Ray of Hope: Season 9

Ray of Hope: (Title TBD) is the ninth season of Ray of Hope: The PreCure Saga.

Official Announcement
The horrible dub that is Glitter Force, but better, with elements from Mysticons and Kamen Rider Saber.

Plot
In order to prevent an universal apocalypse, the Six Legendary Swordswomen (the PreCures of course!) need to collect the Soul Shards of the many mythical beasts that exist. The Soul Shards, however, have been stolen and hidden away. Set to the task of finding the Cures, TBD follows the 6 Beams of Light to Earth, where she meets a group of teenagers, ready to take on any challenge that comes in their way...

"Unleash the Might of the Legends!"

Cures

 * Emily Clarke - A 16-year-old with an interest in mythology and zoology, who transferred to TBD High School. Despite the scar on her face, she is generally cheery and optimistic, but something of a klutz.
 * Kiara Walsh - A young woman whose parents run a restaurant and is a member of the school's volleyball team. Kiara may be a jokester, but when she has a goal set, she is very passionate about achieving it.
 * Lily Garnacho - A young woman who is in the Animation Club and aspires to be a comic book artist. Though timid, shy about her work, and a crybaby, Lily is very loyal, diligent, and headstrong when pushed.
 * April Tatum - A tomboyish young woman from a family with many younger siblings who is a member of the school's girl's soccer team. April is straightforward and reliable with a strong sense of justice, though she does get frustrated when things do not go according to plan.
 * Chloe Yu - The student council vice president and a member of the Creative Writing Club, often writing poems and literature. Chloe is generally elegant and kind-hearted but has a frightening temper once her patience reaches her limit. Her father is a painter whilst her mother practices aikido and her elder brother practices judo.
 * Sarika Anand - Counterpart to Cure Echo. (Personality TBD)

Allies
TBD

Villains
TBD

Differences Between Smile Pretty Cure! and Ray of Hope: Season 9/Adaptations To English Audiences

 * Most names are changed for English ones:
 * The names of the Cures are Americanized, and the villains' names are changed as well.
 * Unlike GF, Ray of Hope actually gave the Cures last names.
 * The transformation phrase is changed to "Unleash the Might of the Legends!"
 * Sarika Anand was added as Ray of Hope's counterpart to Cure Echo.
 * The MotWs are now corrupted mythical beast/object hybrids.
 * Only 40 episodes were dubbed in English, with 8 episodes omitted (see below). Most of the missing episodes involve Japanese cultural elements or themes which may have been considered unsuitable for a young audience. Four of the eight were re-added in Ray of Hope and eight more filler episodes were added.
 * Episode 10, Nekketsu! Akane no Okonomiyaki Jinsei!!, about Akane's family's okonomiyaki restaurant (Readded to Ray of Hope because the jelly donut onigiri problem has been solved)
 * Episode 17, Nekketsu! Akane no Owarai Jinsei!!, featuring the Japanese comedy duo Fujiwara (Ray of Hope can probably make a crossover episode... but Hyperus18 doesn't know if he wants to do so.)
 * Episode 19, Papa, Arigatō! Yayoi no Takaramono, about Yayoi's late father (Readded to Ray of Hope due to its darker tone.)
 * Episode 26, Natsu Matsuri! Yozora ni Saku Ōkina Ōkina Hana!, featuring a Japanese summer festival (No hopes of getting readded into Ray of Hope. Enjoy a filler episode.)
 * Episode 27, Natsu no Fushigi!? Obāchan no Takaramono, about Miyuki's grandmother in the Japanese countryside (Hmmm... maybe.)
 * Episode 33, Eigamura de Jidaigeki de Gozaru!? no Maki!, about a Japanese period samurai movie (No hopes of getting readded into Ray of Hope. Enjoy a filler episode.)
 * Episode 34, Itchi Danketsu! Bunkasai de Mirakuru Fasshon Shō!!, about a Japanese school cultural festival (No hopes of getting readded into Ray of Hope. Enjoy a filler episode.)
 * Episode 36, Nekketsu!? Akane no Hatsukoi Jinsei!!, about Akane's feelings for the exchange student Brian (Readded to Ray of Hope because maybe we can probably have Brian's Ray of Hope counterpart be from somewhere that isn't America.)

Reception
Smile Pretty Cure! was well-received, placing regularly in Japan's weekly top ten anime shows broadcast.

Ella Anders of BSC Kids writing for Glitter Force was critical about the amount of Americanization and the title change provided by Saban Brands, writing that the "With the world so interconnected as it is now the removal of cultural aspects was saddening. It would be such a great chance to celebrate and focus on Japanese culture." She also mentioned that fans of the Pretty Cure series dislike the Saban dub.

Trivia

 * Smile Pretty Cure!, Yes! Pretty Cure 5 and HUGtto! Pretty Cure all share the same character designer. A book about Kawamura Toshie's design work at Toei Animation was brought out under the name Kawamura Toshie Toei Animation PreCure Works. The book features artwork from the three shows.
 * In the magazine Animage's 7th issue of 2012, an interview with one of the producers revealed that all the Cures were initially designed to have long flowing hairstyles.
 * Quote: "However, letting all the Cures have long hairstyles seemed to take away their personality differences, so we did quite a bit of thinking to rectify that. (...) Both final hairstyles and Cure theme colors were determined not by looking at each girl alone, but everyone as a group. We needed to see them together before we settled on their final design, in order to achieve a good total balance."
 * This is the first season to have varying eye catches every episode. In this case, it's a picture of a different Cure in every episode (or in some cases, an Akanbe).
 * Smile! has an onomatopoeia in every member's introductory speech (Happy: "kirakira"; Sunny: "sansan"; Peace: "pikapika"; March: "rinrin"; Beauty: "shinshin".)
 * Except for Hoshizora Miyuki, the Cures' surnames refer to their main color: Akane, "aka", red; Kise, "ki", yellow; Midorikawa, "midori", green; and Aoki, "ao", blue.
 * This is the first season to have the Cures turn into fairies, which took place in episode 24. Futari wa Pretty Cure, however, did have a sequence where Nagisa transformed into a fairy in her mind.
 * Smile Pretty Cure! received a sequel novel, which takes place after the last episode of the series and depicts the Cures' lives as adults. The novel was released on October 4, 2016, for 670 yen, and was written by Kobayashi Yuuji, who also wrote the script for several episodes of the series.
 * Smile! is also one of the few seasons to lack a sixth-ranger Pretty Cure. (This is a 6-cure core team!)
 * This series was made with a much more light-hearted tone than previous installments as a response to the magnitude 9.1 earthquake in Japan that had occurred the year prior.
 * Smile! would be the final season to have Umezawa Atsutoshi as a producer before being replaced by Shibata Hiroaki as a producer starting with Doki Doki! Pretty Cure.
 * This is the season of the franchise with the most international dub releases. Outside of Japan, the series was released in 28 countries, including 22 as Glitter Force. It is followed by Doki Doki! Pretty Cure with 25, and and Futari wa Pretty Cure with 17.
 * Aside from the English dub, there was a failed attempt to release the Smile Pretty Cure! manga translated into English that would have gone by the name of Glitter Force.
 * In the "All Pretty Cure Big Poll", Smile Pretty Cure! was ranked 5th in "Favorite Series Productions".
 * Smile! was originally planned to feature only one Pretty Cure.
 * In 2013, the Twitter account of Japanese politician Tooru Hashimoto made a tweet that just read "Smile Pretty Cure". He later apologized, saying that his elementary school daughter was the one who made the tweet. The tweet received over 300,000 retweets.