Kindergarten Wars (Japanese: 幼稚園WARS, Hepburn: Yōchien Wars) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by You Chiba. It began serialization on Shueisha's Shōnen Jump+ app and website in September 2022. Its chapters have been collected in 12 tankōbon volumes as of November 2024.
The story takes place in Kindergarten Noir, known as "the world's safest kindergarten". Hosting the children of politicians, celebrities, businessmen, and other VIPs, Kindergarten Noir prevents them from would-be assassins and kidnappers by employing former criminals as teachers in exchange for reduced sentences. Rita, also known as Convict #999, is a former assassin who finds herself working at Kindergarten Noir—both to get a reduced sentence by acting as a bodyguard and to find a hot guy along the way.
Written and illustrated by You Chiba, the series began serialization on Shueisha's Shōnen Jump+ app and website on September 15, 2022.[1] Initially starting publication in Jump+'s Rookies program as an "independent manga", in March 2023 Shueisha announced that it would become a full-fledged series. As of November 2024, the series individual chapters have been collected in 12 tankōbon volumes.[2]
Shueisha's Manga Plus platform is publishing the series in English.[3] At New York Comic Con 2024, Yen Press announced that they licensed the series for English print publication.[4]
The series ranked third in the 2023 Next Manga Award in the web manga category.[16] It ranked ninth on AnimeJapan's "Most Wanted Anime Adaptation" poll in 2024.[17][18]