Things are still wild and wacky in the seventh volume of Kodocha.  In these four episodes, things from the past come back to haunt Sana, the 11 year old TV star.  Each show wraps up a dangling plot line from past episodes, but they don't skimp on the humor.  Just as funny as the earlier installments, this is one bizarre show.

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, and she has a big crush on him.

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.

After having a relaxing summer break and nice vacation, Sana heads home where her mother's new book has been released.  It's a non-fiction book that details Sana's life, including the fact that she was abandoned as a newborn and doesn't know who her real parents are.

This volume:

The first show deals with the problems between Mami and Hayama.  In an earlier volume, Hayama pushed Mami into a pond and then his monkey-boys started tormenting her.  He later apologized, but the scars from that event still remain.  Sana can't stand to have two of her friends not speaking to each other, so she tries to patch things up, with generally horrible results.

More things from the past comeback to cause Sana problems in the next episode too.  A while ago Sana slipped a baby chick into Aono's purse.  It made the little girl very happy, but unfortunately cute young baby chicks grow up to be adult roosters who make a lot of noise, especially at sunrise.  Aono's chicken, named Piyoko, is the bane of their apartment building.  It's causing Aono's family no end of trouble, so Sana offers to take the chicken to her house.  Problem solved!  Or is it?

Sana's mother's ex-husband, Ryosuke, turns up again in the following episode, wanting money once again, just as usual.  When he can't get any cash from his ex-wife, Ryosuke talks Sana into working for him.  It turns out that he owes a lot of cash to a secret society and hires Sana out to them in order to pay off the debt.   This odd group puts her to work as... an MC at weddings.

The last episode is a bit more serious.  Sana discovers that it's Hayama's birthday, and she wants to throw him a party.  But he informs her that he goes to the cemetery every year on his birthday, since his mother died giving birth to him.  It turns out that he's never had a birthday party.  Sana agrees to go to Hayama's mother's grave with her friend and his family.  There she passes an attractive woman who bows to Hayama.  The young boy doesn't know who the woman is, which just causes Sana's imagination to start working overtime.

Again, this is funny volume.  They balance the drama and humor well, and Sana's hyperactive performance is always very enjoyable.  There are a lot of little details that add to the humor too, like Mama's Mount Everest hat, complete with a mountain climbing squirrel, or the Howitzer hat she wears when her ex-husband comes to visit.

On the down side, the animation to this show is pretty basic.  There are a lot of static images and scenes of talking people where only their mouths move and then they only have two positions, open and closed.  This gets old fast.  Just a little bit more money spent on animation would have made this show look a lot better.  This doesn't ruin the show, but it doesn't help it any either.
 

This volume contains the next four episodes of the series in a white keepcase.  Unfortunately, FUNimation is still including trailers before the main menu that you can't skip past.  This is really irritating, and this from someone who loves to watch the trailers on anime discs.  I wish they would stop this annoying practice.

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 very little aliasing or other digital defects.  A very good transfer.

Extras:
 
As for extras on this disc, the only one this time is a gallery of sketch art, 10 pictures in all.

Final Thoughts:

I really didn't expect to enjoy this show when I popped in the first volume, but every episode has some good laughs in it.  Even after 25+ episodes the show still manages to come up with some amusing situations for Sana and her friends.  A Japanese situational comedy that works well even for American audiences, this disc is Highly recommended.