Pretty Rhythm

First row (top): June, Mion. Second row (middle): Ann, Hye In, Rhythm, and Ito. Last row (bottom): Rinne, Mia, Lala, Aira, and Naru.

Let's dance together! Go for it! Go for it!

Pretty Rhythm is a Japanese game and anime franchise created by Takara Tony. The franchise takes place in a world where Prism Shows, performances that are a combination of singing, dancing, fashion, and ice skating, are popular. The skaters, known as Prism Stars, use Prism Stones to coordinate their dresses and perform Prism Jumps to appeal to their fans.

The first season's plot is about 3 girls; Aira Harune, Rhythm Amamiya and Mion Takamine, who are Prism Show stars and form a group named MARs.

The Prism Show is an all-new kind of entertainment show that requires its participants to be figure skaters, models, and singers all at the same time. Aira and Rhythm are two girls who both dream of becoming the Prism Queen. They'll have to train hard and overcome both their quarrels with each other and their blossoming interest in boys if they want to achieve their dream.

The second season, Dear My Future, is set three years after Aurora Dream and centers around a four member group known as Prizmmy☆ (Mia Ageha, Reina Miyama, Karin Shijimi, and Ayami Ooruri). Dear My Future also introduces five girls from Korea - Hye In, So Min, Jae Eun, So Min, and Chae Kyoung - who act as Prizmmy☆'s friendly rivals, PURETTY. The season also introduces the new concept of Prism Acts, a special type of Prism Jump used to entertain the audience.

The third season, Rainbow Live, is a completely new story, although the Pair Cheer and Pair Charm mascots do make occasional cameos. Rainbow Live introduces seven girls - Naru Ayase, Ann Fukuhara, Ito Suzuno, Otoha Takanashi, Wakana Morizono, Bell Renjouji, and the amnesiac Rinne. The season completely gets rid of Prism Acts, and introduces Prism Lives, in which Prism Stars use instruments to perform.

The game was adapted into a manga and an anime that started airing in Spring 2011, with a new season premiering every Spring.

This page is currently undergoing reconstruction.

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Titles

• Pretty Rhythm: Aurora Dream
• Pretty Rhythm: Dear My Future
• Pretty Rhythm: Rainbow Live
• Pretty Rhythm: All-Star Selection

Tropes found in the whole series:

• Abusive Mom: Bell's mom, named Ritsu. She crosses it in episode 24 (of Rainbow Live) when she bans Bell from doing Prism Shows, and eventually gets shouted at and abandoned by Bell in the following episode.

• Academy of Adventure: Pretty Top (in Aurora Dream and Dear My Future) and Edel Rose (in Rainbow Live).
• Action Girl: Rhythm, Reina, So Min, Wakana.
• A Day in the Limelight: Jun in the last few minutes of Episode 26. We're given a look into how Asechi treats him.
• Adorkable: Two words: NARU AYASE.
  • Also, Jae Eun and Otoha.
• Aerith and Bob: Rhythm, Sonata, Chris Kaname, Bell.
• Alliterative Name: Yamao Yamada and Hiro Hayami.
• Aloof Ally: Mion and Ito. They get better.
• Alpha Bitch: Neko-chi is like this to the other mascots and is always going on about how Mion is a big international star and doesn't have time to waste on anybody below her (Mion isn't like that though).
  • Bell is much worse than Neko-chi, up until her Villainous Breakdown at the end of Episode 24.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parent: Aira and Serena's dads. Ann's dad as well.
• Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: The Pair Cheer, Pair Charm, and Pair Friend mascots, big time.
  • Pair Cheer mascots: Rabichi (pink), Bear-chi (brown), and Neko-chi (grey).
  • Pair Charm mascots: Mimmy (white), Remmy (grey), Rimmy (yellow), Yammy (pink), and Vivvy (black).
  • Pair Friend mascots: Lovelyn (pink), Poppun (blue), Kurun (purple), Seshini (dark pink), Femini (yellow), Ethini (green), Starn, and Peacock (both white).
• Ambiguously Gay: Penguin Teacher and Yamada.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Aira's brother Itsuki.
• Anti-Hero: Bell and Wakana, though it gets Downplayed come episodes 23 and 25.
• Arc Words:
  • In Aurora Dream: "Dream Goes On....." and "Dream Forever".
  • In Dear My Future: the name of the season itself and "The future me is number one!"
  • In Rainbow Live: Rainbow Live has a truckload of these: "Session Continues...", "Let's get happy through our prismatic hearts!", "Session Completed!", and "Rinne will come.....next to you...."
• The Artifact: Penguin-sensei and Yamada, ostensibly dance teachers and the mascots' mentors, become pretty much superfluous after their debut and appear once in a blue moon for no other reason than to provide cheap laughs.
  • The mascots themselves make less and less of an impact in the story as the show goes on. They're just kind of there from around episode 40 onwards.
• Ascended Fangirl: By episode 1, Aira was a fan of Mion. By episode 51, she was already Prism Queen.
  • In another case, All four members of Prizmmy☆ were at Aira's Prism Queen performance in Episode 50.
• Badass: All of the Prism Stars.
• Bad Boss: Jin.
• Beach Episode: Episode 27 of Aurora Dream.
• The Beautiful Elite: Rinne, because of her status as Prism World messenger and her very fair complexion.
• Berserk Button:
  • In Aurora Dream, if you were Kanon, you do not want to get all lovey-dovey towards Hibiki. Rhythm won't take it sitting down. But then again, Kanon doesn't care about that.
  • DO NOT ANGER SHI YOON.
  • In Rainbow Live, when Wakana indirectly gave Bell (who was at the airport) a Reason You Suck Speech, Otoha didn't take it facing down, and called Wakana a liar.
• Big Bad: Kintaro Asechi in Dear My. Future and Jin Norizuki in Rainbow Live.
• Big Eater: Rhythm.
• Big Screwed-Up Family: Karin belongs to one.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Here's the main reason why Jin got fired from his position as Edel Rose's supervisor. Where do we start? Let's see: crushing the hopes of others, a lot of evil and dirty crimes, and self-deception. All these say one thing: Jin is nothing but a stupid bitch, very much like the Philippines' biggest bastard president, Ferdinand Marcos.
• Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: Serena and Kanon have this as part of their act.
• Book Dumb: Rhythm, who has a lackluster performance in her exams.
• Breakout Character: Aira can be considered as this as she replaced Rhythm as protagonist of the franchise, and soon Aira eclipsed the former protagonist in popularity. Rhythm is still popular though, and best of all, she hasn't shown any signs of jealousy towards this.
  • Mia and Prizmmy also qualify (sort of).
• Broke the Rating Scale: Aira's Aurora Rising is deemed so beautiful and creative by the judges that they refuse to rate it and she becomes Prism Queen.
• The Bus Came Back: Aira and Mia returned in All Stars Selection, along with Naru.
• But Not Too Foreign: Serena is half-French, Mion is half-Italian.
• Calling Your Attacks: The girls call out the names of the special jumps and tricks as they perform them.
• Cash Cow Franchise: Initially, it was an arcade game. Then, it expanded to new geographies, from manga, then to anime, and then to having its own video game!
• Catch Phrase: Aira's "Happy Lucky!", Rhythm's "I'm full of energy!", and Mion's "Mion - switch on!"
  • In Dear My Future, there's Mia's "I'm number one!", Karin's "Galactical!", Ayami's "Memo memo desu!", Shi Yoon's "Yeah!", Chae Kyoung's "Celebrity!", and Jae Eun's "Pakupaku!"
  • In Rainbow Live, there's Naru's "Happiinaru!", Ann's "Leave it to Ann!", Ito's "Intense!", and Otoha's "Meruhen". Bell and Wakana? They don't have any catchphrase of their own.
• Characterization Marches On: Back in Aurora Dream, Aira was a total klutz. Come Dear My Future, she has transformed into a graceful beauty, but is still a bit clumsy.
  • By the first few episodes of Dear My Future, Mia was completely selfish. However, she soon faced many adversities, which she learned lessons from, and the result: the selfishness died out by the end of the aforementioned season.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Jae Eun and Otoha.
• Color Motif: Aira (pink / red), Rhythm (blue) and Mion (purple).
  • In Dear My Future, there's Mia (red), Reina (black), Karin (yellow), Ayami (carnation pink), Hye In (scarlet), Shi Yoon (green), So Min (orange), Chae Kyoung (indigo), and Jae Eun (pink).
  • In Rainbow Live, there's Naru (pink), Bell (red), Otoha (yellow), Wakana (green), Ann (blue), Ito (purple), and Rinne (rainbow).
• The Comically Serious: Mion.
• Conspicuous CGI: The dance sequences are done in jarring Uncanny Valley style.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Kintaro Asechi of the Symphonia Company in Dear My Future.
  • Taken Up To Eleven with Jin Norizuki of Edel Rose in Rainbow Live.
• Costume Porn: The girls have beautiful skating costumes.
• Crossover Punchline: Hiro was wearing Yatterman's outfit in episode 31.
• Cultural Cross-Reference: Lala Manaka made an appearance as a main character in Pretty Rhythm: All-Star Selection (the last anime adaptation of the series), even before she could appear in her own series, Pri Para.
• Cry Cute: Rhythm, and the teams of Prizmmy, PURETTY, Happy RAIN, and Bell Rose. Rinne too.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: Aira, and then Naru. While the former remains a bit clumsy in Dear My Future, the latter appears to have sucked this trait into oblivion by the end of Rainbow Live.
• Dance Party Ending: Usually happens in Aurora Dream and Dear My Future. Also happens in Rainbow Live, but is not the final scene in that season. Instead, the final scene shows Rinne going to a new world to spread the Prism Sparkle.
• Delinquent: Played with Ito, though it gets Downplayed as Rainbow Live progresses.
• Demoted to Extra: Rhythm was the original protagonist of the franchise, and Serena and Kanon were her sidekicks. By the time Aira and Mion came, Rhythm became a sidekick (along with Mion), while Serena and Kanon became their rivals. WHOA.
  • MARs, Callings, and Sere-non in Dear My Future.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Mia twice threatens to quit Pretty Top, both times because her melon bread was stolen. First by Aira, and then by Kyouko. To be fair, both of them just saw it lying on the table with nobody around to claim ownership.
• Drunk with Power: Jin Norizuki, the supervisor of Edel Rose, is like this. The result: he gets kicked out of Edel Rose before the end of Rainbow Live.
  • June was also like this, but to a lesser extent.
• Epic Fail: Aira's first couple of times being in Prism Show.
  • In Rainbow Live, Bell's first attempt on Prism Live.
• Evil Plan: The only season in the anime without one is Aurora Dream. In Dear My Future, in hopes of witnessing the Grateful Symphonia, Kintaro Asechi ruthlessly lured MARs, Serenon, Love-Mix, PURETTY and even Prizmmy to Symphonia Company, only to end up conceding them to Pretty Top in episode 42. He managed to witness the Grateful Symphonia in episode 50, then apologizes profusely for his nasty deeds.
  • In Rainbow Live, Jin had two: He did something to the rink Hijiri skated on in the past to injure his leg, and ordered a henchman to exclude June and Happy Rain from the Over The Rainbow Session, all because of two plans: become a winner and push Edel Rose to total supremacy. Everything went well for him until...DJ Coo (as his real identity, Rei Kurokawa) exposes Jin's evil deeds, and soon, Jin was kicked out of Edel Rose, and his ambition to become a winner was torn apart.
• Expy: Ann looks like Rhythm, Wakana looks like Aiko Kudou (from Baka and Test), and Naru looks like Mirai Kuriyama (from Beyond The Boundary).
• Faceless Masses: To the nth degree in the anime. All the crowds are rendered as colored silhouettes. They get better about this as the anime goes on.
• The Fashionista: Aira and Ayami.
• Filler: There are several live-action segments that have nothing to do with the plot. It's taken to ridiculous levels in Episode 13 where half the episode consists of a live-action segment to fill up the episode length.
• Fountain of Youth: The girls seem to be quite ageless, but most especially Rinne.
• Genki Girl: Rhythm, Kaname, Mia, and Wakana.
• Get Out!: Episode 45: By the time Jin's father finds out about Jin's evil deeds towards Hijiri, Jin is fired from being supervisor of Edel Rose.
• Heterosexual Life Partners:
  • Aurora Dream: Of course, we couldn't forget the Heterosexual Life Trio of Aira, Rizumu, and Mion. Also Serena and Kanon, to a slighter extent.
  • In Dear My Future: Mia and Hye In.
  • In Rainbow Live: Naru and Rinne, which is perhaps Pretty Rhythm's answer to Frozen's Anna and Elsa.
    • To an extent, Bell and Otoha.
• The Heroine: Aira (of Aurora Dream), Mia (of Dear My Future), and Naru (of Rainbow Live).
  • Also, there's Rhythm, Mion, Serena, Kanon, Kaname, Reina, Karin, Ayami, Hye In, So Min, Shi Yoon, Chae Kyoung, Jae Eun, Rinne, Ann, Ito, Bell, Otoha, Wakana, and June.
• Hotter and Sexier: Aira and Rinne, when they're performing in Prism Shows. Taken Up To Eleven when Aira is at the beach.
• Humble Goal: Dear My Future's antagonist, Kintaro Asechi, just wants to witness the Grateful Symphonia, and yet, it triggered a huge amount of damage towards the main characters, who soon performed it after a much-frenzied period of painstaking practice and gruesome battles.
• Iconic Characters: Aira, Rhythm, Mion, Mia, Hye In, Naru, and Rinne.
• Instant Expert: Aira, who does the Prism Jump perfectly at her first try. Which is later subverted when they show that she sucks at everything about ice skating and can't do a jump again until she's trained.
• Jerkass: Kintaro Asechi in Dear My Future and Jin Norizuki in Rainbow Live. While the former eventually reforms, the latter remains an antagonist, and well, very ruthless.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Serena and Kanon. Though Kyouko also qualifies, near the end.
  • In Dear My Future, Mia, Reina, and So Min.
  • In Rainbow Live, Ito, Bell, Wakana, and June.
• Kick the Son of a Bitch: Jin's father, Kou, does this to him by firing him from being Edel Rose's supervisor.
• Lamarck Was Right Aira and Rhythm's mothers worked in Prism Shows when they were younger.
  • DJ Coo, Hijiri, and Jin were former Prism Stars, and perhaps, the predecessors of Hiro, Kouji, and Kazuki. Hiro is the spiritual successor to Jin, but has a more heroic shade in it compared to Jin's cruel, manipulative, and sadistic personality, Kouji may be the successor to Hijiri, and Kazuki is DJ Coo's successor, as he is popular with the masses.
• Last-Name Basis: Most of the time, Kyouko is referred simply by her surname Asechi.
• Magic Idol Singer: Of a sort — they're ice skaters instead of idol singers, and they lack Older Alter Egos, but otherwise the show fits the genre pretty well.
• Meaningful Name: Meaningful Name: Aira's name comes from the romaji version of the phrase "I love you", named "AI RABU YUU", and Rhythm's Japanese name "Rizumu" means Rhythm (which is somewhat of a reference to the franchise).
  • The surnames of Prizmmy's members were derived from butterfly names.
  • Naru's name comes from the Japanese word "Happinaru!" which means "so happy!". Oh yeah, and it may be worthy to say that the word is also Naru's signature catchphrase.
  • The name of Bell's mom, Ritsu, means "to control" in Japanese; its apparently the reason why she controls Bell like a dictator and is a somewhat of a Jerkass, until she got shouted at by Bell in episode 25.
• Meet Cute
• Mentor Mascot: Rabbit-chi and Bear-chi, the talking animal plushies.
• Merchandise-Driven
• Missing Mom: Rhythm's.
• Naive Everygirl: Aira.
• Nice Girl: Aira, Rhythm, and Mion.
  • In Dear My Future, Mia, Hye In, Reina, Karin, Ayami, Shi Yoon, Jae Eun, Chae Kyoung, and So Min.
  • In Rainbow Live, Naru, Ann, Ito, Rinne, Otoha, and later, Bell, Wakana, and June.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Ann performing at the center of a Prism Show in Wakana's place crushed their bond. The reason: Wakana suffered a fever. Worse yet, Wakana did not even bother to notice it.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Subverted with Wakana taking place in Ann's Prism Show after Ann suffered a fever, as Wakana would emerge as a heroine afterwards.
• Odd Couple: Naru and Hiro.
• Pimped-Out Dress: Rinne has three which look like princess outfits. Oh yeah, and it adds much more oomph to Rinne's super-beautiful image.
• Plucky Girl: Rhythm.
• Put On the Bus: In Rainbow Live, everyone in Dear My Future (save for MARs, Prizmmy, PURETTY, Penguin-sensei, the Pair Cheer and Pair Charm mascots, who made a few cameos) disappeared without a trace, because Rainbow Live boasted an all-new cast of characters.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Mia does this to Kintaro Asechi in episode 50 in Dear My Future. She took his actions pretty hard.
  • In Rainbow Live, DJ Coo (as his real alias, Rei Kurokawa), when he confronts Jin. Coupled with a smashing punch in JIN'S FACE!!! Suck it, Jin! SUCK IT!
• Rule of Symbolism: The color motifs of the Prism Stars:
  • Pink, the color of the Lovely-type stars (Aira, Naru, Ayami, and Jae Eun) represents romance, love, and their feminine status.
  • Blue, the color of the Pop-type stars (Rizumu, Karin, and Ann) signifies calmness and serenity, but Rizumu barely has a trace of calmness.
  • Purple, color of the Cool-type stars (Mion, Reina, So Min, and Ito), represents wealth (which Mion and So Min do have in spades) and wisdom.
  • Red, color of the Sexy-type stars (Serena, Mia, and Bell) signifies excitement and passion, as well as anger (all three sexy-type stars had their moments in which their fuse was blown).
  • Yellow, color of the Feminine-type stars (Kanon, Chae Kyoung, and Otoha), is cheery and warm, but also signifies frustration and anger (so far, Kanon is the only one who had her moments of this).
  • Green, color of the Ethnic-type stars (Kaname, Shi Yoon, and Wakana), symbolizes nature and tranquility (no wonder their jumps were themed after plants), and jealousy (only Wakana has this in spades), and
  • White, color of the Star-type stars (Rinne and Hye In), signifies purity and innocence.
  • June's color, black, represents menace or evil. Justified since she was a bit selfish in the fourth quarter of Rainbow Live.
• Secretly Wealthy: Otoha.
• So Bad It's Horrible: The Dark Aurora Rising performed in episodes 38 (by Kaname) and 46 (by Rhythm).
• Species Surname: Publicly, Rinne is referred to as "Rinne Ibara", but that's not her full name. GOT IT?
• Spiritual Successor: PriPara. Also, its protagonist, Lala Manaka is sort of fit to be like Naru's spiritual successor as both show high levels of being Adorkable.
  • Four characters from Pretty Rhythm might be successors to three Azumanga Daioh characters: Rhythm and Mia are successors to Tomo (both are however, nicer than Tomo), Kyouko is a successor to Teacher Yukari (she does have a higher occupation as Pretty Top's president while Yukari is just a teacher), and Kaname and Naru are successors to Chiyo (Kaname because she is a Child Prodigy and Naru because she is a Cheerful Child and is Adorkable).
• Spoiled Sweet: Mion, Serena, So Min, Chae Kyoung, Bell, and Otoha.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Aira's sisters have the same hair and eye color as her.
  • The same can be said for Naru, Wakana, and Bell, as their moms (Poemu, Futaba, and Ritsu, respectively) have the same hair color as them.
• The Rival: Rhythm, to Aira (at first).
• There are Two Kinds of Prism Stars: The first kinds are ones driven by passion, creativity, and excellence (all of the female Prism Stars and almost all of the male Prism Stars), while the second one is a Total Monster: those who are drunk with obsession and being power-hungry (So far, Jin seems to be the only one under this kind, and Hiro was almost like this until episode 45).
• Took a Level In Jerkass: In episode 25, after being motivated by Otoha and Wakana to continue her Prism Show career, Bell stands up to her mom (named Ritsu) at the airport, then abandons her. Quite cruel, right?
  • Wakana's mom Futaba in episode 36, where she slapped Tadashi (Wakana's dad) out of total rage.
• Transformation Sequence: A brief one.
• Transformation Trinket: The Prism Stones
• True Companions: Naru and Rinne. Although they are from different worlds, it can be very easy to say that they're the best of friends.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Aira in episode 2 was thinking how nice it is to be in Rhythm's company (cue Death Glare from Rhythm)
• You Just Ruined the Shot: In episode 24, Bell was just doing a Prism Show just well....until she made an epic fail out of failing to do a Prism Live. Which isn't helped by the fact that she didn't perform any Prism Jumps at all.