Sugar Sugar Rune (シュガシュガルーン) or Sugar² Rune is a Japanese magical girl manga series written and illustrated by Moyoco Anno and serialized in the shōjo manga magazine Nakayoshi from September 2003 to May 2007. The series was collected into eight volumes published by Kodansha from September 2003 to May 2007. Sugar Sugar Rune was adapted into an anime television series produced by Studio Pierrot, which aired on TV Tokyo from July 2, 2005 to June 24, 2006. Sugar Sugar Rune won the 29th Kodansha Manga Awards in the children's manga category.

Plot

In the Magical World, the future queen is chosen by selecting two young witches and sending them to the Human World, where they'll compete to capture the hearts of boys. Whoever has collected the most by the end of the competition is crowned queen. This generation's Queen Candidates are best friends and polar opposites Vanilla Mieux and Chocolat Meilleure, the daughters of the current queen and her former competitor (respectively). They're aided by their assigned mentor and guardian, pop idol witch Rockin' Robin, and their two animal familiars, Blanca the mouse and Duke the frog. But the girls have more to deal with than just competing for hearts at school. There's something weird about the cool, mysterious middle school boy Pierre, who resembles the evil king Glace—and he seems to be after Chocolat. Now, both trapped within their own new goals, the two witches must fight their way and retain a friendship which no magic can defeat.

Characters

Media

Manga

The eight-volume manga was written and illustrated by Moyoco Anno. In comparison to the anime, which ended before its serialization in Nakayoshi, the manga more strongly emphasizes the struggle between the witches and the ogres. It was initially published in English by Del Rey Manga, but Udon Entertainment currently has the rights.

Anime

In 2005, Sugar Sugar Rune was adapted into an anime television series produced by Studio Pierrot under the direction of Matsushita Yukihiro. Consisting of fifty-one episodes with scripts composed by Reiko Yoshida and music by Yasufumi Fukuda, Yutaka Minobe, Tomoko Sasaki and Yasuharu Konishi (only the latter is credited in the opening and staff list of the anime, however ), the series was broadcast on TV Tokyo in Japan between July 2, 2005 and June 24, 2006. Three pieces of theme music are used—one opening theme and two closing themes. The opening theme is "Crazy for Chocolat" (ショコラに夢中) by Karia Nomoto. The closing theme for the first twenty-nine episodes is "The World Beyond the Moon" (月の向こうの世界) by Karia Nomoto and the last twenty episodes is "Date Date" (デート☆デート) by the series starring voice actresses Marika Matsumoto and Juri Ibata.

Reception

Sugar Sugar Rune won the 29th Kodansha Manga Awards in the children's manga category. It was called "the greatest fantasy comic of the last five years" by an Anime News Network reviewer, who praised its stylish art and epic conclusion.