The lead character, Amu Hinamori, is a 6th grader who struggles to be true to herself. However, this isn't as easy as it first may appear since she really does know who she is supposed to be! One night, she wishes on a star that she could learn to be herself...and presto! She wakes up one morning to find 3 "eggs of her heart" in her bed, each containing one of her "would-be selves" or "guardian characters." This makes her fit to be a member of the "Guardians," a special school club for those who also have one of these guardian characters. Together with her new friends, Amu learns to use the power of her guardian characters to defend the "heart's eggs" of her friends and classmates from the evil and mysterious Easter corporation!
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Shugo Chara! could arguably be called the best magical girl series since Sailor Moon. Takes what could have become another bland shoujo series into a fun and entertaining show for tween girls. While a lot more drawn out than the manga version and with a lot of one-shot X-egg chases, the filler episodes are right on par with the ones taken from the manga. It should also be noted that the poppy happy J-pop themes are extremely catchy and the insert songs by Nana Mizuki are...PHENOMENAL.

This anime was one of my gateway drugs to the world of anime. I loved the characters and the themes. I mean, who doesn't like a good happy story about following your dreams, right? And somehow, it does this without being overly cheesy either!

Violence Details
Really your typical magical girl-style fight sequences and peril. The Easter Corporation often calls for their employees (some of whom are forced into working for them) to crush the "heart's eggs" of children, causing them to lose hope in that dream.

Sexual Content/Nudity
No real nudity except for heavily glowing magical girl transformations.

Sexual content though is where things get messy. A certain character is rather overprotective of her older brother to the point of it being more of an incestuous attraction. She kisses him on the lips once, and tries to kiss him a couple other times (she refuses). However, she later gives up on this. Ikuto, a high school boy, often makes teasingly awkward comments to Amu about chest size and the like, and at one point bites her on the ear. One thing though: There are a lot of romantically tense scenes with Amu and Ikuto- and they seem totally fine...until you really think about the fact that Amu is a 6th grader and Ikuto is a high schooler (it's REALLY easy to forget though).

At about half-way through the series, it is revealed that one of the girl characters is actually Spoiler: a crossdressing boy. (This character leaves at one point as a girl but returns to school as "her" twin brother.) Amu has had sleepovers with this character, and even changed in front of her. However, apparently this is not by choice, as it's apparently a tradition of their family for Spoiler: boys to spend much of their young life as girls in order to be able to dance more effeminately. (Akin to the practice of kabuki plays casting boys as girls). It's kind of awkward, and even the character himself is embarrassed of it. However, it's not too deeply explored.

Theological Themes
There is some talk about horoscopes and fortune telling.