Problems With The Sugar Sugar Rune Magic System

The Sugar Sugar Rune anime (#ad) and manga series by Moyoco Anno has an interesting and fascinating magic system. Unfortunately, there are some problems with it. What are these problems? What's wrong with the magic system of this show?

Lack of information

Sugar Sugar Rune's magic system would have been so much more interesting if we had more information about it. The Magical World has all these cool things and the characters with magic can do all sorts of things, but we viewers hardly know how any of this works.

We barely know anything. Pretty much nothing is expounded or elaborated on. And it's such a shame. Because this information would have added to the world building of Sugar Sugar Rune.

Wands in Sugar Sugar Rune

Some of the magical characters in Sugar Sugar Rune have wands. This includes Chocolat Meilleure / Kato, the main character, Vanilla Mieux / Ice, her best friend, and Queen Candy, the current queen of the Magical World and the mother of Vanilla. The question now is do all the people from the Magical World have wands or is it only the witches or women?

Rockin' Robin, Chocolat and Vanilla's guardian in the Human World, is also from the Magical World. He has magic, but, so far, we've never seen him with a wand. Is it because he's male? There's also the fact that the wands we've seen so far all look different from each other. For instance, Kato's wand is topped with a heart while Ice's has a diamond. But why is that? We don't know. There's no explanation at all.

Which is really too bad because this could have been really interesting. This could have been an opportunity for us to find out more about the Magical World of Sugar Sugar Rune as well as how the magic in this world works. I mean, let's take a look at the Harry Potter series of fantasy books by J.K. Rowling for comparison.

All the magical characters in the HP series have wands, not just the females. Their wands are similar too in that they are made of wood and a core. The type of wood and core as well as the length of the stick may differ, but that's because 'the wand chooses the wizard'. As we can see, in the HP series, there are rules for these things. In contrast to that, Sugar Sugar Rune seemingly has no rules at all, so the Magical World in this series doesn't feel as fleshed-out.

Spells in Sugar Sugar Rune

It seems that the magical characters in Sugar Sugar Rune can use magic by saying an incantation. For instance, in Chocolat's case, she says the words, "Sugar Sugar Rune Choco Rune" and then stuff happens.

In Vanilla's case, she says the words, "Sugar Sugar Rune Vani Rune". The problem with this is that this incantation seems to be capable of doing pretty much anything. Whenever the characters need to use their magic, they say these words.

What are the rules? What are the limits? Does this mean they can do anything? Again, we don't know because the show doesn't seem to care about all these details unlike in the Harry Potter series where there are different kinds of spells that allow witches and wizards to do different things.

So, for example, if you want to make something float, you'll say "Wingardium Leviosa" and not "Alohomora" or something. In the HP series, there's a method to these things. Too bad it's not like that in Sugar Sugar Rune.

Magical outfits in Sugar Sugar Rune

Chocolat and Vanilla have magical outfits. It seems that they can't use their magic without transforming. To transform, they use the exact same incantation they use whenever they try to use magic.

The question is how come they need to be in a magical outfit before they can use their magic? We've seen Robin use his magic without having to transform and change his clothes. So is it that only women need to transform before being able to use their magic? Who knows?

Your thoughts and opinions?

What do you think about all this? What do you think about the magic system of Sugar Sugar Rune? Do you find it lacking? Do you think it could have been so much better and more interesting had we been given more information about it and had it been fleshed-out some more?

I talk more about this in this post here on my Tumblr blog. I'd have moved this one here on Anime Archives (Anime Meta) too, but it's already got some comments and notes there, so I decided to keep it there indefinitely. I'm mentioning it here for reference as the rest of the anime posts on there will eventually be moved here.

*Notes:
- Pic is from Amazon.com; link shown above

How The Sugar Sugar Rune Romance Can Be Predictable And Cliche?

Sugar Sugar Rune (#ad) is an anime and manga series by Moyoco Anno. The show's main character is Chocolat Meilleure / Kato, a witch from the Magical World who falls in love with Pierre Tempête de Neige. What's wrong with this romance? What makes it predictable and cliche?

Pierre is a Gary Stu

The anime shows Pierre Tempête de Neige as basically perfect in every way. All the girls in school are fawning over him. He has his own fan club. He's the president of the student council and the captain of the fencing club.

This post talks about this more, but, yeah, it can be really annoying, not to mention unrealistic and unbelievable, how he doesn't seem to have any weaknesses at all. I mean, really, does he need to be good at everything?

Does everyone really need to fawn over him? Wouldn't it be better if there were some people who weren't impressed by him? *Sigh* And, as if that wasn't enough, he's also very handsome and good-looking. Did you expect anything else?

Chocolat is a Mary Sue

If Pierre is a Gary Stu, then Chocolat Meilleure / Kato is a Mary Sue. Huh. Looks like these two are meant to be. LOL. This post shows an example of how Kato can be a Mary Sue. It can also be seen in how she appears to be the only girl that Pierre is interested in. Out of all the girls-and, man, are there a lot. Seriously-fawning all over him and wanting to be with him, Pierre chooses to pay attention to Chocolat.

Pierre ignores everyone else as if they're beneath him, as if they don't matter and the only one who does is Kato. What is so special about her other than the fact that she's unfortunately the main character? Seriously. Main character favoritism, much?

Because it sometimes feels like the whole world revolves around Meilleure, I sometimes find myself wishing she wasn't the main character. It could and should have been her best friend, Vanilla Mieux / Ice.

How Chocolat is supposedly different?

What makes Chocolat different from the other girls is how she's apparently the only one who doesn't like Pierre. While everyone else wants Pierre, Kato scoffs and talks about how she dislikes him. She acts all tough, and, while all the girls gush about Pierre, she's apparently the only one who is able to talk back to him.

Can you see where this is going? Cliche and predictable, much? This is also coming across as unrealistic and unbelievable. Like, come on, are we really supposed to believe that Kato is the only girl who isn't impressed with Pierre?

Is she really the only one who doesn't fawn all over him, the only one who is apparently not in love with him, the only one who doesn't find him appealing? Yeah, right. It would have been better if Chocolat wasn't unique in this. At the very least, it would stop her and Pierre from coming across as a Mary Sue and Gary Stu.

Romance in Sugar Sugar Rune

You can see where this is going, right? Chocolat claims to not like Pierre, but we all know it's not true. We all know she really does like him even though it's not clear why. There are scenes which show Kato blushing around Pierre.

There are scenes which show her being all shy and flustered around him. Then there's how she wants to get his heart, and how she gets all focused on him to the point that she sets aside her supposed main goal.

What she wants is to win the Queen Selection Contest and become the queen of the Magical World. For this to happen, she needs to get a lot of hearts, even more than her best friend. However, instead of focusing on this goal, she ends up getting distracted by Pierre. She wants his heart and his attention and she does things like turning herself into an older girl just to spend time with him.

Of course, Pierre also pays special attention to her since she's apparently the only girl he's into even though she is so much younger than him (seriously, their age difference can be kind of really creepy and weird). As such, it's so obvious that the two will end up together. Practically since the first episode of the Sugar Sugar Rune anime, this pairing is being shoved down the viewers' throats. It's unfortunate that it's just not believable at all.

Your thoughts and opinions?

What do you think about all this? Do you think the romance between Pierre and Chocolat is realistic and believable? Do you think Kato can be a Mary Sue and Pierre a Gary Stu?

I talk more about this issue in this post here on my Tumblr blog. I'd have moved this one here on Anime Archives (Anime Meta) too, but it's already got some comments and notes there, so I decided to keep it there indefinitely. I'm mentioning it here for reference as the rest of the anime posts on there will eventually be moved here.

*Notes:
- Pic is from Amazon.com; link shown above

How Sugar Sugar Rune's Chocolat Kato Is Better Than Harry Potter's Lily Evans?

The continuation of the post title is "at least when it comes to being active and protecting their friends or other people." This post compares and contrasts Lily Evans from the Harry Potter series of books by J.K. Rowling and Chocolat Kato from the Sugar Sugar Rune anime and manga series by Moyoco Anno.

Chocolat from Sugar Sugar Rune

Chocolat Meilleure / Kato (#ad) is the main character of the Sugar Sugar Rune series. The story revolves around her and her best friend, Vanilla Mieux / Ice, being sent from the Magical World to the Human World in order to compete in the Queen Selection Contest. Their goal is to gather as many hearts as they can. Whoever gathers the most hearts will become the new queen of the Magical World.

Lily Evans from Harry Potter

Lily Evans Potter is the mother of Harry Potter, the main character of the Harry Potter series. She's the wife of James Potter and the best friend of Severus Snape, the Head of Slytherin house and the Potions teacher in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She gives up her life in order to protect her son from the Dark Lord Voldemort, the main villain or antagonist.

What Lily and Chocolat have in common?

• Both are known as witches (though the magic system of Sugar Sugar Rune and the Harry Potter series differ)
• They have wands
• They have red hair
• They have green eyes
• They can be brash and outspoken, presenting a tough exterior (more on this below)
• They can be active and helpful though one tends to overdo it while the other doesn't (more on this below)

Sugar Sugar Rune episode 2

In the second episode of the Sugar Sugar Rune anime, we can see that Chocolat seems to have the tendency to use her powers for every little thing. It's good that she's being all active about helping people, but, does she really have to use magic at the drop of a hat?

For example, when that guy was talking to the girl about ballet, how come Chocolat couldn't handle that incident without using magic when she presented herself as a very tough girl? Besides, why'd she resort to magic right away when the guy hasn't even done anything yet?

Snape's Worst Memory scene in Harry Potter

When compared to Kato, Lily comes across as passive. If Chocolat was being rather extreme or if she tends to overdo how she helps people, then Evans comes across as the exact opposite of that. Let's take, for example, what happened in the Snape's Worst Memory scene in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth book in the HP series.

In this scene, James Potter and his friends, the Marauders (Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black), are bullying Severus Snape, Lily's best friend. Evans shows up to "help". Why is the word help in quotation marks, you ask? Because, based on what happened, it feels like she didn't really help.

Lily talks to James, showing off her tough and brash exterior by telling him to stop bullying her best friend. But Potter doesn't listen. He tries to blackmail her into going out with him (he says he'll stop bullying Severus Snape if Lily agrees to go on a date with him). He even threatens to hurt her.

It's clear that James has no intention of stopping what he's doing unless Lily agrees to go out with him. So what does Evans do? She keeps right on talking to Potter even though it's clear that was not working at all.

She's a witch, she has magic, so why doesn't she use that to help her best friend? If she can't handle the situation on her own, why doesn't she call on her friends or the teachers for help? There were so many things she could have done to help Severus instead of just standing there and talking to James.

Lily doesn't even spare a single word for Snape. She only talks to him when he ends up calling her a 'mudblood'. By then, she's done "helping" him. In the end, she leaves him to his bullies and tormentors. So much for helping.

Is Chocolat Kato better than Lily Evans?

In this regard, at least, yes, Chocolat can be said to be better than Lily. Because she's not all talk. She actually helps for real. Maybe she uses magic at the drop of a hat, but at least she uses it for a good reason.

On the other hand, Lily is said to be a bright and intelligent witch, so she's perfectly capable of actually helping Snape (as in using her own magic to free him) and yet she appears to be more interested in talking to James Potter, the bully. What does that say about her?

Another thing to take note of is how Kato is actually new to the Human World, so she's not that close to the girl she was helping in episode 2. She's new to the school, and it's not Vanilla Ice, her best friend, who is in trouble. And yet Chocolat helps anyway. If this was her best friend in need of help, it's clear she'll definitely help.

In contrast to that, in Lily's case, the one who is in trouble is her best friend. Severus Snape is said to be her best friend, but the way she "helps" him leaves a lot to be desired. It's like she didn't really put that much effort into it. Her actions don't scream "best friend". They scream "random passer-by who decided to help, but then changed her mind when the person she was helping ended up insulting her".

Of course, it was her right to get mad and angry when Snape called her a 'mudblood'. But that didn't happen until much later. What would have happened if Lily's priority when she first showed up in this scene was to actually help Severus? What if she showed up and focused her attention on Snape to help him? What if she only had a few scathing words to say to Potter and the Marauders before turning her back on them and using her magic to help her best friend?

Unfortunately, Evans didn't do any of this. She seemed perfectly content talking to James and basically ignoring her supposed best friend. Again, what does that say about her when she's supposed to be a kind and nice person?

Your thoughts and opinions?

So, what do you think about all this? Which one do you like better- Chocolat or Lily? Do you think Evans could have done more to help her best friend? Do you think Kato uses magic at the drop of a hat?

*Notes:
- Pic is from Amazon.com; link shown above