44 episodes of the anime seen
Episodes 1-35 of the English dub
& Episodes 36-44 of Japanese w/ English Subtitles
This review contains mild spoilers to refer back to, so be careful!
Please keep in mind this review is meant for people who have seen the anime.
My notes & Opinion on this anime
[This portion is meant for people who don't want to read the whole review.]
Oh man! I've been wanting to write a review for Kodocha for a while now ~ I was planning to wait until I finished the series, BUT FOR THE LOVE OF HARUHI, I MUST WRITE A REVIEW
So ya XD I think Kodocha is spectacular. It's amazing and just blows me away. It's one of those animes that make me go crazy that I'm smashing my computer with a big smile on my face because it's SUCH a good anime I can't handle it and go insane. What else can I say? I first stumbled onto this anime while flipping channels but just thought it was annoying, kiddy, and pointless. But I decided to take the time to stap myself to the couch and watch the anime from the top, and I am SO glad that I did. One of the best choices of my life XD
The thing that makes Kodocha SO good is, mainly, how perfectly the characters and their personalities are done. Unless you haven't seen the anime, you might know what I mean. With these perfect personalities, the author can easily put the characters together into a masterpiece, despite how simple the storyline is.
This anime has the PERFECT amount of drama. It's not too serious and deep, BUT it's not dumb and cliche what-so-ever. In fact, the romance in this anime is thought out so amazingly well.
Story
Um o_o Ok where to start... More like... how do I put this o_O;;? Kodocha, to me, doesn't have a REAL storyline or plot. To be blunt, it's just a Shoujo anime that revolves around the daily life of Sana Kurata... you know what I mean o_o? The anime starts doesn't totally shout out there and say "THIS IS A ROMANCE ANIME" like most do. That's why you don't really expect much at first. It seems like an episodic anime of Sana's daily life, which it kinda pretty much is. Sana is a 6th grader TV star so you don't expect any serious love drama.
... and THAT'S where this anime catches you off guard.
The romance in this anime is done so perfectly, I am having an EXTREMELY hard time finding the best way to express it xD You NEED to watch it to see what I mean ~
Art
You look at the art and immediately know this anime was made before 2000. I can't say much about the art. Normally I'd go on and on about how perfectly characters are drawn in perspective to their personalities, but in this case, it's kinda just "mmk". I wasn't blown away by the art, nor was I irritated by it. The style is actually kinda pretty, I probably would have thought it was gorgeous and beautiful if I watched it back in 1995 when it was made @_@ So yeah... the art isn't much to talk about.
BUT animation is VERY well done. I must say, the reactions and jokes are old-style, but because of that, it's hilarious for the fact that I've never seen them before. Recent jokes are so re-used and that's why it doesn't impress me much in recent anime, but since this is old and I so RARELY watch old anime, the jokes seem fresh and new to me XD They say such silly jokes that are SO old style, BUT FOR SOME REASON IT'S FUNNY.
"that squirrel on your head. does it poop all over it? cuz i'm starting to think you're head's full of crap."
..ya XD
the babbit is great. spitting soda out of the nose is also great. the smacking is hilarious, and so is the hammer smacking. I can't say anything more than that XD
Sound
Sound is actually really good for something 1995 o_o i'm surprised the opening theme song isn't so old style lke yu yu hakusho's xD The cool part of this anime is that they re-use background music so much, that when you hear it somewhere else, you IMMEDIATELY know it's kodocha. Someone could hum the melody and I'll breakout and ask "IS THAT SUM KODOCHA?"
I love it when that happens XD
Characters
Like I mentioned earlier... the characters are perfectly done o___o
First off, I can't help but mention that I'm blown away by how the age set is perfect. They're not so young that it annoys me, like in Naruto how it's WAY too serious a storyline with 12 year old characters @_@ BUT they're still old enough to learn more, and slowly crawl out of their fantasies. If this was set in high school, the whole story would be thrown off. You'd think of the character's SO differently o_O;;;
Sana Kurata is a perfect example. She is, in fact, pretty annoying because of how dense she is, but in a way, you can actually accept that o_o; And the main reason for the acceptance of Sana is cuz she's just freakin hilarious. She just is. But her age set is perfect because when it comes to stuff like, the way she believes in loving someone with almost a 10 year age difference, you can see all the flaws but still understand why Sana believes she's in love. If she was in high school, you'd think that it's plain dumb for a teen to be in love with some 30 year old. Sana can get away with a lot of stuff due to her age. Hopefully I'm making sense here o__o;;
The character I am MOST impressed by is Akito Hayama. He's so well done and developed so perfectly, it almost scares me how the author can come up with such a character o_o
See... Akito is one of those quiet, reserved characters and so damn mature for his age. I like how he's laid back but it doesn't annoy me. Because I usually think those kind of characters are cliche and annoying because they're EVERYWHERE, but there's something about Akito that doesn't make him so cliche. He's a wreckless trouble maker, but from most trouble makers, you'd expect them to be loud and obnoxious, but Akito isn't. I think that's the thing that makes him unique, really cool and ACTUALLY likeable o__o; With his personality, you can do a hell lot with him which makes him one of the best, flexiable characters you can think of in a story. I especially love his development throughout the anime. It's amazing how much an impact Sana put into his life. AND THAT WAS ALSO SO PERFECTLY DONE. The way the author shows Akito's family life, how you can tell he's going to fall for Sana but when it happens you're ACTUALLY surprised by it XD It's just perfect.
I also love Sana's mom. She is the most awesome mom I have ever seen in any anime. BUT THAT'S WHAT'S SO WEIRD. In most anime, the mom doesn't play much of a role at all unless it's like a "ZOMG YOU'RE MY MOM???" situation. But Sana's mom cracks me up. It's just funny how she is a genius at relationships and plays such a good role. I dunno XD Unless you haven't seen the anime, you should know what I mean XD
Naozumi is great too. His trumpet. Oh lawd XD
There are other characters I know but I don't really feel like going into depth about, such as Rei and Tsuyoshi. Some of the characters are exist just for the heck of it. And the thing that kinda sucks is that you can find some characters to be useless and annoying. But as long as you focus on the main characters, you'll think they're very well done, VERY well developed and freakin hilarious XD.
Dub vs Original
The dub is better.
Mainly because Sana's voice actor is AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING. I've never seen such a good voice actor in my life o_O Akito's voice actor is a lot better in English than Japanese. I didn't like the Japanese version so much when I decided to switch languages... it sucks how the dub only goes up to 35 :/ You'll still like it either way XD
Ending Statements
I obviously enjoy this anime. Don't need to make a big paragraph on that XD I HIGHLY recommend this to girls. Guys, I'm not so sure o_o; But I guarantee you, you'll like this anime. This anime has the PERFECT amount of drama. It's not too serious and deep, BUT it's not dumb and cliche what-so-ever. In fact, it's extremely very well thought out. This kind of amount is perfect for me. So... watch Kodocha XD
...thank you for taking the time to read this o_o;
