Sugar Sugar Rune

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 September 2003 to May 2007. The series was collected into eight volumes published by Kodansha from September 2003 to May 2007. ''Sugar Sugar Rune'' was adapted into an anime television series produced by Studio Pierrot, which aired on TV Tokyos in the children's manga category.

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 Chocolat 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 Chocolat. 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

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: Chocolat 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 Chocolat, has a certain dislike for Blanca. As the series progresses, Chocolat 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, Chocolat and Pierre went missing and lost their memories which made them return a few years later, for Vanilla's coronation. Her Theme Color is pink.
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: Vanilla is a beautiful, shy and gentle girl. Best friends with Chocolat, 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 Chocolat with human boys, which leads Chocolat to believe that the Human World and the Magic World are opposites. Vanilla was less popular in the Magical World than Chocolat, due to her shy personality. Vanilla is also more conscientious, and more dutiful than Chocolat. However, in the third volume Chocolat is able to beat her in getting hearts sometimes. About midway through the series, Vanilla feels insecure and inferior to Chocolat and becomes Ogre Princess due to Pierre's trickery. Chocolat is able to save her. In the anime, Vanilla wins the crown but gives it to Chocolat. 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 Chocolat is missing. After Chocolat is found, she still retains her position as Queen upon Chocolat's wish. She ends up with Houx. Her Theme Color is purple.
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: Rockin' Robin is the mentor of Vanilla and Chocolat. 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.
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: Duke is a red and black striped frog who is the Chocolat'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 Chocolat'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.
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: Blanca is a magical mouse and the familiar of Vanilla. In the story, she helps Vanilla win at first. She enjoys teasing Chocolat, Duke, and almost anyone who annoys her. She also likes tea parties with her mice friends. Chocolat calls her "Rat". Even though she has a very bitter relationship with Chocolat, 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.
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: Pierre is a popular and handsome boy at Chocolat'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 Chocolat 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 Chocolat'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 Chocolat'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 Chocolat, 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 Chocolat 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 Chocolat.
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: Twin brothers who are close childhood friends with Chocolat 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 Chocolat and Vanilla's school to protect them. Both of them have a strong liking towards Chocolat, arguing about who will be Chocolat's King when she gets the crown. Turns out that Houx fell in love with Vanilla.
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: 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 Chocolat as the Magical World's Queen.
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: Chocolat'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 Chocolat around this time, and that Chocolat'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 Chocolat. 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.
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: 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 Chocolat and others. At the start, she has a certain dislike for Chocolat, 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.

Anime

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 Yasufumi Fukuda, Yutaka Minobe, Tomoko Sasaki and Yasuharu Konishi (only the latter is credited in the opening and staff list of the anime, however), the series was broadcast on TV Tokyo are used—one opening theme and two closing themes. The opening theme is by Karia Nomoto. The closing theme for the first twenty-nine episodes is by Karia Nomoto and the last twenty episodes is by the series starring voice actresses Marika Matsumoto and Juri Ibata.

Reception

''Sugar Sugar Rune'' won the 29th Kodansha Manga Awards in the children's manga category. 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.

References

External links

Official anime website
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{{Hideaki Anno

2003 manga
2005 anime television series debuts
2006 Japanese television series endings
2007 comics endings
Anime series based on manga
Del Rey Manga
Kodansha manga
Japanese children's animated fantasy television series
Magical girl anime and manga
Moyoco Anno
Odex
Pierrot (company)
Shōjo manga
Television series about witchcraft
TVB
TV Tokyo original programming
Winner of Kodansha Manga Award (Children)
Anime and manga about witchcraft