On the surface "Kodomo no Omocha" or "Kodocha" (I'll stick with the latter cause that's what it's called in the West) seems like a lot of other generic Shoujo school romances, stubborn girl meets polar opposite boy who becomes her rival, at first they cannot stand each other, but over time they get to know each other and develop as characters, eventually getting romantically involved with each other. It's a plot you've probably seen again & again, "Kare Kano" "Marmalade Boy" "Maid-Sama" "Lovely Complex" "Hana yori Dango" etc. you get the idea. What sets "Kodocha" apart from all those aforementioned Shoujo series is just how wacky and absurd it is in its presentation.
The protagonists Sana Kurata is an elementary student, but also an extremely successful child actress on the TV show "Child's Toy" or "Kodocha" (roll credits) who falsely believes that her adult agent is also her boyfriend and whose adoptive mother is a famous writer who has a chipmunk living in her hat. But that barely scratches the surface, the 4th wall is constantly being broken in the show, visual gags and puns are constantly being thrown around, one only needs to look at the episode titles to get a taste of the craziness ahead, and perhaps best (or worse?) or all at least once per episode Sana breaks out into a rap song describing her feelings.
One of my favorite parts of this show, ironically, is the dub. While the sub is perfectly fine, Laura Bailey's performance as Sana is some of the best voice acting I've heard. She really captures the goofiness & playfulness of the show and character. The only bummer is that because of licensing issues, Funimation only dubbed the first 51 episodes and never got to the last half of the show.
Another strong point of "Kodocha" is that despite how silly it gets, it still manages to tackle a multitude of serious themes. The first arc of the show pits Sana against her masculine rival Akito (later to become her romantic interest) but quickly becomes more about addressing Akito's childhood trauma of losing his mother. Various sensitive topics such as divorce, adoption, unrequited love, unemployment, and death are all handled with a surprisingly gentle touch.
One of my main qualms with the show is that it starts to go downhill after a certain point. The first 20 or so episodes were absolutely fantastic, but after a certain point the show starts falling apart with the serious and comedic moments starting to cause friction in the narrative rather than working in tandem. There's this one arc around the 40 or so episode were one of the characters is dying, but the second ending song "DAIJO-BU" is so overly wacky and goofy it creates this tonally jarring effect. Also there were some bizarre, and I mean BIZARRE filler episodes, such as all the characters turning into cavemen or butterflies for no reason.
Lastly the show can get frustrating, especially in the second half, as the anime seems to be wasting time. It is clear to everyone (even in the show) that Akito and Sana are going to end up together, but the show keeps spinning it's wheeling and going on random detours rather than focusing on the main relationship that the anime started out concentrated on. It felt that Akito and Sana's relationship and development stalled and the anime was simply padding its runtime. I do have one hot take, many fans of "Kodocha" despise Fuuka, a female character who comes in the second half who forms a love triangle with Sana and Akito, as they blame her for halting the story. Personally, Fuuka was actually one of my favorite characters, unlike Sana and most other characters in the show she actually had two brain cells to rub together and plays an important role in furthering the plot in the last few episodes. I did personally find the finale slightly unsatisfying, especially given that you have to watch literally a hundred episodes to get to that point.
Overall though I still highly recommend "Kodocha". It offers something different to the Shoujo romance formula, and even to people who do not like Shoujo anime it still offers laughs and cries in plentiful amounts. It has an outstanding dub (albeit only for the first 51 episodes) as well as a good soundtrack and a goofy yet memorable cast of characters. Most of all for me it captures the youthful and carefree feel of the 90s. It is on the longer side (sitting at a 102 episodes) so I personally recommend skipping the filler episodes, but for those with the patience and perhaps nostalgia from the 90s "Kodocha" could be well worth your time.
