The English translation for Shugo Chara came out earlier this year (not sure when…), and the original Japanese came out in 2006, so I am really late blogging this volume, but, seriously, this blog is really empty, and I really want it to have more in it so I can actually feel like a real blogger. Besides, I’m probably not the only one. Oh, and by the way, if I do get any manga this Christmas (and I probably will), I’ll be blogging that too, if it came out ten years ago or not.

By the way, this is just going to be about translation differences, manga/anime differences, and stuff I liked. No point going on about what happened, because if you’re reading this, you probably know…

Del Rey did do a good job translating… they kept in the honorifics, it’s in right to left, and plus, there are even translation notes. However, despite it being the title, ‘Shugo Chara’ became ‘Guardian Character’. So Ran says ‘I’m your Guardian Character’, which, is the right translation, but I think it would have been better if it remained ‘Shugo Chara’.

Anime/Manga Differences

• When Amu falls down the hole in the manga, Ikuto is there, however in the anime, he was cut out of the scene.
• In the anime, just after Ran was born, Amu did Character Change for no apparent reason.
• Just after Su was born, Utau shows up, however in the anime she appears four episodes late, and her first encounter with Amu is seven episodes late.
• The… ‘prince’ episode happens after Amu sneaks into Tadase’s house in the manga, when they’re all at a meeting, however in the anime, that all is squeezed into one episode.
• Utau is said to be an idol in this volume – in the anime, we’re eleven episodes in, and still haven’t found out. I assume in episode twelve, which is out tomorrow, we’ll find out.
• In the manga, Amu is given the lock by the Guardians, when in the anime, Ikuto sort of… loses it to her? Well, it flew to her from Yoru.
• Amu does Character Change first with Ran on the last page of this volume.

Translation Differences

• ‘Cool and spicy’ becomes ‘cool and hot’.
  ‘Shugo Chara’ becomes ‘Guardian Character’, which I don’t mind as much, but if they were gonna change it, why didn’t they just change the title.
  ‘Shugoi Chara’ becomes ‘dollies!’ or ‘dolly kyara’ (this is when Ami finds out about them, but I really don’t mind at all, because it was difficult to find an English counterpart).

I think Del Rey is on the way to being one of my favourite publishers in terms of manga. Sure, there are others, and Tokyopop still has a place in my heart, but when they translate things like Fruits Basket brilliantly, they ruined Tokyo Mew Mew, to the extent where I was bored reading it because ‘yen’ became ‘dollars’ and things like that. What I didn’t like was that we didn’t get those funky postcards that you can see all over this post. I really wanted one! *grumbles*. By the way, I don’t remember where I got them from, but there were some others. I’ll try and backtrack and find where I got them…

Anyway, episode twelve is out tomorrow, so I’ll blog that then. After Christmas I’ll be doing some obsessive blogging, assuming that I get some manga and with the new winter season there will be at least one post each day near the end of the season.

I couldn’t think of a witty or relevant title for this episode, so we’re stuck with ‘A Snowy Holiday’, which was the title given originally. I was pretty happy with this episode, which probably didn’t make my day, because Shugo Chara Volume 1 came today for me, and I also got a McDonalds breakfast, but overall, it was a pleasant episode. I laughed a lot, and I think today Yaya has earned herself a spot on my ‘favourite character’ list. Just under Yoru and Kiseki. By the way, about the manga, I probably will do a review, but just really on how the Del Ray translation differs from the Japanese. Kay? On with the show!

“Misaki was right!“ 

So, today was the ski episode. Yes, the one I have been dreading, because the manga chapter almost made me turn AmuxTadase *oh the horror*. Fortunately, they did everything else right, but the bit where she jumps at him, so it was OK. Haha. I actually thought the whole episode itself compared to the manga was far better set while they were skiing than at the beach, because it just seemed to add up better.

WTF^£&*£”&%!”(*£!?!?!?

So, the Guardians are on holiday, because Kukai’s grandpa invited them. They spend the day skiing, and the Shugo Chara’s have one hell of a violent snowball fight (honestly, that Pepe really can throw…). Unexpectedly, Amu also did character become with Ran. For absolutely no reason whatsoever. I died laughing. At first, I was like ‘WTF?!?’, and then it sunk in it sunk in that she had done character become. I’m not sure if she’s becoming paranoid or showing off – I expect that it’s the latter – but I found it quite funny. I mean, there wasn’t even a X-Egg!

PWNED.

Because they were late going back to Kukai’s grandpa’s house, they ended up having to do some cleaning. Well, Kukai was kinda… slacking, and Ran in particular was flying about with her pom-poms going ‘Ganbare! Ganbare! A-mu-chan!”. Kukai decides to cheer up a depressed Yaya by suggesting they have a race. Everyone except Nadeshiko decides to join in, until her competitive side sudden comes into gear, and she ends up knocking everyone off the track, except Kukai. That is, until Temari sneaks a banana skin onto the track in an Ouran-esque style, causing Kukai to lose the race. Because they were racing, they had to do even more work, and start making dinner. Naturally, you’d assume it was a complete disaster, and it was, until Su came in, desu~. Even though it obviously wasn’t Amu, Tadase still complimented that she’d ‘make a good wife one day’.

There are so many reasons why you shouldn’t choose Tadase, Amu…

The next day, they go skiing again, but come across a competition. Instead of building with sand, they have to build with snow. Nadeshiko accidentally said ‘ouji-sama’ and it set Tadase off, stabbing at some snow. Because Amu couldn’t do it on her own, she asked Miki to perform chara-change, but Miki refused (‘YADDA’ XD) and so they had an argument. Later they all do some shopping and then head to a hot spring. Amu and Miki still haven’t made up at this point, so when they look at each other, Miki pulls her cap down like she’s a turtle XD.

DO NOT WANT.

Then some other stuff happened, and I’m not going to go too far into it, because for a start it was all AmuxTadase, and secondly, because I’m lazy, but basically the girl that Tadase ‘liked’ was a dog called Betty who died recently. Tadase goes on to say that he can see Betty again with Amulet Heart. Amu gets call depressed, not because he called her a dog without realising it, not because he like Ran better, but because of what Miki said. She goes back, and can’t sleep (Kukai can though – very well, sprawled across Tadase… XD). She has a talk with all her Shugo Chara’s and then they decide to go back to the snow-castle thing and build it properly, without Chara Change. Miki forgives Amu and then everyone else shows up. They finish the castle just in time for it to be judged, and although it was pretty good, it was not a building, really, so they didn’t win the competition… and so the point of this episode was…? -_-. At least I laughed… a lot.

Ah, the highlight of the episode – the preview!

The next episode is ‘Sorrow on Christmas Eve’. Ikuto is in the preview briefly. Like… for half a second. Really, I couldn’t even take a good screenshot. But, yeah, he’s in it. I really can’t wait for this one, beause it look super action-packed. I hope Amu does Miki’s transformation this episode (because it looks like she has a lot of eggs to purify, there). Yup.  By the way, I never actually got around to blogging Ayakashi, because I couldn’t even find Episode 1, anywhere.

And, on another note, it’s ten days to Christmas. I’ll say my ‘Merry Christmas’, when I blog Episode 12 of Shugo Chara. No CLANNAD until January 10th (I think)… . The more they delay CLANNAD, the more they delay season 2 of Haruhi. Grr.

Desu~ x_x! 

So anyway, today is the Amulet Clover transformation, which I have been anticipating for a while, because it’s the only one I haven’t seen in the manga, yet. I’m assuming it was a less-intense scene though with that loonnngg awwkkwaarddd silence (and because Amu didn’t know Utau, although that could possibly be because they dropped her in randomly four episodes later than they should have in the most pointless episode yet).

The anime seems to make it look like that thing around his neck is embedded there 0.o.

In short, basically Amu lost Su (it was pretty funny – I thought automatic doors can detect Shugo Chara’s >.>). It was really down to Yoru (who got lots of love his episode – nyah) and his cat friends, which meant there was also more Ikuto (making up for his absence in Episode 9 and eventual absence in Episode 11) who actually went over to Amu’s house to tell her that he knew where Su was (although he pretty much climbed over the balcony and back over again in the space of five seconds). I was actually surprised because Ikuto knew the names of Amu’s characters. ‘Kaaaay…

AmuxIkuto = <3

So yeah… then Su finds a lost dog, who can’t make his way home because he can’t read is own collar (&^&£%$*!%& SERIOUSLY?!). So the two sort of make a Batman and Robin sort-of team and go around picking up lost wallets and… stuff… Then they go off chasing an X-Egg, like Hina Ichigo on that cat in Rozen Maiden (was it a cat…? I can’t remember… but Peach-Pit characters really must like riding household pets…) to find Ikuto. He eventually gets really angry and gets ready to attack Su but then *cough*EVILSHINKU*cough*- Utau walks in and kind of… makes him stop. She then takes over, resulting in a very high-pitched scream from Su. Actually, Ran and Miki said: ‘Did you hear that?’, but I imagined them saying ‘Ah! Her annoying voice!’. As a cat, I’m sure Ikuto covered his ears.

“Jun – this tea is too cold. I shall now attack you with my huge pigtails.”

Then some… trash talking/gibberish… happened, and resulting in a transformation and eventual awkward silence. There was then literally a second-long battle (where Utau just stood around), until she and Ikuto disappeared in the middle of the ‘HONEY’ attack. Yeah… I wouldn’t stand around and watch that either. In the end Utau says that she ‘lost’. WTF?! Did you even fight? Yeah, yeah, one itsy Shugo Chara… whatever. God, what is it with these Easter people? Are they idiots?

Oooh… shiny *_*

And so the dog got returned, the clover got put on the tree, and most importantly, Su and her annoying voice are back with Amu! Yay- oh, wait… 

Things I Learnt from this Episode: 

1. Dogs can read. Read their own collars to be exact. In fact, if they can’t they get lost forever, and have to rely on Shugo Chara’s.
2. Automatic doors cannot sense Shugo Chara’s.
3. It is apparently very easy to take an X-Egg from Ikuto, even when you’re smaller than the egg itself.
4. Taking X-Eggs, catching X-Eggs and eventually purifying the X-Egg is like a game of Ping-Pong.
5. Whisks double as microphones.
6. Honey is best for washing things, and apparently it doesn’t soak your dog either! Yup… next time I clean my room, I’ll be sure to use honey ~_^.

“Pichi, Pichi Voice- Live Start!”

Upcoming Attractions: Next episode looks like a Christmassy version of the beach chapter. Set at a ski resort. I would have preferred it to be set at the beach, but I’m not going to wait until next summer. I mean, surely by then Amu would be off with Ikuto, right? Holding hands with Tadase would probably end with a slap. ^_^

Speaking of slapping, there are a few people who really annoyed me the other day. I was watching the subs on Crunchy Roll (most of them were wrong anyway…) and then this one girl had to go and tell the word: “These subs are all wrong, I feel sorry for you all. I so lucky I know Japanese, I didn’t even have to read them.” That’s called bragging… and another girl said: “AH! So this iz it now! amu haz dun all her transformationz. OR HAZ SHE?!!??! DUN DUN DUN!!!” For a start, that‘s called a spoiler, and FYI, techically that’s not true. SPOILERS: She may have done character become with Utau’s Shugo Chara, but she hasn’t with Daiya, yet. That’s not to say she won’t in the future, but, still.