I liked the premise. The day-to-day collecting hearts stories were so adorable. Puppy love in its purest form makes me smile. The love or hearts collected weren't solely romantic either. I thought it was great that they collected friendship and other forms of love. However, I did not care for the shy character turns evil arc at all. I found it unneeded and waited patiently for it to finish. I usually like that trope but just not here.
As far as plot twists go, Sugar Rune kept things interesting. I frantically turned pages when Vanilla and Chocolat's backstories and births were revealed. I still want to know who is Vanilla's dad. Pierre's background is only briefly referenced in the manga from what I can see. I would have loved to know about his family and the life before being a prince.
The time skips were a bit much. Time spent in the magic world goes by fast!
CHARACTERS:
My favorite is Chocolat, and it's rare for me to like the main character that much. Chocolat's independent, opinionated personality was a breath of fresh air. She was blunt but never meant to hurt someone. She was smart and could see through an evil prince's scheme a mile away. Still, she had her childish charm even after maturing from previous rashness.
Vanilla was nice. I am glad she evolved from being whiny (...so, so whiny) to someone who could stand up for herself (and keep compassion in her heart for others). At one point, Vanilla had to explain to Chocolat that she couldn't be outgoing and aggressive like her. She had to be herself foremost.
I liked ALL the school kids and Chocolat's uncle as well!
My least liked were the ogres. BOO!
RELATIONSHIP:
I don't have that much to say about it. Pierre and Chocolat's love took a nice time to develop. I liked Chocolat with all of the boys and a relationship with either of them would turn out happy. I am glad that story never became truly harem-y.
But...Why did they even have to play with Chocolat being related to one of her lovers? I was like NOOOOOOOO!
SN: Woo rebounded so quick! Talk about instant love!
ART:
I liked the art style of Sugar Rune a lot! The school kids have cute and unique designs. I love the way Momoko draws men. My favorite aspect of Sugar Rune's art was the hair though. Each strand of Pierre, Vanilla, and Chocolat's hair looked like it was made with meticulous effort. I also like the way Pierre's hair was parted. Another thing is Vanilla had uncommon hair. Never have I seen a shoujo girl with that cut.
I am usually apathetic to overly large shoujo eyes, but I found the eyes here matched the characters.
OVERALL:
This was an enjoyable read, which is why I rated it so highly. I spent three days happily immersed in the sugary-sweet story.
I hope the answers I have left can be answered by the anime. The few things that stopped me from giving this manga a 10 was the dark arc, the unneeded character death(s), and the lackluster ending. I really wanted to see magical babies ha!
