Reviews

Feb 6, 2025
What a fun little time I had while watching Sugar Sugar Rune.

It was the first Mahou Shoujo anime I had ever seen, and as such, I was worried about two potential issues (more accurately described as concerns, tough) I could have while watching a series so different to what I was accustomed to see.

The first of these issues manifested itself on the form of the incredible amount of episodes this show had compared to shows I was used to watch. At much, I had seen series with 20-something chapters at maximum and the 51 episodes of Sugar Sugar Rune represented a mountain of content for me who I wasn't sure I would be able to chew through even if I liked the contents of the series.

Speaking about the contents of this series, the second concern I had consisted of these contents themselves and the themes that would be touched upon throught the duration of this anime. As you might know, the target audience of Sugar Sugar Rune consists mainly of school-aged girls, and me, am an 18-year old boy who has just started university at the time of writing this review. It goes without saying, there exist some pretty deep and fundamental differences between the target audience of this show and myself, so to speak. I feared this anime would end-up beign far too childish for my enjoyment or that it would present some situations that would result too "girly" for me to really relate to them or enjoy them as a whole.

Well, let me say, dear reader or readers, once I started watching Sugar Sugar Rune not only both of these doubts quickly went away, but this series left me surprised for how good its writing was but also for the maturity of the topics it somethimes touched upon. Indeed, Sugar Sugar Rune may be an anime intended for a rather young schoolgirl audience, but I can assure with confidence that it's not a series exclusive for them, as public from all genders, ages, and walks of life might come to enjoy it once starting to watch.

Contrary to proving a difficulty, the titanic amount of episodes blended seemingly well into my daily routines and my days as a whole and even came to become the highlights of some of the more tough of them, which is worth to mention were not few of them. This is no doubt because Sugar Sugar Rune is an extremely light series that is easy to understand and perfect for days when your days just years for something pacific (on the mayor part, lol) and easy to diggest to make for a hard day. If you are a person looking for an anime with such characteristics, consider Sugar Sugar Rune, it could result of your liking.

And while it is true that this show is primarly aimed at schoolgirls and its settings, themes and situations might relate better for them than it does for us, adults, I don't find this a problem as the amazing writing does wonders for keeping the audience engaged and entertained on whatever the series is throwing at our face on that particular episode. Sugar Sugar Rune belongs to a really tiny, tiny group of animes who I could confidently say has no boring or uninteresting episodes. No really, this anime managed to make episodes that in other shows would have make me roll my eyes out of dissaprobal, such as School Festivals and Sport Competionts as interesting experiences with a compelling narrative that left me engaged by the end of it.

Serioulsy, just to put an example of how well this show is written, let me utilize one of its titular propagonists to do so. Chocolat Meilleure: a bratty, undisciplined and lousy schoolgirl that also turns out to be the character we have to put-through with throught this series and are supposed to root for. Now, on any other situation I would probably have ended-up hating a character such as this one, especially is she was given as much screentime as Chocolat Meilleure gets, however through a healty dose of realistic writting and a given set of possitive characteristics who only get amplified and more amplified as the series goes by and Chocolat slowly matures along her quest for the queenship of the Magic World and its inhabitants. Sure, Chocolat Meilleure may be an inmature brat who more than not gets herself and her shy and introverted friend Vanilla into messy situations that end-up beign far more than she could have ever bargained for, she is also a kind, charitative girl who genuinly cares for Vanilla and the rest of her friends and who is willing to listen and learn from her mistakes in order to become a better friend, and of course, a better candidate for the Crown in return.

The result of all what's described previously is very obvious: Chocolat results an empathetic and pleasant character for the overall audience to see, despite all of her flaws listed in the last parragraph. Take this from me: I am a guy who, in theory, has an extremelly low tolerance for characters such as Chocolat, and yet I ended rooting for her at the end of the series and preferring her over Vanilla for the position of Queen. That should really tell you something.

The villains are a strong point when it comes to writing of this series. They progress from beign a misterious and seemingly far-away sort of menace at the beginning of the anime to slowly and steady becomming a more definned but powerfull foe that genuinly represent a threat to the candidates to the Crown in more than one occasion, having an straight-up advantage over them in more than one occasion throught this show. You also get to spend much time among them as the series progresses forward and even get to hear their history, motivations and inner toughts in more than one occation to such an extent that you get to know them, as much Chocolat and Vanilla, believe it or not. And let me just say: they aren't the "let's destroy everything and harm innocent people because we can" type of villain, the villains of Sugar Sugar Rune have genuine and to some extent, agreeable motivations that move them forward to achieve their goals. There will be times when you will be simpatizing with them more than you do with the heroines because they have legitimate reasons to be mad at them and the forces that prop them up as well there will be moments were you will be rooting for their dowfall because the methods they utilize to try to achieve their goals are genuinly messed-up and because, at the end of the, they are still the villains.

While at the beggining Sugar Sugar Rune might appear as your standard good-vs-evil story, as the plot advances forward, you will realize that neither the villains are as "evil" as the "good guys" might like to portray them, nor are the "good guys" as pure and flawless as they would like to portrait themselves. Let that speak for the level of maturity and good writing this show has.

Going back to the first point: I didn't tought any moment of Sugar Sugar Rune was particularly "childish" or "girly" for me to understand or enjoy, maybe there were, but the good writing made me not realize of them in their totality. Quite the contrary, I would say this show is quite mature for the type of public it tries to reach: It teaches it's audience the valor of letting go something or someone instead of clinging to it desperately in the hopes it will return to their side, to not let the opinions of others to disuade you from who you trully want to be, and perhabs most surprisingly of all, on employee-employer relations on the workplace and the way they should look on an ideal ideal. Definitively a very mature anime to be directed primarly for schoolgirls and that you can bet I will show to my children provided I end-up having a couple of them a few years from now-on (we can always hope to, no?)

On the tecnical standpoint, Sugar Sugar Rune doesn't really stands-up from other shows from the early-to-mid 2000s. Its backrounds are pleasant to look like, but are nothing to write about (the irony, I know). Some of them, especially those who aren't are at the center of the scene poorly and lazily drawn and come out as sort of sloppy more than anything. The artistic design of the characters isn't exactly bad, you can come to enjoy it if you are into the more "cutesy" style of things. I personally, don't have a problem with it, I could go as far as saying I enjoyed it in the vast majority of the episodes, but that it can come of quite "aggresive" in some situations, if you look at it closely. The music is straight-up fire, there wasn't as song from this anime, be from its overall soundtrack or its more "up-front" songs that wasn't good. All of them are going into my anime soundtrack playlist no doubt.

Overall: Sugar Sugar Rune is a good anime that no doubt Mahou Shoujo lovers and even wider audiences will enjoy and find memorable for its characters, history, development, music and artstyle. This series didn't really get an audience in North America, but is fondly remembered in Europe and Japan were it enjoyed a wider release, and that's for a good reason. Go watch Sugar Sugar Rune now, it's an experience worth it!
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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