Time Stranger Kyoko

Time Stranger Kyoko
Cover of Japanese volume 1
時空異邦人KYOKO (Taimu Sutorenjā Kyōko)
Genre	Magical girl, Romance, Comedy
Manga
Written by	Arina Tanemura
Published by	Shueisha
English publisher	NA Viz Media
Demographic	Shōjo
Magazine	Ribon
Original run	September 2000 – September 2001
Volumes	3
Original video animation
Leave it to Chocola
Directed by	Masatsugu Arakawa
Written by	Fumihiko Shimo
Studio	Production I.G, Transarts
Released	2001
Runtime	11 minutes

Time Stranger Kyoko (Japanese: 時空異邦人KYOKO(タイムストレンジャーキョーコ), Hepburn: Taimu Sutorenjā Kyōko) is a manga series written and illustrated by Arina Tanemura. Originally serialized in Ribon from the September 2000 issue to the September 2001 issue, the individual chapters were collected and published in three tankōbon volumes in Japan by Shueisha. Viz Media licensed the series for an English-language version in North America, releasing the first volume in July 2008; the third and final volume was released in January 2009.

An eleven-minute-long original video animation (OVA) based on the manga series, Time Stranger Kyoko: Leave it to Chocola, was released in Japan in 2001 at Shueisha's "Ribon Festival". Produced by Production I.G, Transarts and directed by Masatsugu Arakawa, the OVA centers on the character Chocola.

In the 30th Century, the planet is now united under one country called Earth. Princess Kyoko is protected by the last remaining members of the Dragon clan: the princes Hizuki and his younger brother Sakataki. Kyoko has lived the life of a commoner, attending public school under the quiet protection of her two guardians, while avoiding being seen in public as the princess. As her 16th birthday approaches, the time when she will inherit the crown, her subjects are growing restless at her refusal to be seen. She decides to accept her fate and her duties as the princess, but her father offers her the chance to return to the life she prefers if she can awaken her twin sister, Ui. Ui has been in a coma-like state since she was born and is said to be "trapped in time". If she awakens, she would inherit the crown, and Kyoko would be free. Wanting to meet and speak with the sister she has never known, Kyoko agrees to undertake the quest.

To do this, Kyoko must find the Strangers, twelve telepaths who each hold a holy stone that enables their owners to use specific powers. They must use their powers to operate a giant clock to awaken Ui. When a trouble-making gang comes to the school having heard a tip that the princess was there, and begins harassing Kyoko's friend Karen, Kyoko reveals her identity to protect both her friend and the school. Her nobility in this situation causes the first holy stone to make Kyoko herself the first telepath, the Time Stranger, and the one destined to lead the others. She has the power to stop time and go back in time, and is given the "Scorpion Cane" which talks to her, allows her to wield her powers and aids Strangers. Her guardian Sakataki is revealed to be the Crystal Stranger, and they are able to quickly find the next ten strangers, all leaders of their clans and descendants of the Kirit clan. They are able to find the ten of the remaining strangers quickly, and along the way Kyoko comes to appreciate her position as a princess and decides she will continue to be one even after Ui awakens.