KODOMO NO OMOCHA MANGA
Genre: Fantasy / Adventure
General Audience

Thundersenshi's Description:
Kurata Sana is a cute, hyper-active 11-year old who stars in a popular TV show called "Kodomo no Omocha". Even with all her richness and fame, Sana is just another cheerful 6th grader, and she doesn't let all her blessings go to her head. She wants to see everybody happy, and does everything to make them so--even if her help isn't wanted. She may act impulsively, but her heart's in the right place and she's actually quite mature for her age.

However, life for Sana isn't always a bed of roses--at least not until she became classmates with Hayama Akito, a quiet, expresionless boy who acts as a leader of the pack of troublemakers (which consist of all the boys in class, actually). Since she started the schoolyear, her class had never been normal, what with all the boys tormenting the hell out of the teacher every single day. Sana tries to put a stop to it since the other girls were too scared, and as a result, the boys have turned against her. But what about Akito? He doesn't seem to want anything directly harmful done to her. That order coming from him stopped the rest of the boys dead in their tracks. What is he really thinking? Why does he do this? What does he want?

I got hooked instantly. >>> by thundersenshi (??.??.2002)

I had first gotten a hold of this series in its anime version, and I didn't even want to watch it at first. Knowing that the story was about 11-year old kids made me skeptical. But when I did watch it, I got hooked instantly, and began reading the manga! Kodomo no Omocha (Kodocha for short) is that good. For starters, it's not really something you read for aesthetic purposes. The art is average--not the best I've seen, but certainly not the worst. But what makes it special is the humour. Kodocha's characters are all eccentrically loveable. Especially Sana, the main character. I usually hate female characters like her--always cheerful, always the latecomer, and always the kind-hearted kid. But there's just something about Sana that makes her different from the rest. She is so hyper, it's hilarious! And then there's Akito, the leader of the troublemakers. It's fun seeing him do battle against Sana and watching out for those very rare moments of changes in his expression.

To be honest though, Kodocha manga does have a few differences from the anime. The manga is crazy but not as crazy as the anime. The characters are a little more defined in the manga since they are given a bit more rest from all the insanity. In fact, Akito talks and comments more in this version (still without much emotion, though). His and Sana's relationship are also given more detail, which is really great.