List of Kodomo No Jikan Characters - Characterization Differences Between Media

Characterization Differences Between Media

Since the anime adaptation of the series covers events from the first twenty chapters — albeit with plot points and scenes lifted from later ones and featuring an original ending which attempts to tie up as many loose plot points as possible — and the manga series itself is still ongoing, there are numerous differences, both subtle and profound, in characterization between the two media:

• Towards the end of the final episode of the anime, Aoki and Rin have a heart-to-heart concerning his lack of life experience, how it impacts his teaching and ability to understand the problems she, Kuro, Mimi, and others have sometimes, and the two of them come to an understanding of sorts. In the manga, the two of them rarely share intimate feelings this openly unless the latter forces the issue, and many of the problems in the series arise due to miscommunication and misunderstandings. Aoki has a tendency to privately ruminate over such things and his thoughts are usually made known only to the reader.

• While Rin efforts to win Aoki's love are ongoing and have complex underlying emotional and psychological components to them in the manga, since the anime only covers events up until the point where this aspect of her personal life began to emerge, it is completely lost in the former instance. Her anime counterpart somewhat maturely states in the final episode that she has decided not to rush things with him and will take her time.

• Rin has never been held accountable for some of the morally dubious actions she has committed nor has she ever hurt anyone she purports to care about in the manga. In the anime, she experiences the consequences of her mounting an in-class rebellion against Aoki in the form of a game of tag when Reiji is summoned to her school, and she feels misplaced guilt when Aoki falls ill shortly thereafter and towards the end of the series when Reiji loses consciousness from a psychosomatic stab wound after she brandishes a pair of safety scissors. These three events humble Rin's anime counterpart somewhat and she gains some maturity as a result of her experiences.

• The frequency with which Kuro makes derogatory comments about Aoki's virginity and kicks him in the crotch were dramatically increased.

• In the final episode of the anime, as a result of her, Mimi, and his concern about Rin's welfare, Kuro's animosity towards Aoki decreased considerably and she showed subtle signs of genuinely caring about and growing more accepting of him. As this scenario was part of the animated version's original ending, there is no such parallel in the manga. While Kuro has made a sincere effort to reign in her hostility towards Aoki in recent chapters, she has only done so in the hope that Rin's faith in his being able to help her banish her inner demons and heal her emotional and psychological scars is not misplaced. She is therefore putting her friend's best interests before her own feelings, and the personal contempt and resentment she holds for him has not decreased at all.

• Rin, Kuro, and Mimi's original homeroom teacher was not explicitly named in the manga and only appeared in a flashback. The anime fleshed out her character by giving her an actual name (Nogita), providing her with a moderately detailed backstory and personality, and allowing her to make a contemporary appearance.

• Reiji's unhealthy obsession with Rin in the anime is portrayed not as a projection of his romantic feelings for her mother onto her but instead as a manifestation of his promise to Aki to protect her daughter at all costs taken to an irrational extreme.

• While Shirai is temporarily forced to take over Aoki's class in both versions of the series and criticizes his teaching methods during their first meeting upon his return, her underlying attitude towards him are polar opposites depending on the media: in the manga, she severely criticizes him and expresses her own personal contempt of everything he represents while in the anime, she shows signs of having warmed up towards him enough to offer constructive criticism in the form of a previously compiled class report detailing which students require his direct attention.