Manga / Shugo Chara!

My own heart, unlock!

Shugo Chara! is a shoujo manga by PEACH-PIT, serialized in Nakayoshi from 2006 to 2010. Compiled in 12 volumes, it won the 2008 Kodansha Manga Award during its run. Shugo Chara! received its own anime adaptation that began in fall of 2007, and is available on Crunchyroll. In addition to its success, it was also adapted into a musical in 2009.

Amu Hinamori is a middle-school kid whose cool and cynical exterior has made her one of the most popular (and unapproachable) girls in school. Yet beneath this "Cool and Spicy" image lies a shy, clumsy and lovestruck girl who wishes that she had the confidence to express her true character.

One night she prays to her "Guardian Spirits" for the strength to be more honest to herself, and is shocked when her prayers are answered by three magical eggs. These hatch into her three Shugo Chara, or Guardian Characters, each one representing a different facet of her hidden personality: her sporty and energetic side, her artistic side, and her domestic side. With the aid of her Guardian Characters, which can bring her buried personality traits to the surface (sometimes against her will), Amu slowly learns to embrace and accept her Hidden Depths.

But Wait, There's More! Amu soon falls in with her school's "Guardians", an Absurdly Powerful Student Council whose four members each have their own Guardian Character. She discovers that her multiple Guardian Characters make her The Chosen One, able to transform into a Magical Girl with three different forms, one for each Guardian Character she has. With her new powers, she must hunt down the mysterious "Embryo" and battle against the agents of the Easter Company, who are creating Monsters Of The Week from her classmates' deepest insecurities.^note Which has less of a focus in the manga than it does in the anime.

Has nothing to do with that Chara.

A sequel manga continuing Amu's story has been officially announced for release for Summer 2024.

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Provides examples of:

• Absurdly Powerful Student Council: The Guardians (in grade school, no less).
• The Ace:
  • Amu has shades of this, though it is mostly thanks to her Chara. She's still excellent at psychological help, though.
  • The anime only Lulu is a more straight example. Jewelry making, dancing, rock climbing...she can do anything!
• Adaptation Expansion: The anime speeds up the pacing to introduce Character Transformation right off the bat, allowing a formerly Story Arc driven series to play out as a Monster of the Week show in the vein of Sailor Moon, in turn stretching a 48 chapter manga into a 100+ episode anime.
• Aesop Amnesia: Averted during one of the last episodes of the second season: A noticeable amount of said season contained the aesop of telling somebody about your problems and believing that they would not make anything worse. Therefore, when the Guardians decide to infiltrate Dream Egg Land, they also decide to call their parents to tell them that they will be home much later tonight, rather than actually tell them what happened and ask for their assisstance... Except for the fact that Amu, having learned this aesop the hard way earlier, is hesitant to yet again not inform her family that something is wrong. She eventually does do it, but only after rationalizing that this time, her family might actually be in danger, unlike the incident involving Ikuto freeloading.
• Air-Vent Passageway: Kiseki and Yoru pull off an escape this way in the Easter building in episode 81. Justified, since the Chara are small enough to fit in normal air ducts, and can fly to avoid making noise or being too heavy.
• Alpha Bitch: Yamabuki Saaya, played for laughs, since when compared to Amu, she's nowhere as popular.
• Alternative Foreign Theme Song: Has an Italian theme song performed by Cristina D'Avena, with a helping of Gratuitous English.
• Ambition is Evil: Averted constantly, consistently, and absolutely. Even with Gozen, it was less the fact that he was the CEO of a large company, but rather the emotional detachment caused by it. This is shown fully when Hikaru decides to stay as head of the company, but, this time, starts becoming more honest about it.
• Amplifier Artifact:
  • The Humpty Lock that was given to Amu by the Guardians appears at first to be a Transformation Trinket, but since other characters don't need the Lock around to transform, it's actually this trope. Without it, Amu can only do a partial Character Change for a short time, but with it, she can do a full Character Transformation with any of her three Charas...and other people's Chara's can force her into a transformation on a whim!
  • The Dumpty Key, which is carried by Ikuto, is an Amplifier Artifact that applies to the Humpty Lock's own amplification! When the Key is finally inserted into the Lock in the penultimate episode, Amu and Ikuto both temporarily gain the ability to merge with all their own Charas at once.
• And Call Him "George": Ami is this to the Nth degree...well, from Ran, Miki, and Su's perspective, anyway...
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Played straight in a number of respects with Ami, but also subverted: Amu can and indeed sometimes wants to take care of her well, but Ami's boisterousness, as well as their parents' tendencies becoming amplified within regards to Ami, can be rather anger-inducing. This pretty much sums it up:
  Ami: When I grow up, I want to be just like onee-chan!
  Some episodes later.
  Ami: When I grow up, I want to be just like Utau-chan!
  Amu: I thought that you wanted to be like me...
• The Artifact: X-eggs and Character Transformations in the manga.
• Art Evolution: Especially in the eyes and the chin. If you look closely, the eyes are later shaped like a square, with the chin lines being more straight.
• Ballet Episode: Manga chapter 9 and anime episode 6 not only features the debut of Amulet Spade, it's also an example of this as Yaya is shown to be a ballet student, and the episode centers on a recital for an apparently In-Universe ballet about flower fairies, with the Victim of the Week having been sidelined by a sprained ankle and Yaya taking her place as prima ballerina for the recital. Amu is also put in the same pink tutu as the corps de ballet, but she doesn't dance in that outfit.
• Becoming the Mask: Borderline. Nikaidou-sensei slides right back into using his ditzy teacher persona after his Heel–Face Turn, and no one in the school, sans the Guardians, is any the wiser.
  • And Kairi as well.
• Berserk Button: Don't use the word 'prince' in regards to Tadase or belittle Nagihiko's strange family upbringing.
• Big Eater: Utau Hoshina might not look like it, but she can eat three big bowls of Ramen in less than 20 minutes... and still not be satisfied.

• Bishie Sparkle: This is a magical girl show, so every single male gets a sparkly scene. It's even lampshaded, when Nadeshiko returns as Nagihiko. As an attempt to change his mind, Tadase sparkles, but it doesn't work. Later, when Amu encounters them and is told about Nagihiko being the new Jack, she sparkles as well, and the rest is history.

• Bouquet Toss: In the last chapter of the manga, at Nikaidou and Yukari's wedding. Guess who catches it? Amu.
  • An earlier anime filler episode had the same thing happen. Except, she then got into an Imagine Spot that got a little crowded...
• Bratty Half-Pint: Yaya can be this way at times. Rikka also qualifies.
• Bridal Carry: Quite a few times, Ikuto has ended up with Amu in his arms. Even once in an outfit that resembles a wedding dress!
• Broken Aesop: Well, not so much "broken" as "badly written". Episode 21 of Party/Dokki Doki tries to remind the viewers that it's okay to make mistakes. However, it places too much focus on the "importance" of making mistakes, going so far as to say that mistakes are "treasures". As a result, it comes off as implying that making mistakes is the "only" way to learn.
• Brother–Sister Incest: Hoshina Utau's real name is Tsukiyomi Utau. No wonder Ikuto brushes off her romantic advances.
• By the Power of Grayskull!:
  • (First-person pronoun) no kokoro, UNLOCK! (My heart, unlock!)
  • Yaya being, well... Yaya prefers to do it her own "unique" way.
• Calling Your Attacks: "Negative heart, LOCK ON! OPEN... HEART!!!"
• Cat People: Ikuto, as well as a Filler character from Doki.
• Central Theme: Identity and growing up are themes that pop up throughout the series.
• Christmas Episode: It was so nice, they did it twice.
• Chromatic Arrangement: Ran, Miki and Suu hatch in that order.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Utau's motivation right there.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Suu. Who instead of worrying about what Nikaidou was going to do with her, was more worried that his place was messy. Also, she thought he was going to eat them.
  • El counts, big time.
• The Collector: You know those 100 + episodes of Shugo Chara, in which Easter did horrible evil things to capture the Embryo for an (assumed) just as horrible and evil goal? Well, turns out The Boss is really just a collector of shiny objects, and wants to add the Embryo to his Trophy Room.
  • Played with, with the fact that he's not just doing it for shiny objects: They're meant to be a substitute for actually feeling anything, which doesn't work. That, and it's played up that somebody did all of that for something so petty, saying that doing that for what is essentially nothing is even worse than somebody who would do what Gozen did for larger goals. Contrast with Tadase, who wants to take over the world, but is one of the friendliest boys you'll ever meet until the word "prince" comes up.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Kazuomi Hoshina, plain and simple. He isn't at all above ruining children's dreams and using his own stepson Ikuto as a puppet to do his evil bidding, including such things as forcing Ikuto to transform with a black egg filled with evil energy that can kill him (not like he cares about Ikuto's well-being) and making him attack Amu, the girl he loves. Such a nice guy...not.
• Curtains Match the Window: Several characters.
• Dark Magical Girl: Utau.
• Dating Sim: The first NDS game have a minor example of one. Hunting X-Eggs and playing mini-games gives coins to Amu, which she can use to buy things and give to boys. Each one have a favorite color and type of item, and while Amu doesn't end with anyone, the game unlocks some romantic scenes. The avaiable boys are Ikuto, Tadase, Kuukai, Nagihiko and later in the game Nikaidou.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Mr. Nikaidou, who became the teacher at Amu's school again after she defeated him and foiled his plans. It does help that he got to see his long-lost Guardian Chara again, plus some dose of Epiphany Therapy. Also, Amu and Utau.
  • Special example. Amu and Lulu already start becoming friends before they have to fight, but that's because Amu doesn't know Lulu's secret.
• Despair Event Horizon: When a kid succumbs to this, their Heart's Egg turns into an X-Egg. Since X-Eggs are the Monsters of the Week of the series, and Easter needs to gather lots of them to power their evil machines and find the Embryo, a LOT of kids fall over the brink in increasing numbers, from one-on-one Mind Rape sessions with Nikaidou to hundreds and hundreds of listeners to Magic Music. Luckily, Amu's Open Heart and some other Character Transformed characters' moves can purify the X-Eggs and save the eggs' owners from despair, complete with Laser-Guided Amnesia to cover up the supernatural events involved.
  • However, if an X-Egg is physically attacked, it breaks, meaning a kid's dream is lost forever. The Guardians take pains to prevent this from happening, and only attack X-Eggs in non-lethal ways.
• Disappeared Dad: Utau and Ikuto's father, a prominent violinist, disappeared after he was going to be forced to give up playing the violin and run the Easter company. It is never revealed what eventually became of him.
• Dissonant Serenity: Su has shown this on occasion, including when Nikaidou tried to turn her into another Embryo.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • An instance of Amu and Ikuto licking the same ice cream should be innocent, but the pose, sound effects and music invoked the trope. Especially since the ice cream cone they're licking is Tadase's.
  • You can't mention this trope in this series without recalling when Ikuto recovers Amu's stolen Humpty Lock. Before giving it back, Ikuto decides to hold it up to Amu's chest and stick his Dumpty Key in Amu's Humpty Lock in an act strikingly similar to intercourse, with the background literally going magical, softer music begins playing in the background, and Amu blushes wildly as Ikuto gets closer and closer to slowly inserting the key into the lock. Literally, of course. Amu gets startled halfway through, crushing the moment and revealing that the key is too large for the lock for now....
  • Amu and Ikuto aren't the only victims of these. The whole arm-wrestling scene in episode 91 just feels like a G-rated yaoi sex scene, at least when taken out of context. Not only Nagihiko tells Kuukai to "be gentle" at the start ^note As in "Be gentle, this is my first time", the scene also involves a lot of grunting, groaning and luminescent blushing, and ends with Rhythm's egg rising from the pocket it was in and Kuukai screaming out loud as he wins the match.
• Doting Parents: Amu's parents crank this up to eleven.
• Dreadful Musician: Yamabuki Saaya can't sing. She can play piano, though.
• Eigen Plot: Sometimes has shades of this to give Amu a reason to Chara Transform with Miki and Suu instead of her 'standard', Ran. It's not too noticeable, but there certainly seem to be a lot of artists and cooks with broken hearts around, for some reason...
• Elaborate University High: Seriously, is that a school^note It has at least elementary and middle school divisions or Disney Castle?
• Elegant Gothic Lolita: Utau's daily wardrobe has elements of this. It even extends to Il and El's lace-printed Eggs.
• Enigmatic Minion: Ikuto.
• Epiphany Therapy: Nikaidou-sensei's Heel–Face Turn is encouraged by Suu's Remake Honey making his Shugo Chara, that he thought was gone, come back and talk to him. It leaves, but it is pointed out by Suu that he had said "See you again," and was therefore not gone forever.
• Everyone Must Be Paired: The final volume, Encore, focuses on pairing off the remaining main characters: Chapter 1: Utau/Kuukai. Chapter 2: Rima/Nagihiko. Chapter 3: Yaya/Kairi.
• Excited Title! Two-Part Episode Name!: Such as "Remake Honey! The Person I Want To Be!" Many feature a character's name in it, like "Nadeshiko! Goodbye Despite Spring!?", "Rima! Unlock the Heart!" and "Utau Hoshina! The Last Battle!".
• Expy: Probably at least part of the reason for Nana Mizuki being cast as Utau, but her singing voice can't hurt.
  • And, lest we forget, Suiseiseki, desu.
  • Put Kukai, Tadase, and Nagihiko together and you basically have the trio from the infamous Boku no Pico OVA series.
• Eyepatch of Power: Ikuto's Seven Seas Treasure transformation.
• Eyes Always Shut: El. Lampshaded by Ran, who remarked that she was awake, though her eyes are still closed.
• Filler: Yes. Shugo Chara is a MONTHLY manga, it's primarily aimed for kids, and there's not much TV Tokyo can do about it, seeing that the manga releases are SLOW. It didn't help that Peach-Pit was also doing Rozen Maiden and Zombie Loan at the same time they made this.
  • Shugo Chara Party is an entire filler season. And after that they decided to just stop production with no indication of any plans to adapt the last arc of the manga.
• Five-Man Band Concert: The second ending briefly depicts the Guardians as a band: Yaya, The Baby of the Bunch, is the vocalist; Tadase, the Bishōnen, plays the bass; Nadeshiko, The Ace, is on the keyboard; and Kukai, the Big Brother Mentor, plays the drums.
• Forgot I Could Fly: At one point, Amu gets scared by a silhouette of what appears to be a giant centipede. Turns out it's the Chara, standing on each other's shoulders trying to reach a high place... until Miki points out, "Uh, guys? We can fly."
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Nikaidou-sensei. He manipulated his innocent students so he could destroy their hopes and dreams to try for a promotion. It's eventually subverted when he becomes a good guy. Yukari also probably counts. Again, post-redemption subversion.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Ran is Sanguine, Miki is Phlegmatic, Suu is Choleric, and Dia is Melancholic. By extension, Amu is Supine.
• Friendly Enemy: Ikuto
• Frilly Upgrade: A partial example with Amulet Fortune — while it's not based on a previous outfit, it's still simultaneously the most powerful and the frilliest outfit Amu gets in the series.
• Full-Name Basis: Tadase insists on calling Ikuto by his full name every time they meet.
  • Yamabuki Saaya insists on using her full name everytime she appears.
• Fusion Dance: The Character Transformation mechanics are of the Power Booster type.
• Genki Girl: Ran (Amulet Heart as well, to an extent), Yaya and Rikka
• The Gentleman or the Scoundrel: Amu must choose between Tadase (the Gentleman) and Ikuto (the Scoundrel)
• Ghost in the Machine: Essentially what a Guardian Chara is, albeit external.
• Girlish Pigtails: Let's see... Yaya, Utau, Amulets Clover and Diamond, and Pure Feeling.

• The Glasses Come Off: Subverted. Nikaidou originally only wore his glasses as a disguise to look like an innocent teacher and took them off when he was away from the school. After he leaves Easter he wears them almost all of the time.
• The Glasses Gotta Go: Supposedly, Sechiro is a "Bishonen" without his glasses, but the way It's spoken makes it seem like it means "Handsome".
• Good Angel, Bad Angel: Il and El, Utau's Charas, are a devil and an angel.
• Gratuitous English: One of the first X-characters, and Amu's Dad. Though not gratuitous, Rhythm and chara-changed Nagihiko spout random English.
  • El has been known to fall into this.
    • "Shuddup!!"
  • At the theme park in episode 99, you can see "Well Come" instead of "Welcome". Of course, since the park was built by Easter, it could be a way of saying "Well, come here if you think you can stop us".
• Growing Up Sucks: As people grow up, they break their heart's egg and become a corporate zombie. And even if you do gain a chara and achieve your dreams, they still leave you at some point.
  • Only if you stop believing in your dreams. You see, it's not a definite thing, so this trope can potentially be a subversion (or even an aversion) depending on the person.
    • Definitely the believing part. Tsukasa may or may not be the future version of Tadase and you can still see Kiseki with him, plus the fact that Amu's Shugo Chara returned to their egg form.
    • Tsukasa is the exception, though. Kiseki still mentions that he can't show up outside the Road of Stars. Nor can Yoru now that Ikuto has succeeded in his dream, for that matter.
• Half-Identical Twins: Subverted with Nadeshiko, who pretends to be twins of opposite genders in front of Amu.
• The Heartless: The X-charas are pretty much the same as the original heartless, but on a smaller scale.
• The Hecate Sisters: Ran, Miki, Suu
• The Homeward Journey: During the first Christmas Episode, Su gets lost.
• Honest Axe: Done with Pepe's pacifier in episode 8 of Party.
• Idiot Hair: Tadase and Tsukasa.
• Idol Singer: Utau and filler character Yua Sakurai.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: The fortune teller who awakened Amu ironically wants to become a housewife and forget that Charas and the supernatural exist.
  • Amu's own hesitations about being a magical girl contribute to the whole mess in the Dia arc.
• Imagine Spot: Amu has a few. They tend to be hilarious.

• Indirect Kiss: Discussed when Amu winds up holding Tadase's ice cream cone and she has to resist the temptation to lick it. Then Ikuto turns up and licks it, and then invites Amu to lick it with him, while Tadase stands there watching.
• Instant Fan Club: There are actually several of these, with overlapping memberships; they're formed prior to the start of the series. The Guardians as a whole, the boys individually, and Amu and Rima even before they join, each have fanclubs. Each fanclub is based on the target's outward character, not the inner one.
• Invisible to Normals: You don't have to have your own Guardian Character to see them, you just have to believe they exist.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Tadase does this when he realizes how much Amu and Ikuto care for each other.
• Kamehame Hadoken: Referenced in an Imagine Spot by Amu. It's also a parody on Dragon Ball, specifically Goku.
• Lampshade Hanging: Lots, usually by Amu commenting on even the tiniest things that really should just not happen.
• Large Ham: Yamabuki Saaya.
• Living Crashpad: In the manga, Amu meets Ikuto when she falls down a hole and lands on him. This is changed in the anime.
• Love Freak: El. Also the only form of Amu's with a tendency to do In the Name of the Moon poses.
• MacGuffin: the Embryo.
• Magical Girl: Amu, and to a lesser extent, the other female Guardians. Also, Ikuto and the male guardians qualify as Magical Boys.
• Magic Music: Utau's singing has various magical effects inside and outside of battle.
• Magic Skirt: Season 1 gave Amu a perfect example- covering even though it appears to be at right angles to her body. Then season 2 goes the opposite direction and chucks a Panty Shot into the intro. Then again this may be the animators trying to point out that Amu is wearing some kind of cheerleader shorts under there.
  • Utau's skirt when she transforms into Lunatic Charm does this as well.
• Malaproper: Ami just adores her sister's "shugoi chara" (a pun on "sugoi" which means "awesome", or "great" or similar expressions, and on "shugo" from "Shugo Chara"). Also, depending on who you ask, this could also be an example of an Incredibly Lame Pun. (The manga's English translation just has her call them dollies, however.)
  • Nikaidou-sensei is an inversion, since he deliberately refered to Amu as "Himamori-san" ("hima" means "to have free time") in order to belittle her. He ceases to do so after his Heel–Face Turn.
• Meaningful Name: Utau's name can mean "sing." Another possible example is Ikuto Tsukiyomi and Yoru. Tsuki can mean "moon" and Yoru can mean "night." Ikuto has several scenes on the backdrop of the night moon.
• Motifs: Traditional playing cards. The Guardians all have titles relating to the Jack, Queen, King, Ace and Joker, and Amu's three (later four) Chara eggs are decorated with hearts, spades, clubs, and diamonds.
  • Amu actually does seem to have a lot of "good luck" symbolism going on actually. As well as the playing card example mentioned above (Within certain varieties of card games where it is used The Joker can be a very good thing to draw.), there would be the fact that all of her Character Transformations are titled "Amulet (Suit)", With the sole exception of Amulet Fortune, the latter word of which, again, denotes good luck (Whereas, nowadays, an "amulet" is more seen as any piece of neck-based jewellery, earlier it was generally viewed to mean a piece of said jewellery that brings excellent luck.), the Humpty Lock (And the Dumpty Key.) has an intentional resemblance towards a Four-Leaf Clover, and, after the anime's final battle, the last portion of Amu's mental speech afterwards would be "The four leaf clover... In the language of flowers, it means, "Shinjitsu no Ai". True love."
• The Mole: Nikaidou and Kairi both present themselves as members of Seiyo Elementary, but in reality they're working for Easter.
• Monster of the Aesop: The X eggs, and later the ?, Mystery, or Riddle Eggs, whatever you want to call them.
• Mood Whiplash: Maybe it's because this series is aimed at children, but the mood switches from serious to comedic many, many times. One particular case was when Amu didn't have her charas, couldn't transform, and had to face off against Utau - but then Ikuto showed up, which prompted Utau to switch her attention to Ikuto, glomp him, and start whining about how she hadn't seen him for days.
• Most Writers Are Adults: All the main characters are 12 or under, but act like high-schoolers.
• Noblewoman's Laugh: Saaya Yamabuki.
• No Ontological Inertia: Things created or affected by Mystery-Chara-Transformed people revert to normal after their initiators are dealt with.
• No Romantic Resolution: How it can seem with amu at first, from younger readers' point of view. However the story and authors make it clear in Encore that she'll eventually end up with Ikuto, even subtly implying that she'll marry him in the future.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Mr. Nikaidou frequently trips over his feet and can't spell Amu's last name right in the beginning. After his Heel–Face Turn, he cuts back on this and merely becomes a very relaxed teacher.
• Oddly Named Sequel: Anime-wise: Shugo Chara! Doki! and Shugo Chara! Party. Manga-wise: Shugo Chara! Encore!
• Official Couple: It's pretty clear that Amu eventually ends up with Ikuto.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Dia, which is the "nickname" (derived from "Diamond", her symbol) Amu gave her since Dia became an X-Egg and left Amu before Amu learnt her name. It stuck, and Dia never bothered to reveal her real name even after getting purified. Peach-Pit did mention, however, that Ran, Miki and Suu were named after members of a certain band, and that Dia's true name has something to do with said band as well.
• Our Souls Are Different
• Out of Focus: Typical for the Yamabuki Saaya's, and Suzuki Seichiro's of the story. However, during Party the Guardians themselves suffer from this.
  • The charas themselves at the end of the manga.
• Painting the Medium: In the fansubs, different fonts are used for each Guardian Character, perhaps to show how exaggerated they are.
• Playing Card Motifs: The guardians' positions are King, Queen, Jack, Ace, and Joker — the Joker in particular is a Wild Card, as it can only be held by someone with at least three charas. Amulet's charas are also named Amulet [Suit].
• Power Dyes Your Hair: All of the ? Character Transformations, along with red eyes.
• Power Gives You Wings: Seraphic Charm and Amulet Diamond, Utau and Amu's most powerful forms, both have giant wings or wing-like extensions.
• Psychologist Teacher: Deeply subverted; Mr. Nikaidou willingly compounds his students' psychological problems for his own gain until the guardians oust him.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Ikuto Tsukiyomi. He works for Easter, but he's affable and friendly (as friendly as Ikuto gets, anyway) when off the clock.

• Put on a Bus:
  • Kuukai and Nadeshiko, in the fourth volume, are sent off to make room for new Guardians. They're not gone for good, however.
  • So did Lulu,who we probably won't see again.
  • Kairi, but the characters do get Put on a Bus and go out to see him for an episode later.
  • Yamabuki Saaya was supposed to be Put on a Bus, but decided to stay, so she could never be seen again... uhh... I mean, so she could continue her rivalry with Amu.
• Recap Episode: Four and a half so far, including the first two episodes of Doki.
• Remember the New Guy?: Parodied for us (the audience), but Played Straight for Amu and her Guardian characters.
  • Kusukusu greets Temari as if she's met her before. She has, but Amu and her Guardian characters aren't aware that Nagihiko and Nadeshiko are one in the same.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: Nikaidou does this a lot, and Kairi does it once in a while too.
• School Club Front: The Guardians use their Absurdly Powerful Student Council position to hunt X-Charas and fight Easter.
• School Idol: The Guardians in general and Tadase in particular.
• Sexy Discretion Shot: In episode 7 of Party, when Nagihiko goes into an empty room to change into his Nadeshiko clothes. He grabs onto the collar of his shirt... and the scene cuts to his clothes coming off, perhaps to keep the PG rating. Watch the scene here.
• Ship Sinking: With the words "I'll get mad because we're siblings!", the Love Triangle collapsed. Of course, since it's a shoujo series, another one sprung up after it. The story eventually also sinks Amu and Tadase, courtesy of future Tadase who states he hasn't seen Amu in years, implying she left to live with Ikuto. Ouch.
  • The chapters of Shugo Chara Encore! also sank some ships, especially Yaya x Kukai. Any hopes of them getting together even after he moved onto middle school fell flat.
• Ship Tease: Pretty much every time Amu and Ikuto meet each other. Also whenever Amu has fantasies about members of her harem. And with Nagihiko during his first episode. And a few times with Nadeshiko too. And (borderline) did we mention that Utau is seemingly Tsundere for Amu as well? (this is getting out of hand)
  • Her harem does love to tease her, when you think about it.
  • Even in the last chapter of Encore! Tadase and Ikuto both catch Amu when she nearly fell after catching a wedding bouquet. The boys also insist the other one let go of her. Of course, even Peach-Pit couldn't sink the manga's main love triangle in the end. Well that's how it seems at first, but given that future Tadase stated he didn't see Amu in years heavily imply she eventually left to live with Ikuto.
    • Also, Encore does heavily imply that Amu will get together with Ikuto when she gets older in said last chapter. It wasn't shown just to let the younger readers' discover that by themselves once they get older. It's also even more implied in the Drama CD.
• Shout-Out:
  • (Possibly) to Shakugan no Shana, Shana's "Shut up, shut up, shut up!". Another example would be the pose that Rima does when imitating the "Bala-balance!" gag. The pose is clearly taken from Dragon Ball Z's famous Fusion Dance pose.
  • Ran, Miki, and Suu were named after the members of Candies, a Japanese girl group from the 1970s.
  • The "Humpty" lock, and the "Dumpty" Key were named after the nursery rhyme "Humpty Dumpty".
• Spell My Name With An S: Scanslations insist on using Sue, Iru and Eru when the manga translations clearly state that their names are Suu, Il and El.
  • Even without official sources, Il and El make sense on an intuitive level: Angel -> El and Devil -> Il. Furthermore, "el" is a common suffix for angelic names. (Like Gabriel!)
• Spoiler Opening: Quite a few times, mostly to the viewers who don't seem to read the manga. Wow, there has to be a new Jack's Chair! We can't leave it empty after Kairi got Put On A— Wait, is that Nagihiko wearing the Seiyo Academy uniform with the Royal Cape?
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Rikka becomes this in Party. The show pretty much becomes "Babysitting Rikka" by this point.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Tsukasa makes a habit of suddenly appearing wherever the Guardians may happen to be. Even if they had to go through hell to get there.
• Stripperiffic: Several of the Character Transformations. Special mention goes out to Amulet Heart (very short Magic Skirt and halter top), Black Lynx (with very, very low pants), and Amulet Devil (a batwing-shaped top and small, tight shorts that hardly qualify as a bikini).
• Stock Footage: The openings of Shugo Chara! Party are made nearly entirely from this^note  Otherwise, they mostly consist of the live-action music videos for the songs, making it looks like a bad dub opening.
• Straight to the Pointe: The Ballet Episode has all the ballet-dancing characters (and one non-dancing character–Amu Hinamori) wearing pointe shoes. The recital in particular has a lot of pointe work going on.
• Student Council President: Tadase.
• Take Over the World: Kiseki, Tadase's Guardian Character, has claimed multiple times he wants to do this. How this will be achieved... not sure.
• Tempting Fate: In Episode 25, Amu is undecided about if she likes Tadase, Ikuto or Kukai. At one point, she decides that "At times like these, I depend on Nadeshiko!" And then...

• Third-Person Person: Yaya, Pepe, Suu and Utau all tend to slip into this. Yaya and Pepe especially.
• The Television Talks Back: When Amu disregards Nobuko Saeki's exposition on guardian spirits, Nobuko states that people who don't believe in them will die. Amu comments how it sounds like Nobuko is talking to her.
  Nobuko: I am talking to you.
• Those Two Girls: Amu has seemingly befriended two girls, Wakana and Manami, yet they never seem to do much.
• Transformation Name Announcement: "Character Transformation: [name of character transformation]!"
  • "Chara-nari: Amulet [various]!"
• Transformation Sequence: In the anime, Amu's first transformation happens in midair, leading one to believe in an instantaneous transformation. Of course, the roughly 15-second conversation during the fall would put her about half a mile/six feet underground, so maybe physics doesn't play a big part in this show.
• Transformation Trinket: The Humpty Lock and the Dumpty Key for Amu and Ikuto, respectively. As the rest of the Guardians and Utau show, Character Transformation doesn't always require having something to use it.
  • Arguably, the Shugo Charas themselves are the trinkets, as the characters transform by merging with their Charas, and become a different kind of Magical Girl depending on which Shugo Chara they use.
• Troubled, but Cute: Ikuto. He's handsome, but he's got a lot of baggage.
• Tsundere:
  • Utau is Type A towards Amu after Amu defeats her..
  • Rima is this towards a lot of characters, but especially Nagihiko.
• Two-Teacher School : Pretty much the only adults we see at Seiyo Academy are Nikaidou and Tsukasa. And Tsukasa isn't even a teacher. Not only does Nikaidou teach Amu both years, but he also teaches her in gym and seems to be the only person seen in charge during assemblies.
• Unknown Rival: Saaya Yamabuki. She would be some sort of Alpha Bitch, but Amu hardly notices she's there.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: Amu's numerous punk-inspired outfits◊ in addition to her tough demeanor lead people to think she has a 'cool and spicy' personality.
• Verbal Tic:
  • Yoru constantly adds "~nya", the japanese equivalent of "meow", to all his sentences (see "catboy" above). Su constantly adds "-desu" to hers, but she's probably just speaking keigo.
  • Pepe also has one, it being "-dechu."
• Warrior Therapist: There's nothing to get someone to give up evil schemes, follow their dreams, and generally be an all around better person in the future than crossing paths with Amu.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The manga ends with a few things left unexplained.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Nadeshiko.
• Written Sound Effect: A lot of these are present in the first opening for Doki.
• World of Technicolor Hair: Amu herself has pink hair, and most of the Charas have hair in unusual colors (though the Charas' case is justified since they aren't human in the first place). Ikuto and Nadeshiko/Nagihiko have purple hair and Kairi has dark green hair, which could be stylized shades of black.
• You Never Asked: Rima does this after she shows Amu she can Character Transform.

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