, also known as ''My Guardian Characters'', is a Japanese ''shōjo'' manga series created by the

manga author A is a comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. As of 2006, about 3,000 professional manga artists were working in Japan. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist bef ...

duo,

Peach-Pit A peach pit is the pit or stone of a peach. Peach pit or peachpit may also refer to: *Peach-Pit (manga artist duo), a manga artist duo * Peach Pit (band), a Canadian indie pop band *Peachpit Peachpit is a publisher of books focused on graphic ...

. The story centers on elementary school girl Amu Hinamori, whose popular exterior, referred to as "cool and spicy" by her classmates, contrasts with her

introvert The traits of extraversion (also spelled extroversion Retrieved 2018-02-21.) and introversion are a central dimension in some human personality theories. The terms ''introversion'' and ''extraversion'' were introduced into psychology by Carl J ...

ed personality. When Amu wishes for the courage to be reborn as her would-be self, she is surprised to find three colorful eggs the next morning, which hatch into three Guardian Characters: Ran, Miki, and Su. ''Shugo Chara!'' is serialized in the magazine ''

Nakayoshi is a monthly ''shōjo'' manga magazine published by Kodansha in Japan. First issued in December 1954, it is a long-running magazine with over 60 years of manga publication history. Notable titles serialized in Nakayoshi include '' Princess Kni ...

'' and published by

Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', '' Afternoon'', '' Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

. Del Rey has licensed the

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...

manga rights, releasing the first volume on March 27, 2007. It won the 2008

Kodansha Manga Award is an annual award for serialized manga published in the previous year, the event is sponsored by the publisher Kodansha. It is currently awarded in three categories: '' shōnen'', '' shōjo'', and general. The awards began in 1977, initially ...

for best children's manga. ''Shugo Chara!'' has also been adapted into a fifty-one episode

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

television series of the same title produced by

Satelight is a Japanese animation studio. Aside from several stand-alone projects, the studio is well known for producing the '' Aquarion'' and ''Symphogear'' franchises, as well as later installments of the ''Macross'' franchise. The company's Represen ...

under the direction of Kenji Yasuda and debuted on October 6, 2007 on

TV Tokyo JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as and known colloquially as , is a television station headquartered in the Sumitomo Fudosan Roppongi Grand Tower in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, owned and operated by the subsidiary of listed certifie ...

. On July 20, 2008,

Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and ...

reported that the ''Shugo Chara!'' anime would be continued for a second year under the title ''Shugo Chara!! Doki—'', the first episode airing on October 10, 2008; the official anime website later announced an October 4, 2008 start date. On October 3, 2009, ''Shugo Chara!'' began featuring another series. The new program, ''Shugo Chara Party!'' containing ''Shugo Chara!!! Dokki Doki'' and ''Shugo Chara Pucchi Puchi!'' follow the current anime series as its power-up. The last episode aired on March 26, 2010.

Plot

The main protagonist of the story, Amu Hinamori, is a female student attending Seiyo Elementary. At first glance, her classmates refer to her attitude and appearance as "cool and spicy" and rumors speculate about her personal life. However, her real personality is that of a very shy girl who has trouble showing her true personality. One night, Amu wishes for the courage to show her "would-be" self, and the next morning, she finds three brightly colored eggs—pink, blue, and green—in her bed. These eggs hatch into three

fairy A fairy (also fay, fae, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, English, and French folklore), a form of spirit, ...

-like guardians called "Shugo Charas" (Guardian Characters): Ran (pink), Miki (blue), and Su (green). The Guardian Characters aid Amu in discovering who she truly is and help fulfil Amu's dreams. Amu's life becomes much more complex, as she struggles to deal with her "would-be" selves and Seiyo Elementary's Guardians, who each have a Guardian Character of their own. People with Guardian Characters can "chara-nari" (character transform) or "character change". Each transformation has special powers, mainly for attacking or defending. Character changes have special powers too, but have more practical uses. Later on, they recruit Amu as the "Joker" to search for X Eggs and X Characters, the corrupted forms of people's dreams, so the Guardians can purify their dreams. In Japanese, the egg is shortened. Meanwhile, the Easter Company is extracting people's eggs, in search of a special egg called the ''Embryo''. The ''Embryo'' is believed to grant any wish to the one who possesses it. However, the process creates X Eggs and X Characters. Later on in the series, a fourth (yellow) egg named Diamond is born. Unlike Amu's other Guardian Characters, she is only seen a few times in the series. Due to Amu's mixed feelings before Diamond was born, she becomes an X character and is "stolen" by idol singer Hoshina Utau, who uses Diamond to character change for her concerts, planned by Easter as part of their plan to get the Embryo. Later on, Diamond is purified and becomes a regular Guardian Character. She would then appear in times of heavy crisis.

Media

Manga

In December 2005, Peach Pit announced that they were working on a new shōjo manga series called ''Shugo Chara!'' The first chapter was published in the February 2006 edition of ''

'' magazine. The first volume collection was then republished on July 6, 2006 by ''Nakayoshi'' publisher

. In addition to the regular volumes, the series was released in limited editions in Japan, each of which included different cover art from the regular editions, metallic foil sleeves, and a set of postcards featuring Amu in various outfits and poses following the color theme of the dust jackets.

Del Rey Manga Del Rey Manga was the manga-publishing imprint of Del Rey Books, a branch of Ballantine Books, which in turn is part of Random House, the publishing division of Bertelsmann. History Del Rey Manga was formed as part of a cross-publishing relation ...

announced that it acquired the

rights to ''Shugo Chara!'' during

MangaNEXT MangaNEXT was a fan convention focused exclusively on Japanese manga that occurred every other year in New Jersey. It was the only manga convention in the United States. The event was discontinued in favor of AnimeNEXT, which is run by the same or ...

2006 and released the first volume on March 27, 2007.

Kodansha USA Kodansha USA Publishing, LLC is a publishing company based in New York, USA, and a subsidiary of Japan's largest publishing company Kodansha. Established in July 2008, Kodansha USA publishes books relating to Japan, Japanese culture, and manga, ...

published the entire series in 2011. The series was put on hiatus along with two other series, '' Rozen Maiden'' and ''

Zombie-Loan ''Zombie-Loan'' (stylized as ''ZOMBIE-LOAN'') is a Japanese manga series created by Peach-Pit: Banri Sendo and Shibuko Ebara. It is published by Square Enix and is serialized in the Japanese shōnen manga magazine '' GFantasy''. The series is ...

'', in December 2008 due to a sudden illness and hospitalization of one of the authors. One month later, Peach-Pit announced that all three series will resume and thanked their fans for the support during the illness. There is a four-volume spin-off manga series called ''Shugo Chara Chan!'', featuring drawings by Mizushima Naftaren, which is in

yonkoma , a comic strip format, generally consists of gag comic strips within four panels of equal size ordered from top to bottom. They also sometimes run right-to-left horizontally or use a hybrid 2×2 style, depending on the layout requirements of ...

(4-panel) comics style and focuses on Amu's guardians. There is no special edition version of the spin-off series. The January issue of Kodansha's Nakayoshi magazine confirmed on December 1, 2009, that Peach-Pit would be ending the ''Shugo Chara!'' manga in the next issue on December 28. A sequel series was later announced, titled ''Shugo Chara! Encore!'', and ran between April and September 2010 issues of Nakayoshi.

Anime

''Shugo Chara!'' was adapted into an

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...

of the same title in 2007. The television series is produced by

under the direction of Kenji Yasuda and was first broadcast on the Japanese network,

. Consisting of fifty-one episodes, the first episode, , aired on October 6, 2007. The episodes were rebroadcast by five other networks within a few days after the initial broadcast on TV Tokyo. Six pieces of

theme music Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at so ...

by the

J-pop J-pop ( ja, ジェイポップ, ''jeipoppu''; often stylized as J-POP; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively also known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the ...

group

Buono! was a subgroup of the Japanese girl groups Berryz Kobo and Cute, formed in 2007 by Up-Front Promotion and associated with Hello! Project. The members consisted of Momoko Tsugunaga and Miyabi Natsuyaki from Berryz Kobo, and Airi Suzuki fro ...

are used for the first season—two opening themes and four closing themes. The opening theme for the first twenty-six episodes is ; and the last twenty-five episodes, . The closing theme for the first twelve episodes is ; episodes thirteen to twenty-six, ; episodes twenty-seven to thirty-nine, "Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!"; and the last twelve episodes, . There are also four insert songs, all sung by

Nana Mizuki is a Japanese voice actress, singer and narrator from Niihama, Ehime. She is represented by the agency StarCrew. Mizuki was trained as an enka singer, releasing one single under her birth name, Nana Kondō, in 1993 and made her debut as a voi ...

: "Meikyū Butterfly", first sung in episode 12; "Black Diamond", first in episode 39; "Heartful Song", first in episode 47; and "Taiyou ga Niau yo", first in episode 93. A second year of episodes, under the title , began airing the week after the fifty-first episode, on October 4, 2008; previously,

reported that it was scheduled for October 10, 2008 on AT-X. Two opening themes sung by Shugo Chara Egg! and another two by Guardians 4 have been used; the opening theme for the first twelve episodes is ; the second is , used in episodes sixty-five to episode seventy-six; and the third opening is , by

Guardians 4 , also known as ''My Guardian Characters'', is a Japanese shōjo manga series created by the manga author duo, Peach-Pit. The story centers on elementary school girl Amu Hinamori, whose popular exterior, referred to as "cool and spicy" by her clas ...

. The fourth and final opening is "School Days" sung by Guardians 4. The ending theme is by Buono!. A second ending theme, , also by Buono!, took its place from episode 69 to 76. The third ending, "MY BOY", also sung by Buono!, started showing from episode 77 to 89. The fourth ending theme is called "Take it Easy!", also sung by Buono!, took its place from episode 90 and onwards. The opening theme for the Shugo Chara!!! Dokki Doki segment is "Watashi no Tamago" (My Egg) performed by Shugo Chara! Egg, while the opening for Shugo Chara! Party itself is "Party Time!" by Guardians 4. The first ending is "Bravo! Bravo!" performed by Buono!.

Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Sony through a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex. The service primarily distributes films and t ...

announced on November 19, 2008 that it will be streaming ''Shugo Chara!'' with English subtitles along with other anime series from TV Tokyo. On August 25, 2009,

reported that a new series will premiere in

on October 3, 2009. This series is titled ''Shugo Chara Party!'' featuring anime and live-action segments and contains the anime ''Shugo Chara!!! Dokki Doki'', the "power-up" of the Shugo Chara!! Doki— anime as its main segment and ''Shugo Chara Pucchi Puchi!'', anime shorts starring Ran, Miki, Su, and Diamond. Director Kenji Yasuda continued to oversee both ''Shugo Chara!!! Dokki Doki'' and ''Shugo Chara Pucchi Puchi!''.

Musical

musical theatre Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movemen ...

adaptation of ''Shugo Chara!'' set to run from August 13 to August 23 was announced in January 2009, with all members of Shugo Chara Egg! appearing in the play. On May 1, 2009, news reports revealed

Yuuka Maeda is a former Japanese singer and actress. After joining Hello Pro Egg, a trainee program associated with Hello! Project, she achieved early fame as Amulet Heart in Shugo Chara Egg! before debuting in S/mileage, a Japanese idol girl group assoc ...

in the lead role as Amu, Kanon Fukuda as Nadeshiko, and

Akari Saho is a Japanese singer. She is a member of Up-Up Girls and a former member of Hello! Pro Egg, a Japanese idol trainee program under the Hello! Project umbrella. She was also an original member of Shugo Chara Egg!, and played the role of Amule ...

and

Ayaka Wada is a Japanese singer and idol signed to YU-M Entertainment. She was a first generation member and the leader of Angerme as well as the leader of Hello! Project. * Biography Wada joined Hello! Project as a member of Hello! Pro Egg in June 2004 ...

as part of the ensemble cast. Other cast members for the musical included Hidemi Hikita as Tadase,

Meimi Tamura is a Japanese actress and singer. She is a former member of the Hello! Project group Angerme. Early life and background Meimi Tamura's mother was a Troupe Organizer, and acted at Gunma Prefecture in Japan. Her elder sister, Karen Tamura, was al ...

as Yaya,

Yuta Koseki is a Japanese actor and model. Filmography Theatre Television Film Japanese dub References External links * * 21st-century Japanese male actors Amuse Inc. talents Japanese male musical theatre actors Japanese male stage ...

as Kukai, Karin Yagishita as Rima, Reo Sawada as Kairi, KENN as Ikuto, and Misaki Yonemura as Utau. Shortly after the announcement,

Hello! Project is a Japanese musical collective consisting of all female recording artists and groups under Up-Front Promotion, a subsidiary of Up-Front Group. The name was initially used as Michiyo Heike and Morning Musume's fan club name in 1999, but ha ...

stated that Maeda, Fukuda, and Wada were withdrawing from Shugo Chara Egg! after the musical to debut in Smileage. The DVD for the musical was released on October 23, 2009.

Merchandising

Video games

Konami , is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machines, slot machines, and arcade cabinets. Konami has ca ...

has released three video games, based on the manga, for the

Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in t ...

. The first, titled , was released in Japan on March 13, 2008. It follows Amu's adventures as she purifies X Eggs, as well as pursuing any of the love interests available (Ikuto, Tadase, Kairi, Nikaidou and Nagehiko). The second game, titled , was released in Japan on November 6, 2008. It's a raising sim where Amu must develop her relationship with any of the available characters (the Guardians, Ikuto, Utau, Nikaidou and Nagehiko) during three months, with the target of bringing a partner to the "Best Friends Festival". Two songs from the game, and , were released as a CD single on November 5, 2008. The third game, titled , was released in Japan on August 6, 2009. It's a rhythm game that features all the main characters' image songs, as well as giving minor character Yua more exposure.

Reception

The ''Shugo Chara!'' manga has received positive reviews from English language critics. Phil Theobald, writing for ''

Newtype USA is a monthly magazine publication originating from Japan, covering anime (and to a lesser extent, tokusatsu, manga, Japanese science fiction, seiyuu, and video games). It was launched by publishing company Kadokawa Shoten on March 8, 1985, with i ...

'', states that while the premise may be fairly complicated, "the clean art and solid storytelling by Peach-Pit make it easy to follow." Thobald goes on to say that ''Shugo Chara!'' is "an interesting and humorous spin on the classic '

magical girl is a subgenre of Japanese fantasy media (including anime, manga, light novels, and live-action media) centered around young girls who possess magical abilities, which they typically use through an ideal alter ego into which they can transf ...

' genre." Carlo Santos, writing for

, states, "The best thing since '' Sugar Sugar Rune''? Maybe not ... but it's damn close." In a later review, Santos compares ''Shugo Chara!'' to ''

Cardcaptor Sakura , abbreviated as ''CCS'', is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by the manga group Clamp. Serialized monthly in the ''shōjo'' manga magazine ''Nakayoshi'' from May 1996 to June 2000, it was also published in 12 ''tankōbon'' ...

'' and ''

Sailor Moon is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Naoko Takeuchi. It was originally serialized in Kodansha's ''shōjo'' manga magazine ''Nakayoshi'' from 1991 to 1997; the 52 individual chapters were published in 18 volumes. The se ...

'', adding, "it addresses the complexities of the human psyche, from joke characters like the fortune-teller who doesn't trust her own abilities, to Nikaidou's own personal conflict over his childhood dreams." Along with the positive reviews, ''Shugo Chara!'' was awarded the 2008

for best children's manga. The anime adaptation became one of the 10 most watched anime programs during the week of April 7–13, 2008, when its April 12 broadcast received an average household viewership rating of 4.2%. It later returned to the top 10 during the week of July 21–27, 2008, when its July 26 broadcast received an average rating of 4.1%. The series was listed as being the 4th best-selling shojo manga property and the 14th best overall manga property in America for the first quarter of 2009. Jason Thompson felt that the manga focused on self-esteem, and that the artist's drawing skills carried the work.

References

External links

''Shugo Chara!''
official website by

Anime official website

''Shugo Chara!''
at

''Shugo Chara!! Doki—''
at

''Shugo Chara! Party!''
at

The official ''Shugo Chara!''
at

''Shugo Chara Chan!''
at

* {{Satelight 2006 manga 2007 anime television series debuts 2008 anime television series debuts 2009 anime television series debuts 2010 manga Japanese children's animated comedy television series Anime series based on manga Del Rey Manga Kodansha manga Magical girl anime and manga Satelight Shōjo manga TVB TV Tokyo original programming Winner of Kodansha Manga Award (Children) Musicals based on anime and manga 2.5D musicals