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Reviews

Manga

Plot Synopsis

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

This review is for the Azumanga Daioh (AzuDaioh) manga version translated into English by ADV Manga and published as an oversized omnibus volume (ISBN13: 978-1-4139-036-5, for anyone who's after this particular book).

The thing with comedy is that it can either hit the mark or miss the audience entirely. AzuDaioh is no exception to this rule. The story pitches itself as a "slice of life" for a group of high school students in Japan. This means, of course, that it is a prime target for over-the-top situations and humour; and AzuDaioh certainly delivers in that respect. The story focuses on six, dare I say, stereotypical characters and their adventures through three years of high school. Each adventure or situation is presented across four panels, which keeps the story and humour very focused as a consequence. Then several situations are strung together for a chapter, often linked by a particular theme like a school festival, holidays, exams, amongst others. This approach gives the reader a very concentrated story for each brief adventure or situation, combined with a gradual flow representing the passage of time.

The characters are very cliche, and I emphasise "very" in this case. They are "normal", in that they don't have any special powers, magical or otherwise. They are not normal as each character's personality is diverse almost to the point of obsession and, dare I say, slightly off-centre. One cannot help but feel they have been thrown together, as is often the case in classroom situations, and they just have to get along or their high school life will be horrid. It gives the reader a fly-on-the-wall appreciation of school relationships if you suspend your disbelief about the overly perverted classic literature teacher, the home room teacher who is entirely self-centred, and the physical education teacher who cares almost too much. The main group of students themselves have characteristics of:
- the overly cute child prodigy, who is trying desperately to fit into situations and relationships several years her senior;
- the tall and elegant introvert, who appears aloof at first but is also desperate about forming friendships and has a hidden liking for cute things;
- the boisterous and loud one, who manages to engage mouth or body before engaging brain and is obsessive about competing and beating everyone else;
- the intelligent one with glasses, who obsesses about her physical form and weight;
- the "spaced out" one, who can either be incredibly profound or incredibly dense at will; and
- the athlete, who is good at sports and not overly good academically but tries hard to fit into the group.
There will be at least one student that appeals to anyone given the diversity of the individual characters. The story shows them interacting well together as their relationships progress throughout; and the reader can easily find one or two to follow closely and cheer on.

Those who have seen the anime will easily be able to see how situations within the original manga has been adapted to the anime context. Similarly, you will find various situations in the manga that have been toned down or omitted entirely in the anime. In my case, I saw the anime first and then decided to try the manga. On a first run-through, I didn't get much more out of the manga as I'd seen it all in the anime. After a second read, I was able to pick up subtle nuances and got a good appreciation of how Kiyohiko Azuma manages to develop a good tight script for each situation within the limits of the four panels that contain each event. That said, I reiterate my original position where comedy is a "hit and miss" affair as I found certain panels laugh-out loud amusing, but others didn't even hit my funny bone. I'd expect others will find different situations amusing to those I enjoyed; and this is the point of comedy - all the situations don't have to be amusing to everyone. On the whole, I enjoyed the series even if I didn't enjoy every situation.

Rating

7 (above average)

Art

The art in the manga can be best described as clean and simple. Each of the main and supporting characters have their own design and are simplistically detailed in almost an "anime" styling than I had expected. However, this clean and simple approach enables the reader to focus on the situation and the characters without being distracted by lots of settings and other "eye candy". Certain situations are drawn in super-deformed style, which is again considered appropriate to convey extreme situations or emotions. In this series they come fast and frequent.

You won't find a visual feast in the artwork; but a visual feast would arguably be detracting when one only has four panels to get across a story or event. With the story focusing on characters, the need to focus on settings or surrounding details is equally unnecessary and the minimalist artwork that does focus on characters does it well. Accordingly, I would consider the approach to the artwork is appropriate when: (a) a particular situation has to be told in only four panels; and (b) the story is a comedy focusing on individual characters.

Rating

7 (above average)

Sound

The dialogue and choice of language in the translation can also be summed up as simple and appropriate. Most of the dialogue is informal or colloquial, with the exception of Chiyo-chan who is always polite (and adds to her cuteness factor). Some of the cultural references and puns don't translate well, which can be expected. However, ADV at least has the sense to provide translation notes at the end of those volumes where further explanation for a particular term or situation was required; or where some editorial license was used to make a situation appropriate to a Western audience.

Audio effects were often provided in the original Japanese with the English equivalent somewhere in the panel. A simple approach taken rather then entirely translating it or using subtitles or endnotes, but it did the job effectively and retained a degree of the original authenticity.

In summary, the dialogue was suitable to the context, got the point across clearly and was otherwise appropriate, which made the story an easy read.

Rating

7 (above average)

Presentation

The version reviewed was a single over-sized volume. Presented in a larger B5 format, compared to the usual A5 size, the same content was there but only larger. There were no issues with details being lost or blurred as a consequence of the re-scaling upwards mainly due to the simple and clean artwork. The only thing missing may have been any colour panels and the individual volume's covers, which of course would have been in colour. However as the entire volume was sold for around $40 AUD it represented good value for money compared to buying the four individual volumes generally at $15 AUD each.

For those who have seen AzuDaioh as the anime, the manga shows where everything came from originally and complements the anime nicely. You might not get anything further out of it unless you're actually interested in seeing how the manga almost acts as a storyboard for the anime and how the author manages to develop and keep to a nice tight script. However, I'd suggest that if you enjoyed the anime, you'll also enjoy the manga version.

Rating

6 (average)

Final Verdict

6.67 (above average)

Reviewed by davidh01, 9wk 5d ago