List of Kodomo no Jikan characters
The following is a list of characters from the Japanese manga series Kodomo no Jikan, written and illustrated by Kaworu Watashiya and published in Japan by Futabasha in the monthly seinen manga magazine Comic High!. As of January 2008, thirty-three chapters have been published since serialization began on May 22, 2005, of which twenty-eight have been collected in four bound volumes to date. At one point, an English language version of the manga was licensed for distribution in North America by Seven Seas Entertainment under the title Nymphet, but the Los Angeles–based company ultimately decided not to publish it due to controversies over its content. An anime adaptation of the series with twelve episodes aired on Japanese television between October 12, 2007 and December 28, 2007. Since the animated version only covers events from the first twenty chapters or so, is self-contained, and had an original ending, there exist significant differences in characterization between the manga and anime incarnations of the characters. The main story revolves around newly graduated, twenty-three-year-old teacher Daisuke Aoki, who has just landed his first teaching job as an elementary school instructor at . He is placed in charge of class 3-1, where one of his students, a mischievously precocious eight-year-old girl named Rin Kokonoe, develops an intense crush on him. Though he does his best to discourage her efforts, she nevertheless continues with her aggressive campaign to win his affections in spite of the problems that ensue that are her attempt to get closer to him. The situation is further complicated not only by the often complex, intertwining relationships existing between them and their respective friends, families, and peers, but also by the everyday life lessons they all learn together, as well as from each other. Major characters Daisuke Aoki The bespectacled, good-natured homeroom teacher of 4-1 (originally 3-1) at Futatsubashi Elementary School and protagonist of the series. By his own accounts the product of a normal, uneventful childhood, Daisuke Aoki was an above average student and athlete in his youth and served as a substitute for members of the track and field club in university. While there, he fell in love with an unnamed female peer of his, but she married one of her seniors before he got a chance to confess his feelings to her. Aoki never harbored any resentment or negative emotions over this development, however, and was glad that she had found happiness with someone he believed to be a better man than himself. After landing a position as a mid-trimester replacement for class 3-1 at Futatsubashi Elementary School, the freshly graduated, twenty-three-year-old Aoki quickly found several of the preconceived, idealistic notions he held about being an elementary school instructor put to the test by his first teaching job, literally from day one: his complete lack of previous experience as an educator left him poorly prepared for controlling or maintaining the interest of a classroom filled with unruly, disobedient students, inheriting a legacy of mistrust from the former teacher, Nakamura. Most