Shugo Chara! is a ‘pure’ magical girl show that follows the adventures of Amu, a popular schoolgirl who hides a hidden desire to be accepted for her true self. This wish is manifested in the Guardian (Shugo) Chara, little entities that represent a future personality of someone – for Amu, it is the athlete, Ran, the artist, Miki, and the chef, Su. Amu is forced into a elite group of students known as the Guardians, people who have sworn to protect the dreams of innocent children everywhere. They do this by transforming (”character changing”) into their envisioned future self with the help of the Guardian Chara, and purifying “X Eggs” – negative wishes – back into their original state. Amu’s situation really gets complicated as she begins to get torn between Tadase, the King Guardian and guy of her dreams, and Ikuto, the soft-spoken gothic character who appears to be working for a mysterious but no doubt nefarious company known as Easter…
1/23/08: Episodes 14 + 15
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Yeah, like everyone said, it’s filler, and it has no Ikuto (and thus no Utau, and really barely any Easter), so there was a distinct lack of caring for this, but since Shugo Chara has a large timeframe to fill, we might have to get used to this.
The filler wasn’t horrible as a whole, but it got a bit silly at times; Shugo Chara did a reasonable job of not breaking reality but as much as I think stalker Suzuka (or whatever the second-grader is called) is a cute character, his inclusion in this story kind of broke the disbelief suspension.
Yes, ignore the fact that I think in this world glowing purple snowman is a-OK.
Mihuyu was a bit annoying (being a reserved social retard, I tend to not go for the uber-over-exuberant types as much; Asa is OK, Tomo is a no.) but I could sympathize with her plight of cracking under pressure. Kisaragi-sensei…uh…that’s the messy-haired teacher for NanaDrops, I can’t remember the similar one for this show, interesting villain, I like the psychological manipulation he used on Mihuyu, very clever. Random technology stuff, less interesting.
That makes three potentially entertaining ‘villains’ for Easter, each with, I imagine, different motives and morale: Ikuto, Utau, and…Evil Teacher Guy. They are really making and breaking this show, along with Amu. Tadase is kind of typical prettyboy (although his Shugo Chara is amusing), and the other guardians and/or characters are kind of background. Well, except for yandere-style Nadeshiko, who is bloody awesome.
1/16/08: Episode 13
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Can’t help but laugh when Ikuto does his character change; the whole jumping in front of the moon with a silhouette is so Mai from Kanon 15, plus the chill music is an interesting, contemplative choice.
Utau’s insert / concert song was pretty impressive too. It’s no God Knows, but the song was likable and the animation for her was decent. I’m not sure what everyone’s saying about the whole ‘deviates from the manga’ thing (will have to head to the bookstore soon to check the English verison out), but amusingly enough the two gothic-style characters, Utau and Ikuto, are proving to be very interesting. Something about the whole ‘torn between good and evil’ thing that makes them unpredictable.
Factoring Amu into a Tadase – Ikuto triangle, there definitely is a lot to hope for in this show aside from all the eggs and stuff.
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-CCY