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Shugo Chara!
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Animation - 8.0 |
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Sound - 8.0 |
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Story - 8.3 |
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Character - 9.0 |
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Value - 7.5 |
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Enjoyment - 8.5 |
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Average - 8.2 |
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| Average |
8.5 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
9 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| This is a fun and cute anime that is worth the time to take a look at. There are actually some good questions explored regarding finding one's true self, and I hope that in the second season of the show they go more into character development along those lines. If you can't take too much cuteness, then this is not your anime. But on the whole it's good magical girl show that is not too predictable as animes in this genre tend to be.
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Pakxenon |
(2008-10-13 20:15:32) 2008-10-13 20:09:00 |
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| Average |
8.8 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
10 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| From the creators of Rozen Maiden and DearS, hailed to be "the second coming of Card Captor Sakura," comes... why am I talking in a movie guy's (R.I.P.) voice? Though Shugo Chara certainly deserves such a treatment, such a demographic would not need such triviality and I need not be reminded of how H20 ~footprints in the sand~ will "ROCK YOUR SOUL." This introduction brought to you by a CCS fanboy and an appreciator of anything good whether drama-heavy or light-hearted fun, which is what Shugo Chara falls under (and thus this light-hearted intro!).
Meet Amu Hinamori, a *ahem* 10-year-old elementary school student who suddenly becomes a magical girl due to *ahem* laying her heart's eggs that hatch Guardian characters, a personification of the owner's would-be-selves. Unlike most other magical girl protagonists, Amu finds herself unimpressed, putting on an outer facade (cool and spicy!) to hide her inner shyness. She also has a closet of awesome gothic-lolita styled clothing that her parents buy for her. She, along with the Royal Guardians (a.k.a. student council) of the academy, hunts for and cleanses X-eggs, a heart's egg turned bad.
Peach-Pit has always created interesting characters and develop them so much that even the most detestable turn out to be likable or just plain fun to poke at. Case in point Amu, who leaves the shell of all magical girl casts and turns out to be somewhat different, as if she were your (less annoying and more cute) girl next door. She has so much going for her, like how she has three Guardian characters, AT LEAST three love interests, all the while having problems of her own that blemishes her outside's "perfect" attitude. The other characters are similar, like how the Royal Guardians are responsible council members on the outside, but they really are just a bunch of kids with their own problems and dreams. Even the villains get big spotlights on them like Nikaidou-sensei's story and the ever illusive Tsukiyomi Ikuto. PP makes it fun to read/watch their works as they create feel-good stories with all their characters, making them appear real but in a fantasized setting. Because they are doing the magical girl genre, it will take a lot of time before Shugo Chara can reach Rozen Maiden levels of development, and when it does, it will really deserve the title of being the second coming of CCS.
Having 51 episodes to work with might be big and fillerish for Shugo Chara, but you can thank the scriptwriters for writing scenerios ranging from very good to blowing-your-mind plot-twist awesome. Yes, the worse episodes (a few fillers; in other words, the side stories focused on cleansing X-eggs of other people) turn out to be very good in the end; even the season closer arc, which suffers from stupid villains syndrome, gives off a great closing feeling that touches on the many themes Shugo Chara traverses on. On the other hand, the main plot is nothing short of excellent. Strong developments for all the characters lead to climactic conflicts between the Royal Guardians and the Easter corporation and its associates.
What is so mind-blowing that makes Shugo Chara awesome? You can thank the character transformation (and other animation duties) for that - typical of the genre, the transformations are all eye-candy with flashy sequences and fanservice. Some were even uniquely animated for the occasion! The rest of the animation is very good - they obviously had a lot of time developing how the episodes were going to be and what goes where. Satelite (yes, missing an "l") gave us the flashy CG of Macross Frontier, and now they gave a consistent 51-episode magical girl show, proving their stature among other studios. The quality is so good that I'd rather have screenshots than fanart (though manga panels and official art will still reign over all).
In addition to writing such flexible and versatile characters, Peach-Pit is also good with themes. Like Rozen Maiden and its dealing with Japanese society (to an extent), Shugo Chara is really good with its central theme of being yourself. Amu is a perfect character to tell this theme, and most filler episodes are good at telling its stories because of this theme. This is probably the second reason why Shugo Chara is so successful with its main demography of young girls in Japan. The theme songs (OPs and EDs) also sing about this a lot - it goes well with how catchy they could compose them.
Speaking of sound, the songs are really good if you can get past the lyrics that were written for kids. The soundtrack is nice, except they overplay some songs so much that it gets irritating by the 30th episode. The insert songs due to Hoshina Utau's story are all good in their own right, though I don't like them because they sound to idol-ish, which is what they SHOULD sound like.
Seeing how popular Shugo Chara is, it could make its way to becoming the CCS of this decade. The only things blemishing its rise is the amount of fillers it has and how far they can take the franchise (second season titled "Doki!" to feature Dia out of her egg most of the time). I certainly hope that more people can appreciate more good magical girls like Shugo Chara, and maybe make its way across the world. For now, I am just another fanboy writing a really long review to another Peach-Pit series, who deserve these lengths as they improve their own works.
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| Average |
8.0 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
9 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| The artwork is vibrantly done and w/ a consistency that most other shows do not have. perhaps the only flaw a keen eye could comment on is the way some parts of the plot were played out. to some,it could be much too light and with out the proper use of drama.but it depends on who is watching,really.children would be able to enjoy shugo chara! immensely, if not for the interesting story then maybe for the delightful characters.
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| Average |
7.5 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| A nice anime for Magical Girl lovers. It looks a lot like Tokyo Mew Mew, the same cuteness.
The storyline is good, and the characters are good.
The anime is nice for young teenagers, because of the use of colors and the storyline.
The sound is good, the characters have a voice that fits with their personality. The cute people have a cute voice, the mysterious people have a mysterious voice.
Above all, the anime is good and fun to watch. Some things that get repeated get boring like transformations etc.
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