Azumanga Daioh - Anime Review

Hey, what is going on, everybody? My name is Payne and welcome back to another anime review video. And while I do want to continue making Studio Ghibli reviews, which I will tell you that my next video will be another Ghibli review video. I realized that it's been a while since I reviewed a show instead of doing what I've been doing for the past couple of months, which is basically review movies. Starting when I reviewed the entire Rebuild of Eva thing, which I realized was too much that I could already handle. But, you know, I went through it somehow and then I reviewed, started reviewing Ghibli stuff and then Perfect Blue came in. And then I decided to do an experiment by not making a review video, but like a commentary video. So it's been a while since I went back to these types of videos where I talked about just simple shows that don't really have a plot and they're just entertained. So to balance it out, I'm going to be reviewing a show that I stumbled upon a long time ago, but unfortunately hasn't gotten that much attention in the past, let's say, 10 years. I mean, this is a really old show. This is mainly due to the fact that the show was meant to be around for a certain amount of time before everyone's interest around it got swallowed up by the new batch of anime that comes out four times a year. This was one of those shows where a manga was made about it and then a show was made about it that lasted about 20 something episodes. And then that was it. There was nothing really made after it. And this is one of the shows that did exactly that. So in an attempt to get people saying, hey, I remember that show. Here is the one, the only Azumanga Daioh. Azumanga Daioh, also known as Azumanga Daioh the animation, is a comedy and slice of life anime that was directed by Hiroshi Nishikori, written by Ichiro Okazuki, and was made by J.C. Stath. It came out in the spring of 2002 and consisted of 26 episodes. It started as a four panel manga that released four volumes from 1999 to 2002 and was first adapted as a four minute original net animation called Azumanga Web Daioh that was released by J.C. Stath on December 28, 2000 that follows a girl who brings a video camera to her classmates, shows it to her, to which hilarity ensues afterwards. It was originally going to be a teaser for a web-based anime adaptation, but due to how popular that clip became, J.C. Stath decided to give it a TV release instead. And for what it is, it's very well done, mainly because the perspective of the camera makes it look like either you're actually seeing someone take the camera away from the main character and also part of the time it looks like you're watching GoldenEye gameplay, but that's just me. In response, fast forward to almost one year later on December 22, 2001, when J.C. Stath releases another original net animation, in this case it's a special, called Azumanga Daioh the Very Short Movie, a six minute clip that shows us more of the same characters we saw in the web clip, only in third person. And at the time, it was meant to be a trailer to be released in theaters in late 2001, early 2002 to promote the show, which brings us to the anime series itself. Being a slice of life show, this show has basically no plot, so I'll just go with what I know, and that is that the show follows a group of girls over the span of three years, from when they start high school to when they graduate high school, often repeating the same events multiple times, such as the first day back from school and the sports festival. We're going to start off with the characters, there's like eight, I think, eight or nine characters. I'm going to go through these really quickly. The first one is Chiyo, or Chiyo-chan, depends on how they say it in the show, sub or the dub. She is a nine-year-old child prodigy from a wealthy family, and at times is seen as more of the mascot of the series really, as she is seen by most of the other characters as cute, because she is the youngest, but also many of the characters also envy her as well, because she is also very smart. The next character is known as Ayumu Kasuga, better known by many Azumanga Daioh fans as Osaka, who is one of the biggest airheads I have ever seen, ever. She was given the nickname Osaka in the first episode, because of where she came from. She transferred from Osaka on the first day of school in the very first episode, which is ironic, because she doesn't act like how a normal Osaka would. Instead of being loud and exuberant, she is quiet most of the time, and often sleeps during her classes, making her prone to daydreaming and a large amount of non-sequiturs, which, given what we saw in the very short movie, makes a lot of sense. Also, given the fact that she sees the world differently than others, when she's not taking naps, take it or leave it, I'm just gonna have to say this right here, I'm gonna have to put Osaka in the same boat as Haruhi Suzumiya here, and just say she's autistic. I just, this is my take on it, that's just how I see it. If you don't see it that way, that's fine. If you've seen the show, you'll at least understand why I said that. For anyone who hasn't seen the show, well, I guess you just... There's clips on YouTube of weird ---- that Osaka does. It's just, it all makes sense when you see it. The next character is Tomo, the energetic one, and easily, to me, the most annoying character in the entire show, because she never considers or cares about the consequences of anything she says or does, and is the only person that picks on Chiyo, because she's an asshole, I guess. I don't know, they don't really explain it. The next character is Yomi. She is the voice of reason out of the entire group of characters, and is Tomo's lifelong friend, and while she is seen as the most, you could say, mature member of the group, she also sometimes has a cruel sense of humor, and is often dissatisfied with her weight as she goes from diet to diet throughout the series, but in the end, always drops them. Moving on, the next character is Sakaki, someone who, at the beginning of the series, came up as a cool and mysterious character because she didn't talk that much to anybody, but it's later revealed that she doesn't talk that much because she's pretty shy, and even though she's seen as the best athlete in the entire school, she's not interested in doing sports. She just has a natural talent for most of that stuff, but really, the only motivation that she has throughout the entire show that's perfectly established is that she tries to pet a cat on the way home without it biting her. The next character is Kagura, a character who is only seen at the beginning of the series with the rest of the group outside of school until she was put in the same class with the rest of the characters around midway through the series at the start of second year, and her story is that she has this obsession with beating Sakaki in athletic events because, going back to what I said earlier, Sakaki, she doesn't want to do sports. She just has a natural talent for it, but the thing is, she doesn't exercise. She doesn't work out. Kagura does a lot, and she is pissed off at the fact that Sakaki keeps beating her and stuff, so that's her motivation throughout this entire series. And finally, for the students, there is Kaori or Kaorine, a voice by Asuka Langley-Soryu herself, Tiffany Grant, whose only redeemable trait throughout the entire show, she's like in the line between a main character and a side character, like she's right in the middle, is that the only thing that we really know about her is that she has a crush on Sakaki, but due to her anxiety, surprise, surprise, Sakaki never found out. Now on to the teachers. First, there is Yukari, better known as Yukari-sensei or Yukari-chan. It doesn't matter. She is the students' homeroom teacher, but there's a lot of stuff to really say about her, to be completely honest, but to put it in a perspective that I know most of you will understand, she's basically Masato Katsuragi, from Eva. If she was a teacher, was very dysfunctional, very impulsive, and is 10 times more likely to get hammered. Next, there is Nyamo, who is the PE teacher and Yukari's high school friend, and for the most of the series, she is seen actually as the polar opposite of Yukari. As she gets stuff done, it often helps Yukari get her life together when she needs it. She is a very helpful character, especially to Yukari. And finally, the only male character in an entire cast is Kimura. To be honest, there is really nothing to say about him other than ask how the ever-living **** did he get a job as a teacher? The reason why I say that is because throughout the series, he's seen as mainly lewd by the students, and he always tries to find excuses to see them. Keep in mind, the rest of the cast is female. I, I mean, it's just, it doesn't, it just doesn't make any sense. You know what, you know what, let's just move on to the next one. I feel like I'm digging myself a very deep hole talking about this guy. As for the characters as a whole, they're really good. Almost too good in some cases. All the characters are not only buried in personality, but also visually as well, making the characters all the more realistic in a show that's pretty simplistic everywhere else animation-wise. In the case of Azumanga Daioh, J.C. Sapp would animate the characters and make silhouettes out of everyone else and would give the characters very simple emotes or simple emotions that would get the point across very quickly of what they're feeling or what they're thinking. And in some cases, they also have a little bit of a Yuri on Ice feel to it, or at least that's how I saw it the first time. Now looking back at my channel, I talked about Kill Me Baby, another J.C. Sapp show where they basically did the same thing. And it was that they would switch from normal anime to chibi anime quite a lot. And to make it simple, the voice actors in the show are one of the best that I've ever heard. And it only pushes the agenda ever more further that these characters are just so likable and are just almost out of this world relatable. As for the music in this show, especially the opening, it makes it overall very unnecessarily catchy. It doesn't mean it's bad. It's just, you know, it was stuck in my head. I was fine with it. And then it's over. And then like fast forward a month later, it's still stuck in my head. Especially the opening, which out of everything that happened, and I've listened to the soundtrack and I've heard all the music, it stayed in my head for way too long. Okay, that's enough of that. Even though the song was catchy enough to where it could have maybe gone mentally insane at some point, the thing that really stands out about the opening is the lyrics. Because the lyrics, they make no ******* sense. No, I'm not joking. Look up the opening right now on YouTube. Actually, I'll save you the trouble. I'll put it down on link down below. I'm pretty sure it's a subtitled opening. Seriously, look at the lyrics. They make no sense at all. It's almost like Osaka wrote it. It's just, it's that weird and random. As for the ending, it's nothing special, even what I've been talking about the opening for the past two minutes. No, but taking that out of the equation, it's really just nothing special. It's really just a soft sounding ending to give the viewer a really just soft, comfortable ending to a show that just has so much comedy and so much randomness. Overall, this is a show that I believe everyone should experience at least one time. The characters are all memorable. The animation is so simple, it works perfectly. And the comedy is some of the most random I have ever seen for a Sights of Life anime. But it's set up so well to the point where even if it's not meant to be funny, you're still gonna laugh about it. Regardless if you finish the show laughing your ass off or bored out of your mind, one thing is certain, and that's that this show is proof that something can look so simple and can be so wholesome. And with that, I'm going to give Azumanga Daioh a nine out of ten. Thank you guys for watching my Azumanga Daioh review video. If you like this video, hit the like button down below. If you want to see more anime review videos in the near future, you can hit the subscribe button and the bell right next to the subscribe button. I realize I haven't talked about that that much. And if you want to see more anime review videos that I've made in the past, there's gonna be some on the screen right here in addition to the subscribe button, which is anywhere on the screen. There'll be some down in the channel and some down in the description down below. And with that, my name is Payne, and I'll see you in the next video, which I've already confirmed is going to be another Ghibli review.