Nymphet [Kodomo no Jikan]
 

Here's a little number I *never* expected to see released in the US... but gomanga is going for it. I guess Kashimashi whet their whistles? (edit: and guess what... it was cancelled).

Anyway... the series is about a little strumpet schoolgirl who seems to have the hots for her teacher and in a comedically aggressive way spends her time trying to either seduce him or drive him to a nervous breakdown .... it later develops into a much more serious drama as the teacher begins to think she's acting out of psychological issues.

A couple of months ago, I accidently ordered a couple of volumes while ordering my "stack'o'manga" one night (tip: never order from amazon.co.jp while way too tired to think in a foreign language).... I flipped them open and went into serious WTF? mode - initially quite happy customs hadn't browsed my purchase. After some translation though, I determined that the teacher is mostly brick stupid or just thinks she's cute -- and it was her engaging in all the "target acquisition". He does spend most of his time in stunned 'wtf???' mode ... and then in a "how do we help this girl" frame of mind.

(note: American release has been cancelled for a number of reasons that I'll skip because there's already been enough name-calliing over it)

The artwork is quite cute and definitely in the "loli realm" and probably will be loved for that reason though it really veers into a different territory of drama. I understand the "usual loli crowd" is kind of upset that this has moved into some serious exploration of a story in which a teacher is trying to reach a young girl but to help her. Though it does make for some outrageous situations.

Here's an example of just how, um, outrageous this story gets....
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/7...ikannt9.th.gif
Note the footnote.... what the image doesn't show is the teacher's outraged reaction. Basically, the character Rin (pictured) pranks her teacher repeatedly with sexual harassment (she drove the previous teacher to a nervous breakdown) as the story begins.

(edited to reflect recent developments and improved understanding of the material)

After seeing the discussion about the potential anime version of this, I'm excited (which worries me?) for this manga release. Seven Seas is looking better and better.

yeah, I spotted the animation discussion this morning over breakfast (still wiping the bran flakes off my screen from the spit-take). An anime of this could be way-over-the-top funny and scary at the same time...

EDIT: I'm not quite clear on why someone gave me a neg-rep for my opening post when it contained a positive remarks about the series ... I'd appreciate a PM so we could discuss it since the repper didn't identify themselves.
Did you *not* like the series? I was initially shocked but I found the series quite entertaining... so I'm not quite sure what your negrep was for. Your note said I didn't understand the subtle puns of the image but you didn't explain what you meant. Wouldn't a post have been more informative? I don't mind a troutslap if it was warranted but I'd like to understand why.

Maybe the caption of the image you attached was a little too much for some uptight forum-goer. :heh: It certainly wasn't me.

I didn't think it was you :) .... as far as I can tell, they think I "missed subtle puns" when all I was doing was pointing out how hilariously silly the story could get. I don't mind neg-rep if I deserve it -- but I'm just not understanding the purpose for it and was hoping they'd post something to enlighten us (or at least PM me). I have a feeling english might not be their primary language so they misunderstood what I meant by "outrageous".

"outrageous" -- dictionary meaning #1 from Merriam-Webster:
1 a : exceeding the limits of what is usual b : not conventional or matter-of-fact : FANTASTIC

I'm going to browse about for character pics and the like to post so people can get a better flavor for the thing... it is a pretty funny story simply because she's so relentless.

That pun doesn't seem particularly subtle to me. Though I have to admit, I now want to read this manga. 'wtfheadexplodes' reactions are my favorite. :)

The manga is not just all comedy throughout. Looking at how the previous titles of Watashiya turns out, I'll say it will be quite dramatic later on. And it has started to show of late.

Rin's past in Vol.2 should explain a bit of why she's looking at Daisuke the way she did.

Vol. 3 enforce the fact that although Rin knows quite a bit beyond her age, she is still a child when it comes to emotional matters.

I hope Daisuke can pull off the trick to make Rin matured without breaking her heart nearing the end of the series.It helps that Watashiya is a woman in her 30's and she should knows somthing about the affair of the heart.

PS :-
Man, I hate to resort to paying high prices for Vol.3 LE, I just hope that the most economical way of paying for 2nd Hand copies at Amazon JP is still around by the 20-lish of this month......

That makes sense (though I'm unfamiliar with her other works) .... get the reader very attached to the character via comedy and then bring in the sad angst for maximum effect. Its pretty obvious with what I've read so far that the situation can't remain static without destroying what makes it interesting.

Now you've got me more interested in following the remainder of the manga series. (still looking for more artpics.... not finding much, may end up scanning a few samples).

...
Why was this licensed?

Art is nice, and the kids have interesting personalities. Also, seeing a teacher near the breaking point was pretty interesting.

Why was it licensed? Who knows, besides Seven Seas Entertainment. Perhaps they wanted to pick up a title that would bring about a swirl of controversy and whatnot, in order to get the "brand" out into the public eye more.

Possibly. I'm not familiar with any titles that Seven Seas has done, but I must say... I've seen some surprisingly risque titles on my Barnes&Noble shelves. Plastic wrap and a "Mature" rating seems to go quite far in the way of allowing the above-mentioned things to stay in manga (Welcome to the NHK and Suzuka are two titles which come to mind).

Seven Seas has promised not to edit this title in any way.

I think the real question isn't so much "editing" as it will be interesting to see what choices they make in translating. One can crank the heat up or down and still be "correct" in a translation :) Not planning on worrying too much about it - but I'll definitely be comparing my understanding of the dialog with theirs (just because its fun).

The most challenging part of translating volume will be that infamous 中出希望 panel. The Taiwan Chinese release by Tong Li had the panel literally translated as "Hope To Enter (my) Body" which, to me, had the same idea, but not that much of an impact. They should have leave it as it is, because the majority of those who pick it up will be the otaku lolicon yarou domo crowds and they understand what the line means in its full Japanese glory.

Neverthless, it is an interesting challenge for the English Translators.

This remind me of Crayon Shin chan & Kyo no 5 no 2
The author plays with a lot of ero-ero ideas covered with candies. It's a great work for those ero-ero lolicons / pseudololicon.
Unforunately, most ideas can only be presented with max fun in Japanese, namely those synonyms...

Welcome to the Internet where the dickless can hide behind anonymity twice.

This looks wretched, but it also doesn't seem to take itself seriously, which means it can't be all bad. Still won't be watching it.

The anime version thread of this property linked to a video clip of the author which is kind of interesting. She's kind of funny once she starts talking (she's the one with the black sweatshirt and engrish) and she's kind of cute (though the lead-in announcer to the clip is more scary-cute :) ).

http://www.hobbylife-tv.jp/newswatch/061222-news.html

Looks like KNJ will still be going on for a while with Chapter 23 giving us the intro into Rin starting life in the 4th Grade.

Now, I wonder just how things will turn out once Rin hit puberty.....

She's trying to ruin him isn't she. Considering in Canada the law says a teacher can't even give a kid a hug anymore and if they come at you for one the procedure is to have your hands behind your head and stand motionless (Learnt this from a former teacher who served through many periods of the Canadian education scene) I give this guy about a year and a half with this little trickster (She knows she has the upper hand).

yeah.... the US has the same nasty stupid restrictions going on to "think of the children" when common sense should apply. I'm in the process of trying to get my teacher certification - as a male (in particular), I'm hamstrung when it comes to providing even a pat on the back for emotional aid because of the actions of a few prevert-numbnutz and the hysterical over-response from idiotic parents and administrations.

In real life, this guy might be toast by the end of the year (even in Japan) but such is the glorious fun of comedy fantasyland.

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/9...8123sg0.th.jpg

.....Just how are they going to let this past without censorship in the US publication when it clearly show nipples.....

A bit of airbrushing on a few pixels?? ... I'm only on vol 1&2 .. is that colorized in the manga? because in black'n'white it wouldn't be obvious anyway.

Nothing like an out of context image :) hmmm, I'd have drawn them with much more shocked faces in such an unexpected situation ... but then we're lacking his next frame response :)

((reminds me of an incident in a store about 10 years ago.... six year old girl flings her dress up in front of me and a couple of other customers and proudly announces that she has new "Hello Kitty" panties ... time stopped for all the wrong reasons and I thought her mother was going to simply start bleeding out of all her facial pores she was so red - all I could say was "I'm glad you like them."))

here are some questions?
1. since it's licensed, can't get any scans... what happened after the chapter 5? I'm curious
2. is there a chance that the author will continue this until kokonoe graduates? jr. hs?
3. what happened to the relationship of all the characters?

Sorry for asking... it would've been better if it will be released here in our country but laws here are very strict in case of this manga...

So I guess you seriously didn't see what else was inside?
I saw a few others pictures and I have to say, it's not the most 'deviant' of this 'session' :p

I have read every chapter of KNJ to date. I just bringing this up to respond to the claim that Seven Sea does not condone censorship.

So it's either removing the Nipples or to bring the age of the target audience from Older Teens to Adult.

I seriously think the nipples shots are nothing compared to the depictions of the teacher with a dog collar in the black haired girl's mind (can't remember her name) :p

Seven Seas hasn't said how they'll "rate" this (which is only a suggested age anyway). But "older teens" (16+) should be fine --- at that point we're having them read and watch some pretty mature stuff in school anyway. Kinda pointless to speculate but I assume they have some lawyer-types checking the landscape. Canada has gotten very wierd about "cartoons" lately but so far no such problems exist in the US. There's always a first time, of course O.o

At last i downloaded the scans and i saw the vol. 3 scans though it's japanese based in the images:
correct me if im wrong

Haven't really parsed volume 3 much.... but:


Here's what gomanga.com (Seven Seas) has so far for translated manga release ... what they don't have is any linkage to a vendor yet. It'll be interesting to see how this gets handled.
Nymphet:
Volume One

Street Date: April 2007
Price: $10.99
Format: Manga
Trim: 5" x 7.5"
Page Count: 192
Age Rating: Older Teen
ISBN: 978-1-933164-47-2

he is Rin's stepfather... but that's pure speculation on my part, haven't reached far past that part of the manga yet.

fascinating..... kind of a Shakespearean quality to that bit of story element if it is the case.

Reiji isn't Rin's stepfather as he didn't legally married Rin's mother, which is his older cousin. Which makes him Rin's Uncle.

I'm a little farther into volume three... still not real clear on the new teacher's issues...

Rin's caregiver does appear to have mixed motives (he keeps seeing his departed dearest when he thinks about Rin) but it does appear he is torn on the subject. Bah.. I keep reading a page or two at a time -- need to commit some serious translation energy. Everyone's motivations are certainly a lot more complicated than one might guess just thumbing the pages.

Vol.4 will be releasing in Japan on 12th of September.

The limited edition will come with a DVD containing some 30 min worth of animation. Most likely it will be a Lost Ep kinda thing for the anime.

BTW, they kept postponing Vol.1 of the English translation. First from April to May and now May to June. Latest reason citing being running into "printing problems".

For those of us who read the Japanese edition, we all know well what exactly are the "printing problems".

Well, I hope they will release it eventually, and not pull something similar to ADV manga (halting releases for years...)

They delayed it again?! >w<;;

"printing problems" == (waffling over whether they're toast for publishing this in "burn'em-they're-witches" US/Canada).

Its one of those where if you READ what is going on, it makes sense and the complicated motivations are interesting... but if you just look at the pictures you could draw a very very poor conclusion

((remembers the old D&D satanic bullpucky flung by idiot fundamentalist witchburners in the 80s, mostly because of they never got past the artwork...))

It's more worth it for serious manga collectors to get the Japanese Releases, considering the nifty bonuses they have been releasing for recent volumes.

First a figure by a top tier toy maker in Japan and now a DVD. What's next for Volume 5 ?

Actually, they DID address the online controversy. This also seems to be the reason its delayed.

Heres the info:
"I wanted to address the controversy related to our upcoming release of NYMPHET.

There have been several heated online debates about this title, mainly about whether or not it is suitable to be released in the US. Many fans are eagerly awaiting its release and we have received a large number of emails to attest to this fact, while others on various forums find the content highly objectionable and are opposed to its release.

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. Most people have not yet read NYMPHET, since we haven’t even published it yet, so I would like to clarify an important point: NYMPHET is a story about a mischievous young girl who tries to sexually entrap her teacher. The important context here is that the girl’s advances on her teacher are never reciprocated by him; her teacher is horrified by her actions, and his romantic interest is in fact another adult teacher. The comedy arises out of this young girl saying and doing improper things (much like Crayon Shin-Chan, which is currently being aired on Cartoon Network) and seeing her teacher squirm with discomfort and shock while he struggles to keep his composure, at the same time trying not to make a fool of himself in front of the woman he loves.

In Japan, NYMPHET is a highly popular and successful manga written and drawn by a female creator for an older teen male audience. It is published in Futubasha’s weekly seinen magazine COMIC HIGH. It is not considered pornographic by any means, and Japanese would be shocked to hear this sort of accusation about what they consider to be a mainstream property. In fact, it is so mainstream that it has been turned into an anime program which will be broadcast on Japanese TV starting this July. My personal stance on this title is, if it’s good enough for the Japanese, then it’s good enough for us. I had the opportunity to live in Japan for six years, and so I understand and appreciate their cultural nuances and wacky and often bizarre sense of humor. Based on the angry debates that I have seen online, however, there are people who do not appreciate this sort of material, and while it may be appropriate in Japan, they feel that it is inappropriate for our culture.

Although I do not agree with that point of view, I realize that this issue must be addressed, instead of ignored. As a policy, we at Seven Seas do not believe in altering or “censoring” manga artwork or content, so that approach, which has been taken in the past by others, is out of the question. Instead, despite the fact that we have already received thousands of orders on this title, I have decided to delay its release and to have an open dialogue with the large book chains and other vendors. My intention is to make them fully aware of this debate, familiarize them more fully with the content, and let each of them make the final decision as to whether or not it is appropriate for their stores and their customers -- and then give them the chance to cancel their orders if they wish. In the meantime, I would like to continue the dialogue with fans or others who are seriously concerned about this issue, and will be keeping my eyes and ears open to the discussion.

As always, our intention at Seven Seas is only to publish high quality manga that appeal to our readers and fans. After all, we’re manga fans ourselves.

Jason DeAngelis
President"

Comes from the SS forum.

Well.... Praise Cthulhu .... what an actually principled reasoned stand.

Good for him (and thanks for posting that). There's reasoned debate... and then there's witchburning and labeling. I've just about had it with the malicious "church ladies" of my region.
("Church Lady" is an old SNL reference, fyi)

Yes, thanks for the interesting quote. It's sort of refreshing to hear that said by someone in the American manga industry. My full support stands behind this approach that Seven Seas follows.