| “ | We are all the main characters of our own stories! | „ |
| ~ Amu |
Amu Hinamori is a character in the manga and anime series Shugo Chara!, and the main protagonist of the story.
Appearance
Amu has short, smooth pink hair which half of is styled into a ponytail and has honey-golden (Light Brown) eyes. She has a kinda "punk" like way of dressing, and usually wears X-shaped clips. At the start of the series, Amu usually has a cold and stoic expression on her face, though as the series progresses, she is shown smiling more frequently, because she start a relationship with Ikuto.
Personality
Amu is extremely shy and self-denying, but also kind hearted and learns the philosophy that comes with her life. She is also very caring and responsible, though she can also be a bit airheaded and often forgets to do her homework. Her parents entrust her with the care of her little sister whenever they're unavailable.
Powers
Humpty Lock
According to the Founding King's legend, a person with three Guardian Characters will have very special powers and will be given the Humpty Lock to be able to harness those powers. It was this item that granted her the ability to Character Transform, as well as granting the other Guardians this ability later. The Humpty Lock has strong reactions to her emotions.
She can use it to activate her well-known technique: Open Heart, in order to cleanse X-Eggs and X-Characters and free their owners from their own despair and negativity.
Humpty Lock is Amu's main weapon and a counterpart to Dumpty Key, which can create very powerful phenomenon when both are brought together.
Character Changes
When Amu Character Changes with a Guardian Character, her hair clip will change and give her specific special abilities.
- Ran - When Amu Character Changes with Ran, her hair clip becomes a red heart and bestows her athletic and limited flying abilities. A side-effect to this is that Amu becomes honest to the point that she blurts out whatever is on her mind. Amu still has relative control over her body while in this Character Change (unless it a specific task that she has to complete, e.a. swinging around a bar for gym class). Ran's Character Change is used the most throughout the series.
- Miki - When Amu Character Changes with Miki, her hair clip becomes a blue spade and gives her increased artistic abilities. However, the Character Change, while short, is powerful and makes Amu spontaneously start drawing to the point that she has no control over her body. Miki is the one Amu Character Changes with the least.
- Su - When Amu undergoes Character Change with Su, her hair clip becomes a green clover and she improves in cooking and housekeeping skills. Like with Miki, Amu does not have much control over her body, to the point that Amu's character literally changes into much more girly version of herself. She is also able to create ingredients out of thin air. Su's Character Change, while not used very often, is still employed more than Miki's Character Change.
- Dia - Dia undergoes Character Change with Amu for the first time in Episode 108. When Amu undergoes Character Change with Dia, she becomes a sparkling person with a shiny smile, and calms her down. This change also allows her to release the light inside her heart. Amu's hairclip becomes a yellow diamond when under this Character Change. It doesn't make much of an impression to everyone. This Character Change only occurs in the anime.
- Il - In Chapter 43 of the manga, Il forcefully Character Changes with Amu, granting her a pair of black bat wings and the ability to fly according to Il's command. This is the first and only time, anyone in the series has Character Changed with a Guardian Character other than their own.
Character Transformations
Open Heart is Amu's finishing move to cleanse X Eggs, X Characters, and Mystery Eggs, and she can use this in any of her three transformations. Her transformations' name are starting by 'Amulet' word, which it means Lucky Charm (Amuleto) from Italian and Spanish, but also can translated as 'charm' from English. As Amulet Clover, her Remake Honey technique is used over this, but she starts to use it in Shugo Chara!! Doki. As Amulet Dia, she uses it once in Shugo Chara! Party!, and can combine powers with Pure Feeling to strengthen it.
Amulet Heart
Amu can transform with Ran to become Amulet Heart, harnessing more powerful athletic abilities, and the desire to be more energetic and honest. Amu first becomes Amulet Heart in Chapter 5 of the manga and Episode 1 of the anime.
Appearance
Amu wears her hair in a side ponytail, much as Ran does and has a cheerleader's outfit, including a pleated skirt, a pink top and leg warmers over her shoes, all with heart-shaped accessories. She has a ribbon tied around her neck and one around her skirt. The Humpty Lock shines with pink light.
Abilities
As an athletic character, Amulet Heart's powers are mostly useful in combat. In this form, she is able to jump to an incredible limit of heights and lengths. She uses pom-poms to act as shields or to deflect attacks, while her Heart Rod is her main weapon. With it, she can perform the Spiral Heart and Spiral Heart Special techniques, sprinkle a paralyzing pink energy over the target, and throw it like a boomerang.
In Episode 26, Kukai taught Amu a new move: Kukai-style...Golden Victory Shoot!.
In Chapter 31 and Episode 80, Amulet Heart and Platinum Royale combine powers to use a special technique called Platinum Heart.
In Episode 56 of the anime, Amulet Heart receives a pair of roller skates called Heart Speeders, which gives her the ability to fly.
In Episode 113 of the anime, she generates a distraction maneuver called Pom-pom Pom Special to produce sparkling stars from her cheerleading pom-poms to distract a crow from taking away Rikka's necklace.
Amulet Spade
Amu's transformation with Miki is Amulet Spade, focusing with more artistic abilities, and the desire to be level-headed and creative. This first occurs in Chapter 9 of the manga and Episode 6 of the anime.
Appearance
As Amulet Spade, her attire consists of a light blue blouse with frilly sleeves and a ribbon at the back. She wears brown boots, dark blue shorts, and striped stockings. Like Miki, most of her hair is inside an identical light blue cap with a Spade decoration. The Humpty Lock shines with blue light.
Items
- Amulet Spade's Paintbrush
- Amulet Spade's Baton (anime)
Abilities
Amulet Spade's abilities are centered around art and creativity, and are used in immobilizing the opponent and neutralizing attacks.
Amu wields a gigantic blue paintbrush to unleash the Colorful Canvas and Colorful Canvas Special techniques, where a flood of multi-colored paint leaves the opponent immobilized. This technique is sometimes used in combination with Platinum Royale's White Decoration.
Instead of a painting brush, she utilizes a conductor's baton in the shape of a treble clef as a weapon in the second season. She uses Prism Music, an attack that sends multicolored notes to neutralize hypnosis and offensively.
Amulet Clover
Amu becomes Amulet Clover when she Character Transforms with Su to use her cooking abilities and represents her desire to be more domestic and a sweet-hearted character.
Appearance
In the image of a maid/housekeeper, Amu wears a maid outfit, consisting of a large, green balloon dress she wears in combination with an apron.
A lot of bows are observed in this Character Transformation. She also wears light green glovesand the same kind of headdress Su wears. She's also given ponytails that go behind her maid's headdress. The Humpty Lock shines with green light. Amu first becomes "Amulet Clover" in Episode 10 of the anime and Chapter 13 of the manga.
Items
- Amulet Clover's Whisk
- Amulet Clover's Cooking Pan (anime)
- Amulet Clover's Bubble Wand (anime)
- Amulet Clover's Bowl (anime)
- Amulet Clover's Pepper (anime)
Abilities
Since Amulet Clover's powers are domestic, she is mostly useful in defense and regeneration. She can also use this character's power to create food. Amulet Clover can use a whisk for the attack "Remake Honey" to restore broken objects and purify X-Eggs. Later, they can also use an attack called "Remake Honey Special". On one occasion, she uses a harmless technique called "Sweet Applique" to create flowers and ribbons on Kairi's weapon. She is also able to generate a pan for defense.
In the second season, "Amulet Clover" utilizes a bubble wand . She uses it for "Honey Bubbles", which sends out a storm of bubbles to push off a horde of people and to clear off enemies' attacks. She later uses a bowl to absorb her opponent's attack and pepper to make her opponent sneeze.
Amulet Dia
Amu becomes Amulet Dia when she Character Transforms with shining idol Dia. Amulet Dia represents the desire to be a radiant idol, and also to face her trials with unwavering confidence. Amu rarely takes this form unless on special occasions in which this form is required. This transformation is considered the most powerful out of all four Character Transformations.
Appearance
In this form, Amu wears a pair of ponytails and a futuristic headphone with a pair of double diamonds attached it. Her outfit is a futuristic yellow idol skirt. A yellow ribbon is attached to the back of her neck with straps that go down to her waist. She wears yellow boots that come up to her inner thighs. The Humpty Lock glitters with yellow light.
Amu first becomes Amulet Dia in Episode 43 of the anime and Chapter 26 of the manga.
Items
- Amulet Dia's Mic
Abilities
As a character with an intense shine, Amulet Dia's powers are mostly associated with stars and light. Due to Dia's power, this Character Transformation is used in case of absolute emergency.
She can use a small globe to harness a starry attack called "Starlight Navigation". In Chapter 38 of the manga, she uses two new attacks: "Twinkle Shield" and "Shooting Star Shower". In season three, Amu utilizes a new attack in this form called "Twinkle Hold", which has the power to capture (and supposedly cleanse) X-Eggs in a form of a sparkling sphere; and later uses "Open Heart" with Pure Feeling to purify them.
This form gives her flying abilities.
In Chapter 45, she uses her powers to open a Road of Stars that allows her to travel through time and space.
Amulet Angel
While keeping Utau's angelic Guardian Character, El, Amu acquires the power to become Amulet Angel with her. Amulet Angel represents the desire to make love come true and to be more innocent.
Appearance
In this form, Amulet Angel wears a long pink gown with white frills and a red ribbon tied around her chest. She also has a pair of tiny ponytails with winged hairclips on them. Her shoes look like red ballerina shoes with a red bow tied around her ankle. She also has (possibly fake) wings attached to her back. The Humpty Lock shines with white light.
One funny fact about this transformation is that El can perform the transformation without Amu's permission. Also, El has the habit of posing and claiming to be the "Messanger of Justice" amongst others and that the Guardians were "her sidekicks", causing Amu to become embarrased and scold her.
Amu first becomes "Amulet Angel" in Episode 29 of the anime and Chapter 18 of the manga.
Items
- White Flags
Abilities
"Amulet Angel's" only useful moves are "White Flag", "White Flag Double Plan", and "Angel Wink". (Even though her abilities are reduced by not being with her own owner, Utau.) By being super-cute and innocent, she can attract attention of boys. In episode 35 of the anime, Amulet Angel once attempted to use a power named "Love Repair Beam" to restore two lovers' passion, but it failed because the passion was never gone to begin with.
Despite being an angel, she does not seem to possess any flying abilities, since her wings are too small or possibly cannot carry Amu's weight.
Amulet Devil
Amu can become Amulet Devil when she Character Transforms with Utau's devilish Guardian Character, Il. Amu represents the rough and tumble character and the desire to be more immature.
Appearance
She receives a black beanie with bat wings attached to it, a red bat-formed top, a lap with a devil's tail, and a pair of black and white stockings. She also wears black boots. The Humpty Lock glitters with red light.
One funny thing about this transformation is that Il can perform it without Amu's permission. This is also the only lone character transformation by Amu that doesn't have an episode named after it.
Amu first becomes "Amulet Devil" in Episode 42 of the anime and Chapter 25 of the manga.
Items
- Amulet Devil's Guitar
Abilities
Amulet Devil can use an electric guitar to generate an attack called "Devil's Tune". It has the power to send out strong soundwaves towards the enemy and repress lesser powerful attacks.
Amulet Fortune
Amu Character Transforms into Amulet Fortune with all four of her Guardian Characters when she completely opens her heart to Ikuto, causing the two of them to transform together. While Amu becomes "Amulet Fortune", Ikuto becomes "Seven Seas Treasure" with Yoru. Amulet Fortune represents the girl with four kinds of hearts, the four-leaf clover, representing true love in the language of flowers.
Amu first becomes Amulet Fortune in Episode 100 of the anime and Chapter 38 of the manga.
Appearance
In this form, Amu wears a pure white bridal gown with a tan and rainbow colored bow on the top and frills, pure white opera gloves, and a bridal veil on her head. On top of the veil is a bow and a jeweled flower brooch with the gems representing the colors of Ran, Miki, Su, and Dia. The Humpty Lock glitters with a multi-color light.
Abilities
As a character of true love, her powers are rather touching to the heart, which is a little bit like Amulet Clover's domestic skills.
In the manga, Amulet Fortune can give off a wave of good feelings for her healing ability "Open Heart Full Volume", while in the anime, she can only use an upgraded "Open Heart", allowing X-Eggs to be cleansed and those affected by despair to feel warmth and love.
Trivia
- This Character Transformation does not last very long.
- This is the first joint transformation.
- The name Amulet Fortune comes from:
- Amulet: Amu's given name is part of the word "Amulet."
- Fortune: Can mean luck or wealth (hence Seven Seas Treasure).
- A running gag in the series is that whenever Amu is overly depressed, her soul will fly out of her mouth and her charas would try and persuade it to go back, which normally succeeds, seeing as Amu is fine in the next scene.
- Her teacher, Yuu Nikaidou often calls her "Himamori-san". The replaced letters onto her name means 'leisure'. Hima also translates to "free".
- In Episode 8 of Shugo Chara! Doki (Episode 59) she automatically Chara Changes with Ran. This is the only known scene where she Chara Changes on her self.
- Amu's name includes Ran, Miki, Su's letters in order they were born Ran, Miki, Su spells AMU.
- According to PEACH-PIT, Amu's name came from the english word "am", mainly because of the sentence "I am (blank)", because of there are many possibilities of what word you would put in to describe yourself.
- Amu's name is shortened for Amulet, as of her collection of Character Transformations.