JK Reviews: Kodomo No Jikan

[EvilPicnic]

Hmmm... I think I'll be giving this one a miss.

I have to say, I do have a problem with loli and with sexualisation of pre-pubescent girls in general; for many of the same reasons that I find child beauty-pageants so extraordinarily perverse.

Not to be a prude or anything (I have no objection to adult fetishes for example), and not to be too condemning, (as I have neither seen/nor read the manga and am only going by your review in relation to what I have seen previously of loli as a whole) I do actually find it quite distasteful.

Congrats on a well-written and informative review anyway, and sorry to be so negative

 

[Julianking93]

It's ok, we can't all be awesome.

;~;

Oh, I don't have a problem with the loli aspect of it or anything, the whole thing just doesn't really appeal to me. I may give it a chance at some point, but for the moment it remains unwanted and unloved because I have other things to watch/read/play that I know I will enjoy.

Actually, I didn't think you did have a problem with loli. I meant that ecchi comedy and drama didn't seem like something you'd enjoy :3
As for everyone else, that's in part why I said that. Lots of people don't like ecchi or really any sort of comedic anime so I wouldn't recommend everyone go watch it. I tend to forget people have problems with loli, but if you can get passed that and you like ecchi, then go for it. If either one of those bother you, stay far far away from it.

And I'm rather curious to know what it is you're watching or plan to besides this

snippy

It's quite alright. I figured I'd probably get a lot worse comments here accusing me of being a paedophile but surprisingly no. >.>

Anyway, thanks for the comment. I understand why anyone wouldn't want to watch this or would find it distasteful and really, there isn't anything I or anyone for that matter could say to persuade you to watch it. The loli stuff doesn't really affect me that much. I sort of look passed it in a way but obviously it's a bother to a lot of people, so it's fully understandable.

So long as you're not really the type to call something "sick" and "disgusting" for the loli theme and get all ragey about it, then no worries

 

[Steppin Razor]

Actually, I didn't think you did have a problem with loli. I meant that ecchi comedy and drama didn't seem like something you'd enjoy :3

Eh, I'm alright with drama usually. But yeah, ecchi comedy usually doesn't appeal to me all that much. I've probably seen some which I liked, but I don't remember.

And I'm rather curious to know what it is you're watching or plan to besides this

I have a lot of stuff I've bought but aren't interested in watching at the moment as I've been in the mood for playing games lately. The only things I'm looking at anytime soon are finishing off Nanoha StrikerS as I'm about halfway through it, and Kuroshitsuji, which I watched the first episode of ages ago on the recommendation of Vaude and then downloaded somehow found myself in posession of the first series, which I never got around to watching. Also, the second season of Haruhi and obtaining a copy of the Disappearance movie.

Spoiler: I'm still keeping up with manga and light novels a bit, though.

-Kimi ni Todoke
-Lucky Star
-Rozen Maiden - trying to track down a couple volumes I don't have
-re-reading Fruits Basket
-Maid Sama! Kaicho wa Maid-sama!
-pretending to give a shit about Bleach
-Toriko
-Real
-Vagabond
-Future Diary
-Awaiting release of the Strawberry Panic! light novels in June.
-Haruhi novels
-Spice and Wolf book 3 to read
-other stuff I don't remember

I'm also reading a couple Korean manhwa:
-Shaman Warrior is typical actiony stuff with an interesting story so far.
-Bride of the Water God is mostly standard romancey stuff, but with some absolutely gorgeous artwork at times.

 

[Julianking93]

snip

Wow... I've actually only heard of about.... 6 of everything you just mentioned. Bride of the Water God, Spice & Wolf, Lucky Star, Haruhi, Rozen Maiden and Vagabond.
Only read/watched 3 of those :3

Same with me though, to be honest. So many recommendations I've watched/read the first episode/volume of and never went anywhere else with them. Just so much to watch and.... so many that I just flat out didn't like >.>

 

[lacktheknack]

Well, this must have taken some guts to post.

It's a well written review, although I don't think I'll be tuning into it ever (I'll admit that little girls in anime are cute, but not in THIS context...).

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

All I really have to say is READ THE MANGA!



The anime, while decent, is nowhere near as awesome as the manga series. The OVAs were close since they actually followed the plot quite closely, but still they didn't show everything.



As for the themes, this series uses sex as humor, you need to know this and go into it prepared so as to not be creeped out by little girls acting overly promiscuous and referring to sexual acts they shouldn't know about yet.

That said, it mainly is a story about growing up from a very RARE perspective, namely, the female one. It goes into crushes with older guys, wearing grown up clothes while still being very much a child, being curious about sex in a way that makes it problematic for your parents or guardians and most importantly trying to simply live as a kid with all the difficulties that entails. The main character is the teacher but he's just a blank slate out of which the reader gets to experience these things. The main stars of the series are undoubtedly the female characters. The anime did a really wrong presentation of Reiji, he seemed completely crazy, that was the straw that broke the camel's back in it for me. Having read the manga those liberties were utterly wrong when considering how he had been characterized thus far.


One thing to notice is that there's about 11 volumes of this manga and the anime and ova only go up to the fourth one...so there's a ton of things that have happened which an anime viewer may not know and may be even surprised to find out...I'll leave you with this and you can imagine the possibilities for yourself; Rin discovers internet porn.

 

[Steppin Razor]

-snip-

Well, Fruits Basket and Kimi ni Todoke come highly recommended. Toriko is fairly standard shonen fair, except that the reason they hunt giant monstrosities is so they can cook and eat them. Real is by Takehiko Inoue, the same guy behind Vagabond and Slam Dunk. Future Diary is about a competition between 12 people who are each given a future diary which allows them to tell the future in some way, and the winner becomes God. And Strawberry Panic! is yuri awesomeness that is finally getting released in English.

As for reviews - I recommend Darker Than Black and Canaan. That's Darker Than Black season one, not the horrible second season that threw out everything that made the first one good and opted instead to assault you with all the poor choices they made.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Hmmm... I think I'll be giving this one a miss.

I have to say, I do have a problem with loli and with sexualisation of pre-pubescent girls in general; for many of the same reasons that I find child beauty-pageants so extraordinarily perverse.

Not to be a prude or anything (I have no objection to adult fetishes for example), and not to be too condemning, (as I have neither seen/nor read the manga and am only going by your review in relation to what I have seen previously of loli as a whole) I do actually find it quite distasteful.

Congrats on a well-written and informative review anyway, and sorry to be so negative

It's a story about growing up really, the sexualization is a type of humor, it's always done tongue-in-cheek. Oh and during the story some of the girls actually start puberty, like I said this is a story about growing up and that is a pretty big part of female growth, thus it may start as you say but it doesn't always remain with pre-pubescent characters...though they're still like 12 so it's not any less "wrong" if you go into it with a perverted mindset.

I've been reading it for like 3 years now and I'm utterly numb to the perverse nature it may have to a non-initated person, it's just innocent and funny to me. The difference between american and japanese cultures plays a big role in it too. In Japan sex isn't taboo like here.

 

[Julianking93]

snip.

Oh yeah and I've seen Fruits Basket too >.<
Didn't really care for it too much to be honest. Just seemed rather boring when I watched it and I got a little over half way. For some reason, it just didn't really click with me. *shrugs*

As for Strawberry Panic... I think I remember seeing that at a bookstore here a while back. Or maybe I'm mistaken for a different yuri manga with "strawberry" in the title but it seemed rather interesting, but at the time, I picked Gantz over that
I'll check out the other stuff you mentioned too whenever I get a chance. Lots of anime to watch but I'll put that on my list next to Sky Blue so I might review it soon ^_^

snip

Oh excuse me, I'm sorry. Did I not mention in the review I've read the manga? I thought I did but... yeah I have. I love the manga far better than the anime but that's not to say the anime is in anyway bad.
Obviously, I love the anime. The manga is just a bit better due to it covering more and not censoring itself so much and watering down the source material.

Perhaps I'm a wee bit biased about it simply because I saw the anime first, but I love the anime but I will happily admit to the manga being far superior.
If only because the manga continues the story in a well done way. I'd be lying if I said the scenes of...

Spoiler

Rin masturbating several times didn't stick in my mind

...but yeah, the manga is better for other reasons besides that too :3

 

[bushwhacker2k]

Indeed, hate against things you don't understand is something I've come across as an avid gamer, reader of manga and watcher of anime.

I thought Kodomo no Jikan was amusing, I didn't find it particularly threatening.

One thing that's confused me though- why do I keep hearing about cracking down on pedophiliac works when stuff like rape and guro(I think I have that word right, but one glance at this stuff and I just can't understand why the idea of intercourse with underage people, while wrong, strikes people as being worse than rape and necrophilia...).

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Indeed, hate against things you don't understand is something I've come across as an avid gamer, reader of manga and watcher of anime.

I thought Kodomo no Jikan was amusing, I didn't find it particularly threatening.

One thing that's confused me though- why do I keep hearing about cracking down on pedophiliac works when stuff like rape and guro(I think I have that word right, but one glance at this stuff and I just can't understand why the idea of intercourse with underage people, while wrong, strikes people as being worse than rape and necrophilia...).

It's just using the flawed premise that it fuels actual pedophiles.


The stupidity of the premise is huge too, because if it were true then all of the above things would also fuel rapists and violent people and whatnot, thus should be banned equally as much. It's a world of double standards.

 

[Steppin Razor]

-snip-

Yeah, Fruits Basket tends to be slow-paced, so I can understand why you would stop watching it out of boredom. That being said, the manga is much better.

There is a manga for Strawberry Panic! and it has been released in English, it's just that the light novels only ever got 2 out of the 3 novels translated ages ago and now they're going to release all 3 translated books in a single omnibus edition.

If I had to suggest one over the other, I'd go with.... well, I couldn't say either way. Canaan and Darker Than Black are 2 of my favourite series, with DTB only coming out on top because I like the setting so much. Really, it comes down to time constraints - Canaan is only 13 episodes, while DTB is 25? or so episodes.

 

[MrHero17]

I remember watching the first 7 or 8 episodes of this show a while ago and I thought it was pretty funny and original. I gotta give the creator credit for making a series where a 3rd grader sexually assaults her teacher, takes courage

This thread has also made me want to read the manga since it sounds a lot better than the anime.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

agent snips...

I just skimmed bits and pieces. I basically figured since the manga has everything the anime does, plus 4 times more stuff, only someone who hasn't read the manga would be reviewing the anime instead of it thus I replied as I did.

As for some of the most crazy scenes

Spoiler

That scene in Aoki's summer house where Rin sneaked into his bed, naked and then came back in her own room muttering to herself "it would never fit..." is what stuck in my mind...partially because I was in awe that they went there in such a way, it took me a while to realize they really meant it too.

I think you should also mention that it's really damn funny too. That scene in the manga cafe where the girls were annoying the other readers with their slightly too saucy word-puns had me slapping my desk with laughter...I literally clapped at it .


Oh and a good thing to mention to non-fans is that the creator is a woman, so this isn't just some old pervert's fantasies. (kono Nabokov lolicon domome~ )

 

[Julianking93]

snip

Funny thing is, I tend to like slow paced. Fruits Basket just didn't really do anything for me. It was nice and I liked the theme but... maybe it was because I watched the English dub or that... I dunno. I just didn't really find much about it I really liked when I watched it. Same with Lucky Star. I still dont' get the hype over that >.>

And... seeing as I have no restraints with anime but rather just with the massive amounts of games I have piling up I've yet to even start, I'll give DTB a watch. If it's on Netflix, then even better!

[snip

Ah yeah, that's true but I didn't really want to review the manga as I haven't finished it yet. I've finished the anime so I felt it was a better fit to review that at least :3

And yeah... that scene was a bit... eye popping xD
Fun though and I remember laughing at it particularly if only because I had to reread it a few times to make sure I read it correctly.

I was actually going to but... I wanted to avoid any sort of sexist comments, to be honest. Just simply saying "a woman wrote it" didn't feel natural in the review so I left it out. Let other people discover it for themselves as it was quite an interesting find for me when I first heard that. And also that she has two daughters

 

[Steppin Razor]

Funny thing is, I tend to like slow paced. Fruits Basket just didn't really do anything for me. It was nice and I liked the theme but... maybe it was because I watched the English dub or that... I dunno. I just didn't really find much about it I really liked when I watched it. Same with Lucky Star. I still dont' get the hype over that >.>

And... seeing as I have no restraints with anime but rather just with the massive amounts of games I have piling up I've yet to even start, I'll give DTB a watch. If it's on Netflix, then even better!

Then we have nothing further to discuss in this matter.
[small]Prepare to be sacrificed to our gods.[/small]

Good. Just... avoid the second season.

 

[NeutralDrow]

-re-reading Fruits Basket

Same here, actually. I hadn't reread the series since it finished, so I figure I'm ripe for one. I'm being steadily reminded why it's hands-down my favorite manga.

Not to mention knowing all the stuff that happens in the last three volumes gives some serious perspective on what happens even in the earliest. Everything Shigure says now makes perfect sense, it's easy to see why Kyo is uncharacteristically somber visiting Kyoko's grave, and there's, like, three layers of subtext behind <url=http://i53.tinypic.com/2gv9g6u.jpg>this image.

There is a manga for Strawberry Panic! and it has been released in English, it's just that the light novels only ever got 2 out of the 3 novels translated ages ago and now they're going to release all 3 translated books in a single omnibus edition.

Also, the manga never actually finished, so its omnibus stops in the goddamn middle. I mean, it was only enjoyably mediocre up to that point, but I still want to know how the frickin' story ends! >_>

Funny thing is, I tend to like slow paced. Fruits Basket just didn't really do anything for me. It was nice and I liked the theme but... maybe it was because I watched the English dub or that... I dunno. I just didn't really find much about it I really liked when I watched it.

That's because you were watching it, and not reading.

I'd recommend the manga, but I might have to restrain myself. I'm always nervous about recommending people spend money, and the official Tokyopop release blows the online scanlations completely out of the water...

The anime did a really wrong presentation of Reiji, he seemed completely crazy, that was the straw that broke the camel's back in it for me. Having read the manga those liberties were utterly wrong when considering how he had been characterized thus far.

Well, he does strike me as rather unhinged in the manga, too, but if I remember a TV Tropes spoiler for the anime right, I see what you mean.

I'll leave you with this and you can imagine the possibilities for yourself; Rin discovers internet porn.

Doesn't she <url=http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ADateWithRosiePalms>go on a date with Rosie Palms?

 

[Julianking93]

That's because you were watching it, and not reading.

I'd recommend the manga, but I might have to restrain myself. I'm always nervous about recommending people spend money, and the official Tokyopop release blows the online scanlations completely out of the water...

That would probably explain it, yes.
Couldn't find the manga on sale anywhere though in a complete form or just couldn't find the volume I was looking for. Had the first one but... the second one is oddly difficult to find >.>

But yeah, I'm sure the manga is far superior and not having to listen to flat, unenthusiastic and dull dubs makes it all the better too. Might have to go look for it again. Probably on Amazon or something where I can get it for a dollar used

Also, which trope are you talking about with Reiji?

The anime did a really wrong presentation of Reiji, he seemed completely crazy, that was the straw that broke the camel's back in it for me. Having read the manga those liberties were utterly wrong when considering how he had been characterized thus far.

Really? Cuz... he seemed pretty nuts in the manga too. Maybe I just read it wrong but his motives never seemed to be entirely innocent and pure. >.>

 

[NeutralDrow]

That's because you were watching it, and not reading.

I'd recommend the manga, but I might have to restrain myself. I'm always nervous about recommending people spend money, and the official Tokyopop release blows the online scanlations completely out of the water...

That would probably explain it, yes.
Couldn't find the manga on sale anywhere though in a complete form or just couldn't find the volume I was looking for. Had the first one but... the second one is oddly difficult to find >.>

But yeah, I'm sure the manga is far superior and not having to listen to flat, unenthusiastic and dull dubs makes it all the better too. Might have to go look for it again. Probably on Amazon or something where I can get it for a dollar used

A bargain at five times the price.

...says the man who laboriously built his collection for over seven years paying full retail, eliminating his perspective on the matter.

Also, which trope are you talking about with Reiji?

I can't remember. Still, the current TV Tropes article describes him in the last episodes of the first anime as having an Out of Character Yandere Moment.

In other words...

Really? Cuz... he seemed pretty nuts in the manga too. Maybe I just read it wrong but his motives never seemed to be entirely innocent and pure. >.>

In the manga, he's a far more subtle nutcase.