Sugar Sugar Rune episode 3
Let's take a look at the third episode of the anime as an example. In this episode, Nishitani, one of Chocolat's friends and classmates, requests an interview from her. She agrees. Nishitani is very happy about this because he has a crush on her. In fact, his heart had turned orange for her. The interview takes place at the library. Nishitani asks questions and Chocolat answers.Does Chocolat care?
Kato answers Nishitani's questions in seemingly the most bored way possible. She doesn't elaborate on her answers. She's hardly paying attention to the guy. In fact, when Pierre Tempête de Neige passes by their table, what little attention she has for Nishitani disappears as she focuses entirely on Pierre.This makes her come across as insensitive, uncaring and inconsiderate of other people's feelings. If she didn't want to be interviewed, why did she say yes when Nishitani asked? She's not the shy type. She's fiery and aggressive and outspoken, so she has no problems saying no. Instead of leading the poor guy on, why not just say no and be done with it?
Does Chocolat know about Nishitani's feelings for her?
Chocolat should have an idea that Nishitani has feelings for her since she saw his heart turn orange. In fact, she planned to take his heart. Knowing the boy has a crush on her, why would she treat him this way?Love in Sugar Sugar Rune
Maybe Chocolat's actions can be excused because she's far too young to know about love, because she's still just a kid, because she doesn't really get how this works. Except using these kinds of excuses would present a bigger problem in the narrative.If Kato is too young to understand love (and she is. She's an elementary student. She's only 10, if I remember correctly), why is the show trying to shove her and Pierre into a romantic relationship? If she's just a kid (and she is), why is she so obsessed with Pierre who is in middle school and is much older than her? How can she be in love with Pierre if she doesn't really know how it works?
But if we say that she does know about love and how it works even though she's far too young, then how would that explain why she basically ignored Nishitani and why she treated him in such an uncaring and cold manner?
Queen selection contest
The queen contest should also be taken into consideration. Chooclat and Vanilla Mieux / Ice, her best friend, had been sent to the human world to collect hearts. Whoever collects the most hearts will win the competition and become the next queen of the magical world.Acquiring hearts means or entails changing or manipulating people's feelings. If they have a crush on you or they like you or think they're in love with you, their hearts will change color. You can then collect these hearts. In Nishitani's case, his orange heart eventually turns pink for Kato. She collects this heart as part of the contest.
Now, if we say that the girls (Vanilla and Chocolat) are too young for love, wouldn't this also mean that they are far too young for this contest? If they don't know how this works, they shouldn't be participating in this contest.
Problem with Chocolat?
Regardless of the reasons or what Kato does and does not know, she still shouldn't have ignored Nishitani during the interview. Besides, even if we say she doesn't know about love and don't bother taking into consideration how she's falling for Pierre and how she has to collect hearts for the contest, she should at least know how to treat a friend.She should know that ignoring Nishitani and paying more attention to someone who is merely passing by is not how one treats a friend. She could at least try to look more interested when Nishitani is talking to her instead of looking bored. She could have put more effort in answering his questions. She could have been more enthusiastic about the whole thing, which shouldn't be hard for her since she's usually the life of the party.
Her actions during this scene were uncaring, cold and insensitive. They're not the actions of a friend. She doesn't need to return Nishitani's feelings. However, at the very least, she could have been more of a friend to him. She could have treated him right.
Your thoughts and opinions
What do you think about this? Do you think Kato can be inconsiderate of other people's feelings at times? Do you think she's too young to know and understand love?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
