Shugo Chara

Shugo Chara!

Hi! I’m back for more anime review. I did say that I’ll be choosing what’s next by random, and the randomizer’s result today fell to Shugo Chara. To be honest, i was introduced to Shugo Chara kinda late by my friend evangeline88 (at least that was HIS nickname in HIS myanimelist), IIRC Shugo Chara Doki was already at around its 60th episode. At first i was uninterested because of its “childish magical girl” theme, but in the end i decided to try and got attached to the end.

Anyway, as always: SPOILERS WARNING. You’ve been warned, if you want to proceed while knowing the risk, please do so.

Guardian, Shugo Chara, Embryo, Easter, etc, etc, etc.

Shugo Chara! revolves around a girl, named Hinamori Amu and her friends of course: the Guardian, and their life as Guardian with their cute Guardian Character (Shugo Chara). All of the kids in Shugo Chara has a “would-be self” which shaped in an egg form, called Guardian Egg (Shugo Tama). Those eggs are the shape of their would-be self or should i say dream. Kids with bigger strength of heart can make their Guardian Egg hatch and became Guardian Character. Most of the main characters in this anime have their Guardian Eggs hatched to Guardian Characters.

So what’s the conflict? A unusual egg called Embryo is rumored to be the magical egg that can fulfill any wishes. The Guardian main target was to get this Embryo. Of course there would be an enemy who also tried to get this Embryo, the enemy here was a group called Easter. They wanted to get their hands on Embryo by any means necessary. As you can guess, most of the story of this anime will revolves around the battle between Guardian and Easter.

Daily dosage: 1 episode of Shugo Chara per day, watch before sleep.

Even though i said battle and stuffs, this anime is pretty light and pretty fun to enjoy. There are a lot of cute, romantic, heartwarming, friendship, and funny events going on in this anime. But you know, this kind of anime theme always has that “embarrassing” moments or lines or stuffs (just like Akari’s lines in ARIA series). If you want to enjoy some not-so-light anime, you can try Shugo Chara and watch it with daily dosage of 1 episode per day before sleep.

Magical girls anyone?

And for you magical girl fans, Shugo Chara got so many magical girl costume for you. As i said before, this anime is filled with girls and their Guardian Characters. To fight their opponents they transform with their Guardian Characters, do a Character Transformation (Chara Nari, *CMIIW*), and became a cosplayer in an instant. XD

Chara Chen~ji! Chara Nari!

Oh, and before continuing, I’ll let you know more about the basic knowledge of this anime. Character that has Guardian Character can do a Character Change, it’s not really powerful but it can bring out their hidden character like Amu & Ran became an energetic and athletic, Rima & Kusu-kusu became a clown, etc. With more power and miracle, they can do Character Transformation, as i explained above. They use Character Change for everyday life and Character Transformation for fighting dark power.

Talk about the enemy, Easter, they tried to bring out the Embryo by extracting children’s heart’s egg and making it X Egg (Batsu tama). X Egg is a symbol of a people who has already thrown their dream and became desperate. The more they became desperate, the stronger the X Egg, and it could even hatch into an X Character (Batsu chara). Almost all of the 51 episodes of Shugo Chara will be filled with this X Eggs and X Characters and with the Guardian tried to purify them all.

That’s all for the basics, and let’s move on to character by character reviews.

Hinamori Amu: my favorite pink haired girl (even though she’s 5th-6th grader).

Hinamori Amu, a 5th grader, who’s also the main heroine of this anime. She didn’t have much confidence with herself until she made herself an “outside character”, the Cool and Spicy Amu. She looked cool and all on the outside, but on the inside she just didn’t want to lose her confidence and do something stupid. Because of her outside character and her inside wish, 3 eggs “came out” from her and they all hatched to a Guardian Characters.

The Guardian in the school however, believed that Amu who has 3 Guardian Characters with her, was the chosen one and they invited her to Guardian and gave her Humpty Lock. This lock itself still mysterious up until you completed Shugo Chara, the only thing i knew about this is just: this lock helped Amu and her friends perform Character Transformation.

Amu has the best combination of personalities.

Also with the power of Humpty Lock, she was also the only one who can do X Character / X Egg purifying action by doing Open Heart: “Negative Heart lock on! Open Heart!!”. Anyway, for me, Amu is my favorite character. She’s the main heroine and the person who moved the anime forward. She’s cool outside, funny and doesn’t have confidence inside. But she tried to overcome any trouble by believing in her heart’s strength and her friends. In the end, Amu herself could convince all the wavering hearts, including Utau’s heart (Amu’s nemesis).

Fujisaki Nadeshiko: Fujisaki Nagehiko is also HIS name.

Next is the 2nd main girl you met in this anime: Fujisaki Nadeshiko. Although she was Amu’s best friend at the first time, she left in the middle of the season and became *HUGE SPOILER* a guy. Nadeshiko was a nice and kind girl, but her real character was a wild girl. She also acted as Amu’s place to consult for her problems. Anyway, she became a guy in the middle anime, err… sorry… she is actually a he. His actual name is Nagehiko, and his family runs a tradition that a boy in that family has to act as a girl until he reached 5th grade. Just a little sneak peek to Shugo Chara Doki: he’ll came back and live as Nagehiko (boy). Urgh… i guess Nadeshiko can be counted as one of the best trap in anime.

Yuki Yaya: the childish wannabe baby girl.

This is the other Guardian, Yuiki Yaya. She is one childish girl and act as a baby. Heck, her would-be self is baby! For that reason, i kinda hate this character. She’s almost totally useless in the battle until she got her Character Transformation, Dear Baby. Nonetheless, she’s still Amu’s best friend who stayed beside her until the last episode of Shugo Chara.

Mashiro Rima: the God of comedy.

Next character introduced after Nadeshiko left: Mashiro Rima. Even though she was a guardian, she was very unsocial at first. She also was the first Guardian member after Amu who can do Character Transformation. Her outside character was kinda annoying but her would be self is a gag performer, she does like to laugh and do funny stuffs. Amu managed to befriend her and she became another Amu’s yuri harems best friend. I like Rima’s character and her story, but i don’t really like her appearance, i don’t like short girl you know.

Hoshina Utau: incest maniac twintailed blonde girl who likes to sing.

The last character is Hoshina Utau. She was Amu’s arch nemesis, whether in job and in romance (Ikuto). You’ll see her a bit annoying at first. She was one of Easter best employee in order to get the Embryo. By singing and doing character change with her first Guardian Character, Iru, she can bring out audience’s Guardian Eggs and make them X. These scenes happen a lot in the 2nd part of the anime.

She’s actually a good girl.

She’s bad indeed, but in the end of the anime, she was beaten by Amu and became a good character, and even Amu’s best friend (and rival). She’s so beautiful when she’s character transforming with Eru. In the end, she quitted Easter and opened new celebrity agency with her manager. I started to like her nearing the end of the anime, especially in that almost end episode where she and Amu travelled around the city to find place where she can sing (the best part is Amu was wearing megane in that episode!!!).

Black Diamond is the best! (from this anime)

A pretty darn good move to put Mizuki Nana as the seiyuu of Hoshina Utau. Most her song were awesome, i too still attached with her Black Diamond, totally like it! Utau sang 3 main songs in this anime: Meikyuu Butterfly, Black Diamond, and Heartful Song. The first 2 songs were the songs used to extract X Eggs out of audiences’ hearts. And the last song is the song she sang after she quitted Easter.

Mio moe moe kyun open heart!!

This illustration above is Mio doing Open Heart, for me. But for me, it’s Mio doing original move called moe moe kyun beam or whatever you name it.

Well, Mio above marks the end of this review. That’s it for today. See you at the next post!