Chika Igei

Chika Igei (伊芸智花 Igei Chika) is one of the main Cures in Royal❋Revue Precure! She is a second year at Mabuigen Junior High and is a costume maker for the school's Drama Club.

Her alter-ego is Cure Ballade, the Pretty Cure of Tradition. She harnesses the powers of the Muse of History, Clio, and the Muse of Dance, Terpsichore.

Appearance
Chika stands at a height of 5'2" (158 cm). As a civilian, she has short, neatly styled dark green hair. Her bangs are held out of her eyes by a clip with a large green flower that she designed herself. Her eyes are light brown. She wears a longer skirt with her school uniform, and a decorative belt around her waist. Outside of school, Chika wears a white cross-collared dress shirt and a long, high-waisted skirt with a floral bingata pattern.

As Cure Ballade, her hair turns lime green. Her eyes turn bright orange.

Personality
The daughter of two well-known curators of ancient Ryukyuan art, Chika was raised to appreciate traditional culture and art. She is a near-obsessive history buff who often romanticizes the past. She has a very old-fashioned, prim-and-proper personality, and often acts more like an old woman than a young girl. Chika utilizes her strong understanding of textile arts as the main wardrobe maker for the Drama Club, and often stays up into the late hours of the night working on new costumes.

Chika believes strongly in the preservation of cultural traditions, but often at the expense of new ideas. Her friendship with the other girls, particularly Mikune, helps her to learn that while there is a great value to expressing one's heritage, one should not look down upon new traditions and ways of expression.

Pre-Series
As her parents are scholars and collectors of ancient Okinawan art, Chika was raised to have a deep appreciation for her cultural heritage. She dresses in traditional Ryukyuan fabrics, and observes an old-fashioned code of modesty. She has an older sister named Akemi, who attends college in America. In contrast to her sister, Akemi was never especially interested in history or tradition. Chika feels a sense of obligation to please her parents to make up for what she perceives as their disappointment in her.

When she began middle school, she had little interest in theater, and even looked down upon the members of the Drama Club. She becomes the club's wardrobe designer initially after seeing a dress rehearsal where she found the costumes so terrible that she insisted on fixing all the flaws she perceived.

As a costume designer, she is obsessed with historical accuracy and details that most people wouldn't even notice.

Becoming Cure Ballade
Chika is the second member of the Drama club Shizuka meets. Chika asks if Shizuka would mind modeling for a second so she could get her sizing on a dress correct, which freaks Shizuka out, and sends her running out the room. Chika is somewhat more abrasive towards Shizuka than the others when she joins the Drama Club, owing to her fear of change. She does, however, warm up to the club's newest member, and the two become close friends.

Chika becomes a Pretty Cure in the third episode of the series, in which she gets into an argument with Mikune about whether or not the dress she has been working on is ready for their upcoming show. Mikune insists that it is good to go, but Chika insists on giving it more work. She stays at school late working on it, and accidentally tears it in a sleep deprived state. She breaks down in the aftermath, and Kusatino, sensing her emotional vulnerability, turns her into a Akuyakusha. Aria and Madrigal quickly arrive at the scene, where they fight Chika's monster form. As they battle, the Cures can hear Chika inside the monster expressing her anger at herself for not being able to live up to the unrealistic expectations she has set for herself.

After she is purified, Kusatino attempts to re-capture her spirit, but before he can do so Chika's Revue Ribbon Royale appears, transforming her into Cure Ballade.

After Kusatino's retreat, the three return to the backstage of the theater to find Mikune stitching Chika's dress back up.

Cure Ballade
"Let the world hear its story! Cure Ballade!"

Cure Ballade is the alter-ego of Chika Igei. As the Pretty Cure of Tradition, she has the following abilities:
 * Enhanced strength, agility, and dexterity
 * The ability to fight using traditional Japanese martial arts
 * The ability to use the large bow on her back to create new items of clothing, include wrapping it around her hands to create boxing gloves, using it as a shemagh to protect herself, and transforming it into a cloak to hide

Solo Attacks

 * Pretty Cure Sanba Serenata!

(Using the Muse Strings) Pretty Cure Danza con Anima!
 * (Using the Muse Clock) Pretty Cure Historia con Fuoco!

Group Attacks

 * Pretty Cure Curtain Call!
 * Pretty Cure Standing Ovation!

Etymology
Chika (智花): Chi means "wisdom, intellect", and Ka means "flower".

Igei (伊芸): Igei literally means "Japanese art".

A Ballade (or "Ballad" in modern English) is a form of verse that usually features a story set to music.

Trivia

 * Chika is either the fourth or fifth green Cure, depending on whether one considers Milky's theme color to be green. If she is considered fifth, she follows Cure Mint, Cure March, Cure Felice and Cure Milky.
 * Chika is, along with Shizuka and Mikune, one of the first Cures to be of ethnically Okinawan descent.