What a ride! After a somewhat long hiatus of Velcor posts I’m finally back, back, back, back from my magical journey, ready to shine again! I’ll try to do my best trying to describe the Kodomo no Jikan experience in this review, not because the series is different from the usual, rather because this thought-provoking anime is meant to stay in your mind forever, whether you like it or not!

Made by Studio Barcelona in 2007 and based on the manga by Kaoru Watashiya, this 12-episode + 1 OVA anime has the following genres: School life, Slice of Life, Loli, Comedy and more Loli. Oh and add Fantasy there because there’s no way 10-yo girls could behave as precocious as depicted in this series. Still, if you like Lolitas (and I mean the real definition of Lolita) you should check this one out. If you don’t like lolis well, too bad for you; this series could teach you a thing or two on how to keep disastrous kids at bay…….maybe.

STORY

There’s this guy named Aoki, he just started to give classes to a group of 3rd years at a public school. The main thing is that when kids hit that age (10 or so) their curiosity about everything starts to increase, thus a lot of times dragging the teacher into embarrassing situations. Add to the group a girl named Rin Kokonoe. She appears to be a normal girl but it turns out she has some severe personal issues and seems to fall in love with this Aoki guy…she’s 10 and he’s 23 years old. So now Aoki has to handle:

1. Adult life as a professional.

2. A bunch of brats.

3. a girl who is constantly insinuating sexual things to him…in public.

It’s not really that bad, the author successfully manages to keep a balance between the lolita plot, the slice of life elements, and the comedy of the whole situation. 

GRAPHICS

Animation quality is nice, you normally don’t see missing frames, everything is above normal. Character designs for the girls, mainly Kokonoe, are pretty interesting, without the traditional pointy nose when facing sideways; in this series, noses are rounded and sometimes you don’t see a human face at all, they just seem like…mice.

SOUND & MUSIC

The OP and ED songs are very catchy, with their rock-punk influence you would think it’s a mix between Handsome Jet (P.P.R. from Guitar freaks) and B4U (Chikara, also from Guitar Freaks), although the lyrics are ridiculously insinuating and lewd. Well, I guess it’s true what they say, “If it sells, it’s good”.

Music as BGM was average; I can’t remember a certain tune as I’d do with Azumanga, but I guess it manages to do its job.

OVERALL

Kodomo no Jikan’s charm would be the answer to the questions: “What if that could happen to me and how would I answer to these buncha brats?”

Be warned: it obviously has no sex scenes, but there’s all this imposed innuendo throughout the series that may be difficult to digest for the weak of mind.

If you want to give it a try I’ll tell you that It’s not a bad ride. The author successfully manages to keep a balance between the lolita plot, the slice of life elements, and the comedy of the whole situation. 

STORY

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GRAPHICS

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SOUND & MUSIC

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OVERALL

[][]      8 / 10 Diamonds

A different-from-the-usual anime with pretty character designs and a story with drama, embarrassing situations and comedy all along.