Shugo Chara is a "pure" magical girl show that's receiving a lot of praise across the English anime blogging community, which either means that most bloggers are eight-year-old girls, that they're still embracing their inner child, or that this show has more merit than a first glance would show.So I gave Shugo Chara a try and I ended up waking up in a gutter the next morning with half my teeth missing. It was just that sugary.Granted there were a lot of appealing aspects that looked like they could be turned into something good, but the rest of the show was so drowned in Bishie Catguys, LOL Fangirls, and Hay Guys English is Cool abuse, that I didn't see them being able to overcome the flaws.Remember, coming from a guy who liked Cardcaptor Sakura and Nanatsuiro Drops.Naturally, however, since (with very few exceptions) first episodes never click with me I forged on with Shugo Chara into the second and third episodes and found things improved - or at least changed - to an extent.And my quick judgment would be that Shugo Chara is a passable show that's worth trying, especially if you - and even if you don't - have the fortitude to stand more pink than a barrel full of Kirbies."What do you want with my eggs?"Well, first off, one begins to wonder what exactly the target audience is; sometimes Shugo Chara goes into lapses of Moetan, at least to dirty-minded members-of-teh-interwebs like me. It's certainly strange, considering that a large part of the cast, and the audience, are probably elementary schoolers, but I suppose that these moments are innocent seeming and played straight enough (on the relative scale of anime) to be ignored.And the story that these moments bring is welcome, actually; Ikuto, despite being fangirl bait - complete with a cat-ears transformation~nya - looks to be a good type of "antagonist". While some shows like this paint it very black-and-white (i.e. Me Good, You Bad), a large number of them have refreshingly human anti-villians.Y'know how it is: they're not evil, just misunderstood. They just want to be loved. And while on paper it sounds tacky it's not something I wholly dislike; having two sides to every story is something that can really add depth to an anime.As such Ikuto's pent-up romantic tension combined with his casual and cool demeanor doesn't make him too horrible a character, but rather one I'd like to see more of, even if he does go around licking eggs.Amu, the incredible pink heroine, is very much the same way, and I have a feeling seeing the parallels being drawn between characters in Shugo Chara will be one of its strongest aspects. Amu is your typical young girl conflicted between her true personality and the face she wants to put on for the world; being romantic, friendly, or arguably anything short of Eriko Futami is something that she "doesn't" want to be.Naturally of course she has these inner urges to be romantic, and friendly, and everything, but since her classmates seem so attracted to her "cool and spicy" personality there's not much she can do.This is where the "Guardian Chara" come in, incredibly chibi figments of her imaginary, not limited by (imaginary) social constraints self. They each fit in with a different personality - or a different trait or something (there's cooking, drawing, and athletics). They have the power to change Amu's personality on a whim, which results in much moments where Amu will suddenly become a different person and say something completely shocking (we got a confession in the first episode, oh yes we did~) before turning back straight into tsundere mode.Tsundere mode Amu isn't too grating either, due to the fact that she is not completely baited by random pictures and info of her loved one. Overall Amu's character, as tacky and cliched as it probably sounds, is still one that a lot of people could relate with - any shy person who's ever wanted to stand out, any stand-out person who just wants to fly under the radar, anyone who wants to be someone they're not but can't, will find a lot to like in Shugo Chara.The downside of this all, however, is that being a show aimed at ten-year-old girls with a message like the above, Shugo Chara isn't very subtle and almost seems like it's beating you over the head with the "just be yourself!" attitude.I mentioned it in a comment once, in that while Cardcaptor Sakura projects more of a feel-good, warm mood that happens to maybe have an underlying meaning ("zettai daijoubu!"), Shugo Chara has this moralistic feel to it. This might be because we have little chibi things squeaking out the show's message, or maybe it's because of the whole theme of 'eggs' and 'X eggs' and 'never give up in your dreams' that rubbed me the wrong way.After the third episode this issue doesn't seem as bad as originally percieved, but I still feel that it has a little work to do in that department.Some other aspects give off a strange feel as well, like the school fangirl power of "Amu can do no wrong! Teeheehee!", but maybe that's just because I am limited by said social constraints of "pink is Not Manly, thus it is bad."So maybe that just means critics like me should need this show the most.I fully plan to continue with Shugo Chara but perhaps with a bit more subdued enjoyment than those singing the praises for this show. This show could swing one way or the other at the moment, it remains to be seen whether it will remain interesting for those looking for something different and mature in a magical girl anime.And by that, I don't mean all the dirty egg jokes.-CCY(No, not getting the OP stuck in my head. Ever. Nuh-uh. I won't accept it. Not going to hop step jump~ Gaaaaah!)
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