Exclusive Insanity

I've been thinking about watching Shugo Chara. Actually, I have been eyeing this series for a while and considering whether or not to watch it - the main reason I hesitated was because it was not finished, and looked like it might go on for quite some time. However, I finally remembered to look it up again, and now it looks like it really is done, so maybe I'll give it a watch and see if I like it.

Because I love spoilers (under most circumstances - there are a few cases where I don't want to know what's coming), I went in to see what kind of series I could expect. Mostly I just want to make sure I'm not looking at something overly episodic (read: lots of filler), or with battles that drag on forever, or with characters who are overly whiny or annoying. In some cases, I'll check out what the fandom looks like. This was one of those cases. And - surprise, surprise - I find pairing wars.

Oh, fandom, you never disappoint.

One thing I found interesting about this series is that there are cute, blushy, awkward crushes - most of the characters are about 12, which reminds me of Digimon and CSS and other childrens' shows I adore. I really like cute, blushy, awkward stuff, because it's so freakin' adorable. Funny thing is, from what I could tell, the manga comes pretty darn close to confirming one pairing in the ship wars, and the anime comes pretty darn close to confirming the other one.

It reminds me of Angelic Layer. Are we sure that CLAMP didn't have any involvement in this series?

In any case, although this show seems to have a fair amount of filler - and it's a looooong series - I am drawn by the prospect of a female protagonist at a difficult age with believable insecurities who can still be expected to save the day without constantly having to be rescued.

Plus, it just looks cute.