Forum - View topicSugar Sugar Rune
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jgreen
 Posts: 1325 Location: St. Louis, MO |
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As some of you may have noticed me post here before, I write comics reviews for the website PLAYBACK:stl. I review a lot of manga over there, which is fine by me as I've been a big manga fan for a long time, but unfortunately I end up getting to read just as much bad stuff (Free Collars Kingdom, for example....yeesh) as good stuff.
So imagine my surprise when I sat down to (finally) read Sugar Sugar Rune and found that I really, REALLY liked it. Now don't get me wrong, I enter into every series with an open mind, and despite being an almost-28-year-old male, I have nothing inherently against magical girl shows. I'm a big fan of Sailor Moon, I have all of Cardcaptor Sakura on DVD, I even like the Pichi Pichi Pitch manga well enough. It's just that it's a story genre that is as likely to be bland and formulaic as any other, and even the good ones follow the formula pretty closely. But Sugar Sugar Rune is unlike any of that stuff. Sure, it starts off that way, with two cute, likable witches with cutesy-pie names (Vanilla and Chocolat) stealing boys' hearts with their stylish magic wands. But by the third volume, when spoiler[Vanilla is basically brainwashed by Pierre and becomes an ogre], the story becomes something else entirely. The characterization is sharp, the story is engrossing, and the art....man, Moyoco Anno's art is great. Quirky, and really unlike anything else. Has anyone else fallen for this series the way I have? I decided to grab it off of my overflowing review shelf simply because it had the most volumes backlogged (5) and ended up so engrossed with it that I read all 5 volumes, skimmed through them again, and then spent all day today crafting an 1100 word love letter to how good the series is. Seriously, anyone with a jones for shojo should check this out....you won't be disappointed. Also, has anyone out there read Anno's other series, Flowers & Bees and Happy Mania? How do they compare? |
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darkhunter
 Posts: 2992 Location: Los Angelas |
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I've read the seinen series Flower and Bees and it's one of my two favorite comedy series actually (the one was Dance Till Tomorrow). I haven't read it for a while so I don't remember all the exact detail but I really enjoy the dark humor and wild antic in the book. The main character is easy to identify with because Anno does a great job of expressing the characters' feelings and thoughts honestly within the given situation. The main character was very likable because even though he was a loser, he tried very hard. It does get a little crazy and a little unrealistic after several volume but the ending was very good. If you're a male and you've been insecure about your looks and getting girls during high school, this book is for you.
I've also read Happy Mania and didn't like it as much because the story and characterization was all over the place. The pacing seem very random and the female character was annoying imo. Dropped after 5 volume. Haven't read SSR yet, but heard some good review for it a while back. |
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pixiebell
 Posts: 102 |
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Thank you so much for your review! I orderd Vol. 1 online a little bit ago because it looked right up my ally. Hopefully it will arive soon! Your review has me even more excited about getting to read it.
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Torhu_San
 Posts: 133 Location: Upstate Ny |
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I love Sugar Sugar Rune! I also was a little hesitant when I saw it on the shelves at Borders, but then I figured that getting the first volume wouldn't kill me. I was hooked after that! I liked that fact that spoiler[ Chocolat had a hard time, and still does, when it comes to getting hearts vs vanilla who seemed like she would be the one who have problems because of her shyness.] I love the art, and the plot. It's makes you, even for a cutesy magical girl series, want to know what happens next. Personally, I am antsy for volume 6 to come out. I'm happy to know that there is someone right there with me.
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jgreen
Posts: 1325 Location: St. Louis, MO |
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Actually, that's not a ringing endorsement because I hated Dance Till Tomorrow!  If you read the series in Pulp magazine (as opposed to in the trade), you may even have noticed some *ahem* profanity-laden letters I wrote about how much I hated the series, calling it a mindless spoiler[fudge]fest. As time went by, I started to appreciate the series more, but I never really got all that into it.
Sounds good to me! I'll see if my comic shop has the first volume in stock...
No problem, thanks for reading it!
Yeah, definitely! I'm curious as to when the book will be coming out, though. The back of Vol. 5 said March 27th, but Amazon, Del Rey's site, Right Stuf all have July. I really don't want to wait that long. 
And for anyone on the fence about checking the series out, Del Rey has a 32 page preview here. |
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Patachu
Past ANN Contributor
 Posts: 1325 Location: San Diego |
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I have been hyping this series since, like, the day it first came out in America and I am glad to see it finally getting its due.
Honestly though, there were times when I felt it didn't deserve its due, because it was farting around and falling back on cliche just as much as it was trying to get into a dark, complex story ... but then ...
I agree with jgreen that Volume 3 is the turning point, and in addition, Volume 5 absolutely blew my mind because it was adventure fantasy done right (a genre that I have come to loathe after being subjected to so many crappy hack-ass versions of it -- D&D ripoffs, LotR ripoffs, anything that begins with Final and ends in Fantasy...). Sugar² Rune has made me believe in spells and magic and quests again. 
Don't ever watch the anime though, it's filler-y and craptastic. Lately I've been enjoying the anime adaptation of Anno's Hataraki Man and I think if I ever got around to grabbing the manga of it I'd probably love that too. It's mostly just a story about the ups and downs of working life. At my age that's something I can relate to a lot more than schoolyard crushes or spirit-power battles (even though I still love those from time to time). |
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jgreen
Posts: 1325 Location: St. Louis, MO |
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Yeah, Vol. 3 was where everything really kicked off. Before that, it was like "Wow, this is a pretty good little series." After that, it was like "OMG I can't turn the pages fast enough! Or something like that. 
I actually enjoyed Vol. 5 just *slightly* less than the 2 that preceded it. To me, it was well done but it seemed to be distracting a bit too much from the main plot, although there is all that good angst between Chocolat and Pierre spoiler[when they're trapped on the Forgotten Path and she knows he can't steal her heart]. The stuff with the Witch of the Plains was pretty fun, too, although she could have been developed a bit more. Still, I liked it a lot, and I can't wait for Vol. 6.
Yeah, that's the impression I got from reading even the synopsis of the anime series. It's like they tried to turn it into the generic magical girl show that it tries so hard to NOT be.
This is not available in English, correct? |
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