[2] In 2005, the first half of the anime series was licensed for North American distribution by Funimation Entertainment and has been released on DVD.
[6] Sana Kurata is a cheerful, popular, and energetic eleven-year-old child actress who attends an elementary school that is plagued with chaos, led mainly by an aloof boy named Akito Hayama.
[15] The series was published in North America by Tokyopop under the title Kodocha: Sana's Stage from June 25, 2002[16] to November 11, 2003.
[2][18] In 2010, Obana authored a crossover story called Deep Clear in which Sana and Akito interact with characters from Honey Bitter.
[37] The story takes place between February and March of Volume 4 of Kodocha, after Misako's first essay has been published but before Sana begins middle school.
[38] An anime adaption was later produced by Studio Gallop, consisting of 102 TV episodes, airing on the TXN network weekly from April 5, 1996 to March 27, 1998.
The first opening song, 7 O'Clock News, was replaced with Ultra Relax due to licensing issues via Johnny & Associates.
Discotek Media announced that they had re-acquired the North American rights from ADK to the series during a live Twitch panel from December 14, 2020, mentioning that 7 O'Clock News would be restored on the upcoming SD Blu-ray release of the first arc in November 2021 as rights issues had been resolved following the death of Johnny Kitagawa.
Additional cast members included Sogo Ito as Tsuyoshi Oki, Satsuki Usui and Mio Yoshimura as Natsumi Hayama, and Hiyori Arima, Masahiro Ezaki, Mari Kazama, Wakana Kawai, Keita Takahashi, Miu Takahashi, Mitsuki Nishida, Mirai, and Yumeka Yoshiwara as classmates.
[5] Jason Thompson found the manga "joyfully weird [...] with good lines and funny details", calling the art quaint.
[45] Holly Kolodziejczak from Animefringe praised the series for its multiple elements such as mystery and romance that form a strong comedy.