Kuroki Rio (黒樹リオ?) is a supporting character from KiraKira☆Pretty Cure A La Mode. He is the fraternal younger twin brother of Kirahoshi Ciel. His fairy name is Pikario (ピカリオ?), and he usually ends his sentences with ~pika (～ピカ?). He first appeared in episode 11 as the villain Julio (ジュリオ?).
Bio[]
Appearance[]
As Rio, he has long, sky blue hair tied back with an accessory, similar to his ears in his fairy form. He usually wears a long-sleeved light blue shirt with a blue vest, white pants, and light blue shoes. His eyes look similar to Ciel's.
Before Rio was purified, he had short dark blue hair with his bangs in the same style as his transformed state and blue eyes. He was usually seen wearing a long-sleeved dark blue shirt with a black turtleneck underneath, white pants, and black shoes, or the boys' middle school uniform.
As Pikario, he looks like his twin sister Kirarin, but his ears, hair, and tail are cyan. The ears are styled into two sharp-looking tufts to the right, held together by a blueberry with a dark green leaf on each side. He has bright blue eyes with green and yellow accents and a light purple mascot.
As Julio, he has long light-blue hair with bangs swept to the left side. He wears a black headpiece resembling a sprig of holly, with sharp black leaves, smaller dark green leaves, and a blueberry. He wears a golden mask over his eyes, with the eye holes completely black. He wears a dark grey suit with matching pants and black knee-length boots tucked into the pants. He also wears a black cape, white gloves, and a short blue necktie.
When Julio is purified, his suit becomes white with golden buttons on the front and epaulets on his shoulders. His cape is now light purple and flows out more. His headpiece has two white feather-like tufts jutting from it. He has the same ascot as his fairy form but with a star obscuring the knot. He also has a pair of yellow translucent fairy-like wings. He no longer wears a mask, retaining his eyes from his fairy form. His staff is now white with a waffle-like design on the base and a star on top of it.
Personality[]
Rio/Pikario was originally a passionate, joyous, and ambitious fairy-like his twin sister. But what differentiates him from his sister is he lacks confidence, which leads to his deep despair after he fails to catch up with his learning progress and is directly related to being astray by Noir.
As a villain, he had become a hostile cynic who was abstained from his ambition. Not only was he callous to the innocent, but he was also vengeful towards his sister for criticizing and neglecting him, even rejecting the idea of forgiving his sister after he got purified at first. However, Pikario longs to be appreciated by his sister and still cares for her, as he helps her to break free from her self-doubt by making waffles for her with sincerity and protecting her from being attacked by Noir at the cost of getting himself gravely injured.
After returning to normal, he willingly apologizes for his misdeeds and becomes happier after reconciling with Ciel/Kirarin as well as being re-accepted by the townspeople, though he doesn’t seem to like outward affections from her and will feel slightly embarrassed by them.
Relationships[]
- Kirahoshi Ciel: Before being turned evil, Pikario trained with his older twin sister in Paris to become professional patissiers. After being purified, despite giving Ciel the cold shoulder at first, he later sacrifices himself so that she can turn into Cure Parfait. It is also revealed that Pikario longed to make Ciel happy through his sweets.
- Bibury: Rio and Bibury have known each other for some time as both used to be subordinates of Noir. He generally dislikes her due to her rude and self-absorbed attitude towards him, although he does begrudgingly consider her his friend.
Etymology[]
Like his sister Kirarin who adopted a human name, his surname Kuroki means "black tree" translates to "timber tree"[1]. Rio is Spanish for "river" and is probably derived from his fairy name Pikario.
Pikario comes from the Japanese onomatopoeia PikaPika (ピカピカ?) which means "sparkle."[2]
Julio is a name which is originated from the Spanish language and means "youth"[3]
History[]
Preseason[]
Born as a fairy, Pikario originally enjoyed making desserts with his sister Kirarin, whom he went to study in Paris with to improve his skills and became an apprentice of Jean-Pierre Zylberstein. Nonetheless, during their time in Paris, he fell into despair, because he couldn't match Kirarin's skills and ended up crying all alone in the street. While he was crying alone in an alleyway, Noir appeared before him and told him he had a hidden talent deep within him. Noir then took Kirakiraru from his heart to make him a rod and turn him into a villain named Julio, and soon he abruptly left Paris after declaring his hatred towards his sister and abandoning her.
Pikario alone in Paris
Introduction As A Villain[]
Rio uses his wand to take kirakiraru from a victim
He makes a brief appearance toward the end of episode 10, standing on top of a building while holding a flyer for the upcoming Sweets Festival.
He has a first major appearance as Julio in episode 11, where he fuses all the Kirakiraru Thieves into one giant monster, which ends up being defeated.
In episode 12, he starts visiting Ichika's school as transfer student and becomes quite popular among the students.
Julio uses "Noir Decoration"
In the same episode he steals Kirakiraru from a helpless girl and transforms his rod into a sword to fight against the Cures. During the fight he introduces himself as Julio and mentions that he is merely conducting experiments using people's Kirakiraru.
He appears in following episodes and is still seen doing experiments with Kirakiraru from people's hearts, but he ends up defeated every time.
Defeat[]
Julio's mask breaks
During episode 17, he says some nasty stuff to Ichika and as a result Ichika falls deep into despair, thus giving him the opportunity to steal her Kirakiraru. In this episode he transforms his rod into a dark replica of the Cures' Candy Rod and mimics all their attacks. When he nearly defeats the Cures, Cure Whip shows up, recovered from her despair and together the Cures manage to hit him with Three・2・Wonderful A La Mode, breaking his mask and rod in the process. Cure Whip offers him her hand and tells him to come with her, but Julio refuses, saying you cannot get feelings through with sweets and leaves.
In episode 18, he is seen with Bibury in their hideout, who mocks him and tells him she will be the one who will take care of the Cures.
Return And Purification[]
Julio's dark aura disappears
In episode 21, Bibury mocks his losses again, making him very upset. This time Noir appears before him and takes Kirakiraru from his heart to repair and power up his broken rod.
In episode 22, he fights the Cures with his powered up rod and during the fight Kirarin discovers he is actually her brother. By the end of this episode, he ends up purified with Three・2・Wonderful A La Mode thanks to Cure Whip's feelings, then he turns back to his fairy form.
Sacrifice For Cure Parfait[]
Julio shields Ciel from Noir's arrow
In episode 23, Pikario still has some hatred toward Ciel for what she had done. He attempts to make his waffles again, but they still turn black, meaning he still hasn't fully recovered from his brainwashing by Noir. As Ciel cries and starts hating herself for what she had done to Pikario, Noir arrives to try and turn Ciel into his servant using the darkness and self-doubt within her. She becomes trapped in it, but not before Pikario, along with Ichika, enter the sphere she was trapped in. While in it, Pikario turns back into Julio as Ichika tries to reach out to Ciel, but Ciel is in so deep with her self-hatred that she feels nothing will help her. After falling through an abyss, they all find themselves in a kitchen, where Whip tells Julio to make his waffles again in hopes of reaching out to Ciel again. Reluctant at first, Julio makes them, and this time, they did not turn black and the Kirakiraru inside of them frees Ciel from the trance and breaks free from her self-doubt. When the three of them return to the real world to help the other Cures, Ciel goes ahead in making her parfait, using Julio's waffles for the wings. Noir takes notice and fires an arrow in an attempt to attack her but Julio steps in and takes the hit, gravely injuring him in the process.
Pekorin and Kirarin watch over Pikario
He tells Ciel to complete her sweet as he falls to the ground, and with that in mind, she does and it becomes her Animal Sweet, allowing her to become Cure Parfait. During the battle, she goes to catch Julio and in the process, his rod turns into a new weapon for Parfait, the Rainbow Ribbon. After Parfait defeats Bibury, the other Cures watch in sadness as Pikario fades away, leaving a trail of Kirakiraru.
In episode 24, it is revealed that Pikario is now resting in Lumière's shrine in Ichigoyama.
Revival[]
Julio holds off Grave
In episode 39, after a long period of rest, he finally wakes up, with new power bestowed upon him by Cure Lumière. He saves the Cures in a pinch after they were badly beaten by a super-powered Grave and the brainwashed townspeople. In episode 40, he holds Grave off long enough to tell the Cures to make some more sweets so the kirakiraru within them can help them out against the darkness. When that plan ended up failing, the Cures have to battle Grave again, but are once again struggling. Julio tries to help, but this time Grave overpowers him, shattering his rod and damaging him. However, he survives the attack, but appears to have lost the powers he had as Julio.
Return To Normal[]
Rio is complimented on his waffles
In episode 41, he starts to become reacquainted with Ciel, who bonds with him again quickly. As he improves on his ability to make sweets, an impostor makes his rounds during the night, stealing kirakiraru from some of the sweets shops. The next day, a group of infuriated shop owners arrive at Ciel's patisserie and accuse Rio of stealing the kirakiraru, which in turned upset him and reminded him of his past as Julio. He later isolates himself, with Ciel, along with Ichika, Himari, and Aoi, finding him afterward, but he still feels that he could never be absolved of his past sins and runs away conflicted, leaving a waffle at Lumiere's altar as a farewell gift. Later that night, Macaron and Chocolat expose the phony Rio, which was a disguised Nendo. It was all part of Elisio's plan to alienate the townspeople. Ciel was later able to find Rio and told him that he should keep pursuing his dream of being a patissier like her and that they could do it together. While battling Elisio, Parfait tells him about the good she sees in her brother and that she would carry the weight of his dark past. After Elisio is defeated, Ciel proves her brother's innocence to the shopkeepers and Pikario gives them some of the waffles he had made, and they had enjoyed them.
By the epilogue of the series, he now operates a sweets shop with his sister.KKPCALM49
Julio[]
Julio and Rio before purification
Julio was Rio's evil alter ego when he first came to Ichigozaka. Julio had a special rod given to him by Noir which he could use to merge the Kirakiraru Thieves into one being or extract Kirakiraru from innocent individuals to power up the rod. To transform the rod, he would shout "Noir Decoration!". The appearance and abilities of the weapon were determined by the type of sweet that the person from whom he stole the Kirakiraru had consumed.
Noir Decoration[]
Julio after purification
It is destroyed in episode 17 but is restored and powered up in episode 21 by Noir. In episode 23, it is turned into the Rainbow Ribbon by combining his and Cure Parfait's feelings.
When purified, he possessed a newer rod powered by Cure Lumière that was able to combat Grave's darkness. However, Grave ends up destroying the rod and shattering it into tiny pieces, which scattered throughout the town and helped guide the animals to the top of the mountain to aid the Cures.
Abilities[]
During his time being evil, he had a staff which granted him all of his powers, including the power to change between human and fairy form. Once he becomes good, he learns how to change between forms at will like his sister, Ciel.
Like his sister, he’s a skilled patissier, especially when it comes to making waffles.
Trivia[]
- He shares his voice actress with Toyashima Hidekazu, a supporting character who appears in Smile Pretty Cure!.
- Since Rio is the twin brother of Ciel, his birthday is most likely July 30th as well.
- While not referred to in the season itself, Pikario's male hero alias' official name is Cure Waffles (キュアワッフル?).[4]
Gallery[]
- Main Page: Kuroki Rio/Image Gallery
References[]