Sana and Akito are no longer in elementary school, and no longer in Ribbon magazine in mini flash-forward story.

With a serialization run of just over four years and a total of 10 collected volumes, Kodomo no Omocha, also known by its nickname Kodocha or its translated title Child’s Toy, isn’t the biggest franchise, but it definitely made its presence felt. Making a big impression despite its compact size is also an apt description of the series’ heroine, Sana Kurata, who readers meet as an 11-year-old child actress at the start of the manga and its 102-epsode anime adaptation, which premiered in 1996 in Japan and was a darling of the late ‘90s North American English fansubbing community.

Sana’s boundless energy and outgoing enthusiasm quickly clashes with the attitude of classmate Akito Hayama, who initially seems to have only two personality modes, aloof and antagonistic. Eventually Sana and Akito both learn that the other is a more complex person than they first appear to be, and in classic shojo manga/anime style, an opposites-but-maybe-not-do-so-different-underneath-attracts romance starts to bloom between the pair, complicated by the demands of Sana’s show business career and Akito’s search for an ambitious goal of his own.

The Kodomo no Omocha manga and TV anime both wrapped up in 1998, but the series hasn’t been forgotten. Sana was one of the characters featured at Tokyo’s Eternal Shojo Cafe themed restaurant, and Kodocha was selected to be part of that cool micro manga notebook line a while back. Now comes another treat for fans, with a surprise reappearance of Sana and the gang, now high school students, in pages of brand-new manga art by creator Miho Obana.

However, this new mini story isn’t being published in the pages of shojo manga anthology Ribbon, Kodomo no Omocha’s original home. Instead it can be found on the official Twitter account of Hot Pepper Beauty, an Internet portal and print publication with listings and discount offers for hair and beauty salons.

As the seven-page story opens, Sana, now in high school, has been cast in the lead role in an upcoming movie, but the director tells her that there’s something that she seems to be lacking as an actress. After talking the matter over with friends Aya and Fuka, Sana decides it’s time to change up her look with a new hairstyle to make a fresh start of things…only she doesn’t know where to get her hair cut, since up until now she’s always had a hairdresser on set or her mom give her trims. After looking through the Hot Pepper listings, though, she’s able to find a salon, and the results can be seen in the pages below.

Fans who were always rooting for Sana and Akito to just come out and say that they like each other will be happy to see that high-school Akito is explicitly labeled as “Sana’s boyfriend,” and Sana’s eccentric mother and sunglass-sporting manager Rei also show up in the newly drawn pages from Obana. Oh, and it turns out that the thing the director felt Sana was lacking was “confidence,” but it’s safe to say that she’s solved that issue by the time she leaves the salon.

For now, it looks like the Kodomo no Omocha/Hot Pepper team-up is a one-and-done deal, but with Sana being an actress it seems like there could be any number of beauty service-related storylines, so maybe we’ll see her again in this capacity, and in the meantime, if you’re looking for other unexpected reunions in high school settings, that’s also what recently happened to the Final Fantasy VII cast.

Source, image: PR Times
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