Nymphet [Kodomo no Jikan]

[MakubeX2]

It will be a long wait till Vol.5 is release. July 11th to be exact.



But there will be a limited edition again, wonder what they will throw in this time. Needless to say I get 2 X LE and 1 X Normal.

Oh, did I mention that the anime will be getting a 2nd season ?

[Inanimated_object]

Oh, did I mention that the anime will be getting a 2nd season ?

NO FREAKING WAY! ARE YOU SERIOUS? (don't take me wrong, I'm actually looking forward to see a second season )

I hope this isn't some sort of hoax (april fool's day is in 4 days from today, ya know). But the day I see some official announcement or similar, I will consider myself bitch-slapped, for not believing in your words.

But seriously, It would be nice to have a 2nd season actually happening.

[MakubeX2]

Didn't read the poster properly, LE of vol.5 will have a DVD of a promotional video for 2nd season.

[jigenbakuda]

Originally Posted by MakubeX2

Didn't read the poster properly, LE of vol.5 will have a DVD of a promotional video for 2nd season.

Hey makube, I have a question, how do I get a limited edition copy of vol. 5? Just pre-order? I own all the other vol, but I did not get any of them new. So I am just wondering.

Does anyone have any idea when the second season will start? fall, maybe winter?

[MakubeX2]

Originally Posted by jigenbakuda

Hey makube, I have a question, how do I get a limited edition copy of vol. 5? Just pre-order? I own all the other vol, but I did not get any of them new. So I am just wondering.

Amazon Japan, like anybody else. Just need to wait for them to open the preorder.

[Lunar Archivist]

Originally Posted by MakubeX2

Amazon Japan, like anybody else. Just need to wait for them to open the preorder.

YesAsia is also an option. Plus, you don't get assraped for customs fees with them, unlike Amazon... -_-;

Originally Posted by Cal-Reflector

Question for the experts:
One of the main mysteries that for me has yet to be fully clarified is Rin's dark side, what it is, why and when it emerged, and what part Reiji had in its development.

Well, that's the one million dollar question everyone wants answered, honestly. The only vague clue we've gotten so far came in Chapter 31 when Aoki asked Rin when the dark side of her personality first surfaced. Rin kind of balks at the question, and we see a series of flashbacks, specifically from her Grade 1 schoolyear in Chapter 18, a panel of her holding an adult's hand while gazing at a building with a smokestack (the unseen figure is likely Reiji and she's probably looking at the crematorium where her mother's body was sent after the funeral), and her mother's death scene from Chapter 12. Given the snippets of dialogue and the overall emphasis, I'd say that whatever spawned Rin's dark side took place during the gap between the end of the flashback in Chapter 12 and the beginning of the flashback in Chapter 18, though your guess is as good as mine what it was or even whether Reiji's was involved. Some guesses off the top of my head:

1. After seeing Aki's dead body, Reiji went temporarily insanity and assaulted Rin, either verbally, physically, or sexually and blamed her for mother's death. The event may have both traumatized her as well as caused her to block it out of her memory, which is why she actually has to think back about when it all started and never really gives a proper answer. I think this is the copout answer, though, because a lot of people expect/want something along these lines to be true since it demonizes the already hard-to-like character of Reiji even further.

2. Another possibility is that Rin's condition was due to her feeling betrayed by something Reiji said in Chapter 12. When she asked him if her mother was going to die, he lied to her by reassuring her that Aki would be fine and that they'd all be together again. Her mother's death proving this statement untrue could've caused something inside of her to snap and might've been the reason why she started mistrusting adults in the first place.

3. Yet another possibility would be that Rin's blames herself for her mom's death. Originally, she was convinced that if she folded all those paper cranes her mom would recover and she may (illogically) feel that her failure to do so and save her mother's life has burdened her with tremendous guilt.

4. The theory completely out of left field is that Aki is somehow to blame. While she's admittedly never been portrayed as anything but a kindhearted, if quirky and eccentric, individual, I think even most die-hardfans have to admit that breastfeeding you child past the age of three is a tad on the bizarre side. Who knows what other strange stuff she may have done...? x_x

So, is Rin's feelings for Reiji a normal daughter->father sort of possessiveness? One of unhealthy dependency? Is she aware that Reiji is projecting his affection for Aki onto her? How does Rin feel about that? Does Rin feel threatened by the possibility that what's left of the happiness they had as a family of three will be wiped out if Reiji moves on, i.e. finds new love in his life (the healthy thing to do, btw)?

From the looks of things, while she's perfectly aware of the fact that her mother's dead and the days of the perfect little family she, Aki, and Reiji formed together are long gone, she has this obsession, for lack of a better word, with keeping the memory of this happier time alive. Examples of things she's done towards this end include:

I. Not advertising her status as an orphan to anyone who doesn't know about it. The most prominent example of this we see in the series is her making up an entire essay about her mother when Aoki asked his student to write about their parents, though this admittedly also had to do with the fact that she didn't want to be treated exceptionally out of pity.

II. Actively shooting down anything that intrudes upon the illusion or memory of family. Examples of this include driving away the coworker of Reiji's who was interested in him (though the fact that Rin probably felt insulted by the typical, transparent "sucking up" technique adults use on strange children in order to get the kids to like them probably factors into this) to requesting that her biological father stay out of her life in the future.

Unfortunately, Rin has repeatedly been forced to acknowledge on some level that her maintenance of the illusion is slowly becoming untenable. Stuff like her biological father wanting custody of her life is bad enough. Usa falling in love with Reiji was a concession Rin was willing to make, though with some sadness. I think what's really slowly turning Rin into a nervous wreck is Reiji's unwanted attention. As Billborden pointed out a few pages back, Rin's reaction when questioned by Aoki is the classic victim in denial response. While she can't yet admit it to others, however, this does not mean that she's denying it to herself: we've seen a few instances where she's been seen being depressed over it and in Chapter 33, she even starts using the pretext of having too much homework as an excuse to get out of taking a bath with him. I think what makes this whole thing so emotionally and psychologically painful for Rin is that Reiji's projecting his feelings for Aki onto her has made her "the other woman". In short, she's essentially being used as a tool to undermine and destroy the very dream she's trying so hard to preserve. Ouch...

The Lunar Archivist

[Dark Wing]

wow...once again Lunar Archivist you nail it right on...cookies for you good sir.

[Inanimated_object]

Didn't read the poster properly, LE of vol.5 will have a DVD of a promotional video for 2nd season.

So, MakubeX2, let me get this straight, There will be a a promo DVD (I'm guessing a second OVA) along with the purchase of the Vol. 5 of the manga, wich will also mean that there will be a second season of the anime. Is this correct?

And my apologizes for my previous post, I just got a lil carried away with the good news.
---------0---------
Now, Lunar Archivist, on your post about Reiji having something to do with Rin's development of her dark side, there is one point I don't quite agree with.

1. After seeing Aki's dead body, Reiji went temporarily insanity and assaulted Rin, either verbally, physically, or sexually and blamed her for mother's death. The event may have both traumatized her as well as caused her to block it out of her memory, which is why she actually has to think back about when it all started and never really gives a proper answer. I think this is the copout answer, though, because a lot of people expect/want something along these lines to be true since it demonizes the already hard-to-like character of Reiji even further.

Don't you think that's a little too extreme? He knew beforehand that Aki was senteced to die, seems pointless to blame it on Rin. It is possible that Reiji did go a little insane that time, but for a different reason, my best guess is that, Rin being so attached to Aki, did not want to leave her side, and Reiji had to actually pull her away from her, resulting in a struggle between them, and it's possible that Reiji even had to slap her (though this I highly doubt).

As far as the other points go, I concur with them, and I like how you sum it up at the end.

In short, she's essentially being used as a tool to undermine and destroy the very dream she's trying so hard to preserve. Ouch...

It's so true it just hurts, ouch x2.

[Zantetsuken68]

I pretty much agree with Lunar Archevist's assessment of the story. However, I think what's also adding more fuel to this ever growing fire is that Rin's character is starting to look more like Aki as she gets older. I believe this fact is pushing Reiji even closer to a complete mental breakdown. I fear this could endanger Rin even further. Time will tell how this pans out.

[Cal-Reflector]

Thanks for all the great responses; they were above and beyond what I'd hoped to get.

I wasn't aware that the readership of this manga might be divided along the lines of Anti/For Reiji. As for myself, I fall into the camp which sympathizes with him. In fact, as far back as volume two, I believe the central conflict of the story--which is supposed to be Rin's relationship with Aoki--changed for me into "What's going to happen to Reiji?" and as an aside "What's going to happen to Rin?"

Can't wait to see what happens next.

Edit: Question:
To an extent, is Rin's attraction to Aoki a symptom of her insecurities and issues with Reiji? I.E. if that source of trauma is resolved, will Rin's attraction to Aoki cease? I don't think the change would be so abrupt, but so far, the theme of the story does not strike me as "True love prevailing over the taboos of society about age difference," but rather "how to help troubled children." As in, the story's focus does not seem to be on Rin and Aoki's romance (it could be, there's still a lot of story left), but more on how characters like Rin, Reiji, Shirai, Mimi, etc, deal with and emerge from their shadows.

So suppose that Reiji climbs out of his downward spiral and his relationship with Rin becomes healthy, and Aoki, thinking that his mission is accomplished, acknowledges Hoin's affection and begins a relationship with her. Would this then become the new source of black feelings and trauma for Rin?

[Lunar Archivist]

Originally Posted by Inanimated_object

Don't you think that's a little too extreme? He knew beforehand that Aki was senteced to die, seems pointless to blame it on Rin. It is possible that Reiji did go a little insane that time, but for a different reason, my best guess is that, Rin being so attached to Aki, did not want to leave her side, and Reiji had to actually pull her away from her, resulting in a struggle between them, and it's possible that Reiji even had to slap her (though this I highly doubt).

At the risk of sounding like I'm backpedaling, yes, I do think that's way, way, way out there in terms of guesswork. I personally believe the truth is closer to Points 2 or 3 rather than 1 or 4, but that's just me. A lot of fans really don't like Reiji and, when it comes time to point fingers about why Rin has amassed so much sexual knowledge, he's usually the main suspect and people automatically assume he sexually abused her, so it was worth summarizing here as part of my response to Cal-Reflector's question. I personally think it's unlikely that he's done any such thing since his rather unhealthy obsession with Rin appears to be a fairly recent development.

That being said, the fact that he might have abused Rin in light of Aki's death is not as far-fetched as you might think. If you want to get really technical, Rin is partly to blame for her mother's death in an indirect way. Had Aki not put Rin's well-being ahead of her own and undergone drug treatment and chemotherapy months earlier, it's possible that she might have survived. Maybe Reiji ompletely lost it after Aki died and blamed Rin for her death after being overcome by grief. I mean, he had no problem blurting out that her father wanted to have her aborted in front of her in Chapter 35. That he might do something just as thoughtless and stupid in another moment of emotional turmoil is not completely out of the question given what we nowknow about him.

All we can say with absolute certainty is that Rin's dark side was born in the immediately aftermath of Aki's death. When Aoki asks her when it all started in Chapter 31, we see a series of flashbacks in reverse chronological order, starting with scenes her Grade 1 schoolyear from Chapter 18, then Aki's cremation, then what appears to be a cry of anguish by someone calling out Aki's name (likely Reiji) superimposed over a completely black panel, and finally stopping at the closing flashback scene from Chapter 12, with a catatonic/shocked Rin sitting amidst a sea of origami cranes. We don't know what happened, but we have a pretty good idea of when.

Originally Posted by Cal-Reflector

To an extent, is Rin's attraction to Aoki a symptom of her insecurities and issues with Reiji? I.E. if that source of trauma is resolved, will Rin's attraction to Aoki cease?

Those're tricky questions. In my opinion, the answer to the first is a definite no given the information we have right now. Reiji's downwards spiral only started in Chapter 19. He had nightmares, woke up with Rin sleeping next to him, suddenly got this freaky "Mmm...smells like Aki" idea in his skull, and put his arms around Rin inappropriately from behind before going back to sleep. That one panel from Page 5 of that chapter - where Rin has this wide-eyed "WTF Reiji?" look on her face - and the subsequent one of her sitting in class the next morning with her eyes glazed over was the beginning of this mess. There's no indication that the two of them had any major issues with each other before then. The answer to the second is "maybe". Whatever Rin's trauma is, Kuro seems to know more about it than she's letting on and she believes s that the only way Rin can be cured is if her feelings of love are returned. We can't really say for certain without more info.

So suppose that Reiji climbs out of his downward spiral and his relationship with Rin becomes healthy, and Aoki, thinking that his mission is accomplished, acknowledges Hoin's affection and begins a relationship with her. Would this then become the new source of black feelings and trauma for Rin?

Not in the sense you're implying. Rin's been trying to win Aoki's heart legitimately since the stair-pushing incident rather than trying to force it by bombarding him with all the sexual innuendo she used to in the first two thirds of the manga. However, Aoki's her last hope in the sense that he's the only adult she really seems to have faith and believe in right now. Basically, Aoki is the only emotional anchor that's keeping Rin from drifting towards the dark side right now. Unless the trauma is resolved and the two of them come to terms, I'm pretty sure his taking up with Houin at this point before such a thin happened would completely destroy Rin and she'd be lost forever.

[Mykas]

In the last chapter I read, ch35, on pages 24 and 25 of the version I have there is a short scene where Aoki gives Rin his phone number and she tells him she loves him and he responds in kind. I mostly dismissed the scene at first as her showing her usual feelings and him showing a parental response, but if so then why was he blushing. Maybe it is an embarassing thing to say even to a small child but he knows how she feels about him. He could have said something like "thank you" which would have deflected the issue but he didn't. I think if he suddenly figures out that Houin is in love with him and decides he is in love with her that would first be strange and second crush rin after what she must see as a mutual confession between her and Aoki.

[Anh_Minh]

I think Rin is too smart to see it that way.

And I don't see what's so strange about being embarrassed in such a scene.

[Neki Ecko]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Nicely written post. Its really too bad this excellent little series wasn't given room to breathe in my country, because it actually supports the idea of "think of the children" in the *big picture* way instead of the "witchburning" no-discussion-allowed way. And yeah, some of the problems and behaviors we'r seeing here are because of cultural attitudes (recently shifting a bit) in Japan about children.

Some days I think this should be required reading for family court judges, social workers, and teachers.

It is going to be a long read.

Well, I have to tell the truth about this series(I know that I might get some negative points on it but I have to do what I have to do).

When I first heard about this series, I was in ANN mode because of the content and listen to those people on that site. After I went on here and see all of the good post by Vexx, The Lunar Archivist, Dark Wing and others on here, I started to read the manga again and I tell yall what, I have to thank every one of yall in here for open my eyes to this series, I consider a masterpiece in my eyes and if I have a chance I would shake and thank the mangaka for making this and contiune doing good stuff like this.

I know that I am not a expert but I am willing to put my own opinion about some of the main characters.

Rin - First of all, She must be the strongest little girl in world, going through so much hardships in her young life with her mother passing away, finally getting her life back on track but going down that wrong path again, only at the age 10, that is just amazing. Even know that she is way too mature for her age with her flirtations with Aoki, she is gone through alot that can last two lifetimes and her life is just beginning.

Aoki - He reminds me a "Clean-cut"(Boring) version of GTO. Sure, he isnt experienced dealing with different situations when it comes down to oppsite sex, but he is willing to help Rin and other girls out because he really cares about them, not only because he is their teacher but he want them to enjoy their childhood without any problem.

Reiji - hmm, I am out in Centerfield with this, on one hand, he is a good man because he want to support and protect Rin strongly since his first love passed way but his dark side is not only affect himself but Rin, it is going to push her away from him but she does that, she will be by herself again. So talking about between a rock and a hard place.

That is my opinion about it but I want to understand this alittle bit more to get a better look about this. Thank you again for looking at this awesome series

[MakubeX2]

In regards to an earlier argument that the manga had no basis in real life, perhaps kids today are more devilish than we thought ?

[MakubeX2]

More details about Vol.5 LE

なんと今回の限定版には
・アニメ「こどものじかん」第1期、全13話のオンエア版と異なる、「の」を外した無修正（？）約80分の 特別編集版
・「こどものじかん」第2期先取りPV
の2つのコンテンツが収録された、約90分にわたる超ボリュームの特別DVD付き！

80 mins worth of uncensored contents(?) from all 13 episodes of anime from the first season
(Sounds more like a recap of first season to me)

Promotional Video of 2nd season of KnJ Anime.

Tally up to a 90 min worth of video on the DVD.

Price :- 3800 yen.

[jigenbakuda]

Well since no one is talking and there are quite a few days till another release, I hope to inject some life into this board with my question/poll thingie

First off I noticed something while telling my sister about the series. Rin and Kuro-chan both have a very large amount of clothes they wear (sorry america-chan I just do not notice your clothes that much...). Also in my opinion as the story progressed miss watashiya got better with the wardrobe (even, in my opinion, matching the cuteness of cardcaptor sakura's battle outfits sometimes), so it got me thinking, what is my favorite outfit she has been in?

So now I have arrived at the point, what are you gentlemen's (or ladies if you are out there) favorite outfits for your favorite character and or characters? I guess I will go first, ne.

Miss rin, she has really got some great clothes recently, I like the turtle neck outfit, very cute, but here is my favorite rin.

Spoiler for rin-chan dress:

Then we have our little bundle of MOE, kuro-chan. She wears my favorite stuff and best of all, she frequently wears neko mimi. But it was hard deciding a favorite pic for her.

Spoiler for kuro chan dress:

Then we have my character I am most interested in, shiro-chan. I love her character, but she dresses so bland, but watashiya spiced her up a couple of times and I liked, I liked. I wish shiro-chan would just get loose...

Spoiler for shiro chan outfits:

And shiro-chan as a school girl, how could I not like it?

Spoiler for sailor shiro:

[Dark Wing]

yea...you may want to use spoiler tag with those images because they're kind big...

Anyway if talking outfits I feel nothing beats the old fashioned Yukata! (See Volume 15; Chapter 29)

[jigenbakuda]

Originally Posted by Dark Wing

yea...you may want to use spoiler tag with those images because they're kind big...

Anyway if talking outfits I feel nothing beats the old fashioned Yukata! (See Volume 15; Chapter 29)

If anyone wanted to know that is the pic in my siggie, all three ladies wearing the pretty yukata.

Side question is the yukata spring/ summer kimono? I think some girls were wearing at a graduation I went to with my girlfriend.

[Dark Wing]

Originally Posted by jigenbakuda

If anyone wanted to know that is the pic in my siggie, all three ladies wearing the pretty yukata.

Side question is the yukata spring/ summer kimono? I think some girls were wearing at a graduation I went to with my girlfriend.

It's summer kimono usually made out of cotton.