YMMV / Shugo Chara!

• Accidental Aesop: In one episode of Dokki Doki (which is part of Party), Utau storms out of a recording session because she didn't want to change her singing style. After a brief battle with an X-Character however, she is "inspired" to return and record her new song in the style they wanted. This probably wasn't intentional, but it nonetheless implies that 1) you need to do what you're told, even if you don't like it and 2) you need to accept "changes" to a product (e.g., ramen in one scene) even if you don't like them, and even if the company (or whatever) that makes it "sells its pride" (as Utau put it). The episode probably meant to give viewers the "try new things" message, but ended up coming out the wrong way.
• Adaptation Displacement: The manga might be pretty well known, but the anime adaptation isn't as well known since unlike the manga, the anime was not officially released outside of Japan.
• Americans Hate Tingle: Shugo Chara is a Magical Girl anime aimed at young girls where an elementary schooler has a 17-year-old love interest. Said love interest has an Abhorrent Admirer in his own sister Utau. Amongst other reasons, this is likely why the anime has never been exported to North America despite being a hit in Japan for years. It's still gained a following amongst international anime fans, but it's not to the degree of its Japanese popularity.
• Awesome Music: Utau provides a lot of awesome music to the series, which is only natural since she's voiced by Nana Mizuki. Her most famous songs in the Fandom are "Meikyuu Butterfly" and "Black Diamond", both used to extract X-Eggs, and let's not forget her other songs, "Heartful Song" and "Taiyou ga Niau Yo".
• Base-Breaking Character: Amu. A complex character or overly perfect?
• Broken Base: The ending of the manga. A fitting end to the series or just everyone getting Strangled by the Red String?
• Crack Pairing: Rima/Utau has a large, albeit somewhat ironic fan following.
• Die for Our Ship: Tadase gets this so bad by Ikuto fangirls, it's not even funny.
• Draco in Leather Pants:
  • Nikaidou. While he did pull a Heel–Face Turn, some fans downplay some of the truly sickening things he did prior.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Shugo Chara! Party never happened. Ever.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: This show was very popular when it came to Italy, and was huge in Korea, where it became a Cash-Cow Franchise with tons of merchandise.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • A main character comes into contact with supernatural beings who are related to wishes and gains unique powers as a result of being possessed by them, with a red one being the first to join her, followed by a blue one whose personality contrasts with the first, and a third one who's a klutz. Am I talking about Shugo Chara or Kamen Rider Den-O?
  • Saaya's bordenline Butt-Monkey status and being overshadowed by Amu is even more hilarious after BanG Dream! released in 2017 and had their own Saaya/Saya Yamabuki. Bandori Saaya eclipses the Shugo Chara Saaya in popularity to the point that Chara Saaya doesn't even show up on Google searches post Bandori's release date unless one is specifically searching for her. Even in real life Saaya cannot catch a break.
• Ho Yay: Let's see, there's Utau's Tsundere-ish behavior towards Amu, Rima's possessiveness of Amu, and on the flip side, Tadase and Ikuto have some subtext going on, especially when Tadase starts ranting about how Ikuto only befriended him in order to steal his key.
• I Am Not Shazam: At his first appearance, many people thought Kazuomi Hoshina was Easter's president aka Gozen, but he is only the director.
• Incest Yay Shipping: Ikuto/Utau has its fans. Considered No Yay for others, however.
• I Knew It!: A few fans probably connected that Tsukasa^note No, not that one is the future Tadase.... or is he?
• Memetic Mutation:
  • AMV makers got obsessed with Ikuto's pelvic thrusts in the second season's second OP.
  • Tadase, Kukai and Nagihiko's resemblance to Pico, Chico and Coco from the Boku no Pico OVA trilogy. ("It was THREEEEEE!")
  • That probably wasn't a good idea on Satelight's part...
  • Tadase's Evil Laugh after he chara-changes.
  • Nadeshiko's chara-change; nothing more to be said.
  • "Desu!" (joint meme with Rozen Maiden, another Peach-Pit creation)
  • SHATTAPU! (anime only)
  • "Sib...lings?"
  • "KUURU ANDO SUPAISHII" (lit. "cool and spicy"; also only from the anime)
  • "(Pronoun) no kokoro, ANROKKU!"
    • "NEGATIBU HAATO ni...LOCK ON! OPEN HAATO!!
  • "SHUGO, SHUGO! Doki tto SUTAATO, Shugo Chara TAIMU!"
  • "All kids hold an egg in their soul: the egg of our hearts, our would-be selves, yet unseen."
  • "CHARA-SU!^note A combination of "chara" and "osu"; the latter is an informal greeting Minna kyou mo Shugo (Shugo) genki?"
  • "BALA-BALANCE!"
  • "HISSATSU!!...Merry Merry!" ^ExplanationIt looks as though Yaya is going to unleash an unbelievably powerful attack...then out comes a baby mobile (in accordance with her "baby" theme) that sprays sleeping gas everywhere, putting the X-charas to sleep...and her along with them.
    • "GO! GO! LITTLE DUCKIES!" ^ExplanationAn attack that consists of a "salvo" of cute rubber duckies. Another "ineffective" attack...until they become "sexy, cute" black rubber duckies...
• Moe: Rima. The whole reason for her Instant Fan Club.
• Never Live It Down: Ran Character Changing with Amu right in the first episode, making her confess her love for Tadase, in front of the whole student body. Then him subsequently turning her down.
• Periphery Demographic: The natural result of the many quasi-sexual situations.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: This fandom is just crawling with these combo names. Notable names are Amuto (Amu/Ikuto), Tadamu (Tadase/Amu) and Rimau (Rima/Utau). There's also Rimahiko (Rima/Nagihiko), Kutau (Kukai/Utau) and Kaiya (Kairi/Yaya), which are, together with Amuto the four most popular Canon straight couples (If you don't take in mind the same-sex couples and the Crack Pairings.)
• Ron the Death Eater: 2/3 of the fanbase seem to antagonize Tadase for no other reason than being in the way of Amu/Ikuto. But, in order to keep it PG, most Shugo Chara! fanfictions will use this to get rid of him.
• Seasonal Rot: The later chapters of the manga are disliked due to their incredibly rushed feel and awkward Genre Shift to Slice of Life romantic comedy.
  • Likewise, Shugo Chara Party!, the third season of the anime, is not well-liked.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: Tadase and Ikuto for Amu. And much like any shojo series with romance, sometimes it can get pretty serious. Insults being thrown left to right, it's pretty messy.
• Squick:
  • Regardless of what they ship, some fans view Ikuto's advances on Amu as this given that he's in high school while Amu is only in elementary school. The fact that he doesn't deny being a paedophile when one of his friends calls him one doesn't help matters.
  • Utau kissing Ikuto for some due to them being brother and sister.
• Stoic Woobie: Ikuto. Just... Ikuto. He has spent half his life isolating the people he loves because he doesn't want them to get hurt. Not to mention, he's been targeted by the Easter company ever since he was a small kid, and eventually ends up being forced to work for them in order to prevent them from going after his mother and sister. But he's never shown wangsting about it; the only time we actually see him crying is in a flashback. Even if hurting others hurts him even more, he never says anything and lets those misunderstandings stagnate, all just to protect them from potentially getting hurt by getting involved with him. And the reason he wants the Embryo? Just so that he can free himself from Easter. And the way Easter treats him, who can blame him? And that’s just leaving out all the crap he is put through during the Death Rebel arc. All in all, poor guy really needs a BIG hug.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Some of the fans see Shugo Chara Party as this, especially on Crunchyroll, where the show is simulcast. Many of them positively loathe the variety show elements (Party is hosted by Shugo Chara! Egg in live-action segments, and features a short anime segment with just the Charas, in addition to the main segment). Didn't help that it turned out to be a Franchise Killer.
• Unpopular Popular Character: Yaya. Gets no respect in-universe, but has a fair share of fans.
• Values Dissonance:
  • The anime is a bit more risque than a lot of other similar magical girl series, despite being aimed at the same audience. This is one issue that prevented it from being dubbed: too risque for a kid audience but too immature for a teenage audience.
  • Magical Girl anime are no stranger to age gaps, with the Sailor Moon anime even featuring 14-year old Usagi dating a college student^note In the manga, Mamoru is a high schooler, but Shugo Chara's characters are a bit much. Amu is barely pubescent while Ikuto is much taller and more mature. He also acts quite flirty towards this girl who is several years his junior. Nobody in-universe seems to care about their age difference though.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: It's a Magical Girl series aimed at young girls, but there are some risque jokes and one of Amu's love interests is much older than her (he's in high school and she's in elementary school). There's also the fact that Utau has a very blatant Big Brother Attraction towards Ikuto.