Every once in a while you come across a show that is so much fun that it instantly endears itself to you. When I sat down to watch Kodocha I honestly had little idea what to expect. I never read the manga by Miho Obana and internet buzz surrounding the series was relatively quiet. Once I popped in the first disc though my expectations were exceeded in just about every regard.

This is one of those shows that was met with a good degree of success in Japan. With over 100 episodes produced the series ran for a few years over seas and has been accepted here in the States. While FUNimation has the twelfth volume on the horizon they have recently compiled the first six volumes of the show into one neat little package. If you were ever going to get into a quirky series this would be the one to take the bait on.

Kodocha follows the life of sixth grader Sana Kurata. She's 11 years old, has a part in a show called Child's Toy, and has a lot of spunk at her disposal. As you'd imagine things are going well for her and most everything seems to be headed in the right direction. Her days are fine at least until she has to go to school. It's not that she hates the thought of education or being cooped up inside the building for X amount of hours. Her source of hatred for going to school is a fellow classmate named Akito Hayama.

Hayama is the class clown. Actually, scratch that. He's the class terrorist. This hooligan spends all day torturing his teachers and leading his ragtag group of followers in daily exorcizes. The end result in these outings is that the teacher winds up in tears and the class is taught nothing. Sana wants nothing more than to go to school and actually learn something so it's only natural that she would confront Hayama.

The beginning of the show focuses a lot on her conflict with the boy. As the episodes progress we are given some insight into his past and shown snippets of what made him the way that he is. It's a tragic thing to be sure but luckily for Hayama, Sana is there with her acting skills and experiences that she has taken from the many shows she's appeared on. This sets the tone of Kodocha early on in the series and it goes beyond being a silly and wild comedy into something with real emotion and heart. It's a nice angle that continues to be exploited throughout the six volumes and 24 episodes found in this collection.

Another of the men in Sana's life is none other than her manager Rei Sagami. He plays a supporting role through the development of the story and is another part of growth for Sana's personality. She constantly refers to the man as her boyfriend and "pimp" but the fact remains that she's just an adoring eleven year old, so he just kind of plays along to keep her happy. This leads to some awkward moments but for the most part the show handles their relationship well enough to be taken seriously.

Sana's mother plays another big role in the episodes found in this set. She's a novelist and towards the end of the episodes that are featured here she releases a tell-all book about her history. Some things are revealed about Sana that break new ground for the character and the tone of the series shifts direction a little bit towards the end. Few shows deal with topics like what you'll find here and it's that reason that Kodocha is as entertaining and gripping as it is.

To be honest there are so many more characters to talk about that I'm just going to leave that part up to you to discover. Sana is the real reason to watch the show and Hayama's development is another key element. It's the daily adventures of these two that drives the series and keeps the entertainment and emotion going strong. It's almost like you're watching a kid grow up because most of these moments are handled delicately enough to the point that they seem realistic.

I was not expecting to be swept up in the life of this eleven year old girl when I first started watching the show. As the episodes progressed I became more interested in the character and even more so in the world that surrounds her. Few anime craft a world as rich as this and in so many ways this series differs from the rest. The wild and outlandish sense of humor may clash with the tone of the show at times but for the most part it's handled in such a way that it compliments the emotional bits.

There are many more episodes of Kodocha to come and hopefully FUNimation scores the rights to the second season. After watching these six volumes I can't wait to check out the rest of the series. Despite the fact that the show came out in the 90's, Kodocha feels fresh. If you're in the mood for an upbeat show that isn't afraid to tackle some hard issues with a wild sense of style then this is the one to check out.

Kodocha's video quality basically looks like you'd expect it to considering the show was produced in the mid 90's. The image features colors that are a little muted in some scenes with a washed out appearance while others remained vibrant. This is a bright show and as such there was a lack of obvious compression artifacts though scrutiny at times revealed snippets of it here and there. Grain was also a light problem with aliasing being equally miniscule. Overall the picture here is soft but fine when you consider the age of the source material. This is an acceptable transfer for a show of this type.

When you go back in time to pull something out of an archive licensing can be a real pain in the butt. In that regard there is a disclaimer attached to Kodocha that describes how the original theme song and references to the performers had to be cut in order to obtain the rights to the show. As a newcomer to the show the theme song change is marginally noticeable but with whole portions of the Japanese audio being cut out it becomes a glaring omition. This isn't FUNimation's fault and I applaud them for keeping these scenes intact otherwise and including subtitles but it's still a spot of annoyance.

Otherwise the English and Japanese 2.0 Stereo language tracks are fine with good dubbing quality and decent front channel support. The English 5.1 selection takes the cake here with the greater sense of immersion and cleaner audio. This is a decent sounding show despite the failure to obtain licenses to all of the original material.

While most series are released with textless animations and trailers as their only bonus features Kodocha actually offers stuff that's worth checking out. Out of these six volumes there are four commentaries that feature the director and actors. Beyond showcasing some of the English voice talent and providing a few laughs none of these tracks are particularly enthralling. Sometimes they point out blatant stuff that's happening on screen and at other times they tend to ramble. Still, commentary tracks for anime are a rare inclusion so they are definitely worth checking out if you enjoy the English language dub.

Aside from the commentaries there are also some character bios that are included as well as three interview segment with Akitaro Daichi. If you're a real anime aficionado then you may recognize his the director of Fruits Basket. In these relatively short interviews (about seven minutes in length) he talks about various subjects such as working on Kodocha, working with the voice cast, and designing some of the show. All three are interest and provide a fair amount of insight into the show.

Kodocha is one of those rare shows that appeals to both the young and old. The bright and happy characters coupled with the wild sense of humor allow for visual entertainment while the heartfelt dialogue and adult oriented punch lines will keep older viewers amused. Throughout the twenty-four episodes here you'll get to watch Sana grow up in many ways. I haven't had this much fun watching a show in a long time and because of that I'm going to highly recommend Kodocha.

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