After a couple of volumes of stand-alone episodes, Kodocha has finally moved on to its next story arc in volume 10.  While the single show stories are fine, the longer narratives are more interesting.  In this one a couple of things happen to the young child star.  First not one but two boys show some interest in her, and her families finances take a turn for the worse and Sana and Mama find themselves living on the street.  While there are some weighty issues in this volume, they didn't forget the humor.  It's still quite a funny 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.

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.

This volume:

Sana gets a part in a commercial opposite Naozumi and she's pretty excited about working with her friend again.   When she runs into him one afternoon he asks her how she feels about the gig and Sana tells Naozumi that she's excited.  It isn't until later that she finds out that the commercial requires Naozumi to kiss Sana.  She's mortified, after all she told him she was looking forward to the filming, but decides to go through with it anyway.  Sana's excitement piques Naozumi's interest and the young star finds himself starting to become very attracted to his co-star.

Next, Christmas time has arrived and so Sana throws a mid-birthday part.  The half way point between Sana and Akito's birthday just happens to be December 24th, their mid-birthday, and what a better time to throw a party.  Akito knows that Naozumi is going after Sana, and he does like her, but he's not sure what to do about it.  When his back is up against the wall though, he surprises everyone, including himself, with what he does.

After the party, first thing on Christmas morning, a team of government officials come busting into the Kurata residence.  It seems that Mama has made some very bad investments and now the family is bankrupt!  This lead to the most bizarre episode in the series, a two story show entitled 100 Haya-moths/Ooga Booga Boo.  In the first part Sana goes to school and discovers everyone has been sprinkled with pollen from a Haya-moth and turned into moths themselves, including Mama.  Sana goes off in search of the culprit, and discovers the destructive moth that looks very much like Hayama.  Mayhem ensues.  In the second part, the cast are all cavemen (and cavegirls) who can only speak in caveman talk.  Of course, Sana wakes up at the end of the episode just in time to see the government officials seize all of her family's belongings.  An odd show that could have been funny, but wasn't.

In the final show on this disc it's revealed that Mama has made some rather poor business decisions and that she's lost all of the money that they had.  She, Sana, and Rei are out on the street with no place to live.  The tabloids get wind of the story and print it, and that causes all of Sana's work to evaporate.  With out any means of support, how are they going to survive?

This volume picked up considerably from the last one, even with the lame dream sequence show.  The longer story arcs are more fun, while still leaving plenty of room for comedy.  This plot of the Kurata's being bankrupt, while a bit silly in ways, (no one saw the foreclosure coming?) is interesting and it will be fun to see how Sana and her family deal with this adversity.

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 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 was getting tired of this series.  The last couple of volumes have been stand alone episodes that, while being funny, start to grow old.  This new story arc has breathed life into the show, and I'm looking forward to the next volume now.   Here's hoping that this plot last for at least a little while. Recommended.