Sugar Sugar Rune

Sugar Sugar Rune (シュガシュガルーン, Shuga Shuga Rūn) or Sugar² Rune is a Japanese magical girl manga series written and illustrated by Moyoco Anno and serialized in the shōjo manga magazine Nakayoshi from August 2004 to April 2007. The series was collected into eight volumes published by Kodansha from March 2004 to September 2007. Sugar Sugar Rune was adapted into an anime television series produced by Studio Pierrot, which aired on TV Tokyo from July 2, 2005 to June 24, 2006. Sugar Sugar Rune won the 29th Kodansha Manga Awards in the children's manga category.

Sugar Sugar Rune
Cover of the first manga volume
シュガシュガルーン (Shuga Shuga Rūn)
Genre	Magical girl[1]
Manga
Written by	Moyoco Anno
Published by	Kodansha
English publisher	^NA Udon Entertainment
Magazine	Nakayoshi
Demographic	Shōjo
Original run	August 2004 – April 2007
Volumes	8
Anime television series
Directed by	Matsushita Yukihiro
Produced by	Noriko Kobayashi Yoshirō Kataoka Ken Hagino
Written by	Reiko Yoshida
Music by	Yasufumi Fukuda Yasuharu Konishi Yutaka Minobe Tomoko Sasaki
Studio	Studio Pierrot
Original network	TV Tokyo
Original run	July 2, 2005 – June 24, 2006
Episodes	51

Plot

In the Magical World, the future queen is chosen by selecting two young witches and sending them to the Human World, where they'll compete to capture the hearts of boys. Whoever has collected the most by the end of the competition is crowned queen.

This generation's Queen Candidates are best friends and polar opposites Vanilla Mieux and Chocola Meilleure, the daughters of the current queen and her former competitor (respectively). They're aided by their assigned mentor and guardian, pop idol witch Rockin' Robin, and their two animal familiars, Blanca the mouse and Duke the frog.

But the girls have more to deal with than just competing for hearts at school. There's something weird about the cool, mysterious middle school boy Pierre, who resembles the evil king Glace—and he seems to be after Chocola. Now, both trapped within their own new goals, the two witches must fight their way and retain a friendship which no magic can defeat.

Characters

Chocola Meilleure/Chocola Kato (ショコラ・メイユール/加藤 ショコラ, Shokora Meiyuuru/Kato Shokora)

Voiced by: Marika Matsumoto[2]

Chocola is a beautiful and very energetic girl with a forceful personality. She is best friends with Vanilla and is the daughter of the so called, late witch Cinnamon. She has long orange hair, large emerald green eyes, and pointy ears. In the human world, she is not as popular as Vanilla since her temper makes most boys wary, but she is able to make friends with them instead. Her energetic and cheerful personality makes her very popular in the Magical World, and at the beginning of the series she finds the switch between her and Vanilla's popularity in the human world harrowing. She is very caring and a loyal friend, but she can be very aggressive and prideful. She is secretly in love with Pierre. Her familiar is a lazy but powerful frog named Duke. In her world, she lives with her grandfather, Corne, a powerful wizard who, like Chocola, has a certain dislike for Blanca. As the series progresses, Chocola and Pierre develop feelings for each other and (in the anime) end up exchanging hearts and sharing their first kisses. In the anime, she loses the queen contest but Vanilla gives up the throne (making Chocolat Queen). In the manga, Chocola and Pierre went missing and lost their memories which made them return a few years later, for Vanilla's coronation.

Vanilla Mieux/Vanilla Aisu (バニラ・ミュー/愛須 バニラ, Banira Myuu/Aisu Banira)

Voiced by: Juri Ibata[2]

Vanilla is a beautiful, shy and gentle girl. Best friends with Chocola, she is the daughter of Queen Candy. Blanca is her familiar. She has short blond curly hair, purple eyes, and pointy ears. Because of her compassion, empathy, and cuteness, she is more popular than Chocola with human boys, which leads Chocola to believe that the Human World and the Magic World are opposites. Vanilla was less popular in the Magical World than Chocola, due to her shy personality. Vanilla is also more conscientious, and more dutiful than Chocola. However, in the third volume Chocola is able to beat her in getting hearts sometimes. About midway through the series, Vanilla feels insecure and inferior to Chocola and becomes Ogre Princess due to Pierre's trickery. Chocola is able to save her. In the anime, Vanilla wins the crown but gives it to Chocola. In the last volume of the manga, Vanilla wins the right to be Queen, but refuses to take the crown. She finally accepts the crown because Chocola is missing. After Chocola is found, she still retains her position as Queen upon Chocola's wish. She ends up with Houx.

Rockin' Robin (ロッキン・ロビン, Rokkin Robin)

Voiced by: Kenjiro Tsuda[2]

Rockin' Robin is the mentor of Vanilla and Chocola. He also records their progress in stealing hearts. He is a popular rock star in the Human World ("Rockin' Robin" and "Rock'n Lovin'" have the same spelling in katakana). Although he may seem a bit rude, he has a caring heart, although he rarely displays it. According to Blanca, Robin is actually 6800 years old and uses facial masks to retain a youthful appearance. He seems to be particularly afraid of sharp objects. In the manga, he sacrifices himself for Chocola in the final battle.

Duke (デューク, Dyūku)

Voiced by: Yūichi Yasoda[2]

Duke is a red and black striped frog who is the Chocola's familiar. He helps her steal hearts, but isn't much help at the beginning. He has a rivalry with Blanca. Mostly, he is quite lazy and rude, and has an extensive knowledge about hearts, which proves useful later. Duke is actually Chocola's uncle, the little brother of Cinnamon, who was transformed into a frog. He tells Queen Candy that he turned himself into a frog to pose as a familiar, as he was wanted by the authorities after he concealed Cinnamon when she was on the run. However, his transformation worked too well, and his magical power as a familiar became too weak to allow him to transform back. At the end of Volume 6 he is returned to his human form via a white heart.

Blanca (ブランカ, Buranka)

Voiced by: Chisa Yoshiyama[2]

Blanca is a magical mouse and the familiar of Vanilla. In the story, she helps Vanilla win at first. She enjoys teasing Chocola, Duke, and almost anyone who annoys her. She also likes tea parties with her mice friends. Chocola calls her "Rat". Even though she has a very bitter relationship with Chocola, there are times when she can show her soft side towards her. In the manga, she was originally a witch named Libbie who ran a salon in the Magical World, but was turned into a familiar when she fell in love with a human and lost her heart. She is turned back into her original form with the power of Pierre's (now white) heart.

Pierre Tempête de Neige (ピエール・タンペート・ド・ネージュ, Piēru Tanpēto do Nēju)

Voiced by: Daiki Konishi[2]

Pierre is a popular and handsome boy at Chocola's school, but he has a cold heart, and is not as innocent as he looks. He's the captain of the fencing and tennis teams of the school and has a fan club of beautiful but cruel and cold junior-high student girls known as 'The Members', who dislike Chocola being near their Prince. His magical ability is high, as well as his physical strength and capability. Almost nobody can resist his charisma and charm, and many human girls in Chocola's school are in love with him. He has white blonde hair and ice blue eyes, and is taller than most people in his class.

It is discovered in Volume 2, that Pierre is also from the magical world when he almost takes Chocola's heart. When he was a little boy the ogres kidnapped him and made him the Ogre Prince, so he didn't choose becoming that and wasn't born as an Ogre. As the story goes on, Pierre begins to fall in love with Chocola, as does she. He has huge feelings for her and claims that he doesn't know why he can not leave her alone and "involuntarily" risks his life to save her many times. Pierre's noir heart conflicts with a pink heart. In the anime, they exchange hearts. In the manga, Pierre and Chocola go missing for years after the last battle, with severe amnesia. Once they regain their memories, they manage to be in time for Vanilla's coronation and reunite with her, as well as their other friends. They depart to the humans' world to start a new life, and Pierre's heart is shown to be red for Chocola.

Houx (ウー, Ū) and Saule (ソウル, Souru)

Twin brothers who are close childhood friends with Chocola and Vanilla from the Magical World. They both have quite brash personalities that can sometimes land them into trouble. They both come to the Human World as new students in Chocola and Vanilla's school to protect them. Both of them have a strong liking towards Chocola, arguing about who will be Chocola's King when she gets the crown. Turns out that Houx fell in love with Vanilla.

Queen Candy (クイーンキャンディ, Kuīn Kyandi)

The Queen of the Magical World and Vanilla's mother. Even though Vanilla's mother is a queen, she kept a careful eye on the Queen Candidate and the Queen Candidacy so that the ogres could not interfere again. In the anime, she loses the Queen Candidacy, but after the sacrifice made by Cinnamon for the Magical World, the throne was given to her after replacing Cinnamon's place. In the manga, she sacrifices herself at the end to help Chocola defeat Glacé, acknowledging Chocola as the Magical World's Queen.

Cinnamon Meilleure (シナモン・メイユール, Shinamon Meiyūru)

Chocola's mother and a famous witch. She was a previous Queen Candidate along with Candy Mieux, she won the candidacy, however she sacrificed the throne for the freedom to save the Magic World. Under circumstances not clearly explained in the manga, Cinnamon went to visit Glacé, the grand duke of darkness, while Candy took over as queen. In Volume 7, it is revealed that Cinnamon had Chocola around this time, and that Chocola's father is the King of the Ogres himself. Cinnamon was actually Pierre's familiar who had her voice taken away. Cinnamon fights against Glacé at the end of Volume 8, but stays behind with him as he fades away. She is disguised as a black cat that Pierre is sometimes seen with. In the last episode, when the queen is decided, she asks Robin and Glacier to help her take care of Chocola. It is said that Cinnamon and Candy were friends during the Queen candidacy. Candy never collected hearts no matter how popular she was. Some say she intentionally did that, feeling that Cinnamon would make the better Queen.

Waffle (ワッフル, Waffuru)

Waffle's an anime only character, an immature but kind young witch girl that's always trying to get Houx's affection. In the series, she always caused trouble during the adventures of Chocola and others. At the start, she has a certain dislike for Chocola, for that reason she'll steal Houx from her. She's always accompanied by her devoted nanny and travels around in a huge squirrel-looking flying animal.

Media

Manga

The eight-volume manga was written and illustrated by Moyoco Anno. In comparison to the anime, which ended before its serialization in Nakayoshi, the manga more strongly emphasizes the struggle between the witches and the ogres. It was initially published in English by Del Rey Manga, but Udon Entertainment currently has the rights.[3]

No.	Release date	ISBN
1	March 25, 2004[4]	978-4-06-334859-0
2	October 21, 2004[5]	978-4-06-334930-6
3	May 19, 2005[6]	978-4-06-372014-3
4	October 12, 2005[7]	978-4-06-372077-8
5	February 10, 2006[8]	978-4-06-372129-4
6	July 13, 2006[9]	978-4-06-372166-9
7	December 28, 2006[10]	978-4-06-372246-8
8	September 13, 2007[11]	978-4-06-372316-8

Anime

Main article: List of Sugar Sugar Rune episodes

In 2005, Sugar Sugar Rune was adapted into an anime television series produced by Studio Pierrot under the direction of Matsushita Yukihiro. Consisting of fifty-one episodes with scripts composed by Reiko Yoshida and music by Yasuharu Konishi,[2] the series was broadcast on TV Tokyo in Japan between July 2, 2005 and June 24, 2006.[12]

Three pieces of theme music are used—one opening theme and two closing themes. The opening theme is "Crazy for Chocolat" (ショコラに夢中, Shokora ni Muchū) by Karia Nomoto.[2] The closing theme for the first twenty-nine episodes is "The World Beyond the Moon" (月の向こうの世界, Tsuki no Mukō no Sekai) by Karia Nomoto[13] and the last twenty episodes is "Date Date" (デート☆デート, Dēto Dēto) by the series starring voice actresses Marika Matsumoto and Juri Ibata.[2]

Reception

Sugar Sugar Rune won the 29th Kodansha Manga Awards in the children's manga category.[14] It was called "the greatest fantasy comic of the last five years" by an Anime News Network reviewer, who praised its stylish art and epic conclusion.[15]

References

1. Santos, Carlo (January 11, 2006). "Manga: 2005 Year in Review". Anime News Network. Retrieved October 24, 2017.
2. "Staff Cast" (in Japanese). Tokyo TV. Retrieved October 24, 2017.
3. "Udon Entertainment Licenses Sugar Sugar Rune Manga". Anime News Network. July 11, 2015. Retrieved October 24, 2017.
4. "シュガシュガルーン(1)" (in Japanese). Kodansha. Retrieved October 24, 2017.
5. "シュガシュガルーン(2)" (in Japanese). Kodansha. Retrieved October 24, 2017.
6. "シュガシュガルーン(3)" (in Japanese). Kodansha. Retrieved October 24, 2017.
7. "シュガシュガルーン(4)" (in Japanese). Kodansha. Retrieved October 24, 2017.
8. "シュガシュガルーン(5)" (in Japanese). Kodansha. Retrieved October 24, 2017.
9. "シュガシュガルーン(6)" (in Japanese). Kodansha. Retrieved October 24, 2017.
10. "シュガシュガルーン(7)" (in Japanese). Kodansha. Retrieved October 24, 2017.
11. "シュガシュガルーン(8)" (in Japanese). Kodansha. Retrieved October 24, 2017.
12. "シュガシュガルーン". Media Arts Database (in Japanese). Agency for Cultural Affairs. Retrieved October 24, 2017.
13. "Staff Cast" (in Japanese). Tokyo TV. Archived from the original on December 14, 2005. Retrieved October 24, 2017.
14. "Kodansha Manga Awards". Anime News Network. May 12, 2005. Retrieved October 24, 2017.
15. Santos, Carlo (November 10, 2008). "RIGHT TURN ONLY!! A Dark And Stormy Knight". Anime News Network. Retrieved November 11, 2008.

External links

• Official anime website
• Sugar Sugar Rune (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia