Kodansha’s Anime Expo announcements included new editions of two long out-of-print shojo series, Shugo Chara by Peach-Pit and Mars by Fuyumi Soryo, as well as a new Peach-Pit series that’s rated for middle-grade readers and two new series by well known creators, Love Out on a Limb by Yoko Nogiri and Fruit of the Underworld by Aya Kanno.

Shugo Chara, a magical-girl manga about a shy girl who levels up with the help of three mysterious Guardian Characters, was first published in Japan in 2005 and in the U.S. by Del Rey in 2007 and was a best-seller throughout its run, which ended in 2011 (see “Top 10 Shojo Properties—Summer 2012”).  The series, which is rated 13+, won the 2008 Kodansha Manga Award for best children’s manga. Shugo Chara! 20th Anniversary Edition will bundle the original 12 volumes into 2-in-1 omnibi and will feature a new translation, new covers, and color art pages.  The first volume will be released on March 3, 2026, with an MSRP of $22.99.

Also coming in March: Shugo Chara! Jewel Joker, a sequel series, also by Peach-Pit, that began running in the Japanese magazine Nakayoshi in August 2024. In this manga, which is rated 8+, the heroine of Shugo Chara!, Amu Hinamori, moves on to middle school, where she is tasked with two missions, to stop a crisis of confidence among the students and capture the powerful Arcana Jewels.  Kodansha will release the first volume of this series on March 3, 2026, with an MSRP of $13.99. 

Fuyumi Soryo’s Mars was first published in English by Tokyopop in 2001 (see “Tokyopop Plans Major Manga Expansion”), with the first five chapters serialized in the publisher’s Smile magazine before being collected into a tankoubon.  It has long been out of print, although it is available digitally.  Originally published in Japan in 1996, the romance between a shy teenage model and a motorcycle-riding boy was a best-seller in its day.  Kodansha’ Mars 30th Anniversary Edition, rated 16+, will collect the series into eight two-in-one hardcovers with a new translation and new covers with metallic effects.

Kodansha’s announcements also included two new titles by shojo manga-ka who already have works available in English. Yoko Nogiri is the creator of That Wolf-Boy Is Mine, Love in Focus, and Those Not-So-Sweet Boys(see “New Titles”), all published by Kodansha.  Her new title, Love Out on a Limb, is a love triangle between a girl, her older brother (whom she has not seen in eight years) and her old childhood friend.  The series is rated 16+; Kodansha will publish the first volume on April 7, 2026, with an MSRP of $13.99.

Aya Kanno is best known as the creator of Otomen and Requiem of the Rose King, both of which were published by VIZ Media; Otomen made the BookScan best-seller list several times during its five-year run. Kodansha’s new title, Fruit of the Underworld, is actually a shonen action story, but Kanno has long been a creator who straddled the two categories. Rooted on Greek mythology, Fruit of the Underworld is the story of a boy who climbed down a well as a child to retrieve a ball and found a mysterious pomegranate.  As a teen, he seems to be dogged by dangerously bad luck until he emerges as the sole survivor of an accident that kills all his classmates.  That sends him on a mission to save his friend, and his soul, from the forces of the underworld.  The series, which is rated 13+, will launch in Spring 2026.

Click Gallery below for covers!