The Show:
Sana Kurata, elementary school TV star, falls in love with an older
man (again) in the 12th volume of Kodocha. While this comedy
show has lost a little steam, and is found to be repeating itself a bit,
there are still enough laughs and amusing bits to pick up the series.
The show has such a wonderful sense of irreverence that it's hard not to
enjoy it.
Series recap:
Sana
Kurata is 11 years old, in the 6th grade, and a TV star. The only
girl in her class with an agent, she has to balance her school work with
her career. Sana's mom is an award winning author who has taken to
wearing very odd hats, lets a chipmunk live on her head, and doesn't want
to turn in her latest manuscript. The other adult in Sana's life
is her agent, Rei Sagami, who is very loyal to the budding star.
Though her TV show is doing well, school is not so good. She has
the misfortune of being placed in the worst class in the school.
The guys are very disruptive and they are led by Akito Hayama, the toughest
kid in class. Though Akito starts off as Sana's blood enemy they
eventually become friends. And maybe a little bit more.
Sana's love life isn't that simple. Though she gets over the crush
she has on her manager, and starts to notice Akito, there's another person
in her life. Naozumi Kamura is another very child actor who has worked
with Sana a couple of times. He's handsome, intelligent and talented,
and he may be interested in Sana too. He fades when she meets
her new co-star in a made for TV movie, Takeshi. This man (who plays
Sana's father in the movie) and Sana really hit it off, and when a tabloid
reporter takes pictures of them together, Sana announces that they are
in love. The publicity stunt works and the show gets high ratings,
but maybe Sana wasn't kidding.
This volume:
Sana,
Rei, and her mother are still living in a dump after they lost all of their
money, and things get worse when the small apartment gets scheduled for
demolition. Luckily Sana's book comes out and starts selling like
hot cakes. With the royalties from Sana's writing coming in as well
as her mother's previous works, the family is able to construct a new huge
house. The only problem is that it won't be ready for a week, so
Sana is homeless again.
Though Rei books them into a hotel, Sana talks Takeshi into letting
her stay at his place. They kid around and have a lot of fun, but
Sana starts worrying about the older actor when he starts falling into
a deep sleep that she can't wake him from. She figures that the bachelor
just isn't eating right, so she makes him promise to get three squares
a day.
Sana's girlfriends at school think that Takeshi is just too cool, but
Akito doesn't like him at all. Could it be that the little hoodlum
is actually jealous?
Though the show starts recycling plots (Sana falling for an adult, a
slimy photographer stalking her, and the troubles that happen when her
book gets released) it is still an enjoyable set of shows. The show
still doesn't take itself seriously and doesn't worry about little things
like logic getting in the way of a storyline. That's actually a trait
of the show that is quite humorous. When Sana is filming an episode
of her show Child's Toy in a hospital, the staff is so happy to have them
there that they offer to give the cast and crew free checkups and chest
X-rays. It's bizarre touches like that which keep the show enjoyable
even 12 volumes into the run.
The DVD:
This volume contains the next four episodes of the series in a white
keepcase. FUNimation is still including trailers before the main
menu, but now you can skip past them! Hurray! Thanks FUNimation,
this makes watching your discs much less annoying.
Audio:
This disc has the original stereo Japanese language track as well as
an English dub in both stereo and 5.1. I alternated between the Japanese
track and the 5.1 dub while watching this show and found both of them to
be equally good. The English track has some very good talent, and
Laura Bailey does an outstanding job as Sana. The way she pronounces
the phrase "monkey-boy" while insulting Akita and his pals always gets
me laughing. When she talks fast, it gets even more humorous.
Make sure you listen to her "next episode" tags at the end of each show.
Her delivery really made the English dub very entertaining.
The sound quality is very good. The 5.1 dub makes very good use
of the surround speakers as well as the front soundstage. While the
Japanese track isn't as enveloping or dynamic it too sound very good.
Video:
The full frame video looks fine. The lines are tight and the colors
are solid. I was surprised to see a few spots on the image, but these
were fairly rare. There is a bit more aliasing in this volume than
the previous ones, but it wasn't a major defect. Overall this disc
has a very good transfer.
Extras:
As for extras on this disc, there aren't any.
Final Thoughts:
While the 12th volume of Kodocha doesn't have the hilarious impact
that the early volumes did, it still has enough charm and irreverent humor
to make it worth picking up. Sana's hyperkinetic energy and silliness
is still infectious and these four episodes will be over before you know
it, leaving you earning for more. Recommended.
Buy: