Sugar Sugar Rune



Sugar Sugar Rune is a Magical Girl manga by Moyoco Anno later adapted into a 51 episode anime. It is about two candidates to become queen of the Magical World, the best friends Chocolat and Vanilla. In order to obtain the title, they must go to the mortal world and capture hearts, which are handily turned into gems for them to carry around in their lockets. Whoever captures more valuable hearts will become queen.

This show provides examples of:

 * Absurdly Powerful Student Council: Well, the middle school's student council is powerful enough to meddle in the elementary school's student council election, anyway.
 * Actually I Am Him: Not surprisingly,  in the last arc of the anime.
 * All Girls Want Bad Boys: Chocolat and Vanilla's unending fascination with Pierre.
 * Alpha Bitch: Yurika, the more-or-less leader of The Members, doesn't take kindly to Chocolat getting friendly with Pierre.
 * Baleful Polymorph:
 * Beach Episode: One in a filler episode at an island resort, one at a magically-constructed beach.
 * Big Fancy House
 * Bratty Half Pint: Waffle, not so debatably (see below).
 * By the Power of Greyskull: This series title is from the incantation used to capture hearts, "Sugar, Sugar, Rune!" Different characters can add different things to it. For example, Chocolat says, "Sugar, Sugar, Rune! Choco Rune!"
 * The Casanova: Robin, sort of. Only instead of loving 'em and leaving 'em, he takes their hearts and leaves them.
 * Cerebus Syndrome: By the time you get to the late 30s and early 40s episodes, you may find yourself forgetting about the cute and playful "witchgirls chant spells to collect hearts" mood of early episodes.
 * Chick Magnet: Captain Glacier, during his 1-episode visit to the Human World.
 * Convection Schmonvection: Played straight as an arrow in the penultimate episode of the anime. Curse you, TV Tropes, for making me unable to take all the lava hazards seriously!
 * Cute Little Fangs: Chocolat, Vanilla, and most of their kind have these.
 * Cute Witch: The series features this iteration of Magical Girl.
 * Dark Magical Girl:
 * Dirty Old Man: Chocolat's grandfather, although the age demographic of the series puts a limit on his shenanigans.
 * Disappeared Dad: Neither Chocolat nor Vanilla's fathers are even mentioned in the anime, although the identity of Chocolat's father is revealed in the manga.
 * Familiar: Vanilla has Blanca the mouse, and Chocolat has Duke the frog.
 * Filler: the anime has a lot of this, probably because the manga wasn't very far along when the anime began. To give you an idea, the events in episode 39 (of 51) of the anime take place in volume 3 (of 8) of the manga. Entire characters such as Waffle and Nana were introduced just to take up time. The fact that any Waffle-centric episode is guaranteed to be filler is one reason why fans don't like her too much.
 * Fiery Redhead: Chocolat is a perfect example of this.
 * Fragile Flower: Vanilla.
 * Gecko Ending: Bizarrely executed. The first 5 minutes of episode 49 bear some relation to the manga, but the rest of that episode and the last two comprise anime-original material.
 * Genki Girl: Chocolat, all the way.
 * Hair of Gold: Vanilla, to an extent.
 * Harmless Freezing: Then again, it's magical freezing, so the laws of physics need not apply.
 * The High Queen
 * Hot Shoujo Dad: Rockin' Robin is a "legal guardian" variation of this.
 * Invisible to Normals: Magic can not be seen by anyone other than witches.
 * Japanese Pronouns: Saule has issues with these when while magically disguised as an attractive woman.
 * The Jimmy Hart Version: The theme song was meant to sound like Serge Gainsbourg's "Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son" (Wax Doll, Sound Doll), made famous by France Gall when she sung it at the 1965 Eurovision Song Contest and won.
 * Just Friends: Chocolat and her male school friend, Mimura.
 * Leeroy Jenkins: Chocolat, when she and square off against a giant spider.
 * Lethal Chef: Waffle.
 * Level Ate: The magical world is of the Type B variety. It's not completely made of food, though some objects like clouds are. The people, like Chocolat, Vanilla, and Queen Candy, are named after food and some places also have food names.
 * Lovely Angels: Vanilla and Chocolat.
 * Magical Girl: The main characters are these.
 * Magical Girl Queenliness Test
 * Missing Mom: Chocolat's mother, Cinnamon.
 * Most Writers Are Adults: Apparently having a boyfriend/girlfriend is all 10-year-olds think about.
 * Never Mess With Granny: Nana's magic has random success rates most of the time, but not when it comes to protecting Waffle.
 * On the Next Episode of Catchphrase: "If you don't watch, I'll whup your butt!" ~or some variation of it. Particularly when Chocolat's grandfather visits: "If I'm not careful, I might get my butt whupped!" or "This time, it's your butt on the whupping block, Gramps!"
 * Plot Coupon: The Hearts that Chocolat and Vanilla collect from humans. However, the act of collecting them has some bearing on the plot and character interactions -- taking someone's heart means they lose the emotions associated with the heart's color. At one point, Chocolat even decides not to take a heart because of this effect.
 * Portmanteau Series Nickname: S2R or Sugar2 Rune
 * In the anime, "S2R" is engraved on Chocolat's heart holder.
 * Public Domain Artifact - the Mandragora plants.
 * Really 6000 Years Old: Robin.
 * Redheaded Hero: Chocolat (brunette in the manga)
 * School Newspaper Newshound: Akira
 * Shout Out - to various video games and other media, although these lines could also be attributed to fansubber shenanigans:
 * "Snake, do you copy?"
 * "Can't let you do that!" and "I cannot allow you to go any further."
 * "What? What is this?"
 * "There is no conflict."
 * "No, you are the cowards."
 * Spell My Name With an S: The officially translated manga and the fansubs that adhered to its naming conventions spell two characters' names as "Woo" and "Soul." However, other official sources state that they should be "Houx" and "Saule," which are French plant names.
 * Also "Rockin' Robin" vs. "Rockin' Lovin'"
 * Fansubs for later episodes use Houx and Saule.
 * In later episodes, "Amber" (Del Rey) vs. "Ombre" (fansubs)
 * The Power of Friendship
 * The Power of Love
 * Tomboy and Girly Girl: A defining trait of the Chocolat/Vanilla character dynamic.
 * Transformation Sequence: Averted in the manga where the girls are 'always' witches. Played straight in the anime where they get sequences to turn into them.
 * Transformation Trinket: Subverted in the manga where the lockets only act to hold hearts and to turn into their wands. Played straight in the anime where they allow the girls to transform into witches.
 * Verbal Tic: Blanca's "chu" (mouse squeak) and Duke's "kero" (frog ribbit).
 * What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart Anyway: Subverted, in that the hearts extracted from humans not only serve as points in the Queen selection test, but also as a currency and an energy source in the Magical World.
 * Witch Species- Witches live in the magical world and are much different from humans.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Robin's is purple.
 * Younger Than They Look and Wise Beyond Their Years: These girls are ten years old?
 * Zettai Ryouiki: The stockings in Chocolat's witch outfit qualify her for this.
 * Zettai Ryouiki: The stockings in Chocolat's witch outfit qualify her for this.