Kodocha Box Set: Volumes 1-6
Hawkeye
Sana is an 11 year old kid in the 6th grade. She’s a child actor and her mother is a famous novelist. She looks like she’s got it all: a good family, an excellent manager, a booming career and a regular school life. Well, in truth, her school life is anything but normal. The boys of the class cause nothing but trouble, bringing the teacher to tears everyday, all led by one notorious hoodlum named Akito. Sana knows someone has to put a stop to these classroom antics and she’s the only one who’s brave enough to do it. She makes it her mission to put Akito in his place and get the class back on track.
In volumes 1-6 of Kodocha, Sana will not only take on Akito, but she’ll learn more about his family, discover her manager’s secret past, work her butt off doing a made for TV drama and a massive amount of commercials, discover a new friend with a similar past, and have all of the secrets of her own past revealed in her mother’s new novel. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg for the energetic soon to be superstar.
Kodocha is based on the manga created by Miho Obana. I was a huge fan of the manga when it was released, and was curious to see how true to the story the anime would be. I have to say I wasn’t disappointed. The story follows the manga almost exactly, with only a few minor changes. When I first encountered the manga, I couldn’t get into it for the first volume or so. There was just something about the beginning that turned me off, and the anime was the exact same way. You have to be willing to stick through the first tedious episodes, and then it starts to get good.
The art style stayed very true to its original manga form and I didn’t see any real changes in the character designs. The real change, of course, was the translation from manga to an animated format. I think they did a really good job. The manga was always very high energy and they portrayed that with fast moving scenes of Sana running about and being a spaz. They kept Akito as dead pan and lethargic as he was in the manga, and Rei as sneaky as ever. I think the animators really did an excellent job.
The sound was a bit loud. I happened to watch this box set in almost entirely one shot. All of the screaming from Sana was migraine inducing. That said, Sana is supposed to be loud and obnoxious, it’s who the character is. I just wish they had turned down the decibels. There were extras galore, as every disc had at least an episode with commentary. It would have been nice to see a little something thrown in for it being a box set, though I really can’t complain with the sheer amount of standard extras on each disc.
Fans of shoujo, fans of the manga, or even new people checking out the genre will love Kodocha. It’s silly, it’s serious, its got romance with a splash of showbiz thrown in as well. The animation is classic, the sound well done, and a story that will keep you hooked.
Entertainment: 8
Even with a rocky start for the first few episodes I really enjoyed this series.
Technical: 9
Good animation, good sound, good extras.
