▪	RELEASED BY:		DEL REY
		▪	AUTHOR / ART:		PEACH PIT
		▪	FORMAT:		JAPANESE / B&W
		▪	PAGES:		176
		▪	RATING:		T
		▪	RELEASE DATE:		02/12/2008
		▪	REVIEW DATE:		04/10/2008
		▪	REVIEWED BY:		SCOTT CAMPBELL

Everybody thinks Amu is so cool. But that isn’t who she really is. Deep down inside of her, she is shy and a little bit cynical for a girl her age. One day she wished she could be more true to herself, and the next day she found three eggs in her bed. Ran, Miki, and Su hatched from eggs. They are Amu’s “Guardian Characters.” They say that they are “Amu’s true selves,” and when Amu’s character changes with them, she can be good at sports, art, or cooking. Soon after they hatched, Amu found herself recruited to become one of the Guardians of Seiyo Elementary.

But Nikaidou-sensi is really an employee of the sinister Easter Corporation. They are searching for the Embryo, an egg known to grant any wish asked of it. He took away Ran, Miki, and Su!  So in volume three of Shugo Chara, Amu’s Guardian Characters have been stolen by her teacher, a bitter man whose dreams died when his own egg was smashed. When Amu goes to reclaim her Characters, the School Guardians are there to help. But can they get Amu’s eggs back and put the evil teacher’s egg together again?

Shugo Chara is a very cute, well-drawn manga from the creators of Dears and Rozen Maiden. Right off the bat, it must be said that the art is fantastic – it’s just very well done and quite proficient. It’s fun how it switches back and forth from very cartoon like and super deformed, to serious and dramatic at other times. If offers a good variety of art, and all of it is very pleasing to the eyes. The colours and design used on the outside cover are also very noticeable – the physical product itself in relation to the cover is quite attractive. The letters on the cover actually “bump out” and you can feel the raised material – very cool! Little extras like this make a book much more collectible on a number of levels. It’s nice when a company spends the time to make the physical product just as cool as the inner manga itself.

This book certainly falls under the genre of Shojo – it is much more likely to be appreciated by girls than it would be by guys, but you never know. It’s so well made in relation to the art and the varied characters that it could very well appeal to anyone who has the right mind set for it.

Peach-Pit (the artist group that is responsible for this book series) is made up of Banri Sendo and Shibuko Ebara. Banri Sendo was born on June 7th, and Shibuko Ebara was born on June 21st. They are a pair of Gemini manga artists who work together. Sendo like to eat sweets, and Ebara likes to eat spicy foods. Something that happened to them recently was they almost flushed each other’s cell phones down the toilet! We know this because they are nice enough to share the odd details of their lives within the manga as a little extra for their readers. They also include translation notes at the back of the book to help us understand all the little intricacies of manga and Japanese culture.

IN SUMMARY: 
Shugo Chara is very cute and very stylish – the art is certainly the best feature. The artistic talent behind this book series will bring a lot of joy to its readers – especially the girls, who are the likely target audience for a series like this.