KODOMO NO JIKAN

is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by manga author Kaworu Watashiya. The story revolves around a twenty-three year old grade school teacher named Daisuke Aoki whose main problem is that one of his students named Rin Kokonoe has a crush on him. The manga was first serialized in the Japanese seinen manga magazine ''Comic High!'' on May 22 2005, and is published by Futabasha. The manga had been licensed by Los Angeles-based company Seven Seas Entertainment for distribution in the English language under the title ''Nymphet'', but they have chosen not to publish it due to controversies over its content.^[1] An anime adaptation will begin airing in Japan in October 2007.

Contents

Plot

Characters

Media

Manga

Controversy

Anime

References

External links

Plot

''Kodomo no Jikan's story revolves around a male twenty-three year old grade school teacher named Daisuke Aoki employed at . Daisuke is in charge of class 3-1, and one of his students, a mischievous young girl named Rin Kokonoe, has developed a crush on him, and has gone so far as to proclaim herself Daisuke's girlfriend. Rin continues her efforts to be with her teacher despite the fact that he will lose his job if she gets too close.

Characters

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:Daisuke is the protagonist of the story. He works as a grade school teacher and is in charge of the third grade class 3-1.
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:Rin is a young girl in the third grade who has an intense crush on her teacher Daisuke. She has a mischievous nature and has proclaimed herself to be Daisuke's girlfriend; she will go to great lengths to make him fall in love with her.
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:Kuro is one of Rin's friends, and is secretly in love with her, although the only one who appears to be aware of her unrequited love is Mimi. She therefore sees Aoki as her love rival.
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:Another of Rin's friends, Mimi is a quiet girl who is un-usually well-developed for a third grader. She was picked on by Aoki's pre-decessor, and quit coming to school to protect herself. In revenge Rin wrote threatening notes to him that caused him to eventually quit due to "work-related stress". After Aoki takes on the job of teaching the class, he manages to convince Mimi to come back to class.
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:A young, well endowed teacher who is Aoki's colleague and friend at work. She tries to care for Aoki as he is still new to the job, and seems to have a crush on him, as she has asked him out on several occasions, only to be interrupted every time by some incident, usually involving Rin.

Media

Manga

The ''Kodomo no Jikan'' manga, written and illustrated by Kaworu Watashiya, was first serialized in the Japanese seinen manga magazine ''Comic High!'' on May 22 2005, published by Futabasha. As of August 2007, four bound volumes have been released in Japan.

Controversy

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. According to Futabasha, 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 an 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."
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 erection. Some fans felt that the author's choice to depict an adult character "forced" into a situation where he was inadvertently aroused by a child character was not inappropriate, since it was "accidental"; these fans claimed that DeAngelis was grasping at straws by labeling such a scene inappropriate.
On June 7 2007, Kaworu Watashiya posted a blog entry on ''Kodomo no Jikan's'' controversy in the United States.^[5] Watashiya commented that, "what I heard about 'issues in volume 2 and later' made me realize the differences in the cultures between the countries."^[6] 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?'"

Anime

The anime series is produced by the animation studio Studio Barcelona, and will begin airing in Japan in October 2007. The series is directed by Eiji Suganuma.^[7]

References

1. Seven Seas kills Nymphet
2. Jason DeAngelis blog
3. Seven Seas Entertainment Talks about Nymphet
4. Seven Seas' Nymphet Letter 2
5. Kaworu Watashiya's blog entry on Kodomo no Jikan's cancellation
6. Nymphet Creator, U.S. Publisher Blog on Cancellation
7. Anime page at Anime News Network

External links

★ Anime official website

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