Believe it or not, we've reached the ninth volume of Kodocha.  This comedy series has been a lot of fun, but the show is getting a bit stale by this time.  This time around there's trouble in Sana's class when the boys and girls go to war against each other, Aya and Tsuyoshi's romance is on the rocks when the young boy starts finding gifts from a secret admirer, and Sana joins a singing group Three Teens.  After 36 episodes the show is still fun, but it just doesn't have the punch that it originally did.

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.

This volume:

It's embarrassment time when Child's Toy goes to Sana's school for a location shoot.  The problem is that her class has gone back to its old ways and the boys are at war with the girls.   How will that look on national TV?

In the next installment Sana gets invited to become part of a pop group, the Three Teens.  Consisting of three young TV stars, one of the group is out to make sure she steals every scene and becomes the star of the trio.  Sana doesn't mind all of the upstaging and just cuts up as usual.  Of course, this causes Sana to get all of the attention, much to the ire of her co-star.

There's trouble in paradise when Tsuyoshi starts getting presents from a secret admirer.  He's going out with Aya, but these constant gifts start him wondering if the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.   It's up to Sana to make sure the two love-birds aren't torn apart.

The volume wraps up with the mandatory hot-springs episode.  Every anime has to have one of these, or so it seems.   Sana, Rei, and her mother all travel to Kustasu where Sana's grandparents run an inn.  They are getting old though, and with no offspring who are willing to take over the running of the inn, it looks like they'll have to sell it even though it has been in their family for over 300 years.  Or will she??

The show has started to run out of steam a bit.  With four more stand-alone episodes on this volume, the series doesn't seem to be going anyplace.  The earlier part of the series had plots that lasted for several episodes and gave viewers a reason for tuning in again, such as Sana's problems with her class and Akito, they mystery of Sana's father, and the plot involving Akito's family.  The series has dropped all of that.  While a few stand alone shows are fine, nothing but that gets old quickly.  Not only that, but the show has apparently run out of ideas as they've started to repeat themselves.  The show isn't awful, but it is growing a little tired.

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, there aren't any.

Final Thoughts:

I really enjoyed the early volumes of this series, it was funny and dynamic and every episode had a few good laughs.  It's started to go downhill lately though, with a series of stand alone episodes that are starting to blend in with one another.  Though Kodocha is still funny, and this volume is recommended, there are only so many times you can hear Sana singing one of her goofy songs before it starts to get old.  Here's hoping they start to mix it up soon.