Kodomo no Jikan

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This manga gives me such a mixed bag of emotions that it's honestly hard to describe. It's like it tried to take a handful of taboos, threw it together to make some sort of cohesive love story... and it worked.

It's pretty difficult to talk about a story that consists of lowkey (maybe highkey) child porn, sexual harassment, incest, massive age gap relationships, child grooming and probably a lot more. That being said though, it's such a competent narrative that it's hard not to give credit where it is due.

This manga at its core is just a story about understanding what it means to love and ... the repercussions of not feeling loved. What do you do when the only person that has ever loved you dies? How do you deal with the reality that your parents never loved you the way you feel they should have? How do you cope with a love that you understand will never blossom? How do you give love to someone who needs it when you are not in the position to give it? What does familial, romantic and platonic love look like? All these questions are posed by the manga and are answered to varying degrees of success. It's all explored through the relationship and interactions between three young girls and their four teachers (and one cousin).

The plot is actually fairly traditional in its approach if you think of it as a 'girl teases guy because she likes him' romance mixed with a 'older man cares for younger girl' storyline... kinda like a cross of Don't Bully Me Nagatoro and House of the Sun only with better pacing. Things happen at a reasonable pace throughout most of the manga, and that drives the story along faster than a typical love story. Most of the major story points seem believable given the situation the characters are put in, which is always a plus in storytelling.

Now the characters are what makes the story what it is, but I can't decide how to feel about them. Kokonoe, the main girl, and her cousin are very fleshed out characters that you are able to understand and actually care about. Everyone else is... alright I guess. The majority have their own backstories and motivations that make sense, but they just aren't the most interesting. Aoki, the main character, is the driving impetus of change, but he is fairly generic when you look at MC's in these types of manga: strong sense of justice, unrefined, tries his hardest, etc. The teachers that surround him are good foils or supports for him, similarly to how Kokonoe's two friends are to her.

The art is fine.

There are quite a few gripes I have with the story overall. Besides all the taboo things I listed above, the main character's irresponsibility really made it difficult to read this manga. It's understandable to see why the author chose to write him like this (gives more room for the main relationship to grow) but there were many clearly avoidable situations for most people to make that the MC fails to do, which is frustrating. The side character stories also paled in comparison to the main one to the point where I honestly just wanted to skip all the chapters having to do with all the side characters. Of course that would take away from the overall message of the manga, but that just goes to show how good the main story was.

Overall this manga is one that I ended up enjoying a lot, if you take away all the gratuitous naked loli scenes. It's a competent story that knows what it wants to tell and how to do it. It deals with heavy topics while never being overly serious, and it balances the two surprisingly well. The characters range from forgettable to downright endearing, but each has a very believable, albeit sometimes twisted, personality and world view.

Would I ever recommend this to anyone? Probably not. The amount of unneeded loli nudity really takes away from it being a recommendable series by a longshot, even if it does the actual storytelling really well.

heres my take on kodomo no Jikan

I liked it though it was weird how Rin liked the teacher and was masturbating

A bit sus but I enjoyed reading it. I thought rin was a cool character mhm. the teacher was an ok pretty boring guy. the girl with the big tits was cool I think her name was Usa. The teacher with the big tits was pretty boring.I kinda hated the lesbian bitch.
the story was pretty good and the art was nice. Man, I suck at reviews this my first one.
why tf do i have to write more am done

tbh when i first saw the thumbnail of this series, i was extremely convinced it was a bait for lolicons or pedos. but once i binged the series, its more on the drama and psychological side of things, rather than seeing a grown up adult trying to get it on with a school kid, or the other way round.

no, this review is not a way to justify me reading this controversial series, but it's had its fair share of cringeworthy moments.

Story and Character: 9
imo, this series goes hand in hand for the story and characters. yeah, its divided into different arcs, but during each arc ... its focused on the development and backstory of different characters within the series. this includes side characters as well.

also, we get themes such as coming of age, maturity and the meaning of love, albiet the last theme is a bit stretched to the extreme. we see the main characters starting to discover their sexuality (although it doesn't justify the ero scenes) and characters starting to discover and change themselves for the better.

Art: 10
the art style evolves progressively which is nice.

Enjoyment: 7
i wouldn't say i enjoyed it particularly, but it was a ride. some moments disturbed me though (around chapter 90 with the principal would be an example)

Overall: 7
Yes, the aforementioned themes only work if kids are part of the main cast, but we did not need to slap fanservice. This is making it hard for people to actually enjoy or justify this series. Would this work if the casts were only made up of children instead of inserting a teacher in there? Yes, that would work miles better imho. To Kill a Mocking bird details the themes of coming of age much better than this series, but I have a feeling the author is trying to portray another message regarding their ideals of "love". I wouldn't agree with her, but as long as they are happy, I won't dive that deep into it.

Overall, its definitely a ride, albiet a questionable one.

Kodomo no jikan like it's anime counterpart is one of the most misunderstood Manga/anime out there it has the reputation based on lies and ignorance like it's about a 7 year old girl that wants to fuck her teacher witch is a lie or, that it's boku no pico's sister witch is even more lies as Kodomo no jikan is not even a hentai it's a romantic comedy for gods sake there is a sister to boku no pico but it's not KNJ cough shojo ramune excuse me anyway. Kodomo no jikan has a rich story witch grounded well written characters that all have great ... characters arks even the side characters the art is great even for it's time and to this day it holds up well And the irony is all the lies and controversy is what drove so many to this manga, those of have read or actually watched the anime can see through the lies and enjoys the story why because it's well written.