Incidentally, the title "Kodomo no Omocha" means "Child's Toy". Sana's adventures are drop-dead hilarious, but experimental evidence thus far seems to suggest that those not familiar with the visual language of anime may not be laughing quite as hard.

Japanese comedy has a very different way of pacing its delivery, and it takes time to become accustomed to it. The gags in Child's Toy are a perfect example of this foreign dialect of comedy.

For those people familiar with Japanese, Sana's insistence on mangling the language and coming up with incredibly silly phrases is one of the high points of the show: At one point, she refers to a troubled, dysfunctional family as "Oyakodon-baka!" -- follow the links to get the joke.

Madcap comedy combined with quite serious drama make this a worthwhile show, if you can deal with the weird antics.