In the beginning this was only supposed to be a study on Amu, but somehow it became a study on both Amu and Amuto along with a minor look into Ikuto as well. I didn't mean for it to be, this was supposed to be just a normal charter study but then I had to look into Ikuto for the transformation of Amulet Fortune and Seven Seas Treasure and then the Seven and Treasure of the transformation is Amuto so I had to look into everything else. This isn't even all that I came up with. I think everyone should be able to like what they want but even if I wasn't into Amuto I'd have to agree that there a whole lot backing it up.
A heart, spade, clover, diamond and a X all equal to a strawberry.
Amu isn't a normal girl, she probably never was. Most people have two personalities, their true self and the one they put on to the whole world. Often it's not fully one or the other, the more comfortable they are with the group the more they let their outside personality slip and their true one show. Of course there is also a personality of who they want to be, who they would be if they could choose anything.
Amu however isn't that simple. And the sad thing is, that by being complex certain people like certain parts of her personality.
The X is Amu's outer facade, it is her safest personality and was born purely out of necessity. As an older sister she was relied on by her parents to do many things, to take care of her junior-by-ten-years sister Ami. Her family and the majority of the school thinks this is who she is, which if you think about the fact that even her parents don't know the real her it is very sad. They call her the cool, or cool & spicy girl. While Amu in a way hates this personality and using it wears her out this is a part of her now. It's not an enjoyable part but it is a part none the less.
The next is the heart, Ran, she is the girly sporty girl. This is how the majority of the other Guardians see her. Ran is the blunt part of her and the one that is good at sports. Amu is naturally a bit of a klutz so she would enjoy being coordinated and sporty. If Tadase fell for her at all, he feel for her as the heart.
The Spade is Miki, the artistic serious girl. Miki is serious and perhaps the most logical of the bunch. Considering a spade lightly resembles a point of a stake or arrow it would make sense, in a fight someone needs to be cool and level-headed. She also seems to have a strangely romantic side as she likes Yuro(1) which is a shock to her sisters.
The clover, Su, is the obedient nice girl who knows how to cook and decorate. She is the more caring and sweeter and she is domestic. This would show that Amu may wish to be married or have children in the future. No matter how independent everyone wants to be taken care of and take care of someone at least once in awhile.(2)
The final one is Dia, the diamond who came about quiet awhile after her sisters had already hatched. Dia seems to be the most powerful and is radiance and confidence and light. Dia was also an X Chara for awhile so it could be said that what Dia represents might be the hardest for Amu.
Amu herself is special, most children have one egg while occasionally they may have two but Amu had three eggs, and later a fourth one. They all show the different suits in a deck and all are Amulet, Amulet Heart, Amulet Spade, Amulet Clover, and Amulet Diamond. Amulet is supposedly Amu's full name when looking on Shugo Chara wiki websites and Amulet means luck.
Amu's name holds the name of her first three Chara's by order, A from Ran, M from Miki, U from Su. Amu's name was also inspired by the English word "am" as in "I am (blank)".
Amu, along with being the first to do a full character change is also the only one able to do a character change with a partner, Ikuto. Amu becomes Amulet Fortune while Ikuto become Seven Seas Treasure. Amu's character change is a wedding gown, white with tan and yellow bows, white opera gloves, along with a veil. On the veil is a bow with a clover on it and all four of her Charas represented on it, pink for Ran, blue for Miki, green for Su, and yellow for Dia, as in this transformation she uses all of her Charas. A clover represents love in the language of flowers. Also considering that this only happens once Amu opens her heart fully to Ikuto. It doesn't take a genius to connect the dots.
Ikuto transforms with Yuro to become a pirate, showing his desire to be as free as an alley cat as a pirate is also free. The seven represents Ikuto's father, his Chara, Amu's Charas and Amu herself. His father, Yuro, Ran, Miki, Su, Dia, and Amu. If you don't believe me count now, that is seven. The seas comes from the belief that Ikuto's father is lost overseas while Amu is the treasure that he has been searching for. (I am trying not to think of the song "I am a Pirate, you are a Princess" and am failing miserably.)
Ikuto, unlike Amu's possible other love interests, seems to like her for who she really is rather than her personality with a certain Chara. He also tells Amu to hurry and catch up to him, telling her to grow older fast so he can be with her. He flirts and teases her a lot, which is very cat like, but he does not do that with anyone else. His only other possible love interest seems to be Utau, who is his sister and he keeps a distance from.(3) To add also, the first time Amu sees Ikuto she falls into a ditch which he is napping in and though she falls on top of him all he does is say that he was having a good dream. (In the manga this happens)
I do not personally know for sure if Ikuto calls Amu strawberry in the manga and/or anime but in many fan sites he calls her "strawberry" "his strawberry" or "his little strawberry" and Amu may call him a pervert but never calls him something like "thieving cat" as Tadase does though she did call Tadase "little prince" the first time she met him. She did instantly regret it and hate doing so but she still did. Possibly because there is no way her Cool & Spicy character can like him.
Ikuto however can go with all the parts of her personality. He is a bit of the bad boy type which would go well with her "cool and spicy" facade, he has the grace of a cat which will go fine with Ran, Miki already likes Yuro, he is caring(4) which Su will like, and he makes Amu radiant which will make Dia happy. Plus for who Amu all by herself is, he seems to enjoy the most. He catches her plenty of times in the anime and though he teases her he is truly caring.
Ikuto is also someone who can challenge and care for Amu. Amu isn't afraid to be angry at him, unlike Tadase who she feels she has to put on her best face for. They challenge each other, but it is also important that Ikuto is willing to wait, he doesn't push for any involvement with her, even when it seems he is hurt by her obvious crush on Tadase, and he never kisses her lips, always her forhead or cheeks and once very close to her lips. He may be five years older than her but considering everything that isn't too bad. A twenty-three year old with a eighteen year old would be fine, and he isn't using her. He honestly loves her(5) and while he may be a bit of a pervert he doesn't do anything unbecoming. He even tries to make her hate him in order to save her.
Not only on Ikuto's side, Amu obviously cares deeply for him to. She has been hurt by him many times throughout the story, even though they are usually him trying to protect her she still comes back without knowing that. She easily could kick his butt if she really wanted to seeing as Ran is good at offense and Ikuto would never do anything but defend, but it doesn't even seem like it crosses her mind. She could use her Cool and Spicy facade to get rid of him but she doesn't, and if she truly didn't like him she wouldn't care that he was going away to search for his father.
It's impossible any way I cut it to not have Ikuto intertwined in this study so instead I just put him all throughout it. That is my rule, if I'm doing a character study and I can't find a conceivable way to cut them fully out I spread them throughout the paper, if I can I just leave them where they are needed.
(1)Yes, I am aware that she likes more than just Yuro but honestly I think it seems like her liking him is the biggest shock, especially since she's so blunt about it and he is the enemy.
(2)It is nice how they can have Su, a person who is completely the good little wife but it is not sexist as she is balanced out by her sisters. It shows that someone can like to do such things and it doesn't matter and it doesn't make them anti-feminist. Femininity is about choice anyway. It gives a nice rounded part of Amu. Besides, everyone wants to both be taken care of and take care of someone from time to time-it's natural.
(3)Ikuto does stay away from many people to keep them safe, he keeps a distance from Utau no matter how hard she tries with her brother complex, he also says things to Tadase and Amu that will make Tadase hurt and Amu mad at him so they won't try to follow him and get hurt or killed by Easter. Plus Utau is his sister but the seven people he seems to care about most are Yuro, Amu, his father, and Amu's four Charas seeing as Utau doesn't have anything to do with Seven Seas Treasure Transformation.
(4)When both Ran and Miki had hatched but Su hadn't yet Ikuto comes to grave Su's egg thinking that it might be the embryo but it isn't and the tart that Amu was making for Tadase breaks. Ikuto brings snacks to her in order to apologize.
(5) Character transformations don't lie, Amulet Fortune and Seven Seas Treasure prove it, along with the fact that only Amu was able to snap him out of Death Rebel. I may sound repetitive but I don't care.