Kodocha
Kodocha is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Miho Obana. The series was adapted as an OVA by J.C. Staff and released on December 16, 1995, by Shueisha under their Ribon Video label. An anime television series was produced by NAS and TV Tokyo, animated by Studio Gallop, and broadcast on TV Tokyo every Friday from April 5, 1996, to March 27, 1998.
In 2002, the manga was published in North America in English by Tokyopop as Kodocha: Sana's Stage. In 2006, Tokyopop lost the license to the manga, leaving it out of print. In 2005, the first half of the anime series was licensed for North American distribution by Funimation Entertainment and has been released on DVD. In 2012, Funimation announced that their Kodocha DVDs went out of print.
In 2020, Discotek Media announced that they have rescue licensed the series for release on SD Blu-ray in 2021.
Both the manga and anime have been well received by publications for different media for the character interactions and the comedy. The manga won the 1998 Kodansha Manga Award for manga. At the American Anime Awards held in 2007, it was nominated for best comedy anime.
Plot
Sana Kurata is a cheerful, popular, and energetic child actress who attends an elementary school that is plagued with chaos, led mainly by an aloof boy named Akito Hayama. At first, the two come in conflict with each other because of their opposing ideals, but as they get to know each other, they start supporting both each other and their classmates and peers.Characters
Main characters
; BabbitFamily members
;Aono OhkiSchool characters
Show business colleagues
Other characters
Production
Some parts of the series are based on Obana's life.Media
Manga
Kodomo no Omocha was originally serialized by Shueisha in the magazine Ribon from August 1994 to November 1998. Shueisha collected the 51 chapters in ten volumes from April 1995 to January 1999. The series was published in North America by Tokyopop under the title Kodocha: Sana's Stage from June 25, 2002, to November 11, 2003. In 2006, Tokyopop was not able to renew the license and the English edition became out of print.In 2010, Obana authored a crossover story called Deep Clear in which Sana and Akito interact with characters from Honey Bitter. In 2015, Obana authored a one-shot of Kodomo no Omocha for Ribon magazine's 60th anniversary issue in September. In 2025, she authored an 8-page promotional comic in collaboration with the beauty salon aggregate platform Hot Pepper Beauty.
Chapter list
''Deep Clear (2010)''
The crossover story, Deep Clear, was published in 2010, and takes place ten years after the end of Kodocha. Shuri, the heroine of Honey Bitter, is hired by Rei to spy on Akito because he had separated from Sana earlier. At this point, Sana and Akito are married and expecting a child. As she follows Akito, Shuri becomes good friends with Sana. She eventually discovers that the reason Akito separated from Sana is because he is afraid that she will die giving birth. When Sana gives birth, Shuri convinces Akito to face his fears by going to the hospital and seeing Sana and the baby. Sana gives birth to a daughter whom she names Sari. After their daughter's birth, Sana and Akito reconcile and begin raising their daughter together.''Days Without Anything (2015)''
A special one-shot was published in the September 2015 issue of Ribon in order to celebrate the magazine's 60th anniversary. The story takes place between February and March of Volume 4 of Kodocha, after Misako's first essay has been published but before Sana begins middle school. Gonta, one of Sana's dogs, narrates his daily life in the Kurata household leading up to Sana's twelfth birthday, during which he and the other dogs destroy a gift Akito meant to give to her as they mistrust his intentions. Shimura catches them in the act and informs Sana, leading her to find Akito and thank him for remembering her birthday regardless; she also assures him that she's going to Jinbou Middle School with the rest of their friends, to Akito's secret relief. At home, Sana chastises her dogs and asks Gonta to be a little kinder to Akito, as he is one of her precious friends. Gonta reluctantly agrees, because although he is still wary of Akito, he trusts Sana and wants to protect her happiness.''Hot Pepper Beauty (2025)''
In March 2025, the beauty salon aggregate platform Hot Pepper Beauty commissioned an 8-page Kodocha promotional comic. It was not serialized in Ribon, but was instead published to Hot Pepper Beauty's Twitter and Instagram accounts.The story takes place during Sana's first year of high school. Sana has just been cast as the female lead in a film. As her first major role since the events of Kodocha, Sana is nervous and only becomes more so when Mikio claims she's lacking something.
After discussing it with friends Aya and Fuka, Sana decides to change things up with a haircut, and books an appointment through the Hot Pepper Beauty website. Pleased with the result, she regains her confidence and resolves to work hard on the movie. As she is leaving, Sana runs into her now-boyfriend Akito, and then leaves with her manager Rei for work. Akito enters the same salon for a trim.
Anime
An original video animation was produced in 1995 to mark the 40th anniversary of Ribon.An anime adaption was later produced by Studio Gallop, consisting of 102 TV episodes, airing on the TXN network weekly from April 5, 1996, to March 27, 1998. The opening theme songs are 7 O'Clock News by Tokio and Ultra Relax by Tomoe Shinohara ; the ending theme songs are Panic by Still Small Voice, DAIJO-BU by Tomoko Hikita, and Pinch by Rina Chinen. The first 51 episodes covers the elementary school story arc, while the remaining 51 episodes cover the middle school story arc.
The series was first licensed by Funimation from Nihon Ad Systems, releasing the first 51 episodes on DVD. The series was partially broadcast on American TV in a syndicated Funimation Channel programming block airing on Colours TV and Los Angeles KSCI-DT channel 18.3. The first opening song, 7 O'Clock News, was replaced with Ultra Relax due to licensing issues via Johnny & Associates.
Discotek Media announced that they had re-acquired the North American rights from ADK to the series during a live Twitch panel from December 14, 2020, mentioning that 7 O'Clock News would be restored on the upcoming SD Blu-ray release of the first arc in November 2021 as rights issues had been resolved following the death of Johnny Kitagawa. The second arc will also be released in 2022 as a sub-only release.
Stage Production
A stage play adaptation of Kodocha was announced in the March 2015 issue of Shueisha's Ribon magazine, to be written and directed by Akitaro Daichi, the director of the Kodocha television anime. Sana was portrayed by both Kokoro Okuda and Rio Ogura, and Akito by Yuga Aizawa and Rihito Itagaki. Additional cast members included Sogo Ito as Tsuyoshi Oki, Satsuki Usui and Mio Yoshimura as Natsumi Hayama, and Hiyori Arima, Masahiro Ezaki, Mari Kazama, Wakana Kawai, Keita Takahashi, Miu Takahashi, Mitsuki Nishida, Mirai, and Yumeka Yoshiwara as classmates.The play opened August 20, 2015 via Nelke Planning in Tokyo, and ran for ten days until the 30th.
Reception
Kodocha won the Kodansha Manga Award for best manga in 1998. Jason Thompson found the manga "joyfully weird with good lines and funny details", calling the art quaint. Holly Kolodziejczak from Animefringe praised the series for its multiple elements such as mystery and romance that form a strong comedy. Additionally, like Thompson, he found the art quality despite the time its age. Dillon Font from the same site called it "very solid part of a manga collection." The reviewer compared it with the anime adaptation "sorely missing the insane quirkiness that Daichi's direction injected into the anime series" which might leave the manga "dull." Allen Divers from Anime News Network recommended it to readers commenting it is "a solid story about a young girl coming of age that remains entertaining the entire way".The anime adaptation also received the praise with THEM Anime Reviews Carlos Ross who claimed "the frenzied comedy is the selling point of this anime, and sell it does". Zac Bertschy from Anime News Network praised the characters as likables and also liked the animation and music. Reviewing the series' 10th DVD, Carl Kimlinger from the same website as Bertschy said that while "neither the show nor Sana has slowed a whit in forty episodes" the material not as appealing as previous episodes.