The story focus is based mainly around a newly appointed 3rd grade teacher, Aoki Daisuke, and a female trio of students, Kokonoe Rin, Kagami Kuro, and Usa Mimi and how their school and personal lives start to become further engrossed as Aoki tries to keep his class manageable.
As the story progresses it seems to cover multiple angles of child psychology/interaction, from the aspect of a Teacher/Parent trying to learn how to deal with children, to an Adult with a troubled childhood who you could say never got the chance to really grow up in his rationality of love due to those circumstances, and a child who is troubled and dead-set on becoming her teacher's future bride, to name just a few of the angles the manga plays on.
There are other angles not related to the lolita-complex elements that are also played out, follow more along the topics of parental separation, parental loss, parental neglect, parental abuse, and the effects they have on a child, though they are not as prominent aspects, yet all slowly tying into the story and relating to matters at hand. Thus the childhood experiences of the older characters get brought up as the story progresses, which is where things become more about those childhood experiences effecting the current character actions of the older characters. The experiences of the main trio of girls which the story focuses around are also similarly brought up to add more background understanding as to why they act as they do as well.
The story uses a balance of humorous and serious moments to balance out the overall atmosphere of the story. In fact, the story is usually carrying a very light hearted air and when the story starts to hit at dark or gloomy information on certain characters it then rebounds a little to bring the balance back. This is what makes the story so far great, as there are times to laugh, times to be concerned, and also times to feel bad for what is going on or what happened in the past of a character.
**A specific thing to note is that it is usually Rin's advances on Aoki that are usually light and humorous, and the only problem character in the story thus far is Rin's uncle and only person she has consideration for as family, Reiji. Thus, while there is the portrayal of circumstantial child nudity in different parts of the story, it is usually in a light manner and are mostly Rin's often humorous sexual advances on Aoki, which he gets embarrassed, confused, and worried about when they happened because she's often toying with him, though not always. Anything in the story as far as nudity in general is appropriately handled so the story and character portrayals are not lost to senseless use of the element.
Personal opinion...
Story: 8
Art: 8
Character: 8
Enjoyment: 8
Overall: 8
It's been a while that I've seen a story at this level, or one willing to go to the extremes that this this one does. The way characters are handled and how the story comes together leads me to believe that as it continues to progress things will be guaranteed to get interesting. The portrayal of characters seems reasonable enough, with of course understanding to proper character exaggerations where needed, yet not stretching the bounds too much that the story would be so implausible that it would lead me to fail to see the reality and humanity being presented. I'd rate this higher, but I'd feel it unfit to do so to as so far the story continues. The art isn't amazing, but I don't expect it to be, and while I enjoy it, I can't be sure it will continue to please me, so the rating and this review will change as the story progresses should I see need for revision or update.
[Edited: Nov 27th, 2009. I think it is a better review now.]
