I finally decided to pick up volume one of Kodocha on December 17. I had owned the series for several months (hurray for old stock at the local bookstores!) but having seen a handful of episodes from the anime, I wasn’t sure that it would have much emotional appeal or grab hold of me.
I was wrong.
Kodocha is not at all what I was expecting it to be. I figured it would be a through and through comedy with a few ‘dramatic moments’ that would allow for it to be called a drama. Instead, it read more as a romance-drama series with interestingly placed comedic moments. Generally, random comedy would break up the flow of such a series, but given the age of the children it features, the halting moments of comedy in the middle of a serious scene were perfectly placed. Kids (and adults too) can only be serious for so long before that kid switch flips, allowing them to remember life is about having fun and making the most out if it, and that doesn’t include taking things too seriously.
In the early volumes, I was laughing out loud very frequently, the middle and later volumes had me tearing up, and unfortunately, volume 10 left me a bit cold. The series starts off strong, grows and grows, and then it feels like Obana just sort of jumped the shark with the final trial she gives Sana. It felt like it was just too much, too unrealistic (not the issue, but piling it on everything else), and almost poorly written compared to the rest of the series.
The manga touches on fairly complex concepts and tells a remarkably deep story but in a very simplistic way. If this were written a little bit more deeply (perhaps targeted at young women rather than young girls), it might have been even better. However, it was good for what it was. Some issues are glossed over and fixed a bit too simply, but the build up to the solutions were really written quite well. Obana did a good job of writing characters that could be sympathized with by the readers. Even the characters you think you’re going to hate (or that will become the ‘villains’) surprise you by making you like them, no matter how hard you try. With the exception of an adult or two, there really isn’t anyone that’s truly mean-spirited for long.
The best feature of the manga was its positive and uplifting nature. Sana and Fuka are great role models for young girls, while Akito, Tsuyoshi, and Nao were actually well-written characters, not just shallow boys put in place as potential love interests. They were very well fleshed-out, and it was so refreshing to see.
I suppose this series isn’t for everyone. While the comedy could fit most tastes, some of the drama takes on a more melodramatic turn, and the weak ending may turn off some. Overall though, I’d recommend it to any shoujo fan, most romance fans, and even some comedy fans. It wasn’t a masterpiece, but it certainly was very good.
