The cover of the first volume of Shugo Chara!
I doubt American children ever worry about their private or public face. I mean, I never did and I still don’t.
I find some of the best manga authors are not the ones who create one successful series, but those who are able to capture the imagination of a wide body of readers through many different series. That’s not to say authors like Osamu Akimoto are irrelevant. I mean his series Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Koen-mae Hashutsujo is one of the longest running series in Japan at thirty-nine years in syndication. But rather, I find authors who have worked on one series hardly have the opportunity to branch out from a genre they are familiar with. Granted, there are authors such as Rumiko Takahashi or Mitsuru Adachi who have found success through multiple series, but to a degree each of those series are very similar in their presentation. Thus, authors like Osamu Tezuka, Fujiko Fujie, both F. and A., the writing duo Clamp, and Takeshi Obata are some of the most influential authors within the medium, not just because they’ve captivated a massive audience with their wide body of work or because they’ve created some of the most notable series in the medium, but also because they were able to experiment with a number genres and explore different facets of humanity.
Perhaps not on the same level as some of the authors mentioned above, but the writing duo Peach-Pit has also created a sizeable body of work. At least three of their creations have gained popularity over the course of their syndication, and I’ve taken the opportunity to read two of them. Although it’s been many years since I’ve read one of their works in detail, I can understand why their 2006 work Shugo Chara! (しゅごキャラ) garnered a large audience. The series was a fascinating look at the Japanese principles of honne and tatemae, or the idea of one’s private face and public face, and how it affects us. The series also explored concepts of growing up in simple terms for younger readers, which I thought was appropriate considering the series was published in Kodansha’s young girls’ magazine, Nakayoshi. Yet, one of the best aspects of the series was the quick pace of each story arc. Had it not been for this, I feel the series would have suffered greatly.
The Japanese language has a number of terms relating to near universal concepts. It’s very helpful within the language itself, but trying to describe these terms to non-native speakers and those learning the language can be difficult. Perhaps the most often-cited of these terms is ganbaru—a catchall term for “try your best” or to “tough it out.” However, even the description I gave here is vague in terms of how ganbaru is used. Conceptually though, the English language has similar turns of phrase. While they may not be as all encompassing as ganbaru, we can understand the principle behind the word. I feel the concepts of honne and tatemae are very similar in this regard as they can be understood by anyone, but English somewhat lacks the words to clearly define them. Yet, the Japanese people were able to codify them into their own language.
I have touched on the subject of honne and tatemae in the past, but didn’t elaborate on the subject too much. However, Shugo Chara! is a fantastic example of both principles for native and non-natives speakers of the Japanese language. Before exploring the concepts within the series we should have an understanding of both honne and tatemae. On the surface they simply refer to our private face, honne, and public face, tatemae, and work on the belief that using both will keep harmony within a group—after all what good will result if there is social dissonance? Thus, while we may not enjoy someone or something, the Japanese culture places an emphasis on the harmony of the group rather than the needs of the individual—or as Spock said in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” Keep in mind, though, this relates to the harmony of the larger community. So, if a large voice of disenfranchised people, such as the handicapped, speaks out for change, though slow to react, the Japanese people will generally work to comply with their needs.
Yuu Nikaido’s childhood dreams being shattered.
How does this relate to Shugo Chara! then? While the series didn’t explicitly examine the effects of honne and tatemae on the individual and society, it observed how Japanese people are almost inextricably bound by the concepts, although not bound in the sense of having to sacrifice their own needs for the harmony of the community, but in how Japanese people present a different face in various situations. We need not look too far into the series to see this theme as the first chapter outlined it quite well. Here we saw the protagonist, Amu Hinamori, pondering the dilemma of the personality she presented to others and the person she actually was. Yet, Amu clearly wanted to break free of her stoic persona and show those around her she was in fact a girl who was far different than how she presented herself. It’s startling how one chapter displayed the social pressure levied on Amu not just by those around her, but on herself as well, reinforcing the idea of a public and private face. Granted, this is not a phenomenon unique to Japan as it can be seen in other cultures as well, but it is a concept deeply instilled in Japanese culture.
This made the appearance of the shugo charas, literally guardian characters, not only integral to the theme of the series, but also for understanding honne and tatemae, or, at least how we present ourselves. Because they were a representation of one’s private face, in this case who we want to become, they brought out the most interesting aspects of the characters. Looking at Amu’s shugo charas, Ran, Miki, and Su, the three were representations of her desire to be more outgoing and athletic (Ran), creative and confident (Miki), and caring and more of a homebody (Su). Yet, while Amu had the desire to embrace these personality traits, whenever she did she would consistently say it was out of character for herself. Thus, we saw how she valued the perception others had of her more than what she wanted for herself—keeping in mind the concept of the harmony of the group superseding the will of the individual. However, over the course of the series we saw Amu embrace the person she truly was. Nevertheless, much of the series revolved around Amu and many of the other characters’ relationship with their respective shugo charas.
For example, when examining the characters Nagihiko Fujisaki and his shugo charas, Temari and Rhythm, we saw how the two shugo charas were representations of his wish to be an accomplished onnagata, a male Kabuki actor who specializes in female roles, on the one hand, and to be more masculine, on the other. Ultimately, this created a duality within his character that was far more interesting than the others in Shugo Chara! Granted, there were other characters who had more than one shugo chara, such as Amu, yet with Nagihiko there was an element of sexuality involved. While one would think this would have led to an exploration of Nagihiko’s sexual orientation, the series instead inspected what it meant to be feminine in terms of the Japanese classical performing arts and to be masculine in relation to modern notions of masculinity. Thus, when looking at Nagihiko’s Character Transformations in the eighth volume of the series, we saw the ideal onnagata, “Yamato Maihime,” with Temari and an active boy, “Beat Jumper,” with Rhythm. While similar to Amu exploring different facets of her personality, with Nagihiko we were presented with another instance of honne and tatemae in regards to our inner selves and how we present ourselves.
Of course, the series wasn’t entirely built around the concepts of honne and tatemae. In fact, had this been the sum of the themes, I feel the series would have lacked a great deal of emotional content. Therefore, as is common with literature for younger audiences, Shugo Chara! dealt with notions of growing up and maturing. However, where many other anime and manga series tend to focus on the melodrama surrounding the characters, I felt as though there was a sincere examination of what children experience as they grow older. We must recognize, though, the subject of growing older intersected with the ideas of honne and tatemae insofar as it related to the shugo charas. As I stated above, the shugo charas were a representation of what the different characters wanted to become, yet thematically they were also a representation of the characters’ dreams and aspirations. The second volume of the series highlighted how this was true.
There were two different chapters, one at the beginning and one at the end of the second volume, which emphasized this. We have to understand a turn of phrase in the Japanese language before proceeding, though. The Japanese language often likens people who are aspiring to enter or have just entered a field of work as an “egg.” Thus, when saw the term “egg” appear in the series, it was a reflection of what that character was aspiring to be. In the earlier of the two chapters, we saw one of Amu’s classmates saddened by the fact she was moving to a foreign country, ultimately tainting her aspiration or, in this case, her unborn shugo chara. The dialog we saw was a clear manifestation the classmate’s fears and regrets as if it were a part of her that couldn’t speak out. Yet, when the unborn shugo chara was cleansed of negative emotions, we saw it as the embodiment of what the classmate wanted to become. The latter chapter in the volume was similar, but involved a girl who dreamt of being a world-class prima ballerina, but who wound up becoming disheartened because due to an injury. Thus, when we saw her unborn shugo chara, it, too, was a representation of her dreams. Through these examples we saw how the shugo charas weren’t just a symbol of the characters’ private face, but also their ambitions.
The duality of Nagihiko Fujisaki’s Character Transformation. Right: Beat Jumper. Left: Yamato Maihime
However, we must keep in mind, the series focused on children who were in elementary school rather than high school. This made the themes less about growing apart, adapting to a new life, or even romance, but what it meant to grow up. While this was seen throughout Shugo Chara!, the third through fifth volumes demonstrated this beautifully. This was achieved by juxtaposing two different story arcs, one based on the experiences of the adult character, Yuu Nikaido, abandoning his dreams and aspirations of becoming a robot engineer for a cruel reality and a second story arc involving Amu feeling apprehension about growing older. Looking at Yuu first, by the third volume of the series we already had an understanding he was a cynical person and through glimpses of his past we saw why. It stemmed from his dreams being crushed at a young age and his parents pressuring him to do well in school so he would succeed in life—though being an engineer is nothing to sneeze at. However, we saw a distinct change in his attitude through his interactions with Amu’s shugo chara, Su. The dialog between the two characters raised the interesting point that even if our dreams and aspirations are curbed, we can always find new avenues to achieve them. Thus, while Yuu may have lost his childhood innocence, we saw him rediscover and reevaluate what it truly meant to be mature.
In contrast, we saw Amu pondering what it meant to leave childhood behind and what her identity was in the fourth and fifth volumes of the series. Although it’s odd an elementary school student would be thinking about such things, I could understand why she felt this way. It came from the drastic change in her relations with her close friends and classmates. I’m sure we’ve all had similar experiences, but how the authors, Peach-Pit, examined it was noteworthy. For example, in the first chapter of the fourth volume Amu stumbled across her male classmates ranking the girls in their class by attractiveness. Though Amu was shocked her classmates would do something so inane, their discussion about her forced her to question what exactly a person’s identity was and subsequently what leaving childhood behind entailed. Combined with the story arc surrounding Yuu, the set of these two story arcs exemplified the themes of growing older in a manner children can understand.
Of the shojo, or young girl, manga series I’ve read one of the remarkable aspects I’ve noticed is the brief, yet concise nature of the different story arcs. It makes reading many different series in the genre far more engaging than some of their shonen, or young boy, counterparts. The same was certainly true with Shugo Chara! as well. While one might assume that with only twelve volumes in the series there would be only two or three major story arcs, this was not the case. Granted, four of the major arcs I counted were not that long, lasting at most two volumes, but they were short and sweet. What I mean by this is, where many other series, specifically shonen series, take an immense amount of time on both action scenes and flashbacks, what we saw in this series was short but exciting action scenes and flashbacks that summed up the characters’ backgrounds in two pages at most. This greatly benefited the pacing of the series, as spending a great deal of time examining a given character’s background or having to wade through an exceptionally long action scene can be tiring.
For example, when examining a series like Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto, a fair portion of the series was relegated to characters recalling past events. While it was interesting exploring those characters’ memories, they ultimately disrupted the pace of the series. Though the action in Naruto was also meant to be exhilarating, similar to the flashbacks, as the series progressed they lasted far too long. Yet, when placing Naruto next to Shugo Chara! we saw that while the latter had action scenes and flashbacks that were much shorter, they were far more engaging and breezed by much more quickly. Yes, this did remove some of the tension inherent within this series to a degree, but in terms of retaining a reader’s attention and supporting the feeling the plot was progressing, this was very important. Had the authors used longer action sequences and flashbacks, the series would have certainly suffered. However, at the same time they weren’t short enough for people to become disengaged with the material but instead kept readers absorbed in the overall narrative.
Shugo Chara! was certainly a good series, but by no means an influential series within the manga medium. While I felt it explored certain aspects of honne and tatemae in regards to Japanese society, it related more to how Japanese people present themselves to each other rather than the inherent idea of the harmony of the group superseding the will of the individual. On top of this, there were some interesting explorations into what it means to grow older in the middle of the series. Though I focused on the juxtaposition between Yuu Nikaido and Amu Hinamori, there were other wonderful instances when the characters contemplated the notions of leaving childhood behind, which added to the theme. However, a great boon to the series was how well it progressed. Had the series taken a great deal of time on the action, it would have upset the narrative the authors were trying to present. Be that as it may, even though Shugo Chara! is a fun series, it is geared towards young children and adolescents. As such, adults may want to forgo reading it.
Work Info
Title: Shugo Chara! (しゅごキャラ)
By: Peach-Pit
Under: Kodansha, Nakayoshi
Official Site: N/A
More Info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shugo_Chara!
Cross Rinne Journals 