Title: Sugar Sugar Rune
Author: Moyoco Anno
Summary: Two witches compete for the title of queen by seducing boys but get mixed up in ancient racial politics.
Gut reaction: Cutesy, magical girl, handled really well, pretty original.
Why: The characters are deep, the back-stories cliché and the story only semi-predicable. There are definitely some unexpected turns and I do think I know how it’ll end, but I won’t spoil it for you guys since it went to the effort of being so well-developed. The character development is superb, the setting in half-unexplored in the best of ways, and the system of magic is really detailed and thought out. What at first glance seems to be a cutesy styled shoujo turns into a darker coming-of-age story about emotion and acceptance.
Who would like this book: Shoujo fans, maybe Chocomimi fans because the art is also stylized, maybe more mature fans as well. It’s hard for me to read because of the immense styling, but once I pick it up I can breeze through it, so I’ll read it through.
–Lexie, 15, West Seattle, Teen Blogger
