Erika Kurumi

"Even my heart, that is wider than the sea, is at the limit of its patience!"

- Erika Kurumi

Erika Kurumi is one of the Cures and the secondary main heroine of Heartcatch Pretty Cure!. She lives a fashion shop called "Fairy Drop", and she lives with both her parents, plus her older sister whom she is really jealous of. Her heart flower is the white cyclamen, though it can turn red if Erika experiences extreme jealousy of her older sister Momoka Kurumi. Her Cure ego is Cure Marine.

Erika loves fashion and dreams of being a fashion designer, and is able to tell one's feelings or mood out from the color combination on the clothes thanks to the color therapy she is going through. She is extremely energetic and can sometimes be a bit impatient or even lazy. She is also very nosy and will not ignore shy people like Tsubomi Hanasaki, and always says exactly what is on her mind. Because of this, she might give out a selfish and mean attitude to calmer people, but other times, a very mature and understanding side of her is shown, especially when it involves Tsubomi. Whenever Tsubomi is stressed or scared, Erika is usually the one to calm her down or comfort her, and Tsubomi often relies on her whenever needed. She is also shown to be quite sympathic for others at times

Although jealous of Momoka and wishing of passing her, Erika's personality is completely different from her calm and mature sister. It is possible that Erika wishes to bypass her sister by not mimicking her, but rather do it on her own. As revealed, Erika is a very fast learner, capable of transforming without instruction from the fairies, fighting properly, and able to use Pretty Cure's power to its fullest in her first transformation just thanks to watching Cure Moonlight in her dream and remembering her rescue by Cure Blossom. This makes her a contrast to Tsubomi, who is still learning how to use all of Cure Blossom's power.

Appearance
In her normal form, Erika has medium-long wavy dark blue hair. Her bangs are parted down the center, with two long strands framing her face. Her casual wear consists of a blue-green dress decorated with a yellow ribbon at the chest, with long white sleeves and layers of white frills at the bottom. She also wears white socks and brown fashion boots. In school, she wears the standard issue uniform for girls. Cure Marine has long bright blue hair, styled in two segments at the back and two long strands framing her face. She wears a decorative heart-shaped hair accessory on the top of her head. Her eyes also become a brighter shade of blue. Her outfit is mainly blue and white, with dark blue highlights, and greatly resembles Blossom's, with a few small differences. The bow at her chest is large with two long ribbons, and her top is pure white with puffed sleeves. Her arm protectors are single-layered. She wears mid-thigh length white leggings. Her boots are short and blue, with light blue toetips, buttons and small light blue flowers, and has a flared white section at the top.

As Super Cure Marine, her entire outfit changes to a lighter shade of blue. Her hair is visibly longer, and the accessory in her hair has changed to a decorative metal piece of the Heartcatch! logo. The bow at her chest becomes larger with shorter ribbons, and the petals of her skirt are longer and sharper-looking, with two extra long coattail-like petals at the back. Her arm protectors extend up past her elbow and become full-fingered gloves. Her design of her boots also changes slightly, with larger flowers at the heels.

As Cure Rainbow Marine, her outfit retains most of the elements from her original outfit. Her hair becomes a lighter shade of blue, and the two strands framing her face are now in spiral curls. The sleeves of her top and her hair accessory both gain additional feathery layers, and the number of blue petals on her skirt increases as well, with 3 extra long petals at the back. The flared white section on her boots now extends up to near her knees. She also has a small pair of golden wings on her back.

Attacks
Aside from her purifying attacks, Cure Marine likes to name many of her physical attacks, even though they only are for front attacks mainly. They are as following:
 * Marine Shoot - Cure Marine draws a circle of water drops before she shoots them at the enemy. This is the first sub-attack that has been done twice.
 * Marine Impact - Cure Marine concentrates all her powers into her palm and strikes at the enemy; light blue light will then shine, and the enemy is knocked away.
 * Marine Dive - Cure Marine jumps high up in the air and then falls down with her heels toward the enemy.
 * Pretty Cure Double Shoot - Cure Marine and Cure Blossom's first non-purification duo attack. The girls create energy balls of their respective theme colors and shoot them at the enemy.
 * Pretty Cure Daibakuhatsu - Cure Marine and Cure Blossom hold hands tightly and, with comical faces, create a giant explosion.
 * Marine Dynamite - Cure Marine throws her arms in the air, creating an outburst of blue energy to explode. Considered a solo version of Pretty Cure Daibakuhatsu.
 * Pretty Cure Forehead Punch - Cure Marine brushes the hair out of her forehead and launches her body at the enemy head first. She can do this with the magenta Heart Seed.

Combination Attacks

 * Pretty Cure Impact - Cure Blossom, Cure Marine, and Cure Sunshine gather up power and create a giant implosion on the enemy.

Trivia

 * Erika is the first person to have her Heart Flower simply change color instead of withering, making her Desertrian the weakest. (As stated by Kaoruko, having its color change in a negative sense is the stage before a Heart Flower starts wilting.)
 * Erika's family name, Kurumi, is also the first name of Milk's human alter ego, Kurumi Mimino. Coincidentally, once Erika tells Tsubomi that if she ever calls her "Erika-san" (literally "Ms. Erika"), then she'll be treating her to milk.
 * Erika is the only Cure to wear hair accessories that look like hearts this season. The others have flower accessories instead.
 * Erika is the shortest Cure out of the entire team.
 * Although Tsubomi is the team leader, Erika is usually the one who tells the others to transform first.
 * Upon transforming into Cure Marine, Erika knew what name she was going to have, though this is because Tsubomi told her about Pretty Cure earlier, prompting Erika to start coming up with a name. Cure Blossom and Cure Sunshine take a name after transformation.
 * Cure Marine is the first Cure in the franchise to do a sub attack. (Marine Shoot)
 * Erika's Birthday is on May 26 which makes her the sixth Cure whose birthdate has been shown, following Nagisa Misumi, Honoka Yukishiro, Hikari Kujou, Saki Hyuuga, Mai Mishou, Nozomi Yumehara and Kanade Minamino.
 * She is the first blue Cure who doesn't wear her hair in a ponytail, followed by Cure Beauty.
 * For the Pretty Cure All Stars DX3 Movie Character Polls held by Toei Animation, Cure Marine appeared in the following rankings:
 * 2nd in "Favorite Pretty Cure"
 * 1st in "The Pretty Cure you want to team up with most"
 * 7th in "The Pretty Cure you want to be most"
 * 5th in "The Pretty Cure you want to bake with most"
 * In the Pretty Cure All Stars Suite Flower Card Collection, Erika is represented by the daisy, which symbolizes innocence and a bright energetic personality in the Language of Flowers.
 * Cure Marine, as a blue Cure, has the brightest shade of blue as her hair color.
 * While most blue Cures are academically gifted, Erika stands out as the only blue Cure that has troubles in studying and rather lazy.