Anime Review: Kodocha Volume 6: Sana’s Bombshell
Sana Kurata is not your average sixth-grader. She lives in a mansion with her prize-winning author adoptive mother, and is an accomplished child actress, regularly appearing on the show “Zenjiro’s Kodomo no Omocha.” Pretty glamorous stuff. But sixth grade is not going well because the boys are acting out during class, bullying the girls, and nothing gets done because the leader of the boys, Akito Hayama, has blackmail material on the teacher.
Sana finally gets her own blackmail material on Akito, only to discover that there’s a reason he’s such a jerk, and decide to fix that. Since she’s a bit of a dimbulb, that takes some extra time and effort, with a lot of mistakes made. And meanwhile, she’s living her own chaotic life.
The Kodomo no Omocha (“Child’s Toy”) shoujo manga was created by Miho Obana and ran from 1994 to 1998, with an anime adaptation starting in 1996. The series often had its name contracted to “Kodocha”, and that’s how Funimation titled their American release. It’s primarily a comedy show, but also has a lot of drama themes and moments.
The volume I have to hand covers episodes 21-24. The show had just finished an arc in which Sana met the birth mother who’d given her up for adoption (birth mom having been in her early teens at the time, it’s fully understandable.)
As part of this plot, Sana’s fellow child star Naozumi learned that they’d met in the orphanage where he still lives between gigs. He invites her to visit, and most of the children are happy to meet her, but one is acting hostile for unknown reasons.
Sana realizes that she’s already met the goals she started show business to meet, and contemplates retirement to concentrate on normal kid activities. Meanwhile, Akito begins karate instruction as part of dealing with his violent (if not shown on the surface) emotions.
Sana’s half-sister Mariko decides she wants to see Sana again, and wanders off to find her. She instead finds Zanjiro (nominal star of the program Sana is a regular on), who just has the worst luck. “It’s an anime, so this is okay. But in real life, this would be harsh.”
The sixth-grade class being so far behind on the lesson plan comes back to the fore when the school disciplinarian decides to have a series of tests to determine which of the children will get to go on to the associated middle school. This is especially hard news for Sana, who is so far behind in math that she hasn’t mastered multiplication yet. And Akito doesn’t seem to be very supportive.
Sana’s motormouth tendencies and malapropisms combine with her hyperactive temperament to provide many laugh out loud moments. Narrator “Babbit” has to point out several times that “good children should not do this.” Many of the other characters are eccentric or have running gags associated with them. But the drama is also always running, sometimes coming to the surface.
A fun bit is the merchandisable technology Sana has; a fancy beeper, and a mini-synthesizer. These were cutting edge back in the Nineties.
The show should be suitable for sixth-graders on up (there’s a re-release planned from Discotek Media), but parents of younger viewers may want to watch with their young ones to discuss some of the dramatic issues that come up.
Recommended to dramedy fans.
