Azumanga Daioh is a slice of life anime that follows six friends throughout their three years of high school. There is no overarching plot other than following the experiences of these six characters through high school; however, Azumanga Daioh still succeeds on its strong cast of characters and their interactions. The main characters are all female, and the friends - and their teachers - get into some very interesting and hilarious situations. They are: Tomo, the energetic one with no self control, Yomi, Tomo's... "friend" through all their school years, Chiyo, the 10 year old genius, Osaka, the airhead, Sakaki, the tall, athletic and shy one with a thing for cats, and Kagura, the athlete and self-proclaimed rival of Sakaki.
Credits: destati
Story & Characters
Azumanga Daioh is a "slice of life"-kind of series. It focuses on a group of high-school girls and their daily
lives. While the story itself is lacking, the anime isn't bothered by it one bit. The main focus here are the girls
and their relationship. It's a laid-back show with a lot of humor- just not the kind of slapstick you were maybe
expecting.
The girls themselves are the usual bunch; an intelligent one (with glasses of course), a sporty one, an admired one, a
tomboy...but then there's the child prodigy and the slowpoke. And their teachers; one has anger management problems
and other is a pervert. Interested now?
While Yomi, Chiyo, Tomo, Sakaki, Osaka or Kagura have neither superpowers or important tasks like saving the world,
their relationship and its growth are worth watching. This show is for the lazy days when you have nothing to do. Even
if it's genre is overpopular, I would recommend this one over the others.
Ps. When compared to the manga, Azumanga Daioh is very close to it (stories, designs and so on). I'm actually
surprised that the anime was kept like this, close to original. A good example of "if it's not broken,
don't try to fix it".
Rating: 8
Art
The art is strong with thick lines and good colours. It has a realistic touch to it; not everything is bright and most
of the girls have a common type of hair, skin etc. It fits series like this perfectly, it doesn't draw the
attention away from the main theme.
One thing that bothers me are the oversized boobs almost everyone seems to have. A little realism here too, please?? A
slim Japanese high-schooler does not have D-cups as a default. Also, most of the girls considerated not to be important
to the main group , are drawn as wallflowers with very little (if at all) distinguishable features (and with tiny
boobs).
Rating: 8
Sound
The music is lazy like the show and there is not a lot of different bgm. Funny but it doesn't matter; it just fits
so well. The opening theme "Soramimi Cake" is funny and entertaining. The ending is maybe even better;
"Raspberry Heaven" is a song full of no worries-attitude and a dream-like animation. The singers are good,
different. Everything is balanced and Azumanga Daioh feels like home when you've seen a few episodes- you can count
on the familiar songs to pop up at certain moments.
Rating: 9
Presentation
As said before, this show brings very little new to the genre. However, it makes a good use of the one-shot theme and
manages to build a strong line it follows- even when there's no clear "goal" in the episodes. The
episodes are different from each other but there is a lot of repetitive stuff; the girls spend their time mostly at
school. Towards the end we get to see more deeper relationships and even some new settings but sometimes I feel like
there should be more places to spend freetime than Chiyo's gorgeous home (or summerhouse). My favourite episodes
are in the end when emotions are shown more freely and conversations get deeper. The humor never disappears though and
it makes me smile in every episode.
Azumanga Daioh is worth of its reputation, it's just not the kind of show you would expect. I believe that this one
is a love it or hate it-issue; if you can't stand lazy one-shots as a serie, then Azumanga Daioh is not for you. I
however enjoyed it and would recommend it to the fans of slow-paced school anime.
Rating: 8
Final Verdict
8.1667 (good)
Reviewed by SeijakuF, Aug 26, 2008
