Manga review- Kodomo no Omocha

Kodomo no Omocha (Child's toy) shortened as Kodocha is a popular shoujo manga. It is targeted at younger audience.

The story is about a child actress Sana Kurata who attends elementary school where she falls in love with Hayama, her classmate. Her mother is a famous japanese novelist and initially, she is in love with her manager. She struggles to balance love and work as she rises to become a popular actress.

The story was pretty average. Now the review- The series seems to be prettty popular in Japan with many celebrities voting it as their favourite series. The illustrations were cutesy, intended for young girls. The manga was ten volumes long.

I'll start with the pros. The manga is fine considering its demographic target. The manga ran in Ribon, a magazine intended for those girls starting out with shoujo manga. The readers are expected to be 10-13 yrs. of age.
The supporting characters were interesting and sometimes stronger than the protagonists. The back story connected to Sana was stereotypical but good. The artwork is professional and the love develops at a decent pace. As far as development of feelings is concerned, the manga is okay.

Now the cons. For me, the cons outnumbered the pros in this manga. I fail to understand why it is so popular. The first drawback is the age of the protagonists. I mentioned this in Ultra Maniac as well as Mint na Bokura. If the protagonists are too young, it is difficult for the reader to accept any depth in their love. At this age, friendship is often mistaken for love That's the case here too. The love develops well but the kids are too young for any deep relationship. It is a serious friendship and nothing more.

The second con is the protagonists. The two didn't have many similarities and neither were they contrasting. Sana is the kind of girl Hayama would never notice in his class and vice versa. Hayama tries to act to cool but leaves an image of naughty and spoilt instead. He does not show emotions many times and has no guts. While he had some good qualities like determination, he is cocky and lacks charm. Sana is not very dedicated when it comes to work. It is acceptable since she is a child but after reading Glass Mask I found it a negetive quality. The protagonist of Glass Mask is almost the same age with much more determination in the same field.

The third con is the ending. It was not the happy ending children would expect. The ending should've lived upto the expectations of its demographic.

Overall, the manga has more cons so, I didn't find it anything great. It is a below average shoujo. Younger audience might still consider reading it as it is one of the mangas with very less adult content and can be enjoyed by youngsters. A good manga for shoujo fans looking for anything stereotypical. I wouldn't recommend this manga.

Art-4/5
Story-3.6/5
Characters-3.2/5
Overall- 3.5/5

Pros

Art
Supporting characters

Cons

Ending
Protagonists
Lacks seriousness and depth

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