macaron-shaped hat on the left of her head with two magenta gems on it and a lilac ribbon. She gains purple cat ears and a tail. Her dress is a purple and white bodice with two purple buttons to match the material at the center of her chest and puffy sleeves. The skirt resembles a macaron and has four layers, with purple and white as the first, followed by light purple lining, then a magenta layer with purple frill trim. Her Sweets Pact rests on her left hip set on a purple ribbon. She wears long white opera gloves and a pair of purple thigh-length high-heeled boots with an anklet with three magenta orbs around her left ankle. She also wears a purple choker with a long purple ribbon on the back and the same magenta earrings. In her A La Mode style, her hair becomes slightly longer and lighter. She also wears a fluffy light purple hat that covers her head and her ears are slightly bigger. Her macaron hair piece now has a magenta ruffle on it. The bodice of her dress is dark purple with a magenta accent and is lined with fur. The skirt is floor-length with two macaron-like layers with a dark magenta layer lining it. The rest is light purple with purple spheres decorating the bottom of the skirt. Her gloves are now wrist-length with dark magenta ribbons tied at the wrist and her choker has a sphere similar to her earrings hanging from it.

Her Patisserie outfit includes light purple boots with slightly darker ribbon to match the ribbon on her hat and stripes on her sleeves. At the center of her chest is a ruffled piece of cloth.

Personality
Yukari is a clever and refined lady with a fickle personality, who is prone to tease others to get different reactions out of them. She is quite sensitive, being immediately able to tell that something was off with Rio. Spending time with Ichika and the others and being a Cure makes every day an unpredictable experience, and this liveliness is something Yukari seeks. She also takes an interest in macarons after her own first batches fail.

As a child, Yukari kept on trying out new things in order to find anything she would feel passionate about, but she was not able to. Being seen as "perfect" becomes depressingly dreary to her, and nobody wanting to look beyond that "perfection" makes her feel lonely. Since enjoyment cannot be given to her, she realizes that she needs to create enjoyable situations herself. She embraces this and herself in episode 29, and admits she won't be able to erase her inner darkness and sadness, but being with her friends and surrounding herself with a "colourful world" makes her able to deal with it.

Relationships

 * Usami Ichika - Yukari is interested in Ichika's bumbling and is able to enjoy every day more after meeting her. Ichika in turn admires the older high school student greatly and they are on good terms with eachother.
 * Kenjou Akira - They go to the same school, and are very popular with the other students. Their personalities initially clash, with Yukari criticizing Akira's selflessness and Akira being at odds with Yukari's fickle nature. After Akira witnesses Yukari's kindness and Yukari recognizes Akira's passion and tenacity, they become very good friends. They are often seen spending time with eachother afterwards. Akira and Yukari's relationship has developed in a romantic way over time, notably in episodes 25 and 29. Their duet is a love song as well.

Etymology
Kotozume (琴爪): Koto (琴) means 'harp' while Zume (爪) means 'fingernail' or 'claw' which could be a reference to a cat's claw.

Yukari (ゆかり) means 'affinity'. It can also mean "violet", a nod to her color scheme.

Cure Macaron is a type of French dessert that has cream in the middle and comes in a variety of colors.

First Appearances and Transforming into Cure Macaron
Yukari makes a brief cameo appearance in the first episode of the show, when she sees the vision of a macaron in the sky after a cream eruption at Ichigo Mountain. Her next short appearance is at the end of episode four, when Ichika accidentally bumps into her as she takes a jump, and she chuckles in response.

Ichika, Himari and Aoi then learn more about Yukari, who is extremely popular among her high school peers and the townspeople and is rumored to be one of the most beautiful girls in the whole school. One day, while Ichika attempts to pet the 3-Star Kitty, Yukari notices and is successfully able to pet him herself. She then slowly warms up to Ichika. So much so, that the next day, Yukari takes her around town, first to a boutique where she tries on different outfits and then playing a crane game and looking at the different-colored macarons among other things. Ichika notices something is up with Yukari whenever she sees them, so she suggests Yukari stops by the KiraKira Patisserie soon so they can make their own macarons together. Himari and Aoi are shocked to see her at the patisserie as them, along with Ichika, start making the macarons. When they didn't turn out right, Yukari makes a batch herself, but they do not turn out right and didn't taste as well as they want it to. Yukari then briskly makes another batch, and the finished cookies all looked cracked, so she tries to make yet another batch when Ichika suggests decorating it to fix it, and she then does so for one of them, having it resemble a cat. Seeing it makes Yukari smile, but the celebration doesn't last long when Maquillon, a Kirakiraru Thief that would steal the Kirakiraru from macarons, appears and steals more from the ones they already made. The three Cures, wanting to protect them, transform to battle her but have a difficult time doing so. Just then, Yukari, wanting to defend the macarons, stands up to Maquillon. As a result, the cat macaron she held became an Animal Sweet and a Sweets Pact, allowing her to transform into Cure Macaron for the first time. Using her newfound cat-like agility, she is successfully able to defeat Maquillon, turning her back into her normal size and restoring the Kirakiraru she stole from all the macarons.

Cure Macaron


"With Beauty and Excitement! Let's・La・Mix It All Up! Cure Macaron! Is Ready To Serve!" 美しさとトキメキを！レッツ・ラ・まぜまぜ！キュアマカロン！できあがり！ ''Utsukushisa to Tokimeki wo! Rettsu・Ra・Mazemaze! Kyua Makaron! Dekiagari!''

Cure Macaron (キュアマカロン) is the Pretty Cure alter ego of Yukari. She transforms using the phrase "Cure La Mode・Decoration!". In this form, she becomes quick and agile and her nails can grow into claws like a cat.

Attacks

 * Kirakira♪Kiraru: The main method of attack used by the Cures, which manifests in the form of magical batter within the Sweets Pact. As Cure Macaron, Yukari has shown she has the ability to:
 * Blow a flurry of purple bubbles at the foe that explode on impact.
 * Attack the foe with powerful slashes of purple energy from her claws.
 * Kirakirakirarun♪Kirakiraru♪: A more powerful version of the original incantation, giving Macaron the ability to summon large circular structures resembling macaron cookies and yo-yo's. She uses them to envelop the foe in a spider-web-like structure that implodes and sends them flying.
 * Three・2・Wonderful A La Mode! (スイー・２・ワンダフルアラモード！) is the group attack Cure Macaron performs with the other four Cures. To perform it, she must use the Candy Rod.
 * Macaron Julienne (マカロンジュリエンヌ) is the first sub attack Cure Macaron uses in episode 16. To perform it, she needs the Candy Rod.
 * Animal Go Round! (アニマルゴーランド！) is the group attack Cure Macaron performs with the other five Cures. To perform it, she must use the Kirakiraru Creamer and her Crystal Animal.
 * Fantastic Animale (ファンタスティックアニマーレ！) is the group attack Cure Macaron performs with the other five Cures. To perform it, she must she must use the Kirakiraru Creamer and her Crystal Animal and be in her A La Mode Style.

Songs
Yukari's voice actress, Fujita Saki, has participated in several image songs for the character she voices. Many of them include duets with Miyama Karen, who voices Usami Ichika, Fukuhara Haruka, who voices Arisugawa Himari, Muranaka Tomo, who voices Tategami Aoi, Mori Nanako, who voices Kenjou Akira, and Minase Inori, who voices Kirahoshi Ciel.
 * CAT MEETS SWEETS
 * Let's・La・Cookin'☆Showtime
 * The Purple Tail Knows

Duets

 * Macaronage of Love and Excitement (Along with Mori Nanako)
 * Let's・La・Cookin'☆Showtime ~KIRAKIRA☆Patisserie・Version~ (Along with Miyama Karen, Fukuhara Haruka, Muranaka Tomo, Mori Nanako and Minase Inori)
 * Mémoire・Mille-feuille (Along with Miyama Karen, Fukuhara Haruka, Muranaka Tomo, Mori Nanako and Minase Inori)

Trivia

 * Yukari's birthday is on June 11th, making her Zodiac sign Gemini.
 * Yukari is the second Cure to wear earrings in her civilian form, preceded by Amanogawa Kirara from Go! Princess Pretty Cure.
 * Cure Macaron is the sixth Cure in the franchise to not have an English name as Macaron is French. The first five were Cure Rouge (French), Cure Aqua (Latin), Cure Rosetta (Italian), Cure Felice (Italian) and Cure Gelato (Italian).
 * Yukari shares her voice actress (Fujita Saki) with Chieri/Past Cure Flora from Go! Princess Pretty Cure.

Gallery

 * Main Page: Kotozume Yukari/Image Gallery