And now,
on New Year's Day,
this!
Note: "Otoshidama" is a custom of giving children pocket money in envelopes for the new year.
New Year's envelopes!
You sound so authoritative, Papa!
This is for Ami.
Thanks!
I look forward to another year together!
So cute!
And one for Amu.
Bravo! A New Year's envelope!
Thank you.
That's my Amu! Way cool!
Ah! They're here!
Happy New Year's, Amu!
I look forward to the upcoming year.
Happy New Year's, Hinamori.
Prince!
Note: The Charas and kids are practicing hatsumoude, which is the first visit of the year to a shrine or temple, usually while dressed up or wearing a kimono.
I hope Amu uses a bunch of character changes.
So do I.
As do I.
I hope that I might become much closer to Tadase this year.
Um, and... and...
What am I thinking?
I don't really care about him, one way or the other.
Um...
What did you pray for, Hinamori?
That's not it!
That's not it? What, then?
It's nothing at all!
U–Um, I'm sure I was praying for the same thing as everyone else!
About universal uniforms?
Universal uniforms?
I don't think anyone has the same thoughts as Hotori.
Well, universal uniforms might be good, too!
Note: This is omikuji or "sacred lottery," which are random fortunes written on bits of paper at shrines. One chooses a fortune in hopes of good luck in the new year.
I got a "great luck."
You've done well, Tadase.
I got a "normal luck."
That's to be expected.
Yaya got a "great luck"!
Of course!
Why am I unlucky?
Beats me. You're the one who drew it.
And Amu?
Questionable luck.
Risky.
Well, pull yourself together. Why don't we go shopping?
Sounds good. Lots of booths have already been set up.
I'm jealous! I want to take snowboarding lessons, too!
Unfortunately, the event is only for fifth- and sixth-graders.
Questionable luck...
It definitely means I'm going to wipe out soon.
Well, don't worry too much about fortune telling.
I don't want to hear that from you.
Excuse me.
Your face tells me the director was complaining
about your inability to find the embryo.
You can stop with the made-up stories.
Oh? The director happened to mention it earlier.
"When will Nikaidou be able to deliver the embryo to our lord?" he asked.
You sure are at ease. Seems like you have a great deal of faith in a kid like Hoshina Utau.
The "guardians," was it?
Coming from you, who is being hindered by a group of kids worse than Utau?
Let's have a contest to see who can offer the embryo to our lord first.
A contest?
Hasn't it been one since the start?
Excuse me.
I don't think he's that bad, though.
Amu!
What are you thinking about?
Uh... just...
Must be a secret.
I wouldn't call it a secret, but... Sorry.
It's fine.
You were making a face like that.
It must've been something really important.
A face like that?
What kind of face was it?
N–Nothing strange. Don't worry.
When you say that, I get even more curious.
A contest?
My method thus far has been ineffective.
Teacher!
I have to think of another approach.
Teacher!
W–Whatever could it be?
Well, I was thinking of giving you some...
Acting cool... That's not in your character at all.
Well...
I guess not.
Now it's time for the school's number one celebrity.
This is my, Yamabuki Saya's, turn!
Miss Bus Assistant?
The usual, please.
The usual?
A shadow of desire waving through the town,
descending like an angel, roaming around.
W–What a voice.
Does it seem so important to hold onto
This could be its own form of art.
a love without a place...
I wonder if we'll be able to snowboard well.
I'm good at skiing, but I don't know...
Oh? I still don't see our coach.
For this lesson, your instructor will be
Japan's top boarder, who is expected to win the international championship medal.
International championship?
And she's also eleven years old!
She's so amazing even though she's the same age as you guys.
An eleven year old top boarder?
Could it be?
Right!
Tori Mihuyu!
And, who is that?
Amu...
But I heard on TV that she's competing in a contest today.
Yeah, the preliminaries are today, and the finals are tomorrow.
I hear that the people who place in this event get permission to enter the championships.
But she sure is late. Kind of strange...
That was close. A little longer and I would've frozen to death.
Um... you are...
Tori Mihuyu! Pleased to meet you!
What's wrong?
Another weird character.
That girl...
Yeah.
I knew I'd wipe out.
Hey, you guys, help me up!
This is fun!
A–Aren't we going a little fast?!
For goodness' sake...
What's your name?
Hinamori Amu.
Amu, is it?
The way you wiped out was good! Nice falling style!
The way I wiped out?
Right, the way you wiped out.
If you can't wipe out correctly, you won't be able to snowboard well, either.
Amu, the way you wipe out is already good!
That's a bit annoying.
Got it? Turning is like this.
You make it zoom!
And then, whoosh!
Zoom! Whoosh?
Right! Good, good!
I wonder...
Good job!
It looks like she can't see us.
Which means...
The egg hasn't hatched yet.
What do you mean?
She's about to create an egg.
And it's a really strong egg.
Huh? Really?
Amu, do you live in a fantasy?
You're talking to yourself.
Ah! It's nothing! Nothing.
Oh, that's right. Mihuyu, you're...
Yeah, call me that. It's okay, okay.
Mihuyu, you're competing in the preliminaries tonight, right?
You sure it's all right to be doing this?
Yeah, it's fine.
Oh, yeah. Bring your friends to cheer for me!
If I see a group of kids our age cheering, my courage will start ringing!
Ringing courage?
That hurts.
That girl! She might be...
Finally, the event is beginning.
Now for the season's first preliminary contest.
This year's top prospect is Tori Mihuyu.
That's true.
Attention is focused on how much she can show her technique while competing with adults.
It's Mihuyu.
All right, take first place!
Tori is really popular with the kids.
She's competing with adults too.
The kids must be excited.
Upperclassman Hinamori is on TV.
Grandma, where's the tape recorder?
We don't have a tea infuser.
The one with the small wheel that spins to make tea?
Not that!
I won't make it!
There's no other choice. I'll imprint it onto my mind!
You're pretty good.
And getting all this attention...
It's nothing special.
Even though we're rivals, I can't wait to see the way you board.
I have great expectations of you.
Expectations? This might be bad.
Bad!
Hey, where are you going?
Look over there.
Isn't that Tori?
I wonder what's wrong?
I'll go and see.
You're pretty good.
I can't wait.
This is bad, this is bad! So bad!
It happened again.
Why am I always like this?
I have to do something about my habit of becoming scared when it comes to the actual competition.
I want to be someone who's brave and courageous!
Is someone there?
I must be imagining things.
A–An egg?!
Could it be...
Did I somehow give birth to an egg?!
We didn't learn this in health class!
Calm down. I'll explain!
You're Amu, the one who's good at wiping out!
I don't like being remembered for that.
Anyway, how do you know about this?
Well, because I guess I'm your upperclassman, in a sense.
Upperclassman?
What do you mean?
The egg is...
Hatching!
Nice to meet you.
Please call me "Snoppe."
Yeah, pleased to meet you, Snoppe.
It talked!
Try to stay calm.
You think I can be calm?!
From a girl who can't calm down to a girl who is calm, character change!
Character change?
I'm calm.
How to put it...
Pretty simple.
That's the kind of character it is.
And she is what you'd call a Guardian Chara?
Looking closer, Amu, you have so many Guardian Charas!
These guys are the Guardian Charas who were born from my desires,
just like Snoppe was created from your desire.
Haven't you always thought, "I want to change"?
Speaking of which...
I always get nervous just before an event.
Like how I ran away just now.
When I think about how everyone expects things of me, I suddenly become scared.
Be confident. Your Guardian Chara's strength is your own strength!
My strength?
Right, Mihuyu's strength!
But if you don't believe in the Guardian Charas, we will end up disappearing.
It was a close call for us in the beginning.
Amu just refused to believe.
Bringing up the past...
I wonder if I can.
Don't worry!
The most important thing is that you keep believing in Snoppe!
Right! If you do that, everything will be fine.
All I have to do is believe.
If I just believe...
Next, it's finally time for Tori Mihuyu's appearance!
To a girl who is not nervous, character change!
All right!
It's started!
Move it, move it! Go, go!
I can do this.
I'm not nervous!
Is that a Guardian Chara?
Incredible!
She's so cool!
As I thought, she's the owner of a powerful heart's egg.
And Guardian Charas are born from these powerful eggs?
If I could easily harness that power...
Then...
All right!
It's worth a try.
Congratulations!
No, it was because of all your chee—
Everyone has Guardian Charas following them!
Following us?
Don't make it sound like we're monsters!
That's rude!
Sorry.
My name is Temari!
Pleased to meet you.
Hey, guys.
With these things always next to you, doesn't it get annoying?
"These things"?
I felt that way at first.
They were always in the way.
Same to you!
But now we've made up!
I guess.
From the start, the Guardian Charas were like my dreams.
There's no way we wouldn't get along.
A–Amu!
If Amu can say it with her own lips, then...
It's touching!
You guys are pestering me!
She's mad!
Anyway, now we're character pals.
If you have any concerns, just ask us.
Yeah, thanks.
In the meantime, I hope you do well in the event tomorrow.
Stop! If you start talking about it, I'll get nervous!
You really do have stage fright, don't you?
When people start expecting things of me, my body freezes up!
Just like this!
It's amazing you've made it this far being like that.
Souma!
It's all right. I don't believe it myself.
During events, my mind always goes blank,
and when I wake up, it's already over.
So when your mind goes blank, there are times you do well and times when you run away?
Okay, everyone! Think of a better way to keep her relaxed.
Why has Kiseki taken control?
The same as usual.
Oh, yeah. I'm not sure, but don't they say that if you write a quotation mark on your palm, you'll be relaxed?
Quotation mark?
No, it's not a quotation mark. It's a swirly mark, isn't it?
Swirly?
Isn't it the kanji for "person"?
I also heard it helps to put your fists on your head.
Like this?
Yeah, yeah!
I'm starting to feel I'm going to do great!
Time to practice!
Right now?
She's really practicing.
She might actually win an international championship medal one day.
Are you all right?
Okay, okay.
It reminds me of when I first started snowboarding and always wiped out.
Everything ended in failure, though.
It was fun!
I'll let you two be the first to try my experiment.
I'm not nervous at all today!
I think that I can snowboard as usual.
That's the spirit!
Hello, hello!
You really helped out our class yesterday.
No, it was fun for me too.
I'm glad to hear it.
That's right! Do your best today and win the medal!
Yeah, I'll try.
Not only would it make the students happy,
but all the people in Japan are expecting great things from the youngest in the competition.
Expecting me? Everyone in Japan?
Yeah. But if you fail, everyone will definitely be disappointed.
You would never do that, right?
If you fail, that would be a betrayal to everyone.
I'm fine.
I'll do what they taught me.
I shouldn't be nervous at all.
The top boarders in a dream-like appearance!
I wonder what we can expect to see from those who qualified yesterday!
At the top is Tori Mihuyu, right?
I have great expectations of her.
Mihuyu, believe in me!
What'll I do if I fail?
Believe!
Everyone, please don't expect things of someone like me!
If you don't believe, then...
You're great.
I can't wait.
I have great expectations.
If you fail, that would be a betrayal to everyone.
I can't do it!
It's her!
Something's wrong.
She couldn't be nervous, right?
Even though we taught her all that yesterday?
Let's go and see.
Snoppe...
Snoppe!
Where are you, Snoppe?
What an amazing power.
I can't...
I can't do anything.
With that, Snoppe was born!
But Snoppe has disappeared!
I wonder where she went.
Mihuyu seems to have lost her confidence, too.
Anyway, we need to find Snoppe!
All right everyone, mission "Recover Snoppe" has started!
Excuse me, upperclassman Hinamori?
You see, I found this egg.
Really?
Wait, why are you here?
Next time on Shugo Chara:
Big Battle at the Snowfield! Save Snoppe!
Don't tell me an X character will appear.
I wonder if we can be friends?
No, we can't!