Kodomo no Jikan OVA

Ah, Kodomo no Jikan. One of the most controversial franchises that I can think of to date. The manga was canceled here in the USA, and the anime has about 4.5% of ever coming here. You know what? Make that a 1%, because the OVA brings the loli goodness (?) that people are looking for.

Rin, Kuro, and Mimi are looking for a birthday present for their teacher, Aoki-sensei. They go to the department stores, but don't find anything they like or that is affordable. Rin has a great idea...to make him something! That way it shows she cares and it saves money! So what to do now? Have a sleepover at Rin's house, that's what!

Rin starts to paint a picture for sensei, but Mimi in her fit of clumsy and lovestruck-ness spills milk over everything. So she cleans it up, but her and Rin are still freaking out! Meanwhile, Kuro is happy because she hates Aoki-sensei for being Rin's crush and makes a voodoo doll of him. ;P But it turns out Mimi got milk in her hair! Oh noes! What to do? Take a bath, that's what. Give the viewers their loli service.

Mimi totally freaks out when she finds out there's no shampoo left. But what to do now? Rin gets her guardian, Reji, to refill the container. So why does Mimi freak out? Because she's naked in front of her crush! After some bonding between Rin and Mimi, they play a game where they stick their hair in between their legs and become "adults". Get it?

So Rin stays up painting a picture for Aoki-sensei while Kuro is fantasizing about herself and Rin. Mimi becomes worried that Reji loves someone already, but little does she know that Reji's love is dead! So she does have a chance!

Cut to the next day at school, where Aoki-sensei opens his phone to see a text from Rin saying "Happy Birthday! I'm your present!" with a picture of Rin wrapped in a bow. Then he get's a text saying "Look down!" and Rin has "I love you Aoki-sensei!" written in the sand, Kuro has "You lolicon teacher!" and Mimi has something, but the I didn't catch what it said. But she looked nervous. ^^; Cut to Aoki sensei running down to Rin, and she surprise glomps him. The end!

I admit I'm not a fan of loli or the target audience. But I enjoyed the Kodomo no Jikan OVA nevertheless. It didn't have as much emotional or psychological depth as the series which was a letdown, but hey, you can't do everything in 23 minutes. *note* this is the DVD version of the OVA so there was no censoring.*

The OP was okay, it was a bit weak compared to Retsu! Ohime-sama Dakko from the TV series. It was performed by Rin, Kuro, and Mimi's voice actors and was called Otome Chikku Shoshinsha Desu. The ED was Aijou Education by Little Non, which was again not as good as Hanamaru Sensation from the TV series. It lacked the extra oomph that made the TV ED song so special and fitting.

The animation quality was okay. The VA were decent. They portrayed their characters well, with Rin being energetic but having some tradgey behind her, Kuro being the yuri rich girl, and Mimi being the worried, shy, and easily scared girl with issues.

The characters are what make this series. So what if they're nine? If they can provide more depth than lets say, a 17 year old character why not? Rin is energetic with a growing crush with Aoki-sensei, Kuro is a rich girl who's madly in love with Rin but rarley shows it in public, and Mimi has issues and is very shy. She's got a chest bigger than most middle-schoolers, is easily scared by what others think about her, and has a shy crush on Reji. You know what? These characters share similarities with those of Lucky Star, with Kona-chan as Rin, Kuro as Kagami, and Miyuki as Mimi.

Characters: 5
Sound: 3.5
Quality: 3.5
Story: 4
VA: 4

Overall: A solid 4. This is a good start for the series, but needs to dig more into the psychological drama and issues rather than light-hearted loli and fanservice. I'd only say this is ages 15+ because of fanservice and suggestive-ness. It's not as good as the TV series, but it's a nice diversion from it with more of the character's narration and depth.