Akane Hino (or Kelsey in the English dub) is one of the main heroine in Smile Pretty Cure!. An unusually passionate girl, she is able to get into any mood easily, and loves to make others laugh. Her family runs an okonomiyaki restaurant, and she often helps out there. In school, she is part of the volleyball team. She was born in Osaka and thus speaks in the Kansai dialect, like Tarte from Fresh Pretty Cure!.
Her alter ego is Cure Sunny, or Glitter Sunny in the dub. She controls the element of Fire.
In Japanese, she is voiced by Asami Tano. In the English dub, she is voiced by Colleen Villard.
Appearance[]
Kelsey has short red hair worn in a small ponytail with long bangs on both sides of her face, held with 2 yellow hairpins on the right side. Her eyes are a matching shade of red as well. Her casual outfit consists of a loose long-sleeved orange dress-top with crisscrossing yellow stripes, red pockets and a red ribbon at the back, blue skinny jeans and red flats. her summer outfit consists of a short-sleeved wide-necked shirt under a light orange tank top, khaki shorts, white stockings and beige open toed boots. She wears her school uniform with a red tie, and a orange sweater tied around her waist.
Glitter Sunny has bright orange hair, the upper part of which is worn in a single bun on top of her head with a few loose strands, while the rest is around chin-length and is let down loose. Her eyes also become a bright orange. Her tiara has one angel wing attached, and she wears it on the right side of her head. Like Spring, she wears her earrings on the helix of her ears. Her outfit is mainly light orange, with bright orange lining and white highlights. Her sleeves are single-layered, and the bow at her chest is small with a large frilly piece behind it. The back of her top extends out in a single pastel orange frilly piece. Her arm protectors reach past her elbows, and are decorated with orange ribbons at the top and light orange folds at the wrist. Her boots are long as well, reaching past her knees with orange ribbons at the top.
In Tiara mode, her white tiara is replaced by a golden crown worn in the center of her head. The centerpiece of her tiara is a red circle, and the angel wing at the side of her tiara turns golden as well. Her white angel wing earrings are replaced by gold ribbon-shaped earrings with orange hearts in the center, and she now wears them on her earlobes.
Personality[]
Being born and raised in Osaka, Kelsey speaks in the Kansai dialect, and refers to herself as "uchi" instead of the usual "watashi". Her catchphrase is "aka~n", the Kansai equivalent of "dame da" or "This won't do". She is also fond of saying "uchi no deban ya!" or "It's my turn now!". She possesses a boyish personality, often reflected in the way she stands or sits. However, she seems to love cute things, and has an especially soft spot for gorillas.
Kelsey is a passionate girl who loves making others laugh. The first impression she gives is that of the class jokester, always full of puns and jokes to make her classmates laugh. As such, she appears to be generally popular and well-liked. Her friends see her as an interesting girl who always manages to make them laugh. She has a habit of speaking her mind, which can get a little out of hand sometimes, such as when she introduced April, Chloe and Lily to Emily as being a "female gang leader", "Miss Popular" and "crybaby" respectively, causing visible discomfort to the three. Lily, with her crybaby personality and fascination with superheroes, is often the target of Kelsey's jokes. However, there does not seem to be any ill meaning behind the teasing, and the other girls seldom take offence.
Despite all the teasing, Kelsey is extremely loyal to her friends. She also has a tendency to act before she thinks. For example, when she witnessed Glitter Lucky being defeated by an Akanbe, she remembered how Emily had helped her out, and immediately went to help Happy even though she had no chance of winning against the Akanbe. Her strong wish to help her friend earned her the Glitter Pact and allowed her to transform into Glitter Sunny.
With regards to being Pretty Cure, Kelsey was initially against the idea, turning down Emily's bold invitation. When she did become a Cure, she seems quite cool about the whole idea, ready to do her best in battle, though not overwhelmingly enthusiastic like Emily or Lily. Similar to April, she does not understand why Emily and Lily are so hyped up about being "superheroes", and gave Emily a cool reception when she insisted on the group coming up with a signature phrase. Ironically, though she loves to make puns, she was initially embarrassed by the ones made in her own Cure introductory speech.
In terms of sports, Kelsey is excellent at volleyball, easily beating her classmates in a friendly match. She aims to become the ace attacker of the school volleyball team, and comes down hard on herself when she is unable to perform well. She is also an independent girl, as she told
Emily that she does not normally allow others to help her out, but gave Emily a chance to help her with volleyball training due to her enthusiasm and willingness. She can also be extremely focused, as she turned down
Emily's offer to become Pretty Cure (or "kiripura" as she mistakenly calls it) as she wanted to focus on her volleyball training.
Kelsey's family runs an okonomiyaki restaurant, and it is probable that Kelsey enjoys cooking.
Also in Episode 36 you can see the love side of her life.
Attack[]
- Sparkle Fire - Glitter Sunny charges up her Glitter Pact with enough fighting spirit to make it glow and grants her power to perform the attack. When enough fighting spirit has been collected, the Smile Pact explodes in fire to form a fireball in the sky. Glitter Sunny then does a run, jumps into the air, spins and blasts the fireball at the enemy in a volleyball strike.
- Sparkle Fire Inferno - Is the upgrade version of Sunny Fire.
- Sparkle Fire Shot - Her combination attack with Glitter Spring used to fight together.
Trivia[]
- The color of the circle depicted on the Japanese national flag is officially madder red ("akane"), and the translation of Japan's name "nippon" is incidentally "Land of the Rising Sun". Coincidentally, the shape of Sunny's Cure Decor is a circle.
- Glitter Sunny is the first Pretty Cure to have pure orange theme color, while several previous yellow-themed Cures use orange as sub-theme color (Cure Pine, Cure Muse). However, her transformation Cure Decor is red.
- Akane is the first Pretty Cure to come from Osaka and speak in the Kansai dialect. *She is the second character overall to speak in Kansai dialect, after Tarte from Fresh Pretty Cure!.
- The air date of Episode 2, in which Kelsey becomes Glitter Sunny for the first time, is coincidentally the birth date of her seiyuu Asami Tano.
- Like Kelsey, Asami Tano is also a Kansai native, born in Hyogo Prefecture.
- Kelsey is scared of Unric.
- Kelsey is the second Pretty Cure to be voiced by a Japanese pop idol, following Tsubomi (VA: Nana Mizuki) from Heartcatch Pretty Cure!.
- Asami Tano was the main vocalist of former vocal/dance group BOYSTYLE, whose work includes anime One Piece's past opening theme "Kokoro no Chizu".
- Glitter Sunny is the second Pretty Cure to control fire, and the third pyrokinetic in the franchise after Moerumba and Cure Rouge.
- In Episode 11, Kelsey is shown to have a fear of heights.
- Kelsey shares her family name with Rei Hino, aka Senshi of Fire, Sailor Mars from the anime Sailor Moon. However, the "hi" in Akane's surname is the kanji for sun, while Rei's is the kanji for fire.
- Akane shares many characteristics with Aiko Senoo from anime Ojamajo Doremi.
Most of the episodes that revolve around her have the word "Nekketsu" (lit: Hot Blooded).
- Kelsey (Akane) has the same real name as Akane Fujita of Futari wa Pretty Cure and Pretty Cure Max Heart.
- Kelsey shows these following similarities with Rin Natsuki from Yes! Pretty Cure 5:
- Both have red as part of their theme colour - (Sunny's main theme colour is orange).
- Both of their lead Cures have pink as their theme color - (Cure Dream and Glitter Lucky)
- Both don't do so well in academics, but make up for that by excelling in sports.
- Both of them have the same powers, that is fire.
- Both undergo a significant change of their hair colors when they transform into their Pretty Cure forms. Rin's is from brown to red while Kelsey's is from red to orange.
- Both are the second Cures of their respective groups.
- They are both self-employed by their respective parents.
- Both of their attacks have connections with their respective sports. Rouge delivers her Fire Strike by kicking it at the enemy just like a soccer strike, while Sunny delivers her Sunny Fire at the enemy like a volleyball spike.
- Both of them are sporty Cures, and are also in love, although Rin's crush on Mucardia's human alias is short-lived...
- Just like Cure Black, Sunny has enhanced physical strength
- Both of them use their fists more when fighting.
- Both can lift huge boulders single-handedly.
- Both of them can grab monsters and throw them for a certain distance...
- Her gloves are the same length as those used by Cure Bloom and Cure Passion. Coincidentally both Sunny's and Passion's outfits involve the same theme colour
- Akane appears as Cure Sunny to give the 10th anniversary congratulatory message at the beginning of episode 31 of Happiness Charge Pretty Cure!.
- Akane is the second Cure whose name begins with "A", after Ako Shirabe. She is followed by Alice Yotsuba, Aguri Madoka, Aoi Tategami, Akira Kenjou, Asumi Fuurin, Asuka Takizawa, Amane Kasai, and Ageha Hijiri.