Kodocha, Vol. 6: Sana's Bombshell (2006)

DVD

If you like your anime off-beat than look no further than Kodocha. Sana Kurata is an 11 year old 6th grader who also just happens to be a TV star. Yes a TV star that also has an agent. Sana is having a tough time balancing her school work and her career. Sana's mother is an award winning author. She also wears these crazy looking hats and lets a chipmunk live on her head. Sana has a big crush on her agent, Rei Sagami who looks out for her. Sana's TV show is doing well but school sucks for her. She is in the worst class in the school and must deal with some knuckleheads lead by Akito Hayama. At first Sana and Akito are enemies but they eventually become friends. While reading a book about her life Sana finds out that she was abandoned by her parents. This brings us up to speed for what happens in Volume 6.

In Volume 6 we see Sana taking some time off to visit the orphanage where she used to live. Sana is a hero to all the little girls who live at the orphanage who want to grow up and be just like her. There is one kid who is unimpressed by Sana and we get to see some funny exchanges between the two. Sana is a very busy 6th grader and her day off at the orphanage has her wanting more time off from the TV show. She decides to quit her show which causes her manager to go crazy. Her school situation isn't much better unfortunately. Since the class is so rowdy the teacher could not present her entire lesson plan. So it's the end of the year with no way to make up the material. The class must take an exam in three days and failure means that Sana will be held back. Sana is terrible at math and there is now way she's going to master it in three days. Her pal Akito has cooked up a scheme to pass the exam. What is Sana going to Do?

This volume all about the laughs. The tone is lot lighter than previous volumes. Most of the episodes are filled with laughs, and songs which are funny and short. I found this DVD set to be very odd but entertaining at the same time.

The only extra is the third part of the interview with director Akitaro Daichi which runs about seven minutes long. He speaks about the difficulty in animating the different outfits and how fun it was to come up with all those crazy hats that Sana's Mother wears.

The heavier issues from the previous episodes are put on the backburner in volume 6. The episodes presented here are all about the laughs. I'm sure the serious issues will return in future volumes but there's nothing wrong with this fun distraction.