Sugar and spice, and everything nice—that may be what girls are made of, but Amu Hinamori is so much cooler, especially now that she's left behind her days at Seiyo Elementary and become a middle schooler! After transferring to Arcana Academy on a special assignment, her role as the Joker Guardian is to intervene in a crisis that is causing students to lose hope and confidence in themselves. But she has another, more important secret mission: to solve the mystery of the all-powerful, mysterious Arcana Jewels.

Shugo Chara! Jewel Joker has a story and art by Peach-Pit. English translation is done by Alethea & Athena Nibley and lettering by Belynda Ungurath. Published by Kodansha USA (March 3, 2026). Rated T.

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

Shugo Chara! is one of those series that I really feel like I should enjoy more than I do. But I was still excited to read Jewel Joker, its sequel, in no small part because it puts Amu in middle school, and aging her up could easily take one of the creepy elements out of the original story, at least to a degree. (That would be the romance plot with Ikuto, who is older enough to make things feel icky.) But as you can see from the rating, I found Peach Pit's new outing with the characters just okay, filled with reminders of why I struggled with the original series.

The story here opens with Amu preparing to graduate from elementary school alongside Tadase, another of the Guardians of the school. But instead of going directly to the attached middle school, Amu and Tadase are asked to transfer to Arcana, a sister school that's having some Egg-related issues. Amu feels completely out of her depth, and that only deepens when she realizes that not only has she not been told everything, but that Arcana is clearly up to no good. The major problem? Every student has an Egg, and most of them aren't naturally occurring – the school provides them.

Since the Eggs which hatch Guardian Characters are meant to be manifestations of a child's dreams for the future, this is basically a form of brainwashing. The kids are being given dreams that may not be organically theirs, and the school is very invested in students controlling their Characters once they hatch. It's no wonder that X-Eggs are so common at Arcana; there's nothing natural about the way these kids are being “guided” into having what may be very specific (and thus highly suspicious) dreams.

It's a great plot, honestly, but Peach Pit's execution is all over the place. There's a mild “hello, fellow kids” vibe to the way everyone talks (Amu is “spicy and cool?” Really?), and there's very little rhyme or reason to the way they act. Rose, Amu's new self-proclaimed rival, isn't quite two-faced enough, and new cat boy Niya feels engineered to be Ikuto's opposite in an unnatural way. The actual plot is good, but the rest of it is a mess, which detracts in a big way. It's clearly supposed to be funny, but it's trying too hard, which is, incidentally, how I feel about the busy page layouts as well.

The good news is that if you liked the original Shugo Chara!, you'll probably enjoy this too. But if you're hoping for something a little more polished (and without Ikuto), you're not going to find it here.

Erica Friedman
Rating:

In my assessment of the original Shugo Chara!, I found that the messy format did not do the premise of “becoming the person you want to be” any favors. This, combined with misplaced fanservice, male characters that were creepy to the point of unpleasantness made it hard to relax. Well, in Shugo Chara! Jewel Joker, these are not the problem they were in the original series. Instead, this series is plagued with something else entirely.

Amu is ready to move into the next grade and stop being the Joker Guardian. Joke's on her, because without her knowledge and with bare consent, she is being transferred to another school where she is given not one piece of information about anything. The entirety of this volume can be summed up in one sentence — “Didn't X tell you about Y?” I am sure this is meant as a very light-hearted plot complication, but as it happens, I hate it a lot and want it to die in fire. There is almost nothing that makes me madder than a story that relies on the protagonist being clueless to make everything work in a “funny” story.

If this does not bother you, the rest of the story is actually all right. Amu is much more confident, transforming and using her skills easily. She's better at helping people, and no matter how complicated the plot gets, she's ready to jump in. Of course, there is also another creepy cat boy, as well, in case we miss Amu being creeped on.

It's not a terrible story, and as with the original series, if this hit you at the right time and place, Kodansha is giving you a very solid edition of it for you to enjoy.