One of my favorite pieces of fiction: Kodocha
Kodocha is a manga written by Miho Obana, published from 1994 - 1998. It's been adapted into an OVA (1995), anime (1996 - 1998), light novel, and stage play!
Synopsis:
Sana Kurata is a cheerful, popular, and energetic child actress who initially has conflict with a boy named Akito Hayama, but as they get to know each other, they start supporting each other, their classmates, and peers.
My relationship to the series:
When I was twelve, I discovered a DVD of Kodocha at my local library, and it's been one of my favorite pieces of fiction ever since! I'm an admin of the Kodocha Wiki! There is a lot of work to do there!
English Release:
It's had a rough release in terms of official English translation. The manga began being published in English by TokyoPop in 2002. Meanwhile in 2006, Shueisha, the rightsholder for the series, refused to renew TokyoPop's license after they acquired rival publisher Viz Media. This has left the manga out of print ever since.
Marmalade Boy suffered the same fate as Kodocha (being published by Tokyopop in 2001, being put out of print in 2006 for the same reasons) but has since been reprinted by Seven Seas Entertainment. The hope of Kodocha fans at the moment is to see it get the same treatment. If you'd like to help the cause, fill out a Seven Seas Entertainment reader's survey, and say you want a new English print of Kodocha!
The anime meanwhile had the first half (episodes 1-51 out of 101 episodes total) dubbed into English and released on DVD in 2004 through Funimation. Funimation then proceeded to lapse on their ownership of the license in 2012, leaving their DVDs out of print, as well as never translating (not dubbing, or even releasing a subtitled version) of episodes 52-101.
The good news is, in 2020, Discotek announced their acquisition of the rights for Kodocha. They went on to release a Blu-ray of episodes 1-51 in 2021, and for the first time, released an official English translation of episodes 52-101 in 2023. Thank you Discotek!
Recommendation:
I highly recommend the series (needless to say). As I do with anything, please consider reading the doesthedogdie page about it, so you know what you're getting into.
The anime is faithful to the manga from episodes 1-19 (and is sporatically after which) so for me, I mostly watch the show for those episodes, and then transition into reading the manga. But if you're short on time (or not able/interested in investing much time), watch the OVA! It's less than 30 minutes and is available with subtitles on YouTube. The pace is crazy fast, and that's thanks to the fact they compact a lot of the events to be strung together.
Scans of the TokyoPop release of the manga are around, and there are fan translations (I prefer the TokyoPop release though because they translated the author's notes, and I like her insight). The anime is easy to find as well! (Especially now thanks to Discotek!)Images:
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Anime:
