Shugo Chara!! Doki [52] October 9, 2008

A Retrospect…

Shugo Chara! (しゅごキャラ!) of Peach=Pit’s has become my recent favorite upbeat anime. However, it has recently concluded with 51 total episodes and I was so looking forward for the second season!

We all have witnessed cool and spicy Hinamori Amu’s journey to find her true self. Discovering her talents, meeting good friends, getting pumped up in love and having fun with the wee guardian characters among a few. There had been many firsts for Amu to start with and the most famous were her first confession to a guy which resulted into her first rejection. She also had her first date and received first love confession too.

Now, my most anticipated second season bagan airing a few days ago and I guess I have held my expectations too high. Dubbed as Shugo Chara!! Doki (しゅごキャラ!!どきっ), I can say that it wasn’t much of a turning point yet and besides the episodes weren’t labeled as ‘…Doki Episode 1’ but rather it was still ‘…Episode 52’!

I’ve been writing summaries and a bit of personal reviews on the previous season’s episodes for a while and hoping I would be able to put those aside with the advent of this new season. But having seen the first Doki episode, I am changing my mind and decided continue what I’ve been doing while the latter is currently running.  I know it’s just too early to judge this second installment animation so for now, I’ll wait and see what better would it become.

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Vodpod videos no longer available.

Just like any new series, I’d like to pay notice to the Opening and Ending themes that were used.  For once, there was something new this season!

The Opening…

Shugo Chara Egg! did the opening theme entitled “Minna no Tamago” featuring the little guardian charas.  I can see that Nadeshiko is finally back, now as Nagehiko and there’s some blond girlie, a new character maybe.  In the manga, there’s one like her named Lulu whose character is yet to be disclosed as the series progresses but I’m spilling it out, another Easter puppet on the loose!

Compared to the last season’s themes, I can say that the theme’s energy level dropped a bit.  Maybe, it was just me but the animation sync was cool.

The Ending…

Buono! still sang the ending theme “Rottara, Rottara.”  Confused? It’s “Lotta Love, Lotta Love” in English and is way better than the opening.  It’s funny how the three guardian charas were up with their antics to cheer the brooding Amu-chan.  I would agree that it wasn’t that monotonous compared to the previous materials they had for the endings back in the first season.

Our Story At Hand…

As I was saying, I was disappointed much  when most part of the whole Doki premiere episode was dedicated for flashbacks even as far as the first season’s first episode!  It doesn’t make sense and for me it is not healthy a practice to do some recycling, not on the very first episode!

Except for Dia’s brief appearance, there haven’t been any noteworthy scene in totality.  Okay, so there’s Eru and Iru’s presence, Kiseki’s world domination complex and the four Guardians left, Amu, Tadase, Rima and Yaya weren’t shown until the very end!  Told you, I have seen the episode and rated it with a snore!  Nothing’s really new except for the themes.

It also seem that episode 53 would still have those flashbacks but what caught my attention is that Ikuto has shown up at last and is there really a duel between him and Tadase?