Shugo Chara!

Amu Hinamori is a shy girl who struggles to make friends in part due to the rumors spread around school about her "cool and spicy" personality. Wishing that she could show everyone her "would-be" self, Amu wakes up to the presence of three colorful and ornately decorated eggs in her bed. Each of these "Hearts Eggs" houses a "Guardian Character"—manifestations of someone's would-be self and their dreams. With the aid of Ran, Miki, and Su, Amu now finds herself able to express who she truly is. However, things do not always pan out in her favor.

The sudden appearance of Amu's Guardian Characters prompts the Seiyo Elementary Guardians, a student council-like group with each member possessing their own Guardian Character, to take notice of her. As someone who has multiple Characters, Amu is roped into being the Guardians' "Joker," tasked with helping them find X Eggs—corrupted versions of one's Hearts Egg.

As she becomes entangled in the Guardians' quest, Amu begins to uncover more about these mysterious Characters, the X Eggs, and the organization that seems to be at the center of it all.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Tsukiyomi, Ikuto Main

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Hinamori, Amu Main

Itou, Kanae Japanese

Hoshina, Utau Main

Mizuki, Nana Japanese

Fujisaki, Nagihiko Main

Chiba, Saeko Japanese

Souma, Kuukai Main

Abe, Atsushi Japanese

Miki Main

Katou, Nanae Japanese

Mashiro, Rima Main

Yahagi, Sayuri Japanese

Hotori, Tadase Main

Takagi, Reiko Japanese

Suu Main

Toyosaki, Aki Japanese

Ran Main

Asumi, Kana Japanese

Nakamura, Shinichi Producer

Kishimoto, Reigo Producer

Hatta, Shinsaku Producer

Yasuda, Kenji Director, Episode Director, Script, Storyboard

Reviews

Nov 3, 2023

Animelover875

Recommended

Shugo Chara! is quite a handful to talk about. So many elements of the season (nay, the series) can be seen from just these 51 episodes, and to truly break it down in a few sentences isn't really possible. Things are handled so drastically different that in my opinion, Shugo Chara's characters and plot pretty much stand on their own spectrums.

To start with, Shugo Chara's plot is arguably its weakest element. The plot is barely held together by a monster-of-the-week format. The execution and method chosen to do this, while weak, is incredibly effective in a symbolic way; using eggs as a metaphor for childhood ... innocence and character development gets points for originality if nothing else, and it's a good thing it holds up so well. However, it does have some incredibly unfortunate implications, such as the fact that it and the counter for its metaphor goes hand in hand with predatory behavior towards children. This is made worse by Nikaidou, who pretty much lays the entire metaphor on the table on.

One of the best parts of Shugo Chara, however, is its characters. Shugo Chara's actual characters are broken down into a series of onion-like layers that gives them lots of depth and allows for genuine exploration of characters, since they're based in logic and given real behaviors. This also helps create a nice contrast between someone's "outer character" and their "inner character" (or "true self"), and creates some great comedy, one of Shugo Chara's other elements it excels at. The comedy in Shugo Chara is pretty much the best you could want: lots of constantly changing and exaggerated faces, visual comedy, puns, subtle jokes, straight man schtick, it's pretty much all covered. They experiment with a TON of styles, which I respect their willingness to try at least. Thankfully, at least a few jokes are guaranteed to make you laugh. The Charas behaviors and episodes themselves based on premise alone also lend themselves heavily to comedy, and the writing delivers.

A character's "Guardian Character" (referred to as their "Chara" for ease of writing) adds another layer to the "inner and outer character" symbolism I mentioned before; here, it's not necessarily them, but even if it's not, a Chara is based on who they want to be. So we can argue that at least in a philosophical sense, they represent at least an ideology of the type of person that you could become. Shugo Chara's characters aren't relegated to just jokes; lots of side characters, main characters, and even the Charas themselves all get plenty of time to grow and develop, several reoccurring. One of the most interesting elements present is that while Charas are typically invisible, some characters have the ability to see Charas despite not being children: namely, Ikuto, Utau, Saeki Nobuko, and Nikaidou, oddly enough. I'm unsure if this is meant to be symbolic, but my best guess is that it could be interpreted as they haven't lost their childlike innocence, which would speak volumes to Utau's character arc.

Personally, I found Utau's arc to be done the best. Despite it putting the majority of Dia's character development on the backburner due to the amount of time it was extended away, it works harmoniously with the way she goes through a genuine moral struggle to find herself and ultimately, the courage to make important decisions that impact the rest of her life.

Overall, Shugo Chara may not be the best series ever; on the contrary, it seems pretty low quality, formulaic, repetitive, has a terrible plot, and other elements. However, these aren't its true strengths. Its true strength is engaging with its audience and putting them in the characters' perspectives firsthand, getting us to feel their struggles and joys and emotions with vigor, with plenty of laughs and empathetic moments along the way. Despite its low score, this is an absolutely positive recommendation.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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Jun 21, 2017

0ammedict

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (37/51 eps)

I don't think there are words to describe how riled up this series gets me. I'm not saying this series is horrible, but there are so many ideologies presented in the anime that just make me infuriated. I'm not going to really comment on the story and the pacing of this show. If I have to quickly say something about it I'd say the pacing is mediocre and there are far too many characters introduced who go nowhere and are just one-dimensional and hollow.

No, this review is going to be...special. I am a lover of character writing and world building. What do your characters ... believe? What is acceptable in their world? What are their personalities and how do they clash with the other characters...ext. This anime shot my love for characters in the chest, and the saddest part has I enjoyed it at first..sort of. I think I'm being a bit dramatic.

The first few episodes had me interested and I was okay with it. I had a few characters I had one character I particularly enjoyed. Just one and that was the character by the name of Kukai. He wasn't the best character sure, but every moment with him made me giggle he had motivations, but I think the best part about him was the fact that he actually acted like a kid for his age would. While every other character acted like they were high schoolers.

This just makes me wonder towards the mangaka...why in gods name did you write these characters in elementary school/middle school if you gave them highschooler attitudes. I really don't think it would've affected the plot that much and the characters basically look like high schoolers so I really don't understand the point.

As I was saying a particular episode came along that made me hate whoever was writing this story. I am a person who watches a lot of law and order svu and when I see a relationship that is creepy. I freak out. This mostly spawned from the fact that Kukai had a friend who was going to college please note that Kukai was a 6th grader while this person was a graduating high schooler probably about 18. What annoyed me was the fact that Kukai's friends were saying that romance would spark between him and his childhood friend! Then, Amu brought up a very good point the very large age gap between him and his friend, but they simply said "No, love has no age!" and she just believed it. By the end of the episode, he receives a hug from his friend and says "maybe it just is love" or some shit. Which is tolerable I guess I can understand why little 5th and 6th graders might think that falling in love with someone way older than you is okay as long as the older character didn't act on it.

However, then I found out that the character of Ikuto was a senior. A senior and he were flirting with and making sexual remarks about a 11/12-year-old girl. To anyone who is saying I'm exaggerating I'm really not. He brings up her small breast size on multiple occasions. Anyone who says they ship them together regardless of the age, then I wonder would any of you let your little sibling date someone who was that much older than them. I really don't think you would.

(spoilers ahoy) The scene that made me drop the show was a scene with the lock and the key. Ikuto decides to put his key in Amu's lock and what follows is a really weird scene. Cue Amu blushing and there being a particular emphasis on her looking slightly frightened and both of them blushing and he puts the key in the hole. I really thought I was exaggerating, but then I remembered there have been scenes that put Amu in a really uncomfortable looking position for a girl her age. Like the scene where she is sitting on his lap and they're both licking the same ice cream cone or some shit. It was really creepy and I felt gross all over just watching the key and lock scene and finally she screams "I"m scared!" and the key is no longer able to fit.

I feel really disgusted that an adult wrote these situations about a young girl. They shouldn't be making shows for preteens and teenage girls because she's shoving her beliefs in other people's faces and trying to make huge age gaps "cute.". I'm really glad I watched this show now instead of when I was younger because I don't know how I would've turned out if I believed Ikuto and Amu's love was "so pure and perfect."

Sorry if I didn't really write a technical review, but I really needed to get this off my mind.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Oct 3, 2024

LuxuriousHeart

Not Recommended

I have an anime and manga backlog. I wanted to diversify my anime and manga list, so I looked around for recommendations in each demographic, and I did my own research. Shugo Chara came up a few times. It wasn't too popular. Even if you specified Magical Girl series, it would be towards the bottom of each list. Safe to say, while it was on my backlog, it wasn't a priority for me. That is until, my friend recommended it to me. I was conversing with them about my backlog. They originally recommended Nana to me. ... I told them that due to my impatience with Yona of the Dawn, Black Clover, Dance Dance Danseur, and Hunter x Hunter, I'd rather watch/read a series that is complete. So they saw Shugo Chara on my list and recommended it to me. It was always low on most people's list and wasn't really a priority on my list. Though since my friend recommended it to me, I decided to give it an earlier watch. Especially since, aside from a few things, we generally have similar taste. Even on live action shows, we're very similar. This series will just be added to the small pile of disagreements.

I'll just talk about the age gap right away. It's the elephant in the room. The two characters with the most chemistry are Amu (MC) and Ikuto (one of the guys in her reverse harem). There's a five year age gap where one is 11 and the other is 16. That's a huge problem, and it makes no sense. Amu and her friends act as if they're older. Like, she legit acts like she's 13 or 14. They really should've aged her up. Though that wasn't really the biggest issue, funny enough. Even if it was obviously some chemistry there, I didn't really hate it early on. I didn't start to hate it until around the mid to late 30s. I was actually pondering why I had lost interest. I thought it was due to the amount of episodes. Basically, 41 chapters were made into 102 episodes (the remaining being filler). I thought that the show in general had too much filler. Then I remembered something. The Dear Brother manga had 18 chapters, but the anime adaptation was 39 episodes. The Cardcaptor Sakura manga had 50 chapters while the anime had 70 episodes. The Princess Tutu manga had 10 chapters while the anime had 38 episodes. I really liked those series. So then, what was the issue? That's when I realized the true kiss of death for this series.

The cast doesn't have any chemistry. The characters are actually good, but that means nothing when they don't interact like friends. Among the many filler episodes, not enough are dedicated to the more fun episodes that would show cast interaction. Not enough emphasis on friendship, a Christmas arc, a summer arc, a spring arc, a festival, etc. Where is the fun??? They needed to focus more on that, and less on the reverse harem.

So overall, I rate it a 5. Like I said, the characters are good. Some episodes are fun. The show itself was fun until the 30s, so that has to count for something. I just wish that they focused more on fun. Do I recommend it? No. It's too niche. You'd have to be very young to enjoy this series, or watched it when you were young.

If I had to change things around, then...

DON'T READ PAST THIS POINT IF YOU DON'T WANT MODERATE SPOILERS!!!

If I could correct Shugo Chara I would:
- Age: age the cast up, except Ikuto and Utau. I'd make Amu, Utau, Tadase, Rima, and Nadeshiko start off being 13, with Rima technically meeting them when she's 14 and they're all 14. Aging Utau down so she wouldn't be 14 and beefing with a 10 year old. Kukai would be 14. Yaya and Kairi would be 12. Ikuto would remain 16. All of them would be in middle school, except Ikuto who's in high school
- Ships: Amu x Ikuto would start off 13 and 16, and end the series 15 and 18. That way, they'd still keep some of that forbidden age gap spice, without it being too unsettling. Rima x Painter would be 13 and 13, and end the series 15 and 15. Yaya x Kukai would be 12 and 14, and end the series 14 and 16. Nadeshiko would remain a girl and be paired with Tadase at ages 13 and 13, and end the series 15 and 15. Kairi would end up with Saaya (mean red haired girl) with her being the same age as Amu. So they'd be 13 and 12, and end the series 15 and 14. Plus, obligatory older girl x younger guy for a switch up. I'd make a love interest for Utau. Have her love interest be an up and coming female popstar that Easter is pushing as her replacement. The new popstar would be an Indian woman with a forehead jewel, purple hair, and brown eyes. It'd be a queer relationship, amongst the majority Het pairings. Plus, Shugo Chara is obviously inspired by Utena, so it'd be a nice homage to that. They'd start off as enemies. It would be a lampshade to Nanami (In RGU, Nanami has blond hair and purple eyes, like Utau) not liking Anthy (purple hair references anime Anthy while brown eyes references manga Anthy).
- love dynamics: Amu wouldn't have a crush on Kukai, because it makes no sense. Have Kairi crush on Yaya instead of Amu. Combine that one girl plotting with Amu and Saaya, and make Saaya crush on Kukai from the start. She'd offer to help Amu win Tadase if Amu could help with Kukai. Saaya would warn about Nadeshiko x Tadase and Yaya x Kukai. The joke is that Amu thinks she's crazy, but those ships come together in the end. Kairi would join and they'd help each other win over their crush, but would eventually grow to like each other.
- regular dynamics: more friendships and hobbies. Have them do more activities together. Have the ships hang out alone together and go on dates and separate with each other at festivals. Bring on the fun!

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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