Sugar Sugar Rune

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Sugar Sugar Rune
シュガシュガルーン
(Shuga Shuga Rūn)
Genre Comedy, magical girl, romance
Manga
Author Moyoco Anno
Publisher Flag of Japan Kodansha
Flag of the United States Del Rey Manga
Demographic Shōjo
Magazine Nakayoshi
Original run August 2003April 2007
Volumes 8
TV anime
Director Yukihiro Matsushita
Studio Studio Pierrot
Licensor Flag of France Kaze
Network Flag of Japan TV Tokyo
Original run 2 July 200524 June 2006
Episodes 51

Sugar Sugar Rune (シュガシュガルーン Shuga Shuga Rūn?) or Sugar² Rune is a manga by Moyoco Anno and an anime TV series based upon it. The manga won the Kodansha Manga Award for children's manga in 2005.[1] The anime series' time slot was replaced by Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z in mid-2006.[2]

Contents

[edit] Story

Cover of the original soundtrack CD, showing Chocolat and Vanilla in witch uniforms
Cover of the original soundtrack CD, showing Chocolat and Vanilla in witch uniforms

The story involves the characters Chocolat (pronounced "Shocola", as in French) and Vanilla who are young witches from the Magical World. They are chosen to compete in a contest to become Queen of the Magical World. Even though they are rivals, they remain best friends. Chocolat's mother won in the previous contest, but because of the ogres, it was Vanilla's mother, Candy, who became the queen. Chocolat is now determined to win the contest, and be that "bright star" (A Radiant Queen of Light) for her mother. In order to win the contest, the witches must disguise themselves as humans and compete to steal the most human "hearts" (actually crystallised emotions). With the help of Rockin' Robin, their mentor and guardian, and, in the anime, two familiars, the competition begins to see who will become the next Queen.

However, trouble begins to brew in the way of the two queen candidates as Pierre, a cold and mysterious boy, begins to win Chocolat's heart and starts to use both her and Vanilla to his own use. Now, both trapped within their own new goals, the two witches must fight their way through and retain a friendship which no magic can defeat.

[edit] Characters

Chocolat Meilleur

(ショコラ=メイユール Shokora Meiyūru?, witch); Chocolat Kato (加藤 ショコラ Katō Shokora?, human)

Chocolat (10) is an outgoing and daring girl with a forceful personality and the show's main protagonist. She is best friends with Vanilla and is the daughter of the late witch Cinnamon. Duke is her familiar. Chocolat has long, straight orange hair, large emerald green and impish eyes, and pointed ears. She is not as popular as Vanilla since her outrageous temper makes most boys scared of her. In the Magical World, she lives with her grandfather, Corn, a powerful wizard who, like Chocolat, has a certain dislike for Blanca and has a bad temper. The series progresses, and she begins to fall in love with Pierre, although it is forbidden for witches to allow their hearts be stolen by humans. Later, her identity as daughter of an ogre is revealed. Her voice actress in the anime is Marika Matsumoto.
In French the name translates to "Better Chocolat".
Spell: Sugar Sugar Rune! Choco-Rune! Chocolat's name may be romanised as Chocolat or Chocola. It is pronounced Chocola, however. In the English manga published by Del Rey, her name is spelled Chocolat. It comes from the French word for chocolate is a pink witch.
Vanilla Mieux (バニラ=ミュー Banira Myū?, witch); Vanilla Ice (愛須 バニラ Aisu Banira?, human)
Vanilla is a shy and timid girl was a purple witch. Best friends with Chocolat, she is the daughter of Queen Candy. Blanca is her familiar. Vanilla has short, curly blond hair, large purple and timid-looking eyes, and pointed ears like Chocolat. She is more popular than Chocolat in the Human World, which leads Chocolat to believe that the Human World and the Magic World are flipped. Vanilla also tries harder than Chocolat to become Queen in the first two volumes of the manga. However, in the third volume Chocolat is able to beat her in a couple of other things. Almost halfway through the series, Vanilla turns into the princess of the ogres, along with the prince, Pierre due to Pierre's own trickery on Vanilla's insecurities. However, Chocolat was able to save her and Vanilla was able to return to her normal self. Her voice actress is Juri Ihata; her name translates from French as "Vanilla Best".
Spell: Sugar Sugar Rune! Vani-Rune!
Rock'n Lovin' (ロッキンロビン Rokkin Robin?, wizard); Rockin' Robin (ロッキンロビン Rokkin Robin?, human)[1]
Rockin' Robin is the mentor of Vanilla and Chocolat. He also records their progress in stealing hearts, for he is an expert. He is a popular rock star in the Human World (Note: Rockin' Robin and Rock'n Lovin' have the same spelling in katakana). Although he may seem a bit rude and obnoxious, he has a caring heart, although he rarely displays it. According to Blanca, Robin is actually over 6000 years old and uses facial masks to retain a youthful and attractive face. He seems to be particularly afraid of swords and sharp objects as showin when Chocolat and Vanilla try to learn fencing.
Duke (デューク Dyūku?)
Duke is a red-and black striped and green-eyed magical frog who is the familiar of Chocolat. He tries to help her steal hearts, however he isn't much help at the beginning, and seems to think that he is hopeless with her. He has a rivalry with Blanca. Mostly, he is quite lazy and rude, he proves to be friendly and harmless, and has an extensive knowledge about hearts which prove to be useful later on. Duke is actually a little brother of Cinnamon who was transformed into a frog. At the end of Volume 6 he is returned to his human form. His real name is Poivre (ポワーヴル Powāvuru?); which is French for pepper, Chocolat's uncle and later to be found out , Vanilla's father. Which would make Chocolat and Vanilla cousins.
Duke is English for a noble rank.
Blanca (ブランカ Buranka?)
Blanca is a magical mouse. The familiar of Vanilla, she tries to help her steal hearts. In the story she puts Vanilla in the lead of the competition 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, Blanca is very loyal to Vanilla and her family.
Blanca is Spanish for white (feminine form of blanco). Her real name in English is Libbie/Libby and she used to run a salon in the Magical World before she fell in love with a human and was turned into a familiar. She is turned back into a human with the power of Pierre's (now white) heart. She turns into a human at the end of Volume 7.
Pierre (ピエール Piēru?)
Pierre is a popular and handsome boy at Chocolat's school, but he has a cold heart, and perhaps 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 seemingly called the Members, who apparently dislike Chocolat being near their Prince. He hates hot things and carrots, but in one of the episode he tries to capture Chocolat's heart by eating carrots. He is part of the clan called "Ogre", but is enigmatic as he also begins to fall in love with Chocolat. His name is the French equivalent of Peter.
Saule (ソール Sōru?) & Houx (ウー Ū?)[2]
The two are close childhood friends with Chocolat and Vanilla from the Magical World and are very close brothers, although 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 have a liking for Chocolat. Their names are the French words for willow and holly respectively; the romanizations "Soul" and "Woo" are incorrect guesses made by fan translators.
Cinnamon Meilleure (シナモン=メイユール Shinamon Meiyūru?)
The mother of Chocolat, she was a previous Queen Canditate along with Candy Mieux. Thought to have died, it is later revealed that she is Pierre's black cat.[citation needed]
Queen Candy (Mieux) (クイーン=キャンディ(ミュー) Kuīn Kyandī (Myū)?)
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.

[edit] Manga

The anime is somewhat different from the comic; while it retains the original storyline (expanding on it at times) it adds elements which a more stereotypical magical girl franchise. The main differences are that Chocolat and Vanilla must transform into their witch outfits in order to collect hearts and cast spells, Chocolat's costume appears pink in the anime (as opposed to the original black) and while in the manga, they must work in order to buy their wands and spell jewels, in the anime these are presented to them in the queen candidacy ceremony. Lastly, the anime adds an additional color of heart – rainbow.

[edit] Episodes

The Sugar Sugar Rune anime contains a total of 51 episodes. To see a complete list of the episodes some including an image and a summary, please see the List of Sugar Sugar Rune Episodes.

[edit] Opening and ending

  • Opening
    1. "Chocola à la folie" (ショコラに夢中 Shokora ni Muchū?, Chocolat with the Madness) by Karia Nomoto
  • Endings
    1. Ailleurs vers la lune (月の向こうの世界 Tsuki no Mukō no Sekai?, Elsewhere towards the moon) by Karia Nomoto (Eps. 01–z)
    2. "Date☆Date" by Marika Matsumoto and Juri Ihata (Eps. n–51)

The words of the opening and ending songs are provided the mangaka Moyoco Anno; the music and arrangement (in addition to the background music) are by Yasuharu Konishi (previously the main songwriter of Pizzicato Five).

Both Polish and French version have their own opening that are adaptations of the original "Chocola à la folie" opening in these languages.

[edit] Heart ranking

Jewel Values
Color Ecuré Feeling Anime only?
"Pee" yellow (Jaune) 5 Surprise or fear No
Orange (Orange) 300 Crush or casual love-at-first-sight (Usually just a strong feeling of like) No
Green (Vert) 350 Friendship No
Rainbow (Multicolore) 500 Funny or interested Yes
Pink (Rose) 1000 Exciting or the throbbing beat of sweet love No
Purple (Pourpre) 2500 Forbidden love No
Crimson (Rouge) 5000 Passionate love No
Blue (Bleu) 3500 Respect and honour No
Black (Noir) Extremely hurts witches other than ogres; subtracts points Hatred and jealousy No
White (Blanc) Cures the black (noir) heart Purified black heart; no hate at all. Can curify familiar to former selves No

[edit] References

  1. ^ Joel Hahn. Kodansha Manga Awards. Comic Book Awards Almanac. Retrieved on 2007-08-21.
  2. ^ Sugar Sugar Rune (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia. Accessed 2006-10-13.