One thing that I noticed after having watched lots of different anime is that gets harder and harder to find series that seriously surpass their own genre. Nevertheless, here is one such series: Kodomo no Omocha is without a doubt and by far the best shoujo romantic comedy I have ever seen. And in fact, aside from Nodame Cantabile I can’t think of any romantic comedy that made a bigger impression on me. I’m still amazed at how this series doesn’t just evade just about every pitfall that so many others of its genre fall in, but it manages to be consistently awesome for no less than 102 episodes!
Both in the romance and comedy department, this series delivers. The comedy always feels fresh, and the show exactly knows when to stop repeating its jokes in order to prevent them from getting stale. What makes the comedy especially enjoyable is the incredible amounts of energy that went into it. Sana surely is someone with at least some form of ADHD, but because of her incredibly bubbly personality the show stays fun from beginning to end. The side characters are also absolutely wonderful. I especially liked Sana’s mom and her antics.
The biggest fear you’d obviously have for such an incredibly long series is the tendency of those series to delve into long, long strings of fillers, but his show manages to avoid that very nicely. There are only about six pure fillers throughout the series: three recaps (which you can pretty much skip without any consequences) and three episodes which take place in some sort of bizarre parallel universe of the series. The latter belong to some of the funniest episodes of the entire series.
The rest of the series is divided in about ten arcs, of around ten episodes each, keeping the content from dragging on for too long. Every single arc has a different focus, but all of them contribute to the development of the cast. Even the most insignificant-seeming episodes have their purpose of fleshing out and bringing the cast of this series to life. The creators make excellent use of foreshadowing and flashbacks, and one particular thing they like is introduce one plot-line that only becomes important many episodes later.
In any case, the result is about 100 episodes worth of development put into the cast, and while the pacing of the drama and romance is pretty slow, the very fast paced comedy makes sure that the series never drags on. The show never forgets that it’s supposed to be a romantic comedy, and therefore maintains an excellent combination between funny and serious scenes: it knows exactly when to be funny and when to leave the jokes for a different time. In the end, the series comes together wonderfully, and the final arc of the series is definitely one of the best of the entire series, with a very satisfying ending.
Watching this series really made me wonder why there are so many other similar shoujo romantic comedies which completely miss the mark or have so much trouble to even fill 26 episodes. The only shows that I can think of that can even remotely remain funny through that airtime are Skip Beat and Perfect Girl Evolution. Apart from that, nearly every other shoujo just seems like an uninspired copy of this series. This series has more ideas stuffed into only 13 episodes than others in 26 of them.
Anyway, enough ranting. The only downside to this series appears in the fansubs, which pretty much belong to the worst subs I’ve ever seen, aside from Coalguys, perhaps. Lines are wrongly timed, badly translated and some are even omitted. There are also about ten episodes in which they for some reason completely change the names of the characters to their English counterparts. And while I can understand that this might be an attempt to make the show more accessible to western audiences, however:
1) Then at least be consistent in this and don’t introduce this halfway and give up just as easily.
2) You really know that things are going wrong when a guy named “Takeshi Gojo” turns into “Wootsie Woosie”. Seriously, who found that a good idea?
Still, that’s what official releases are for. For me, Kodocha stands on top of the shoujo genre, and it has been standing there for more than ten years by now. The sheer amount of creativity fully make up for the huge length of this series. Some of the jokes were utterly brilliant, the wide ensemble of facial expressions has been just priceless, and the cast of characters is just wonderful. Akitaro Daichi seriously is one of the best comedy directors out there. Speaking of which, what has he been doing for the past few years? It’s about time he came with another series, isn’t it?
| Storytelling: | 9/10 |
| Characters: | 10/10 |
| Production-Values: | 8/10 |
| Setting: | 9/10 |
You really have a weird sense of humor .
You think every chick flickish anime is funny. I am seriously glad girls are in the vast minority of anime fandom , or else i would probably have to put up with more crappy series like this .
Um…. yeah. I’m not sure whether you read the review wrong or I should have explained myself better, but I actually get bored of most shoujo romantic comedies out there. This was one exception that stayed funny through its entire airtime.
Also, that second statement makes no sense at all. You mean to say that the most shounen romantic comedies are actually funny?
I would think many many more people find shonen romantic comedies funny , than their shoujo counterparts , and that is based on facts .
I mean more shonen romantic comedies are released per anime season , than total shoujo romantic comedies are released each year .
If a huge amount of people thought like you , then most shoujo’s wouldn’t remain unlicensed , like over 80% of shoujo’s are . If a huge amount of people found shoujo’s funny , then they wouldn’t be the very last series to be fansubbed .
To answer your second comment , yes i find shonen romantic comedies funny . However , i certainly wouldn’t call most shonen romantic comedies good anime .
Define “licensed”. I took a look at this page with the list of recent “licences” (including those on crunchyroll), and there are already five shoujo series on that page alone:
http://animesuki.com/licensed.php
Also, do note that I somewhat agree with you that most shoujo series are dull, but there are a bunch of really good ones amongst the genre, like this one. But yeah, that’s just my opinion.
Also, I don’t agree with your statement of “lots of people like it so it must be good”. Take Bleach, Naruto or Dragonball Z for example: some of the most liked shows out there, and while they each have their own good points, I wouldn’t exactly call those the absolute best anime out there.
Long time lurker, first time poster here. Really surprised to see a new Kodocha review anywhere. It has a special place in my heart, since it was the show that first got me into anime, way back in the day of VHS fansubs, oy.
I have to wonder, what fansubs are you referring to? The Kodocha group only translated the first 20-something episodes, some random Chinese -> English group fansubbed most of the second half, and the rest was done by a shitty Hong Kong bootlegger (which I don’t count as fansubbing per se). Unless you’re referring to some other fansubs I don’t know of? And I have not seen the Funimation release, so I can’t comment on the quality of those subs.
I agree that one of its best aspects is that the show knows when to be serious and when to be silly. It’s the only romcom to consistently make me laugh, shoujo or otherwise. Harem anime in general (if you count them as romcom) are often just plain awkward. As for Toradora, the wunderkind of romcom last season…man I just felt awkward for the characters.
May i ask why you are referring to crunchyroll and licensing ? Crunchyroll has nothing to do with licensing . They have their own behind the door deals with certain anime studio’s . That has nothing to do with licensing .
Either something is licensed or it isn’t. Licensing in the anime world refers to the U.S. Japan and the U.S. make up the vast majority of anime fans . It doesn’t matter if a shoujo or shonen are licensed in lets say Bulgaria , if the show wasn’t popular in Japan , or licensed in the U.S., then it isn’t a popular anime .
Your Bleach Naruto comment was almost a good point. While the 3 shows you listed are by far the most popular animes in the world , nobody is saying they are the best . I enjoy them all , but i also know that they are mediocre animes for the most part .
P.S. there hasn’t been a shoujo released since Sailor Moon that has ranked in the top 10 in the weekly japanese ratings .
That in itself shows you how far down the popularity and quality list shoujo’s are .
And one last comment about the licensing .
Sure there are a few new shoujo’s licensed on the list you provided , BUT you obviously don’t care to look deeper than what is right in front of you .
The few shoujo listed on that page were released a few years ago . It is no surprise that they are being licensed now after all this time . The fact is shoujo are licensed at a way lower % than shonens . Fact is most shonens are licensed before they even finish airing ,and in a lot of cases , before they start airing .
Go to wikipedia and go through their list of shoujo’s . The last time i did that around a year ago less than 25% of shoujo’s were licensed , where as well over 60% of shonens were licensed .
Then again i don’t even know why i went so deep into this . I could of just brought up Vampire Knight and made my point . VK is easily the most popular shoujo of the past 5 years , and yet the first season wasn’t even licensed when the second season was almost finished ( i dont know about now it might of been licensed recently but the point still stands)
“long strings of fillers, but his show manages to avoid that very nicely.”
Um, yeah, and you just missed all those crappy fillers about her “daddy” ? Just closed your eyes and pretended you never saw them and they dont exist ? Yep, sounds like something you’d do, alright. Those are the worst episodes, but there is an ocean of other fillers, that belong in “kodomo anime”, but shouldnt be in “Kodomo no Omocha”. Manga is much more pure and condensed, 10 volumes of pure goodness. Kodocha is only good for about first 30-40 episodes max, they should have known where to stop.
Good choice! Kodomo no Omocha remains one of my favorite series ever! Just last year I rewatched the whole thing again. XD Didn’t get bored the second time around.
However I have to say I prefer the manga to the anime. I think it’s much better even though it doesn’t span that many volumes. One of the best complete manga out there ever, seriously.
Shonen Romantic Comedies has alot of boobs jokes….. Of course it will sell better then shoujo comedy animes. Porn is the most popular thing in the world! Also there are many of those lonely otaku losers out there. Don’t anyone tell me that is not true, go to any convention it’s a sea of them.
Like mackreki said the anime community are mostly guys so of course they are going to licensee more shonen things to sell to the guys. Just like in the video game industry is mostly focused on selling to guys.
Either way it’s another person thinking popularity = good show
I have to agree with the review. I’d actually rate it higher.
For a shoujo/light-romance show, this show is HILARIOUS. Lots of funny slapstick you might get out of something like South Park or Family Guy. Just weird, weird comedy and it all works.
Characters are incredibly charming and the whole show just clicks. Definitely one of Akitaroh Daichi classics.
As for the shoujo-dissers, you can kindly piss off. If you’re going to criticize something over some genre or some preconception and biases, that’s not a credible critique at all. If you want to hold onto those biases, then don’t pass it off as a credible thing to say.
Popularity doesn’t equal quality .
I love shippoyasha apparently directed toward shoujo “dissers” lol . It seems your love/bias for shoujo gives you as little credibility on the subject as someone like me who doesn’t like shoujo for the most part .
All you girls band together , write thousands of letters to the studio’s , and maybe we can get some better quality shoujo’s to kick start the popularity in the genre .
If you do that then maybe the average shoujo won’t have the same budget as a shonen series trailer . That is mine , and many others main complaint with the shoujo demo .
Mackreki: while you raise some good points here and there, I hope that you don’t actually believe that boys only watch shounen series and girls are only into shoujo. I myself am a guy, and I like a good shoujo series once in a while, and there are lots of girl who are into series as Code Geass, and even shounen series as the later versions of Gundam have attractively drawn men in them in order to attract fangirls.
There people go with assuming again.
To be honest i don’t even have a clue why how you could come to the conclusion that i think men only watch shonen, and females only watch shoujo. We are talking about majority here . There are at least 10 male anime fans for every 1 female fan (and i am being real generous as it is most likely an even wider margin in male/female ratio)
You can find guys who watch soap opera’s and asian drama’s , but the vast majority of the viewers are females .There are many more male sports fans than female sports fan , but there are still female fans .Different people have different tastes , and that is why ratings and such are based off the average person , and not off of someone like a hardcore female sports fan who doesn’t give an accurate depiction of the average female .
And a little p.s. Only 1 Gundam series has ever had decent ratings with female viewers , and that was the original.There are actually quite a few female Gundam fans , but that is because it is the most popular anime franchise ever created , and there are tons of Gundam fans in general . The art isn’t to get fangirls interested , it is the way gundam series have always been animated . The prettier character designs are something that is common place in almost all anime these days . It is called the changing of technology.
@psgels i also enjoy a good shoujo series at times , but there are few and far between that are quality. When they get a decent budget like Escaflowne , they can turn out great .When they get the usual shoujo budget , people would be better served to watch an average shonen that will have twice the budget .
In the same way, it would help me a lot if you were to cite your sources instead of stating these vague-sounding facts. If I look up some anime related sites on the following website:
http://www.quantcast.com/
And for regular anime sites, the ratio of males vs females is about 3:1 or 4:1, and for the anime blogging sites, the amount of male and female visitors are about equal. I don’t see anywhere that 10:1 ratio that you keep talking about. Either that, or there are hardly any female anime fans in Japan. Shoujo series should indeed be blessed with a bigger budget every once in a while, but I don’t think that a lack of females is the biggest reason that there are so little high budged shoujo series.
Yay, I’m glad you finally got a chance to see this show! I don’t think I’ve ever shown this to ANYONE who’s disliked it. It’s pretty much a universally appealing anime, and stands as one of my top ten favorite of all time. Sana and Hayama will go down in history as two of the most memorable, likable, adorable characters ever to appear in any show, as far as I’m concerned. (:
Now, just to give you my annual bothering… go watch Planetes!! (: Heheheheheh…
-Tom
Why would i state sources for common sense? If anything i stated was wrong , you would of had 20 links by now proving it . I don’t just make things up like 90% of people on the internet . When i throw out stats i also always go with the under as people like to go overboad .
Your problem is you don’t live in the U.S. or Japan , so you really don’t have much clue about the anime industry . Those 2 countries hold the vast majority of anime fans .
And yes i spent the majority of my life in Japan . Go to a convention in Japan and you won’t find 1 girl for 100 males at the conventions . You don’t see girls in Japan ever talking about anime . Females in Japan are much bigger on manga . Likewise , it is very similar in the u.s. Only 1 shoujo has been broadcast fully in the u.s. in the last 15 years ( although this has changed recently with a couple of shoujo’s being broadcast on sci fi). I am sure you can guess that the shoujo broadcast was Sailor Moon .
And i really don’t understand how you think i am making things up . Go look up the number of shonen/seinen animes and compare it with the number of shoujo’s each year . Shonens and Seinens make up over 80% of all anime material released each year . Again it doesn’t take long to do with math , so link something if you think im lying .
Explain why most shoujo’s never get licensed , and the ones that do can take a few years ? Now explain why that is , and why almost every single shonen/seinen is licensed before they finish airing .
I suggest watching Genshiken if you want an accurate depiction of anime fandom . Of course i am not talking about studying the main characters because they are Otaku , and Otaku make up a small % of anime fans , kine of like Yaoi fans :).
One last thing that i have to say because it really shows your lack of knowledge in regards to statistics . Nobody knows the gender of people who go to anime sites , or blog sites .Even if they did that has almost no bearing on the ratio of male/female anime fans . Japan probably has more anime fans than the rest of the world combined , and most of them will never go to sites like this , or crunchyroll , because most Japanese can’t speak English well , or at all. Not to mention i have 3 accounts on Crunchyroll , and all signed up as female gender.
You ignore the real facts like numbers of shonen/seinen released in comparison to shoujo , or how the budgets greatly differ between them . Or even how most shoujo’s won’t get subbed for a very long time , where as almost every shonen/seien is subbed immediately after airing .
And perhaps the biggest piece of evidence is the fact that i am discussing shonen/seinen together , yet there is nothing to pair with shoujo . There is what like 1 josei released every 3 years?
Well, yeah, you have me there. I’m really bad with debates like this, and again this shows here.
On a side-note though, I don’t think that Josei shows are doing that bad. Sure, there’s not a lot of them (although they appear more than just once every three years), but the Noitamina timeslot has featured many josei-series like Nodame Cantabile, Honey and Clover and quite a few more, and they always are the most watched anime at late night timeslots.
I’m a guy, and I love shoujo anime. Always have, always will. Most of my male friends are the same, and I’ve met a lot of Japanese men who are closet shoujo fans.
Shoujo shows may be aimed at girls, but guys probably watch them a lot more often – sometimes for impure reasons – and that’s why they gain a lot of popularity in Japan. And then here in the U.S., I seriously think there are more female anime fans than male. If you go to anime conventions, there are WAY more girls than guys, every time. And I’ve been to a LOT of conventions.
-Tom
PSGels, I agree with you completely. Just ignore that troll. “Come up with 20 sources”? What the hell?
“Not to mention i have 3 accounts on Crunchyroll , and all signed up as female gender.”
Sorry, mackreki, but that struck me as HILARIOUS. That just came out of the left field and it just strikes as disingenuous. Just from that single line.
And yes, the obvious part of your point is that a lot of the animated shows are male oriented, but your freewheeling bashing of shoujo shows just strikes me as funny. A lot of shoujo shows do get a proper budget to look their part, especially if they’re the types that can appeal to a broader demographic like Skip Beat or Shugo Chara. So you’re basing the quality of a show from their BUDGET and the demographic and the GENRE itself? That is simply not a credible argument. So you condemn shoujo shows before you even watch it. Good for you. Doesn’t do anything for those open to such shows without such wild preconceptions about them. Living in Japan? Watching Genshiken? HUH? Yes, we know that openly admitting to anime fandom isn’t that big in Japan, but what does that have to do with the quality of the shows themselves? What does that have to do with the masterpiece in Kodocha? And aiming at girls simply isn’t that big of a deal to me. Maybe it’s earthshattering to you, but that’s still a matter of subjectivity isn’t it? To try to bridge that kind of extreme subjectivity into an objective one isn’t working here.
fyi Shugo Chara and Skip Beat do not have large budgets , and Shugo Chara was up to episode 70 and still not licensed . It is just another example that makes my point . Shugo chara and VK are easily the two most popular shoujos in recent years , and neither were licensed within 18 months of release.
Seriously , i wish people could actually speak japanese before they say certain things.If you could speak japanese , then you could go to any number of japanese language sites , and see the actual numbers. Then these people say things like Link link link .If you want to start an argument , just because you don’t like the answer, well then you can’t be helped , and people won’t waste their time searching for you.
And it is true . I have 3 female accounts , and 2 male accounts on crunchyroll. Would that not skew the numbers when trying to figure out the gender percentages?
@ Tom . There is no reason to lie . I have lived in the U.S. for some years now , and conventions don’t have nearly as many girls as guys , although it is much much closer than the difference in Japan . I have been to conventions in Florida Chicago New York among many other places , and never were there more females than males . It was never even really close enough for it to even be a debate either .
I guess if you live in South Dakota or something similar, you may see 10 females and 5 males at a convention .
I love how people with extreme biases spout off random crap when realists like me say things they don’t want to hear . You label me as a shoujo hater because you don’t have any legs to stand on , and can’t stand hearing the truth .
You also spout out things that you have no clue about .I have watched well over 400 series INCLUDING most shoujo’s. I have two shoujo’s in my top 10 anime of all time . None of that changes that everything i said is a fact.
mackreki: Why don’t you spend your precious time earning money for therapy? How many of those 400 series you watched did you pay for? Close to none, of course. You’re nothing but a criminal and loser to me.
By the way, if you don’t like, don’t watch it! This eternal truth is more important than E=mc^2.
mackreki posts made me think about the anime industry more in depths and I came up with a theory.
I think anime such as sci-fi and shounen comedy are more popular here and licensed more is because the American entertainment industry does not make these types of shows. Hence Americans who wants these types of shows go to foreign producers such as Japan to satisfy their demand.
Think about it! Are there many American sci-fi shows as much as anime….. no. American sci-fi tends to be live action and the production is typically cost higher to make all the sci-fi scenes where in anime it’s drawn and it’s easier create new and original ideas.
Censorship is common in America. There is no place for shounen romance comedy due to the boobs jokes.
For shoujo type animes there is competition in Amercia. One Tree Hill, Spanish Soaps, Gossip Girls to name a few.
Why would American girls go get their drama kicks from anime when they can get it from their own country’s entertainment industry?
Oh yeah forgot something else to say.
“I am seriously glad girls are in the vast minority of anime fandom , or else i would probably have to put up with more crappy series like this.”
So you are saying that if there were more girls into anime that they will find this show appealing. Hence you are admitting that this shoujo show has succeeded within it own audience. What is wrong with that???
“All you girls band together, write thousands of letters to the studio’s, and maybe we can get some better quality shoujo’s to kick start the popularity in the genre.”
….. wait you don’t like shoujo and you said you were glad that there wasn’t many fangirls to make the industry more preoccupied . Now you telling girls to demand more anime to make more shoujo…..
Maybe it’s just me but I don’t find a connection between production budget and quality anime. Probably because I don’t give a shit about animation quality. If mackreki sees this connection then I guess he will always generally look down on shoujo. It’s subjective so no one is wrong here.
mackreki says that popularity does not equal quality but everything he has said contradicts that.
Such as stating that more demand for shoujo will equal to more better shoujo. Hence popularity equal to quality….what!!!?
Otakon, dude. Otakon is over half girls, every time. And it’s the biggest anime convention on the east coast.
Also, I speak Japanese fluently. And lived in Japan for many years.
So yeah. Sorry, but you’re no more of an expert on this than I am… and I’m quite certain you are incorrect. (:
-Tom
mackreki, I think you are simply misinterpreting everything here. Just because shoujo shows aren’t as popular simply due to the demographics, that does not indicate their actual quality or the original story’s quality or how good the production value is. Sure, shonen and male-oriented shows do get the attention. Simply hedging the entire quality of shoujo shows, many of which I thought were just as good, if not better than many male oriented shows, it simply doesn’t add up to me. And also, you can stop lecturing on the demographics or being able to speak Japanese here. I can speak Japanese too, BTW, but I don’t make it a point to use that as a crutch in my argument. Shoujo shows are simply under appreciated. I think this entire argument is proof of that. It simply gets demonized for no apparent reason.
@ shippoyasha The Japanese language comment isn’t a crutch , and it is a very valid argument when certain people in question are arguing things that have factual answers if only they could understand japanese ie budgets of series ratings etc.
@ Tom Otakon does not have more girls than guys , and i have been there 3 times now . Stop lying it is pointless and doesn’t make your argument better . There are many others here who disagree with me in a logical manner , and don’t have to resort to lies to make their cases .
Here are some Otakon facts for Tom .
There has never been more females than males at Otakon
Otakon does have a higher percentage of females than most conventions .
The vast majority of these females aren’t anime fans and go there to rave . Another large percentage of these women were hired for cosplay , and have no interest in anime.
The saddest part is that even someone who hasn’t been to Otakon could of researched these things with ease .
Okay. . . that was interesting.
Well, Kodomo no Omocha has a special place in my heart. I haven’t watched the anime but I’m glad that it turned out to be a good adaptation of the manga. Anyway, just stopped by to thank you for giving this such a good score. 🙂
a mi me parece una muy divertida serie, como no sabia como bajarla, me puse a ver la serie entera de kodomo no omocha…
me fascino y no he podido dejar de repetir una y otra vez de verla.
The bad translations are from a cheap and poorly done Hong Kong knockoff.
Wonderful show, wonderful characters. Thank you for introducing it to me through this review.
Please sign to help us petition for a Season 3 of Kodocha. Sign Here
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/kodochaseason3
I like kodomo omocha child play..pls make season 3 …It is the best comedy anime ever
Finished Season 1 of Kodocha, loved it. It’s a shame FUNimation still hasn’t been able to dub Season 2 (the Middle School years). I had very low expectations when I started Kodocha, but it always proved entertaining and emotionally satisfying. It deals with some pretty heavy emotional stuff, and more than once the story brought tears to my eyes.
Laura Bailey does a great job, and I love Colleen Clinkenbeard’s understated performance as Sana’s eccentric mother. I wonder if Season 2 will ever get dubbed or not. I have no interest in watching it in the original Japanese.