Saa… Kodomo no Jikan. The Western name bestowed upon this gem was called “Nymphet”– a term created in Nobokov’s book, Lolita, describing attractive prepubescent girls. The manga is basically about a promiscuous loli, named Rin Kokonoe, that constantly badgers her adult teacher for his love. She’s extremely mischeivious, and she has the ability to trick adults into performing lecherous actions on her and getting them in trouble. (Omg, that’s awesome!) From what it seems, she’s pretty much a tsundere. Typical, right? Despite that, I can’t help but to like her character. I love her pigtails, too– she can hold them as if they were just soft tassels of fabric. They’re pretty adorable once you see them around in the manga… swaying back in forth, in the air, being held, and hanging down from her head– it’s all too moe for me to handle. I’m feeling like quite the lolicon myself reading this manga.
What really kills me is when she gets into her… dere dere side of her character. Sometimes it’s all too cute, and in other times, it’s sort of saddening… but in a way where your pity eventually becomes a sort of respect for her. Characters in this manga, as young as they are, seem much more mature than they should be. They complain and bicker about things people that age don’t care about until they’re years older… but then again, how many loli elementary school girls would be flirtatious, attractive, sexually mischeivious girls?
Another cool little tidbit that has been going around is that Seven Seas Entertainment, a manga liscencing company, as cancelled their release of the English adaption of the manga, due to it’s explicit relationships between the characters being innappropriate to American audiences.
Stolen from Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodomo_no_Jikan
The manga had been licensed by Los Angeles-based company Seven Seas Entertainment for distribution in the English language in 2006, and the first manga had been slated for an early 2007 release. The English trade name was chosen to be Nymphet after the original artist requested the title and demanded its use for the English manga.[2] The title, however, soon became the center of a controversy on whether it should be appropriate for American audiences to view due to a article made by Anime News Network’s “Answerman”. Jason DeAngelis, the president of Seven Seas Entertainment, wrote in a statement that, “Specifically, those who are speaking out against Nymphet seem to be disturbed by the relationship between two characters in the story, namely an elementary school student and her adult teacher.” DeAngelis decided to delay the title so that he could “have an open dialogue with the large book chains and other vendors.”[3] The manga was subsequently cancelled due to these concerns. DeAngelis said that “‘…it’s not appropriate for Seven Seas to publish Nymphet,’ and that it would cancel its release of the manga.”[1]
In a second statement regarding Nymphet DeAngelis explained some of the reasoning behind the series’ cancellation. He stated that, “my primary reason for canceling Nymphet is due to my recent realization that later volumes in the series can not be considered appropriate for the US market by any reasonable standard.” However, another reason given was that, “[the vendors] began dropping their orders left and right, so their opinion on this matter became pretty clear cut.”[4]
Specifically, DeAngelis said that he went back and re-reviewed the later volumes of Kodomo no Jikan and discovered content that he regarded as highly unsuitable for publication. The specific pages mentioned showed a scene of the main characters, Rin Kokonoe and Daisuke Aoki, stuck in a room with freezing temperatures. Rin hugs Aoki to try and stay warm, and in the process accidentally rubs Aoki’s crotch, who gets an involuntary erection. The anime community responded with outrage, stating that DeAngelis was attempting to find an excuse to placate the anime community, as the scene showed nothing more than a normal male reaction that is often involuntary, while DeAngelis’s statement implied that he saw disturbing content that could not be published.[5]
On June 7, 2007, Kaworu Watashiya posted a blog entry on Kodomo no Jikan’s controversy in the United States.[6] Watashiya commented that, “what I heard about ‘issues in volume 2 and later’ made me realize the differences in the cultures between the countries.”[5] The author went on to cite instances in later volumes that showed intimate relationships between cousins and a bath scene with a child and adult, going on to say that, “my honest feeling is, ‘It’s unfortunate, but what can I do?’”[5]
Hehe… it’s just that damn hot. I can’t wait for the anime.
