'Sugar Sugar Rune', anime ~ try, and try, and try again!

This trend turns out to be more common than I expected: an 8-volume long manga is made into a 51-episode long anime. If these numbers don't tell you anything, here's what they mean: with the usual speed of airing, which is 1 episode per week, 1 season of an anime takes exactly one season of a year, and 52 (frequently 51) episodes equal a whole year. Now one manga chapter may take from half an episode to 2 episodes depending on its contents, but even if we count one volume as 5 chapters, there'll be 40 approx. chapters, which is obviously not enough to create 52 episodes.

characters and story

Therefore, 51 episodes here mean that the original manga was only used as a source of inspiration and half of the contents are unique to the anime series. And unique episodes in such a long anime can only mean one thing: fillers. Fillers here and fillers there, fillers short and fillers long, going in a row, one by one. Fillers themselves are no evil, some of them even manage to be interesting and funny, 'cause you don't really want to watch serious things happening all the time and the heroines fighting with the enemy with no time to relax. However, it's no good when they get dragged too much. It makes the watching person lose his interest. So here is how I managed to watch 51 episodes in 1 week: I skipped most fillers that did not seem very interesting to me.

Since the heroines are in 5th grade of primary school, they are just 11 years old, and this is the age of the audience the anime is aimed at. Therefore, it's absolutely impossible to take it seriously. It's not like fantasy, here the main disturbing factor is not magic they use or the standard story of good guys fighting bad ones, but the fact that all events so much depend on the creators' will and are explained by 'because it's a fairytale for girls!'. Moreover, many of fillers in 'Rune' were poorly composed, and I wouldn't want even to show it to children at all

Thanks to the fact that the anime is full of fillers and obviously different directors were responsible for different episodes (and this is a normal thing for anime series, especially when it's that long), the story is not smooth enough and jumps from serious events to having fun, with each segment length varying at the directors' will, which made it difficult to follow.
Still, it's not that this story has no appeal at all. First of all, welcome a heroine who's not a tender fragile damsel, but isn't that friendly-to-anybody good-for-nothing type either.

Though she retains the tomboyish traits of your-usual-shoujo-heroine, and does not lack kindness in her heart.

As for humour, the creators made an attempt to make supporting characters as strange as they could, like a super-star-mentor or granddad with uncommon hobbies...

Or the always-optimistic classroom teacher who obviously specialised in English.

It's not without any fanservice, too...

Though my favourite was the delivery man. Sure.

Owww....

Well, that is to say, if middle-school blond student with ice-blue eyes makes you worried you'll be imprisoned for corruption of minors is not good enough for you, or even occupied by your younger sister, there are enough grown-up men to lay your eyes on.

graphics

Now here is what happens when the original mangaka is a fashion writer. Well, it's a fact I read on MAL, but it was 100% visible that the mangaka had something to do with design. During the 51 episode the heroines changed a lot of clothes and hairstyles and were shown frequently wearing something beyond school uniform, and all of their clothes demonstrated good sense and style. The stop-frames dividing every episode in 2 also showed the artist's talent for design explicitly.

My favourite characters in terms of design was, of course, Chocolat's mama, whose appearance in human form was a sheer delight and looked like a page from a retro fashion magazine.

Moving objects, unlike stop-frames, were poorly drawn and many movements were unnatural. Some were lame, to put it bluntly. A frequent thing for this genre - two pictures changing one another to create an image of, say, dancing.

And this wonderful work of art is simply begging me to put it on my avatar, I tell ya.

voice acting

Here is the aspect I cannot defy even if it still follows the general trend of this anime which is being childish.

Even though I watched a lot of anime series of mid-00's, the main heroines' actresses Matsumoto Marika and Ihata Juri, as well as Konishi Ryousei, Iwahashi Naoya, Kimura Ryouhei, Uran Sakiko, Maeda Takeshi, Shimamoto Sumi, Yasoda Yuuichi and many others among the key characters were a discovery for me. Others were not, like miss Minagawa or Yokoyama Chisa, who did a great job in character-making (I so want to use the Japanese '...zukuri' here).
And Tsuda Kenjirou. Did I say that 'Rune' is an anime where there are enough adult guys to fall for? Of course, Robin was the most prominent among them. Awwww that voice...

music
Unlike what you'd expect from a shoujo anime aimed at children, the background music in 'Rune' was diverse and some melodies were pretty seriously done, it seems the composer really put a lot into his works. Other melodies, like those that played at funny moments or illustrated everyday life, were plain and simple, and thus did not leave any particular impression.
The opening and ending themes were in general just the mainstream cute songs that are usually performed either by seiyuus or by some girls who have neither unique voices nor special abilities. However, in 'Rune' they were at least bolder and certainly had some style, and this impression was magnified by the manga-like pictures that the video itself consisted of. I'd say, all three songs were listenable, but if the opening was ok, the first ending revealed Nomoto Karia sucks at singing.
My favourite was the second ending was performed by the main 2 seiyuus, and I heard that the mangaka wrote the lyrics herself, which probably makes the songs fit the anime so much.

conclusion

'Rune' sure is childish. And full of fillers. And strange.

And... like where are these names Japanese???

Surely I'd recommend it to any young girl who is wondering what anime series to watch, because as a fairytale it is very good, having beautiful visual style and moral that's just perfect for children.
But I also enjoyed it myself a lot. It won't become my favourite and won't take a special place in my heart, but it was a good thing to relax at home after work on cold May evenings.