As one of the first manga I’ve ever read, Sugar Sugar Rune has always been a huge subject of nostalgia for me. However, it’s much more than pure nostalgia that makes me love this manga as much, even after years have passed since I’ve read it for the first time.

The story of Sugar² Rune seems to be very simple. Two witches come to the Human World to find out who is going to become the next queen of the Magic World. To do that, the best friends Vanilla and Chocolat need to collect the hearts of human boys and the one who collects the hearts of the highest overall value will win the competition.
So far the story sounds like a common, fluffy shojo, and in the beginning that is exactly what it is. It is cute and at times it is humorous, but nothing really special.
This changes, however, as the manga developes. Even though it still keeps it’s cute and girly touch (I mean come on, the characters are all named after candy!) it turnes out to be much darker than one would expect in the beginning. I don’t want to go into the why, as I don’t want to spoil anything, but the further you get into the story, the more interesting it gets.
Of course, it is still a bit fluffy, kind of childish story, but it definitely turnes more mature.
The story is also very well thought through, mostly everything makes sense and is understandable. You won’t be left with questions about what has happend once you’re done reading.

As the story matures, the characters change as well. My favorite example for this is the scene where Chocolat states that she, who has always been much more self-confident and outgoing compared to the shy Vanilla, might be much more of a crybaby than her friend after all.
Then again, neither of the characters really surprises you that much. Most of them turn out to be just what you would expect from the way they look. You also have the usual characters in there, like a strong, self-confient girl, a shy one, the usual, good looking and mysterious boy and a comic relief character. For me, only one character turned out extremly different from what I expected. I still ended up liking a lot of the characters, especially the boys, Chocolat and a dog who I think is extremly awesome.
There was one thing that really bothered me though. I would consider most of the characters to be very young. For the age I’d guess them to be, I believe they are focused way too much on the way they look, boys and such things. It might be a personal opinion to find that annoying, but I honestly believe that girls weren’t THAT bad when I was around that age.

Now to the thing that might really turn people off the manga at first: the art. I have to admit, when I first read Sugar Sugar Rune I didn’t like the art style AT ALL. But as you read on, you really start to see something appealing in it. It is kind of unique and some of the scenes are extremly lovely drawn. Then again, the way the faces are drawn (especially the lips) often looks weird and I don’t think you’ll get used to it even after reading the manga several times. I know I didn’t. I believe that the style really fits Chocolat’s personality though (that may not make sense to you, but I really like how the art expresses the main character of the story). The clothers (especially Chocolat’s) are creative and I find myself in love with a lot of them and the backgrounds are pretty and detailed as well.
Where the drawing is still a matter of taste, I can in fact say that the panels are just horrible. I got so confused at times and really had no idea where to continue reading next. I don’t know if that goes only for the translation (I’ve read the german version) but I honestly doubt it.

Despite it’s flaws, Sugar Sugar Rune is a manga I absolutly enjoyed reading and still enjoy reading over & over. I love the twist of mood, I love the characters and I really love that this manga is so different to a lot of other stuff I’ve read, but also without standing out –too- much.

I would say that if you enjoy stories with a dark touch but don’t mind romance and fluff, you will enjoy Sugar Sugar Rune. However, you shouldn’t be too picky as it absolutly has it’s flaws and you totally get the feeling that it’s meant for younger people (Like I said: characters named after candy!). But I’d give it a chance in any case because it usually gets judged solely by the drawings and the fact that it looks like a common magical girl manga at first.

My overall rating is 8 out of 10. I would give it a 9, simply because of the nostalgia, but I’m supposed to give a non-biased ranking so I’ll stick with the 8.