Think slice of life. In a high school setting. With lots of comedy. That’s how it works for Azumanga Daioh, a 2-cour anime based on Kiyohiko Azuma’s manga of the same title.
The story generally centers on six high school girls (plus teachers, and animals), their everyday high school shenanigans, and that’s basically it. But their shenanigans ranges from being cute to funny to trippy. It seems like just some random everyday life anime, and it is, but there is more to this anime than what meets the eye.
Case in point: the direction. The show uses a lot of still frames, loops, and recycling of scenes. Most notably still frames, when the characters just stay still for several seconds, so long that, as I like to put it, you begin to question the truth of the whole universe and doubt your whole existence. But the catch is, it works. These things make particular scenes even funnier.
And this gives the effect of an unexplainable pacing. The lengthening of scenes makes the series give off a feeling of a slow pace, but it also gives an impression of how fast high school life goes. It’s slow, and at the same time, fast. That, to me, is commendable direction there, as it describes very well how high school life goes.
The characters, meanwhile, are generally archetypes. Chiyo is an overachieving little girl, Tomo is the annoying genki girl, Sakaki is a seeming ice queen with a soft side for cute animals, Osaka is the class cloudcuckoolander, Yomi is the perfect tsukkomi for Tomo’s boke character, and Kagura, the class tomboy. They are generally the main characters of the show.
While there weren’t much in the way of character development, and at worst, coming off as annoying, what the series did best for them is to flesh them out to being well-written and likable characters that are far from being bland stereotypes. And that’s okay enough, as we can’t expect serious and dramatic character development when they’re just portraying normal everyday life.
Also to add to that is the solid relationships that between the characters have. With all the scenes, you can actually feel that they are legit friends with all their interactions in the story, and the development of their relationships are fairly well-executed.
The art and animation is by no means special. It’s far from beautiful, and it can be inconsistent at times, but it works for the story. And the character designs are surprisingly diverse – their faces aren’t copy-paste cardboard cutouts, they have pretty diverse body types, and it’s pretty easy to discern each appearances despite sticking to realistic (except Chiyo) colors.
The soundtracks are good at capturing the atmosphere of the story, and some of them are pretty catchy, too. My personal favorite is the Shin Gakki (New School Term) and its many arrangements. As for the theme songs, there’s Soramimi Cake (Mishearing Cake?) and Raspberry Heaven. The former has a very catchy tune, while the latter is a lot more relaxed, and both have lyrics that wouldn’t be out of place in a shoujo-esque anime. They’re both music that goes well with the anime though, and by themselves, nice music to listen.
The voice acting department is okay. While the actors do voice acting well, the overly-cutesy voice that most of the characters have, particularly in the Japanese voice, can be headache-inducing.
America yah!
Overall, it’s not the type of anime to binge-watch, especially for those who are looking for something more exciting and dramatic. Rather, it is the type to take a peek from time to time, when there’s nothing much to do. But when you do, prepare for the comedic scenes, because there are particular moments that are going to make you laugh out loud, because it’s that great.
Plot – 6.75
Characters – 8.25
Music – 8.50
Voice acting – 6.00
Art – 7.25
Direction – 9.5
Entertainment – 9
Written by Clarist
Published by Jansen Asiado