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Kuroki Rio (黒樹 リオ Kuroki Rio?) is a supporting character from KiraKira☆Pretty Cure A La Mode. He is the twin brother of Kirahoshi Ciel. His fairy name is Pikario (ピカリオ Pikario?), and he usually ends his sentences with "~pika" (～ピカ?). He first appeared in episode 11 as the villain Julio.
Appearance
As Rio, his hair is sky blue and long, tied back with an accessory similar to his hair 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 either seen wearing a long-sleeved dark blue shirt with a black turtleneck underneath with white pants and black shoes or the boys' middle school uniform.
As Pikario, he resembles his twin sister Kirarin, but his ears, hair and tail are cyan and the ears are styled into two sharp-looking tufts to the right. It is 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 that resembles a sprig of holly, with sharp black leaves with smaller dark green leaves and a blue berry. 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 in the front and epaulettes 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 also 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.
History
Preseason
Born as a fairy, Pikario originally enjoyed making desserts with his sister Kirarin, whom he went to study in Paris with in order 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 has 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 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. He tells Ciel to complete her sweet as he falls to the ground, and with that in mind, she does and
Pekorin and Kirarin watch over Pikario
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 had to battle Grave again, but were once again struggling. Julio tried 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. 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
Personality
Rio/Pikario was originally a passionate, joyous and ambitious fairy like his twin sister. But what differs him from his sister is he lacks confidence, which led to his deep despair after he failed to catch up his learning progress and 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 critizing and neglecting him, even rejecting the idea of forgiving his sister after he got purified at first. However, Pikario longed for being appreciated by his sister and still cares for her, as he helped her to break free from her self-doubt by making waffles for her with sincerity and protected 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.
Julio
Julio and Rio before purification
Julio was the evil alter ego of Rio when he first came to Ichigozaka. He possessed a rod that was given to him by Noir that he could use to fuse the Kirakiraru Thieves into one being or to extract the Kirakiraru from innocent people to power the weapon up. He transformed it by shouting "Noir Decoration!". The design and abilities of the weapon depend on the sweet that the person he stole the Kirakiraru from has 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 pâtissier, especially when it comes to making waffles.
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 seems to dislike her due to her rude and self-absorbed attitude towards him.
Trivia
- He shares his voice actress with Toyashima Hidekazu, a supporting character who appears in Smile Pretty Cure!.
- Rio is the twin brother of Ciel, so his birthday is most likely July 30th as well.
Gallery
- Main Page: Kuroki Rio/Image Gallery