History Manga / KodomoNoOmocha

* AllLoveIsUnrequited: Downplayed example between Akito and Sana (it takes a while for her to acknowledge, and then return, his affections), but Sana has a crush on Rei, while Tsuyoshi and Noizumi like Sana, and Fuuka and Akito try dating for a while but it doesn't work out.

** Misako Kurata originally didn't feel any remorse about telling Sana that she was adopted when she was 5 years old, and that they made a promise to look for her biological mother, once they got famous in their own ways. However, after all those years, Misako got scared that the aforementioned woman would suddenly appear to take Sana away from her... or worse, that she would choose her.

%%* AllLoveIsUnrequited

** Akito's bet to kiss a girl in kindergarten is explained when [[spoiler:Fuuka reveals that it was her whom he kissed, after they reencounter for the first time in years]].

No relation to ''Manga/KodomoNoKodomo'', ''Kodomo no Jikan'', and ''Lotte no Omocha''! '''''Especially'' [[LoliconAndShotacon the latter two]]'''!

No relation to ''Manga/KodomoNoKodomo'', ''Kodomo no Jikan'', and ''Lotte no Omocha''! '''Especially [[LoliconAndShotacon the latter two]]'''!

%%* BigBallOfViolence: On a few occasions.

''Kodomo No Omocha'' ("Child's Toy", and frequently [[PortmanteauSeriesNickname contracted]] to "''Kodocha''") is a fun, entertaining {{shojo}} series that mixes comedy and drama in equal parts. It was created by Miho Obana and published in Shueisha's ''Ribon'' magazine from 1994 to 1998. It got adapted into an anime series in 1996 and run into 102 episodes, directed by Akitaro Daichi, who is better known nowadays for directing series like ''Manga/FruitsBasket'' and ''Anime/NowAndThenHereAndThere''.

No relation to ''Manga/KodomoNoKodomo'', ''Kodomo No Jikan'', and ''Lotte No Omocha''! '''Especially [[LoliconAndShotacon the latter two]]'''!

No relation to ''Manga/KodomoNoKodomo'', ''Kodomo No Jikan'', and ''Lotte No Omocha''! '''Especially [[{{Lolicon}} the latter two]]'''!

* TeenPregnancy: Sana's birth mother Keiko was merely thirteen years old when she gave birth to her.

* PoorCommunicationKills: The whole debacle of [[spoiler: rumors and gossip stating that Sana and Naozumi are a couple while they film a movie. Not only does Akito decide to date Fuuka as sort of a rebound, but Sana gets physically assaulted by rabid Naozumi fans to the extent that they literally ''break her leg''. When Sana finally returns to school after shooting the movie ''none'' of her friends ask her about Naozumi, including Akito. They all just assume she'll just talk about her relationship with them, but then they all get insulted when she ''doesn't''. Sana only finds out they believed the rumors when she feels left out when hanging out with two couples (Akito and Fuka, Tsuyoshi and Aya) until they bring up Naozumi on topic]].

* SickeninglySweethearts: Tsuyoshi and Aya act as a newlywed couple after they started dating.

* AscendedExtra: It's a given that the animated adaptation gave some characters as Mami or Gomi much more [[CharacterDevelopment development]] or focus than their original counterparts. Even the MC from the "Kodomo no Omocha" TV Show was transformed into real-life comedian Zenjiro.

No relation to ''Manga/KodomoNoKodomo'', ''Kodomo No Jikan'', and ''Lotte No Omocha''!

No relation to ''Manga/KodomoNoKodomo'', ''Kodomo No Jikan'' and ''Lotte No Omocha''!

During 2005, Creator/FUNimation started to release licensed [=DVDs=] of the anime series in North America under its abbreviated title, "Kodocha". It is interesting to mention, that the dub of the first DVD had been censored heavily, but it stopped by the next releases. Additionally, the original opening credits from the first season were replaced with the second season ones because of legal pressures exerted by Johnny & Associates, the management behind TOKIO, the band who recorded the [[AnimeThemeSong opening]] "7 O'Clock News". Even the cameo of one of the members of the band was [[{{Bowdlerise}} bowdlerized]] in both English and Japanese tracks to keep any mention of the group out of the North American release. Due to licensing contracts and low sales of the series, the second season was never released and as of February 2012, Funimation [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes lost the license]] of the series.

*** Rei doesn’t even take the news with a grain of salt, either. Especially considering that he became an orphan at his late teens, and that he loves Sana as if she was his daughter and/or little sister.

** Akito’s bet to kiss a girl in kindergarten is explained when [[spoiler:Fuuka reveals that it was her whom he kissed, after they reencounter for the first time in years]].

** Tsuyoshi is not going to have [[UnstoppableRage second thoughts]] if someone insults his mother in front of him. Or even if someone insults or harms Aya.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Tsuyoshi is a kind kid, and has a good (and often innocent) personality... However, he can be blinded with rage if someone activates his BerserkButton.

* BoyMeetsGirl: Sana's personality crashed with Akito's personality at school, at first. She starts to know him better. He gets her... [[spoiler:She loses him. He gets her again. She was ''too close'' to lose him again]].

* ChickMagnet:
** Naozumi, a young {{bishonen}} who looks like a [[ButNotTooForeign foreigner]] and who is also kind, is really popular with the girls.
** Akito can count as such(he even chased away a fangirl!) if his cold personality wasn't such a turn-off (even in elementary school, the girls found him disgusting as a bagworm due to the mess he pulled there). [[spoiler: In ''Deep Clear'', his adult self is seen as such because the nurses who work in the clinic with him, think that he has a mysterious air and a ''cool'' personality]].

* CoolBigSis:
** Natsumi starts acting more as a caring older sister to Akito, after Sana helped them to overcome their family's issues. To a point where even Natsumi wants him to call her "sister".
** Sana starts looking at Asako as such when they start filming "The Mansion of Water". Asako helps her realize that she is really hurt about Akito [[spoiler:dating Fuuka, because Sana ''loves'' him]].

* DeathByChildbirth: Koharu Hayama died right after she gave birth to Akito. Played for the melodrama, this badly traumatized Natsumi, who ends up abusing her brother and blames him for that fact for years.

* DrivesLikeCrazy:
** Anime-only, Rei drives so slow even for a pedestrian's standard, until Sana commands him to go faster and/or until she unnerves him to do so.
** Misako drives a toycar inside their house, even without thinking in running over someone who crosses her path.
* FirstKiss: This is the one that is very important for Sana and Akito's relationship, when they are in the middle of a school trip at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office. Although [[spoiler:it wasn't a first for Akito]], the kiss is both surprising and terrifying for poor Sana.
** And it brought [[HilarityEnsues hilarious results]] in the anime, as her reaction causes a good deal of traffic accidents, when they were at the top of one of the building’s towers.

* GeneHunting: An early major story arc involves Sana and her mother's hunt for her birth mother.
%%* GenkiGirl: Sana is the most easy example. Fuuka could be considered but to a lesser extent.

* GreekChorus: In the anime, we have Babbit, who often breaks the fourth wall with the viewer and the characters themselves to comment on their actions.

* HeroicBSOD: Sana has a couple of moments shown in the entire series that led up [[spoiler: to her emotional disorder, the "Mannequin Disease".]]

%%* HumanHummingbird: Sana. ALL THE TIME in the anime.

* IdenticalStranger: In the anime's New York arc, Sana and Naozumi run into an American-version of Akito named Brad, and his mom, who is an American-version of Mrs. Shimura, the Kurata's maid. Although Brad is too similar to Akito in appearance, he is more talkative, direct and meaner than him [[spoiler:(even if he acts like this just to protect Cecil Hamilton, since he likes her)]].
* TheIdiotFromOsaka: Fuuka Matsui is a subversion of the trope. While she is obnoxiously hyper (though not any less than Sana, whose personality and accent say "generic Tokyo area native character"), she's quite clever, reliable, and more astute than Sana. When she first appears, the rest of the characters briefly discuss the Osaka stereotypes (her KansaiRegionalAccent and the BokeAndTsukkomiRoutine) with her.

* JapaneseDelinquents: [[spoiler:Akito and Natsumi's parents were rebels back in their younger days... At some extent, this explains why Akito also shares some traits from his parents]].

* MarketBasedTitle:
** In Italy, the series was renamed ''Rossana''.
** Back in 2003, when the manga series was licensed in Mexico, it was renamed as ''El Diario de Sana'' instead of "''El Juguete de los Niños''" (literal translation from "Kodomo no Omocha", and also the title it received in Spain), perhaps to avoid confusion with a similar named 80s telenovela called "''El Mundo de Juguete''".

* MotorMouth: Sana's fast speech can only be compared to [[Anime/ExcelSaga Excel]], and the subtitles for her dialogue can come in ''paragraphs'' in a short amount of time.

%%* NoFourthWall
%%-->"This is supposed to be a {{shojo}} anime!"

* ObliviousToLove: Due to Sana not completely understanding where "love" and "friendship" ends (and also because she originally though she loved Rei as her "boyfriend"), she can't really identify what is love unless someone tells their feelings for her directly.
** However, Sana does recognize that her "love" for Rei, when she accepts that he must go on with his love life (as he has a longtime girlfriend), was probably a PrecociousCrush.
* OddFriendship: Akito and Tsuyoshi, as well as Akito and Sana. Both pairs also count as VitriolicBestBuds.

* OrphanageOfLove: The Kamura Institution, where Naozumi was raised, and Sana spent a while until she was officially adopted. Naozumi cares a lot for the institution, that he adopted "Kamura" as his last name, and he gives them part of his money's gainings.

* PapaWolf: Rei, towards Sana. He is the first one who comes in her defense when there is something that is wrong around her. He always does so with good intention, even if it could cost her job, as well.

* RedOniBlueOni: Sana's Red to Akito's Blue. Akito's Red to Tsuyoshi's Blue.

* RomanticFalseLead: Both Naozumi and Fuuka are textbook examples.

* SavvyGuyEnergeticGirl: Works with both Akito/Sana and Naozumi/Sana.
* SelectiveObliviousness: Sana becomes ''very'' brokenhearted when she hears that Akito is dating someone else. When someone explains the obvious, she tries to rationalize it away one last time.
* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Tsuyoshi and Akito.

%%* SugarAndIcePersonality: Akito.

* SunglassesAtNight: Rei always uses sunglasses everywhere because Sana told him to never remove them in public.

* TalkingAnimal: Babbit, though he acts as the GreekChorus and the tsukkomi of the series.

%%* TroubledButCute: Akito.
* UndyingLoyalty: Rei to Sana in some ways, after she saved his life from being broke and homeless. In ''Deep Clear'', he is still working as her manager, when she is 26 years old.

* UnluckyChildhoodFriend: Naozumi, who grew up in the same orphanage Sana was once in and has been carrying a torch for her. Though, as Sana was there for a very brief period of time, they never met in the orphanage. He was just told that she lived there once and it inspired him to become an actor and someday meet her.

** Naozumi to Sana.. He thinks he is more capable to be with Sana initially because he shares the same career and they have a similar past; however, Sana only looks at him as a friend or as a brother, rather than just boyfriend material.

* FirstKiss: This is the one that is pretty important for Sana and Akito's relationship, when they are in the middle of a school trip at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office. Although [[spoiler:it wasn't a first for Akito]], the kiss is both surprising and terrifying for poor Sana.

* IdolSinger: Anime-only. Sana has the opportunity to be in an idol unit along two other girls, when [[spoiler:one of Zenjiro's shows is cancelled.]] There's another episode where [[spoiler:a fake Sana is also offering a singing event to her fans, and some characters (Akito included) think it is actually the real one who planned it.]]

* MerchandiseDriven: The anime series counted with Tomy (present-day known as Takara Tomy) as part of the production committee. Every single toy that Sana had (the Burucha and the Nopia, for example) was real. It should be noted that this line of toys didn't exist in the original manga itself. However, finding them in auction sites is way too difficult, nowadays. The most valuable of them is probably the Polaroid Camera that was available as a series-related edition.

** Akito's sister has this reaction when [[spoiler: she sees the TV movie Sana and Asako were in that pretty blatantly parallels the situation with Akito's family, and she realizes just how horribly she treated Akito all these years. Akito's dad has a more subdued version of this.]]

* RomanticFalseLead: Both Naozumi and Fuuka are pretty much textbook examples.

* ADayInTheLimelight: A few anime exclusive episodes give focus to some minor characters that wouldn't have too much development in the manga, such as Tsuyoshi, Gomi and Mami. Even Misako's ex-husband had some episodes for himself!

* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: In Elementary School, every single one of the girls looked at Akito as if he was a bag worm or a hairy caterpillar... once he enters Middle School, everyone thinks he is acts ''cool'' (and "looked cute") when challenging professor Sengoku or went into a fight with Ishida.

* ArtEvolution: The manga series took four years to be published, so it's expected to see this with Miho Obana's art, when the characters start to "grow up" as well. The Ribon's 60th anniversary (2015) extra chapter also gives more warm and detailed art changes within the series, since the manga's ending in 1998 (plus the ''Deep Clear'' crossover from 2010, where the main characters get involved into it).

* CerebusSyndrome: Just after Sana starts middle school and when she agrees to film "The Mansion of Water", things get really serious around her. This is more emphasized in the manga compared to the anime, where the content varies in some degrees. If you thought that Sana got it bad when the GeneHunting was going on, it becomes emotionally worse for her and everyone involved.

** There's an out-of-continuity crossover chapter drawn by Obana and Mihona Fujii (mangaka most known nowadays for her work ''[[Manga/SuperGals GALS!]]''). Counting as {{cameo}}, Erika Sakurai from Fujii's work, ''Passion Girls'', also appeared in the series as well.

** Mostly prominent in the manga where, some years after the melodramatic climax happens, [[spoiler:it offers a view on what Sana and her friends are doing before enrolling in High School, when Akito announces that he also returns to Japan to see her]].

** Tsuyoshi felt as such to Sana, especially because he didn't know it was just for a misunderstanding he had from her affections.
** Naozumi to Sana, as well. He thinks he is more capable to be with Sana initially because he shares the same career and they have a similar past; however, Sana only looks at him as a friend or as a brother, rather than just boyfriend material.

** Sana and Naozumi actually met when they both were babies in the Kamura Institution, just before Sana gets adopted. It's justified, because she only lasted there for a little while.

* GeckoEnding: Around the last quarter of the anime, the staff added an "America" Arc where [[spoiler:Sana goes to the US with Naozumi for an acting gig and she runs into an American version of Akito. At the end of it, they return to Japan, and while trying to adapt the rest of the subsequent events of the reveal that Akito and Fuuka are dating]], they also added lots of one-shot episodes unrelated to the manga but offered some closure to some unresolved plots in the story.

* GratuitousEnglish: Sana uses it quite a lot in the series, mostly because she is also a {{Malaproper}}.

* TheIdiotFromOsaka: Fuuka Matsui is a subversion of the trope. While she is obnoxiously hyper (though not any less than Sana, whose personality and accent say "generic Tokyo area native character"), she's quite clever and more astute than Sana. When she first appears, the rest of the characters briefly discuss the Osaka stereotypes (her KansaiRegionalAccent and the BokeAndTsukkomiRoutine).
* IdolSinger: Anime-only. Sana has the opportunity to be in an idol unit along two other girls, when [[spoiler:one of Zenjiro's shows is cancelled.]] There's another episode where [[spoiler:a fake Sana is also giving a singing event to her fans.]]
* ImprobableHairstyle: Misako Kurata purposely wanted to adopt some fun hairstyles because not long after [[spoiler:finding out she couldn’t conceive, she thought that if she couldn't be a "normal woman" anymore, then she must had to start living as a "strange" one]] instead, overjoying her life and expressing herself through them.

* LateForSchool: The first episode of the anime lampshades this so badly, when Sana wakes up late, she does her routine, and for her bad luck, Rei drives SO SLOW (until she freaks him out). Subverted when she is about to start her first day at middle school... [[spoiler: but it was AllJustADream, and she gets late to school, anyways]].

* LoveAtFirstPunch: Sana ''very'' harshly calls Akito out after she finds out his blackmailing on Mitsuya-sensei, and after how he treated Mami. Akito falls in love with her, predictably. Also a subversion, since the first girl who called him out was Sana's friend Mami... who committed the mistake of calling him "demon", not knowing it was his BerserkButton. That ended ''very'' badly.

** At the start: Sana 'loved' Rei. Tsuyoshi liked Sana. Akito loved Sana. But Rei "loves" Sana as a sister or a daughter.

** Back in the day, when the manga series was licensed in Mexico, it was renamed as ''El Diario de Sana'' instead of "''El Juguete de los Niños''" (literal translation from "Kodomo no Omocha", and also the title it received in Spain), perhaps to avoid confusion with a similar named 80s telenovela called "''El Mundo de Juguete''".

* MerchandiseDriven: The anime series counted with Tomy (present-day known as Takara Tomy) as part of the production committee. Every single toy that Sana had (the Burucha and the Nopia, for example) was real. There should be noted that this line of toys didn't exist in the original manga itself. However, finding them nowadays in auction sites is way too difficult. The most valuable of them is probably the Polaroid Camera that was available as a series-related edition.

* MoodWhiplash: There are moments where you are not going to know if you are crying out of joy or because of the sadness. Or both. Sometimes, Sana's funny antics are going to balance the mood, though.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Some celebrities make some sort of "cameo" in the anime, such as Takuya Ki'''muchi''', based on SMAP's member, Takuya Kimura. This is also applied in the first episode of the Creator/FUNimation dub, due to some licensing issues, with Tokio's name changed to "Kyoto".

** However, Sana does recognize that her "love" for Rei, when she accepts that he must go on with his life (as he has a longtime girlfriend), was probably a PrecociousCrush.

* PapaWolf: Rei, towards Sana. He is the first one to come in her defense when there is something that isn't right for her. Even though he acts overprotective to her at times (due to many reasons, mainly related to Akito), he does everything with a good intention, even if it costs her job. In ''Deep Clear'', he is still working as her manager, even after a decade he started doing so.
* ParentalAbandonment: Looks like Obana likes to play a lot of this in her series --

* {{Pilot}}: There was an OVA, produced by J.C. Staff, released in 1995 as part of Ribon's 40th anniversary celebration. It's more closer to the manga's tone, and only adapts the first important arc (Akito's fractured family and Rei's OldFlame resolve). It also has different character designs and an entire different voice acting cast, led by Creator/ChisaYokoyama as Sana and Creator/MegumiOgata as Akito.
* PlaygroundSong: Some of the eyecatches used in more than half of the series, the "Drawing Sana" and "Drawing Babbit" song are directed to children. In the "Middle School" season, there's also Babbit's songs to learn to count numbers in English and Japanese.

* PuppyLove: It needs to be considered that, from the very start, Akito & Sana or Tsuyoshi & Aya (without forgetting about Naozumi & Sana, and Akito & Fuuka) are ''11-13-year old''-kids.

* SadistTeacher: Mr. Sengoku is clearly built on hate toward his students when he gets introduced in the series. Akito becomes his favorite victim [[spoiler:(because he reminds him of a guy he knew in High School)]].

* UndyingLoyalty: Rei to Sana in some ways, after she saved his life from being broke and homeless.

* ADayInTheLimelight: A few filler anime episodes focus mostly on characters like Tsuyoshi and his little sister (Aono), Gomi (when his parents are forcing him to go to Kaimei High School), and Mami.

* AscendedExtra: Given the nature of the animated adaptation, Mami, Gomi and some other characters (just like the MC of "Kodomo no Omocha" becoming [[TheDanza Zenjiro]]) get more time on screen and more CharacterDevelopment than their manga counterparts.
* AdaptationDistillation: The anime took a different direction from the manga at the very beginning. That’s clear if you compare the first chapter of the manga and the first episode of the anime. Some of the characters differ in personality, others get more developed and some of the events get very tamed in comparison to the manga's. Considering that the manga was a monthly series and it was still published in Japan at the time the anime was airing, the anime staff had little to work with while it was reaching its climax.
* AdaptationExpansion: As a result of the above example, the anime had 102 episodes, meaning that some arcs were ridiculously expanded with filler, trying to make time between the events they were adapting from the manga.

** Misako Kurata originally didn't feel remorse about telling Sana that she was adopted when she was 5 years old, and that they made a promise to look for her biological mother, once they got famous in their own ways. However, after all those years, Misako got scared that the aforementioned woman would suddenly appear to take Sana away from her... or worse, that she would choose her.

* AnimalMotifs: Whenever Akito is feeling mischievous (which is often), he gains a pair of ears and the tail of a cheetah. Sana's also referred to him as a "Lone Wolf" and "Monkey King", with appropriate {{Imagine Spot}}s for both, as well as imagined him as a baby chick.

** "7 O’Clock News" is noticeable to even have short instrumental versions that were used on the [[OnTheNext next episode previews]] of the first sixteen episodes, which became [[BadExportForYou troublesome]] when Funimation licensed the anime in the US due to some problems with Tokio’s management, replacing the opening with "[[DancingTheme Ultra Relax]]" for the rest of the first season and leaving the previews on mute.
* ArtEvolution: It’s mostly expected to happen especially since the series took 4 years to be published, but once you look at how the main characters appear in the future that ''Deep Clear'' presented (also released 10 years after the original ending), you start seeing how the art is even more cautiously detailed than it was originally.
* AuthorAvatar: Miho Obana appears several times as cameo in the manga (even as a waking up-bird, a la Creator/AkiraToriyama) but often more frequently in the anime, only saying "I'm Obana".

** There is a special chapter that details one of the most dear memories of Akito's childhood, while explaining why his cold personality is hard to break.

** Akito can NOT stand be called "demon". Especially since it was how Natsumi started calling him after she [[MaternalDeathBlameTheChild blamed him]] for the death of their mother.
** Tsuyoshi is not going to have [[UnstoppableRage second thoughts]] if someone insults his mother in front of him. Or even if someone insults or does something wrong to Aya.

* BigFancyHouse: The Kurata’s household is expected to be big partially because of Misako’s profits as an author. However, this gets expanded in the anime, where it’s revealed that her parents are rich (they are owners of a hot springs resort) which also justifies the size of their house, too.
* {{Bishonen}}: It’s often mentioned in the series that Naozumi is a ''pretty'' and ''cute'' boy, and even Akito has fangirls (however, his personality is another whole story). Rei may count as well, especially when Sana first interacted with him, since she thought that he looked 'cute' even if he was a homeless young man.

** Sana often falls into the StraightMan role (even with her tsukkomi’s [[WeaponOfChoice weapon]], a rubber hammer) with everyone when they do their own nonsenses.

* BonusMaterial: Several cases in both anime and manga.
** Since the anime got canceled at episode 102, the epilogue is a bunch of non-continuity and AU segments from the series itself, and possibly acting as {{Sequel Hook}}s from some of the filler arcs they did. Examples, like a yakuza member wanting to marry Sana or Naozumi finding out his found-biological family went broke.
** Before even selling the DVD Box Sets, [[Creator/{{Funimation}} Funi]] released boxes to keep the [=DVDs=] safe with some other {{feelies}}.
** The last edition (20th anniversary of Obana's career) of the DVD Box Sets in Japan (from 2010) contains additional material as bonus gifts and cases with new covers drawn by the author.
** The final manga's volume in Japan contains several greetings messages from people such as Akitaro Daichi and even The Brilliant Green.
** The manga's kanzenban edition got some extras included as the original color chapters' covers, clean illustrations from the Ribon covers and, at the end of the final volume, a sketch of Sana and Akito if they were High School students.
** The Ribon magazines release bonus gifts to their buyers/subscribers; generally all the titles from the magazine receive their own gift treatment, so ''Kodocha'' was not an exception when it was being serialized.

* BreakingTheFourthWall: Babbit does this mostly on the anime, but the manga has its moments too... sometimes.

* BrokeEpisode: More accurately, a broke filler mini-arc. Sana and her family get evicted and end up living at Misako's editor old appartment; not only that but Sana is blacklisted from doing most of her acting gigs.

* CerebusSyndrome: Just after Sana starts middle school and when she agrees to film "The Mansion of Water", things get really serious around her. This is more emphasized in the manga, rather in the anime where the content varies in some degrees. If you thought that Sana got it bad when the GeneHunting was going on, it becomes emotionally worse for her and everyone involved, as well.

** Naozumi, a young {{bishonen}} who looks like a [[ButNotTooForeign foreigner]], who is also kind, is really popular with the girls.
** Akito can count as well (he even chased away a fangirl!) if his cold personality wasn’t such a turn-off (even in elementary school, the girls found him disgusting as a bagworm due to the mess he pulled there). [[spoiler: In ''Deep Clear'', his adult self is seen as such because the nurses who work in the clinic with him, think that he has a mysterious air but also a ''cool'' personality]].
* ChildByRape: It's hinted to be the case in the manga [[spoiler:with Sana. Keiko gave birth to her when she was 13 or 14 years old and her dad was not only a much older man, but Keiko's uncle (although she claimed she loved him, this is sadly something child sexual assault victims convince themselves of to help them deal with the abuse, although it's ambiguous whether this was Obana's intention).]] In the anime, it's [[AdaptationDistillation rather the contrary]], [[spoiler: since it is implied that, yes, Keiko got pregnant when she was a teenager, but Sana's real father appears long after this event and he is apparently a good man, so it's questionable he could ''have'' raped Keiko]].

* CleaningUpRomanticLooseEnds: At the end of the manga, [[spoiler:Sana and Akito reunite Fuuka with her elementary school crush, Takaishi... and beyond the finale, during ''Deep Clear'''s timeline, Naozumi is [[BiTheWay dating a guy]] because according to him, if he was dating another girl, he wouldn't want to remember the love he had for Sana.]]

* CoolBigSis: Natsumi starts acting more as a caring older sister to Akito, after Sana helped them to overcome their family's issues. To a point where even Natsumi wants him to call her "sister".

** There's an special crossover chapter drawn by Obana and Mihona Fujii (mangaka most known nowadays for her work ''[[Manga/SuperGals GALS!]]''). Counting as {{cameo}}, Erika Sakurai from the latter's work, ''Passion Girls'', also appeared in the series as well.
** ''Deep Clear'' is a crossover special released for Obana’s 20th anniversary of her career, with her ongoing series, ''Honey Bitter'', where the cast of ''Kodocha'' has an important plot role.

** Mostly prominent in the manga where, some years after the melodramatic climax happens, [[spoiler:it offers a view on what Sana and her friends are doing before enrolling to High School, when Akito announces that he also returns to Japan to see her]].
** ''Deep Clear'' also offers a more ''distant'' closure after these events, while also being a crossover special with ''Honey Bitter'', [[spoiler: giving an insight of a BabiesEverAfter ending for both Sana and Akito]].

* DoItYourselfThemeTune: The 2nd ED theme, "DAIJOU-BU", is sung by Babbit's voice actress, Tomoko Hikita (credited midway in the anime as "TOMO"). The song is often mentioned in the anime for the already [[BreakingTheFourthWall Fourth Wall breaker]] Babbit, too.

** Anime-only, Rei drives so slow even for a pedestrian’s standard, until Sana commands him to go faster and/or until she unnerves him to do so.

* FirstKiss: This is the one that is pretty important for Sana and Akito’s relationship, when they are in the middle of a school trip at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office. Although [[spoiler:it wasn’t a first for Akito]], the kiss is both surprising and terrifying for poor Sana.

** Sana and Naozumi met each other when the former was about to get adopted. It’s justifiable, given that both of them were babies when this event happened.

* GeckoEnding: Around the last quarter of the anime, the staff added an "America" Arc where [[spoiler:Sana goes to the US with Naozumi for an acting gig and she runs into an American version of Akito. At the end of it, they return to Japan, and while trying to adapt the rest of the subsequent events of the reveal that Akito and Fuuka are dating]], they also added lots of one-shot episodes unrelated to the manga but still foreshadowing the arc that leads to the climax of the series.

* GenkiGirl: Sana is the most easy example. Fuuka could be considered but to a lesser extent.

* GoodParents: There's Misako, and when he finally realizes what his home situation is really like, Akito's dad becomes one as well. In one episode where Akito is framed for shoplifting, his father gives a long speech about how he expects Akito to come forward with the truth on the situation. All Akito says is he didn't do it, and his father adamantly believes him just because he has that much faith in Akito.
* GratuitousEnglish: Sana uses it quite a lot.
* GreekChorus: Babbit, in the anime.

* HyperspaceMallet: Iconic squeaky mallets!

* IdolSinger: Anime-only. Sana has the opportunity to be in an idol unit along two other girls, when [[spoiler:one of Zenjiro's shows is cancelled.]]
* ImprobableHairstyle: Misako Kurata purposely wanted to adopt some fun hairstyles because not long after [[spoiler:finding out she couldn’t conceive, she thought that if she couldn't be a "normal woman" anymore, then she must had to start living as a "strange" one]] instead, overjoying and expressing herself.

* JapaneseDelinquents: [[spoiler:Akito and Natsumi's parents were rebels back in their younger days... At some extent, this explains why Akito also shares some traits from their parents]].
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: After everything that Akito had to go through his FreudianExcuse, he is found to have a heart of gold... even if he hasn't changed that much on the outside.

* LoveAtFirstPunch: Sana ''very'' harshly calls Akito out on his blackmailing of Mitsuya-sensei and his treatment of Mami. Akito falls in love with her, predictably. Also a subversion, since the first girl who called him out was Sana's friend Mami... who committed the mistake of calling him "demon", not knowing it was his BerserkButton. That ended ''very'' badly.

** At the start: Sana 'loved' Rei. Tsuyoshi liked Sana. Akito loved Sana. Rei 'loves' Sana as a sister or a daughter.

* TheMenInBlack: Subverted, Rei is a big softy, and the glasses are worn at Sana's behest because she thinks his "beautiful eyes" should remain hidden.
* MerchandiseDriven: The anime series counted with Tomy (present-day known as Takara Tomy) as part of the production committee. Every single toy that Sana had (the Burucha and the Nopia, for example) was real. There should be noted that this line of toys didn't exist in the original manga itself. However, finding them in auction sites is way too difficult to do due the age the series has right now (more than 15 years old). The most valuable of them is probably the Polaroid Camera that was available as a series-related edition.
* MiniatureSeniorCitizens: In the anime, Sana's grandmother.
* MoodWhiplash: There are moments where you are not going to know if you are crying out of joy or because of the sadness. Or both. Sometimes, Sana's funny antics are going to balance the mood, but still...

* MotorMouth: Sana's fast speech can only be compared to [[Anime/ExcelSaga Excel]], where the subtitles can come in ''paragraphs'' in a short amount of time.
* TheMovie: Though not exactly ''the movie'', ''Mizu no Yakata'', "The Mansion of Water", the movie that Sana, Naozumi and Asako were filming in the series was eventually released as a side story and a Drama CD. It's as dark as it was intended to be, too.
* [[MustMakeHerLaugh Must Make Him Laugh]]: Sana always tries to make Akito laugh, or at the very least smile.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: This, of course, comes up with Zenjiro, since he's TheChewtoy and TheDanza.
* NoFourthWall
-->"This is supposed to be a {{shojo}} anime!"

* OutOfTheInferno[=/=]UnflinchingWalk: After the house where "The Mansion of Water" was being filmed was burning, and Sana was still harmed from her leg... she manages to make her dramatic exit just in time (while the others were worried that Sana would die in there), and this ends up being the perfect scene of the movie.
* OverprotectiveDad: After Sana stopped seeing Rei as her ''boyfriend'', he starts acting like a ''dad'' for her. To the extreme of being a bit overprotective to her. He doesn't like Akito, he tries to calm down the situation of Sana and her mom when her book was published. In the manga, it is more obvious, especially after he took so seriously his role as a manager and wanted to Sana to keep working, and when Akito became seriously harmed [[spoiler:after their classmate's attempted homicide-suicide, he really took a more ''parental'' role to her, declining an important gig for her, remembering that she was still a girl, because her dearly Akito was in that thin line between life and death]].
* PapaWolf: Rei, towards Sana.
* ParentalAbandonment: Looks like Obana likes to play a lot of this in her series:

* {{Pilot}}: There was an OVA, produced by J.C. Staff, released in 1995. It's a little bit more closer to the manga, actually. But, compared to the actual anime series, it has not only different designs, but also a different voice cast, notably Creator/ChisaYokoyama as Sana and Creator/MegumiOgata as Akito.
* PlaygroundSong: The "Drawing Sana" and "Drawing Babbit" song.
* PoorCommunicationKills: The whole debacle of [[spoiler: rumors and gossip stating Sana and Naozumi are a couple while they film a movie. Not only does Akito decide to date Fuuka as sort of a rebound, but Sana gets physically assaulted by rabid Naozumi fans to the extent that they ''break her leg''. When Sana finally returns to school after shooting the movie ''none'' of her friends ask her about Naozumi. Including Akito. They all just assume she'll just talk about her relationship with them, but then they all get insulted when she ''doesn't''. Sana only finds out they believed the rumors when she feels left out in the middle of hanging out with two couples (Akito and Fuka, Tsuyoshi and Aya) and then they bring up Naozumi]].

* RecruitedFromTheGutter: Rei is literally begging on the streets when Sana finds him and brings him home with her to be her "boy toy" (of course, Sana has no idea what being a boy toy actually entails). After that he works he works for Sana's mother as Sana's combination manager/bodyguard/nanny/father figure.

* TheRival: A couple different pairs, fading in and out as relationships evolve.

** In the manga, things got ''very'' serious once [[spoiler:Kazuyuki Komori disappears]], since Sengoku does not trust in Akito and believes he is much of an evil abuser and bad student... and once [[spoiler:he loses function of his right hand]], Sengoku’s actions get straight to abuse, humiliation and he takes advantage of the situation, [[spoiler:when in class, he ends up forcing Akito to write his group’s lab work on the chalkboard with his left hand. And when he makes some progress, Sengoku forces him to do it again because he "can't understand it". The rest of the class watch this with so ''much'' discomfort (however, after Akito finished, he ends up grading it as ''right''[[note]]Circle marks or "Marujirushi" mean as "correct answers"[[/note]])]]. No wonder why, when Sana hears about this, she becomes absolutely pissed off to know ''why'' he did it.

* SickeninglySweethearts: Tsuyoshi and Aya act as a completely [[TastesLikeDiabetes sweet-cute]] newlywed couple after they started dating.
* {{Shojo}}
* ShowWithinAShow: Also called ''Kodomo no Omocha'', it's actually based on a real Japanese TV show that sits 30 kids in a simulated schoolroom with a standup comedian as the "teacher"/emcee.
** There's also the two movies that Sana is shown to star in (a family drama and a ghost story), a stage production of what looks like ''Theatre/{{Tosca}}'', and a mind-boggling number of television, print, and billboard ads.

* SugarAndIcePersonality: Akito.

* TalkShow: Asako, besides being a quite profilic actress, has a talk show since the very beginning in the series. [[spoiler: Later, in the manga, after resting a bit of her TV actress career, Sana ends having a Phone-In Talk Show in radio.]]

* TeenPregnancy: Sana's birth mother Keiko was a teenager when she gave birth to her.
* TooLongDidntDub: In a rather literal application of the trope, Tomomi Ayanohanamarukoji becomes Tomomi Ayano in the English dub. Additionally, many jokes, puns, and songs were re-written to [[{{Woolseyism}} function better]] in English.
* TroubledButCute: Akito.

* UnflinchingWalk: At the climax of the shooting of 'Mansion of Water', Sana walks out of the burning building literally ''seconds'' before it collapses behind her, without batting an eyelid or breaking character at all.

* UnrequitedLoveSwitcheroo: Akito and Sana.

* LoveAtFirstPunch: Sana ''very'' harshly calls Akito out on his blackmailing of Mitsuya-sensei and his treatment of Mami. Akito falls in love with her, predictably.
** Also a subversion, since the first girl who called him out was Sana's friend Mami... who committed the mistake of calling him "demon", not knowing it was his BerserkButton. That ended ''very'' badly.

* OvertookTheManga: The manga ended in November 1998. The anime, however, ended earlier in March of that year. With little to work in the intervals (a weekly anime vs a monthly manga series), the anime adapted the original story up until volume 7 (with a distinct difference of details, filler, one-shot episodes and whole arcs, giving it a GeckoEnding) before the last quarter of the anime series.

** There's also the two movies that Sana is shown to star in (a family drama and a ghost story), a stage production of what looks like {{Tosca}}, and a mind-boggling number of television, print, and billboard ads.

* EverythingsNuttierWithSquirrels: Maro-chan, who is based on Obana's own pet, lives on [[HeadPet Misako's extravagant hairdos]].

''Kodomo No Omocha'' ("Child's Toy", and frequently [[PortmanteauSeriesNickname contracted]] to "''Kodocha''") is a fun, entertaining {{shojo}} series that mixes comedy and drama in equal parts. It was created by Miho Obana and published in Shueisha's ''Ribon'' magazine from 1994 to 1998. It got adapted into an anime series in 1996 and run into 102 episodes, directed by Akitaro Daichi, the later-director of series like ''Manga/FruitsBasket'' and ''Anime/NowAndThenHereAndThere''.

* ChildByRape: It's hinted to be the case in the manga [[spoiler:with Sana. Keiko gave birth to her when she was 13 or 14 years old and her dad was not only a much older man, but Keiko's uncle.]] In the anime, it's [[AdaptationDistillation rather the contrary]], [[spoiler: since it is implied that, yes, Keiko got pregnant when she was a teenager, but Sana's real father appears long after this event and he is apparently a good man, so it's questionable he could ''have'' raped Keiko]].

** When she was a child, not so long after Misako told her she was adopted. She returned from school with a bad grade, fearing that her mom wouldn't love her and that she would send her back to the OprhanageOfLove where she spent some time in.

* LateForSchool:
** The first episode of the anime lampshades this so badly: Sana wakes up late, she does her routine, and for making worse the matters, Rei drives SO SLOW (until Sana freaks him out). Subverted when she is about to start her first day at middle school... [[spoiler: but it was AllJustADream, and she gets late to school, anyways]].

* {{Malaproper}}: Sana has a tendency to massacre proverbs, so does Tsuyoshi when he's trying to impress her.

* MotorMouth: Sana, Sana, Sana... the subtitles can come in ''paragraphs''.
* TheMovie: WELL, not exactly ''the movie'', but "Mizu no Yakata", The Mansion of Water, the movie that Sana, Naozumi and Asako were filming in the series was eventually released as an one-shot volume as a side story. It's as dark as it was intended to be as a film in the manga, too.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Akito's sister has this reaction when [[spoiler: she sees the TV movie Sana and Asako were in that pretty blatantly parallels the situation with Akito's family, and she realizes just how horribly she treated Akito all these years. Akito's dad has a more subdued version of this.]]

* ObliviousToLove: Oh, SANA. Mostly to both Akito (for a long time) and Naozumi.
** However, she also subverts it, given how implied from the narration in the manga when she accepts that Rei must go on with his life (he has a longtime girlfriend) that he must have been her first PrecociousCrush.

* OrphanageOfLove: Where Sana and Naozumi were raised.
* OutOfTheInferno[=/=]UnflinchingWalk: After the house where "Mizu no Yakata" was being filmed was burning, and Sana was still harmed from her leg... she manages to make her dramatic exit just in time (while the others were worried that Sana would die in there), and this ends up being the perfect scene of the movie.

* ParentalAbandonment: Looks like Obana like to play a lot of this in her series: