Shugo Chara!

Shugo Chara!, also known as My Guardian Characters, is a Japanese shōjo manga series created by the manga author duo, Peach-Pit. The story centers on elementary school girl Amu Hinamori, whose popular exterior, referred to as "cool and spicy" by her classmates, contrasts with her introverted personality. When Amu wishes for the courage to be reborn as her would-be self, she is surprised to find three colorful eggs the next morning, which hatch into three Guardian Characters: Ran, Miki, and Su.

The main heroine of the story is Amu Hinamori, a popular girl who is actually insecure. Peach-Pit uses Amu to explore differences between one's true self and the self that is presented to others. Like Jun Sakurada in Peach-Pit's previous work, Rozen Maiden, Amu tackles issues such as alienation and fitting in at school. Unlike most heroines in other magical girl series, Amu is neither the perfect sweetheart nor a complete klutz. Amu gets grumpy and frequently talks back to others in contrast to the polite schoolgirls that fill the genre.^[4]
Amu's Guardian Characters—Ran, Miki, Su, and Diamond—aid her in her quest of self-discovery. Each Guardian Character represents an aspect of Amu's true self. Ran represents Amu's desire to be more honest and athletic, Miki represents Amu's desire to be more level headed and artistic, Su represents Amu's desire to be more caring and improve her domestic skills, while Diamond represents Amu's desire to shine in front of others and be a good speaker and singer. Moreover, the Character Guardians are more than mere mascots who help Amu learn about her true self. They can also perform a "Character Change" where Amu's personality is replaced by an entirely different one.^[5]
However, Amu is not the only one with Guardian Characters. Each of the Guardians—Tadase Hotori, Nadeshiko (Nagihiko) Fujisaki, Kukai Souma, and Yaya Yuiki—have their own Guardian Characters. Amu also encounters Ikuto Tsukiyomi and Utau Hoshina (Tsukiyomi), two siblings who also have Guardian Characters and are employed by the Easter Company to search for the Embryo.

Eventually, Nadeshiko Fujisaki and Kukai Souma leave the Guardians and are replaced by Rima Mashiro and Kairi Sanjo respectively. Kairi later leaves and is replaced by Nagihiko Fujisaki, Nadeshiko's real identity, as the third Jack's chair, with his new Guardian Character, Rhythm.


The heroine of the story, Amu Hinamori, is a student at Seiyo Elementary.^[3] At first glance, her classmates refer to her as "cool and spicy" and rumors speculate about her personal life. However, her real personality is that of a very shy girl who has trouble showing her true personality. One night, Amu wishes for the courage to show her "would-be" self, and the next morning finds three brightly colored eggs—red, blue, and green—in her bed. At first, she is alarmed, but realizes she must have really wished to change. These eggs hatch into three Guardian Characters: Ran, Miki, and Su. The Guardian Characters aid Amu in discovering who she truly is and help fulfill Amu's dreams. Amu's life becomes much more complex as she struggles to deal with her "would-be" selves and the Seiyo Elementary's Guardians, who recruit Amu as the Joker to search for X Eggs and X Characters, the corrupted forms of peoples' dreams.
Meanwhile, the Easter Company is extracting people's eggs in search of a special egg called the Embryo. The Embryo is believed to grant any wish to the one who possesses it. However, the process creates X Eggs and X Characters. It is described as a white egg with a heart and yellow wings.Which they eventually found out was someone else's egg.

Later on in the series a fourth (yellow) egg is born, this egg contains the Guardian Character Diamond. She was only seen a few times in the series, until about halfway to the end, where she was purified of the X on her, and then would appear in times of heavy crisis.

School Rumble

School Rumble is a romantic comedy that depicts the daily lives of the students attending Class 2-C of the fictional Yagami High School, as well as their friends and families. The main female protagonist is Tenma Tsukamoto, an unremarkable second-year high school student who secretly admires her eccentric, enigmatic, nice-guy classmate, Oji Karasuma. She struggles to confess her feelings, about which Karasuma appears to be oblivious, preferring instead to seek fulfilment by indulging his passion for curry. Complicating the narrative is the main male protagonist, the delinquent Kenji Harima, whose desire for Tenma has developed to the point where he attends school solely to be near her. Like Tenma, Harima has difficulty declaring his love, and whenever he summons the courage to do so, circumstances conspire against him.The misfiring attempts of the two to make the objects of their affection aware of their feelings are a persistent comedic theme throughout the series.



The love triangle evolves through mistakes made by Harima and misunderstandings by Tenma and their classmates. Harima becomes involved with Tenma's close friend, Eri Sawachika, when the pair are thrown together in mutually-embarrassing situations. Later in the series he develops a friendship with Tenma's younger sister, Yakumo Tsukamoto, who becomes Harima's assistant on the manga he writes. The plots of Harima's stories portray a Harima-like hero fighting to save a Tenma-like damsel in various historical or fantastical situations, usually in battle against an obvious facsimile of Kurasama. After the hero saves the heroine, she naturally falls in love with him. Yakumo's relationship with Harima causes problems with Class 2-C's student representative, Haruki Hanai, who has a crush on Yakumo. The sisters' shared surname causes Harima and Hanai to misinterpret each others' infatuations. Although Harima manages to engineer romantic situations with Tenma, her relationship with Karasuma progresses while Harima's bonds with Eri and Yakumo grow stronger. Eventually Tenma musters the courage to confess her love, but shortly thereafter Karasuma loses his memory. His amnesia gives a purpose to Tenma's life; she concentrates on her studies in order to become a doctor and help Karasuma.

Although the focus of School Rumble is on Harima and Tenma, a number of supporting characters are developed. These include Tenma's friends Mikoto Suo, who runs a kenpō dojo where her childhood friend, Hanai, trains, and Akira Takano, a mysterious and uncannily perceptive girl with who leads a double-life. As the story progresses, more major characters are introduced into the relationship web.

The series ends with Class 2-C's graduation ceremony. While most of the plot-lines have been settled by this point, there is no clear resolution for the main protagonists. Karasuma still suffers from memory loss, and although Harima attends the ceremony with Eri, the status of his relationship with Yakumo is uncertain.

 

Vampire Knight

Vampire Knight is a shōjo manga and anime series written by Matsuri Hino. The series premiered in the January 2005 issue of LaLa magazine and is still on-going. Chapters are collected and published in collected volumes by Hakusensha, with nine volumes currently released in Japan. The manga series is licensed in English by Viz Media. The English adaptation premiered in the July 2006 issue of Viz's Shojo Beat magazine, with the collected volumes being published on a quarterly basis.

Yuki Cross's earliest memory is of a snowy night in winter, when she was attacked by an evil vampire and was saved by a kind one, Kaname Kuran. Yuki is the adopted daughter of the Headmaster of Cross Academy, Kaien Cross, who is an ex-vampire hunter that now wishes for vampires and humans to live alongside peacefully. She has grown up and become a prefect for the school which has one main purpose: for vampires to coexist peacefully with humans. Her fellow guardian and childhood companion, Zero Kiryu, whose parents were killed by a pure-blood vampire, is now determined to kill them all and refuses to trust them. Zero himself is now manifesting vampire traits, having been turned into a vampire after he was bitten by the vampire who attacked his family, Shizuka Hio, four years earlier.
Yuki tries to help him fight his bloodlust while also seeking to recover the memories she lost. As the series progresses, Zero's thirst for blood leads to his drinking from Yuki, by her consent, to avoid becoming a level E vampire and losing himself to his monstrous instincts. To stop this, Kaname gives Zero his own "pure" blood, even though the only way for an ex-human to become a truly "stabilized" vampire is to drink the blood of the one who bit them in the first place. However, since Kaname is a pure blood, his own blood helps keep Zero from going insane and from needing to feed from Yuki.
Eventually, it is revealed that Yuki is a pure blood vampire herself and the fiancee of Kaname. It is also revealed that Kaname is Yuki's elder brother and they spent their childhood together. Actually, Kaname is not Yuki's blood brother, but the ancient ancestor of the Kuran family resurrected by Rido Kuran. To save Yuki from being killed by Rido Kuran, their uncle, her mother had sealed her memories shortly before her own death and put Yuki under a spell so she could live as a human and avoid being found. After Yuki reawakens to her vampire nature, Rido again tries to kill her. As Kaname kills the corrupt vampire senate, Yuki fights Rido. During a fierce battle, Zero aids her in killing him, but later on tells her he will have to kill her when he sees her once again. She tells him that she will keep running, so that he will have a reason to live. Although this is where the anime ends, the manga continues the story and is updated monthly in LaLa Magazine.

Yamato Nadeshiko (The Wallflower)

Yamato Nadeshiko (The Wallflower) is a manga series written by Tomoko Hayakawa. Nippon Animation adapted part of the manga series into a twenty-five episode anime series. Yamato Nadeshiko is a common term used in Japan to describe the ideal beautiful woman. The story revolve around Sunako Nakahara, a girl called “ugly” by a boy, who happened to be the first and only person to whom she confessed her love because of this incident, she losses her sparks in life and change for the worst. She became reclusive and generally developed a fear of pretty boys of which she refers to as “dazzling creatures”. She became a lover of solitude, gore movies, anatomical dolls and objects that reflect the ugly side of life as she puts it. Sunako’s aunt who has a big concern to her and was the owner of a beautiful mansion ion where four very handsome students live, offers the guys free rent if they can transform niece, Sunako, into a “perfect lady” but if they fail, the rent goes triple. Due to these handsome boys confidence in knowing how to deal with women, they agree.

Before anything else I would like to introduce these four handsome guys. Kyouhei Takano, the most popular of the foursome. He is very loud and bossy when it comes to his needs. He was forced to leave home because all of the mobbing and harassment by his fans were taking a toll on his family. As the story goes he will have unsorted feelings for Sunako which he demonstrates by constantly provoking her rage. Next is Takenaga Oda comes from a very wealthy family and is quite serious in nature. He is the brain and logic of the group often trying out logical strategies to make Sunako become a lady. He has a love interest in “Noi” Kasahara, but his shyness gets in the way when he wants to express his feelings. Another is Yukinojo “Yuki” Toyama, he is shy but sweet and has a very loving nature. He is the most innocent of all the characters, often crying and becoming scared when he enters Sunako’s room. Last but not the least is Ranmaru Morii, the playboy of the group. Ranmaru comes from a wealthy family and is an only son. He is very extroverted and a lover of older women. He has a very sexy nature and extremely high self esteem.



Now that you know these four lovely men let’s back to the story. When the guys first meet Sunako, they begin to realize that their lovely living arrangements may soon be in jeopardy. Although the four are able to make Sunako physically attractive the difficult part is with her personality. Sunako has no intention in changing her tastes, her love for all things macabre (gruesome and horrifying content) is a difficult challenge that the boys must face. Eventually, Sunako will develop an especially mixed feelings about Kyouhei, and as the storyline progresses, their relationship becomes more solid and intimate. There’s a lot of adventure and funny moment in the story that the boys faced just to encourage Sunako to change but still they failed. The boys managed to convince Sunako’s aunt that her niece is indeed a lady befitting the mansion in which they live (and prevent the rent from skyrocketing to triple the required amount). However, in reality, Sunako has not changed considerably. In the last part of it you will see Sunako change her physical appearance in to a lovely lady and that is so exciting.



The story is a combination of comedy, drama and romance which can catch viewer’s different taste. It is composed of handsome boys, which I can say that this was made intended for male audiences. The series deals with the extravagant life of a group of bishounen characters who cause nose bleeds to girls where ever they go. It’s a shojo series with lots of sparkles and flowers that can be enjoyed by guys just as much as girls. The most interesting part is mixture of horror and comedy in the plot, it’s like Sadako meets the F4.





The series is full of comical moments that will keep you laughing throughout the series, there are some jokes that require some knowledge of Japanese anime but I’m sure most of you will understand it. Hence it gives moral value and touching stories each episode despite its weird concept.

Tactics

 

Tactics follows the exploits of the young man with the ability to see goblins and other mythical beasts named Kantarou Ichinomiya. Ever since he was born he had the 6^th sense to see the demons and others mythical creatures called “Oni”. When he was a little boy his friend Oni told him about the creature that is stronger than Oni called “Tengu”, it is the legendary demon-eating goblin. Since that story told him he dream to have a Tengu that will be his buddy forever. When he grew up he became a folklorist, who write books and article about Japanese folklore, but he also work as a monster buster secretly. In the episode “The Black Goblin Awakens”, Kantarou went to exorcise monster he was lead to a rural shrine up in the mountain where the Tengu, demon-eating goblin was sealed there. When Kantarou breaks the seal, he named the Tengu Haruka, in naming a Tengu it forces to be a slave of someone who gave name with it. As the fulfillment of Kantarou dream, Haruka became his partner in fighting the evil Oni. With his tengu and his kitsune, they solve mysteries, and help the yokai situation in Japan.

As the story progress, there's a lot of yokai case that Kantarou and Haruka faced such as the case that deals with the mystery of the missing children and the dragon god. The two new characters also introduced, namely Sugino and Mou-chan. Sugino is a handsome supernatural creature not unlike Haruka. Mou-chan is an odd choice for wife that he loves immeasurably. He has a dislike for humans and considers himself superior in every way. Sugino finds Haruka fascinating and gives him some words of warning regarding his bond to the human Kantarou.

In the episode “Dancer in the Darkness”, Kantarou together with Haruka and other friends returned to his home town to visit a childhood friend who is now a famous geisha. She expresses concerns about her latest client who has her perform the same dance during every session while a stranger watches from the shadows. Her client also happens to be a renowned doll maker who engages in questionable behavior with his latest creation. When she was called again to perform in the house of the doll maker she brought Kantarou and the gag with her because something was bothering her when she performed. Kantarou discover that there is an evil spirit in the house and they find out that it is in the doll's body. Using his kitsune and the help of Haruka they save the geisha however the fight start to burn the house. The doll maker let himself eaten by the fire together with the doll who he dream to have life.

As Haruka's past slowly comes back to him, his relationship with his master starts to crack. Haruka struggles with his past and yearns to learn of everything he had forgotten, especially the identity of the person who had sealed him within the huge rock boulders. This is the point where Minamoto Raiko and his group of soldiers come in. Together with another formidable demon, Raiko and his attendants plot many plans to try and force Kantarou to cancel the name contract or make Haruka awaken his real powers, such that they would be able to capture Haruka and present him to "that person" whose identity is unknown. If the name contract is not canceled or if the master dies, Haruka's power would forever be restrained and he would not be able to be used by the antagonists. But unfortunately those antagonist did not success in their evil mission and Haruka back in his senses and go back to Kantarou. They start again and do their usual routine such as fighting evil spirit and saving people.

Eyeshield 21

Eyeshield 21 is a manga about American football written by Riichiro Inagaki and illustrated by Yusuke Murata. It has been adapted into an anime movie in 2004 (shown at Jump Festa), an anime television series in 2005. The twenty five volumes have collectively sold over 16 million copies in Japan, and the number of children playing American football has almost doubled in the four years since it began. The manga is published in English by VIZ Media. The anime version, produced by NAS and animated by Artland, premiered across Japan on TV Tokyo from 6 April 2005, and is currently airing across Japan on the satellite television network Animax.

The plot of Eyeshield 21 revolves around a physically unassuming and non-assertive boy named Sena Kobayakawa, a freshman in highschool of Deimon Private Senior High School. His only remarkable physical abilities are his running speed and dodging techniques, the result of a school life spent complying with the demands of bullies, quickly catch the eye of the high school's American football team captain Yoichi Hiruma, the most feared person in his school. Sena life changes when Hiruma forces him to join the Football Team as the running back. To protect his identity (on the premise that other school sports teams will try to recruit Sena upon discovering his athletic skill) Sena is forced to publicly assume the role of team secretary, and enter the field wearing a helmet equipped with a green-tinted eyeshield in order to hide his features under the pseudonym of "Eyeshield 21".

Actually the Deimon Devil Bats have a two good player before Sena comes along these two are Ryokan, and Yoichi. Ryokan is a friendly guy who's big, strong and has an infectious enthusiasm for American football. Then there's Yoichi, the devious, scheming quarterback whose skills on the gridiron and knowledge of football strategy is sometimes overshadowed by his fondness for shooting off powerful weapons to convince others to see things his way. Although both Ryokan and Yoichi are talented players, the Deimon Devil Bats are a woefully understaffed team, with only two full-timers and a ragtag bunch of miscellaneous athletes that Yoichi manages to blackmail to convince to play on their team on game day. Other teams write them off as disorganized losers who'll never get their act together enough to win. Now that they have Sena on their side, the Devil Bats finally have a chance to win (if they can ever teach him how to play the game).

The team initially takes part in the Spring football tournament (at the beginning of the Japanese school year) hoping to win with through the strength of their new "secret weapon". But the elimination is quit tough that the weak team early eliminated on by the Ojo White Knights, a powerhouse football team. It is in this game that Sena meets the man he will acknowledge as his ultimate rival, Seijuro Shin, a talented linebacker.

After Deimon's defeat, the Spring tournament is revealed as a secondary in importance to the Fall tournament, where the teams compete for the chance to play in the "Christmas Bowl", the high school football league championship. Hiruma, Kurita and Sena regroup and slowly build a real team from other misfits and students looking to define themselves, with the goal of reaching the championship. The series follows the building and growth of the Deimon Devil Bats and its members, as well as various rival teams encountered through their games and tournaments, as they all strive to achieve their goal of playing in the Christmas Bowl. Can Sena's golden legs overcome his lack of knowledge of the game of football, and can this mismatched team turn their dreams into championship reality?

Death Note

Death Note (Desu Nōto?) is a Japanese manga series created by writer Tsugumi Ohba and illustrator Takeshi Obata. The series focus on a high school student, Light Yagami, who discovers a supernatural notebook that allows him to kill anyone by writing the victim's name and picturing his face. The plot follows his attempt to create and lead a world cleansed of evil using the book, and the complex conflict between himself and those assailing him that results.

Light Yagami is an extremely intelligent young man who resents the crime and corruption in the world. His life change when he discovers a mysterious notebook, known as the "Death Note", lying on the ground. This notebook has a terrifying powers that can kill or control anyone whose name was written in it. The Death Note's instructions claim that if a humans name is written within it, that person shall die.

Death Notes all have rules written on the Note's first page. The basic rules are as follows:

* The human whose name is written in this note shall die.

* This note will not take effect unless the writer has the subject's face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected.

* If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of writing the subject's name, it will happen.

* If the cause of death is not specified, the subject will simply die of a heart attack.

* After writing the cause of death, the details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds (400 seconds).

There were additional rules written in the notebook which was done for some purpose to elaborate the story better. These rules often serve to clarify the more esoteric uses of the Death Note that the characters discover on their own. Official Death Notes contain over 40 pages of how to use it, consisting of both those written in the Notes and those shown in as eyecatchs.

Light is initially skeptical of the notebook's authenticity, but after experimenting with it, Light realizes that the Death Note is real. After meeting with the previous owner of the Death Note, a shinigami named Ryuk, Light seeks to become "the God of the New World" by passing his judgment on those he deems to be evil or who get in his way.

Soon, the number of inexplicable deaths of reported criminals catches the attention of the International Police Organization and a mysterious detective known only as "L". L quickly learns that the serial killer, dubbed by the public as "Kira" (Kira derived from the Japanese pronunciation of the word "killer"), is located in Japan. L also concludes that Kira can kill people without laying a finger on them. Light realizes that L will be his greatest nemesis, and a game of psychological cat and mouse between the two begins.

Light's father, Soichiro Yagami is a police officer who was assigned to lead the Kira investigation team. He becomes disappointed with the lack of police cooperation in Kira's case, eventually he join forces with L to form a special investigative team. After a test that L set-up, he suspected that Light is the one who called Kira. Soichiro didn't believe in it but he still insist to remain helpful in the team. To investigate Light further, L needs to reveal himself. The battle between Light and L became very intense. Lots of twist and turn happened between the two.

As the investigation goes by, a second Kira appears, Misa Amane. She is a girl with an immense crush on Kira, Misa is a popular idol in Japan. She is immature and tends to refer to herself in the third person in an attempt to be cute. Misa is completely devoted to Light, and she once said that she loved him at first sight. Light, however, only views her as an asset to his plans because of her Death Note and her Shinigami eyes (that she obtained at the cost of half of her remaining life span, twice). Misa devotes herself to Light because he killed her parents' murderer after several trials had failed to convict him. She also has same story with Light in having the notebook. It was fallen in her from nowhere, but obviously it was given by Shinigami. Rem is the Shinigami whose own Misa's Death Note. Similar to Ryuk, Rem possesses two Death Notes. However, she purposely gives one of them to Misa Amane. Rem inherited her second Death Note from Jealous, another shinigami who died when he saved Misa's life, and thought it only right to pass it on to Misa. Rem inherits Jealous' love for Misa as well and is prompt to defend Misa even at the cost of her life. Rem shows this when she states that she will kill Light if Misa dies before her time.

As there were two Kira now L lead to confusion a bit of time but manage because of his genius mind. He found out that Misa is the second Kira and tried to prove it. He ordered kidnapped Misa and tortured it to tell the truth. But with Light brilliant mind L fall in his trap. L knows that he will die in the game that's why he choose someone who will inherit his position. The two kids from the orphanage named Near and Mello became the candidate for L's successor. When L die because Light put a trap to Rem to kill L, the kids take over in the investigating team.

Mello was an orphan who grew up with Near in Watari's shelter for gifted children. Similar to L's fondness for sweets, he is often seen eating bars of chocolate. Although Mello is quite intelligent, he often lets his emotions get the better of him. Mello wears leather most of the time, unlike Near or L. He also appears to be less secluded in terms of his friends and hobbies, and seems to be fond of biking. While Near was a primary candidate to become L's successor and calls himself N during the course of his investigations. He shares a number of similarities with L. Much like how L plays with things such as sugar cubes and forks, Near is frequently shown playing with toys or his hair. Near also sits in an unusual manner similar to L, but with some slight differences. He offered to join forces with Mello to fight Kira, but Mello turned him down. Near then gained the support of the Government of the United States and formed the Secret Provision for Kira (SPK).

As the story meets its finale, Light falls in Near hands. Light might underestimate the kid capabilities. When Kira's identity almost reveal, police hunt Light but he is not capable of fighting because he is wounded. Ryuk decided to kill Light for he told Light in the beginning that he is the one who will take away Light's life in the future.