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21 of 60 people found this review helpful
| Overall |
3 |
| Story |
1 |
| Animation |
5 |
| Sound |
3 |
| Character |
2 |
| Enjoyment |
2 |
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Story
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As others have stated, Boku no Pico is a shotacon hentai movie... Therefore, there's not really much of a plot to speak of outside of the basic premise. Tomatsu (who is mostly referred to as "Mokkun" by Pico) is on summer vacation when he meets Pico, an incredibly feminine little boy. Pico doesn't have any friends, so Tomatsu takes him out for ice cream. During this outing, they begin to their sexual relationship, which pretty much sums up the rest of the OVA.
It's pretty difficult to give any opinions on the plot when the vast majority of it is adult/shota yaoi. However, I felt that the relationship was incredibly difficult to believe... Tomatsu, in particular, was so bland, I had trouble believing that he was attracted to Pico at all. He didn't come across as gay or a pedophile, in my opinion. I know that it's a hentai movie, so the character's motives weren't the main focus, but I think it would have helped if there was a little more chemistry between them.
There is a bit of conflict toward the end, though, saying that it's a "bit" is an understatement. Pico asks Tomatsu what their relationship means to him, and Tomatsu was unable to answer. However, this was resolved without even a conversation between them, in favor to give us another sex scene in the last five minutes. Honestly, I thought that this last part was pretty unneeded, and it did nothing but make the OVA longer than it should have been.
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Art
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There's really not much you can say about the art style, as it was drawn in a pretty standard anime style. There was nothing particularly special about it. The character designs weren't anything special, either. Tomatsu looked like your typical anime character, and Pico looked more like a girl than a boy. (I did like how Pico looked when he cut his hair toward the end... He looked much cuter in boy clothes.) One thing that I did find odd about the art, though, was the depiction of semen; it appeared much more solid than it should have. I'm not sure if that's common in hentai or not, but I found it odd anyway.
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Sound
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As with the art, there's not much you can say about the sound. I felt that the voice acting was pretty boring... Pico's voice really annoyed me, and Tomatsu sounded as typical as he looked. The opening and ending songs were both the same, and they were both pretty dull. Not memorable in the slightest. I did find the sound effects to be incredibly strange, though... The sound for eating ice cream, kissing, and having sex were all the same. Again, this is probably a typical hentai problem, but I found them really weird and sort of gross to listen to.
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Character
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I've already touched upon the characters in the story, so I don't need to go into too much detail here. The characters, like the rest of this OVA were incredibly generic. You have Tomatsu, who is your stereotypical anime male in every way, shape, and form, and you have Pico, who is quite confusing to figure out. I say he's confusing because he doesn't seem to have a consistant personality... He's shy and "easily flustered" one minute, then somewhat outgoing the next, having no problems with asking "Mokkun" for ice cream then proceeding to lick it off his shirt in a seductive manner. He's equally as inconsistant during the sex, somtimes asking for more and sometimes begging Tomatsu to stop. Still, he's pretty streotypical, so his flactuating personality comes off as inconsistant than mysterious.
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Overall/Enjoyment
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I was not shocked or offended by Boku no Pico... In fact, my reaction was quite the opposite. I found the whole thing to be incredibly boring, with nothing interesting to provoke any reaction other than indifference. Everything that was done in Boku no Pico has been done before, and in much better ways. I honestly don't recommend it to anyone... It was just too dull for words. read more
8 of 13 people found this review helpful
| Overall |
6 |
| Story |
4 |
| Art |
7 |
| Character |
5 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
***IMPORTANT NOTE***
This story covers the entire manga, ie, not just the part that Tokyopop covered. Tokyopop only published the first two volumes; I read the Chuang Yi version of the rest. Because of this, there are some spoilers for what happens from volume three onward. You have been warned!
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Story
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I'm going to be completely honest here, and say that Kilala Princess is very difficult to review story-wise... It's neither simple nor complex. While the basic premise remains the same all the way through, the goal of the journey changes so many times, it's hard to say what it's about. But no matter what the story is, I will say this: it certainly isn't the most original manga you'll ever read.
The story stars Kilala Reno, who is completely obsessed with the Disney Princesses. Naturally, she dreams of finding her very own Prince Charming. Not long after the story begins, she does happen to find said prince... Sleeping on her lawn. The prince, Rei, is looking for a princess to save his country, and Kilala assumes that he's looking for her perfect friend Erica. But it's not that easy, as Erica is immediately kidnapped by the enemy, and Kilala and Rei set off to find her... Starting in the world of Disney's Snow White.
That's how the story begins, anyway, and to be honest, the main idea doesn't change much throughout the story. The main idea is that Kilala and Rei travel to the worlds of the six Disney Princesses. But the reason for the journey changes constantly... It starts out as a rescue journey, and, after a long sequence of events, turns into a search for the seventh Disney Princess to save the nation of Paradiso from being brainwashed by an evil "humanoid". Yeah.
I know that my description is confusing, and to be honest, it is. As I said, it's just incredibly hard to review the story as a whole when the story changes every couple of chapters. It's not even like it has story arcs, because they're all connected in a way. However, what does become apparent is that, despite the psuedo-complexity of it all, it still doesn't do anything that's really new. The general plot, whatever it may be, isn't something that hasn't been seen in other series. The Disney sections aren't all that great either... They seem to rely on the setting alone to make some sort of gimmick -- something that easily could have been replaced with something more original. It was nothing but product placement.
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Art
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The art of Kilala Princess is very interesting. As you could probably tell by the cover, the art is a mix between shoujo manga and Disney Princess -- and to be honest, it works very well. In my opinion, Kilala didn't really look out of place when she was in the Disney worlds... It was impressive.
However, besides the mixture of the two styles, there was nothing particularly noticable about the art either. The manga parts were typically shoujo -- big eyes, strange hair, bishounen boys, cute animal sidekick... You name it, it's probably in there. The Disney parts looked like... Well, Disney. There's not much you can say about it.
The colored art isn't very different from the black and white art either. There's nothing special about the artist's coloring style... It was pretty basic.
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Characters
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And then, the characters. I'm pretty sure that everyone who has read this manga was reading it to see the Disney Princesses in manga form.
So, how are the Princesses here? Well... They were there. And that's about it. In general, the Princesses didn't have much personality, other than the typical "you can do anything if you believe" attitude. Sure, some of them were given different characteristics -- Cinderella was portrayed as being quite the optimist, and Ariel had her moment of thinking her father hated her, but that's about as far as their personalites went. (Though, I did notice that Belle was quite out-of-character from her movie self... In this, she pretty much took abuse from the Beast willingly, because she knew how kind he was on the inside. Umm... What? That didn't happen at all, unless we're counting Enchanted Christmas, which, by most people's standards, shouldn't count at all.)
So, then we have our original characters, and I'm sure it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that they're nothing special either. Kilala, our main herione, is pretty stereotypical. Outside of being a Disney fan, there's not much else about her that hasn't been done. She's bubbly and outspoken, loyal to those she loves, and values love and friendship above everything. We're told that she's clumsy in one of the side panels, but we're never actually shown any examples of clumsiness.
The other characters aren't much better... Rei, our prince, is particularly bland. He starts out as critical of Kilala, but it's not long before he falls madly in love with her. Princess Sylphy, who is introduced in volume four, is just downright annoying. I'm pretty sure that she's meant to be the complete opposite of Kilala... She's just obnoxiously mean, and for no apparent reason.
I think that the most confusing aspect of the characters is Valdou. Valdou starts out as a strong but silent assisstant of Rei's, and in one of the side panels, we're led to believe that he has a warm and fuzzy center. However, in volume three, it's randomly revealed that Valdou is actually evil; he's the leader of the coup d'etat in Paradiso, and he's a "humanoid" who wants to brainwash the world to make a utopia. We're never told exactly what a "humanoid" is. I'm going to assume that he's a robot, but we're never told where they came from or why they want to turn Earth into their utopia. We're pretty much told that he's evil, and that's that. The character change was so random, and made such little sense, it was hard to believe.
All of the supporting cast (with the exception of Tippe, who is a mouse, so I don't have to go into detail with her), is completely thrown out the window after a chapter or so, so they don't even deserve a mention.
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Overall/Enjoyment
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I suppose it would seem that I really hated this manga, huh? To be honest, I didn't. Despite the glaring amount of faults that it had, I still didn't totally hate it. I suppose that, in its defense, it's still a kids' series, aimed at girls between the ages of 8 and 12. I wasn't expecting much when I began reading it, and it met all of my expectations perfectly. It was nothing special, but there was something about it that made it entertaining while I was reading it.
As for recommendations... I'd recommend this to those who enjoy sugary, magical girl series, and/or those who like Disney. It's not going to be the greatest thing you'll ever read, but if you're not expecting that, it may still be fun.
(Thanks for reading, and sorry if my story review was confusing. I know it confused me!) read more
24 of 89 people found this review helpful
| Overall |
1 |
| Story |
6 |
| Art |
4 |
| Character |
2 |
| Enjoyment |
1 |
I would like to clarify this review by saying this: I love Azuma Kiyohiko. I love Azumanga Daioh, both the manga and the anime, and Yotsuba&! is one of my favorite series of all time. I began reading Supplementary Materials with the expectation that it was going to be great; I found myself bitterly disappointed.
I'm pretty sure I'm going to be flamed for this review; Supplementary Materials currently has an average score of 8.25, so I'm probably in a minority. If you enjoyed it, wonderful, but I really felt like I had to get this out.
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Story
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I guess you could say that Supplementary Materials is a midquel to the original Azumanga Daioh series; the events depicted in this manga happen at completely random times throughout the original series. You're kind of expected to already know the series before reading it; however, this is acceptable as they were originally put in reprints of the main series anyway.
As Azumanga Daioh is a character-driven manga that doesn't have a plot, the series relies on the humor to hold the story together. And though this isn't the main reason (I'll get to that in a minute), this is a part of why Supplementary Materials falls apart: THE HUMOR IS NOT FUNNY.
And let me tell you, it tries. It tries very, very hard to be funny, but it just fails so much. While the original manga wasn't always laugh-out-loud hilarious, a lot of its better jokes came from the sheer randomness of everyday life. Here, the manga tries very hard to be random, and it shows. For example, there is a scene where Kagura is digging a hole in the sand. Chiyo-chan asks her if she's going to bury something, to which Kagura replies "Nope. Just digging a hole," and continues on. I realize that a lot of the original humor was hit-and-miss -- there were a lot of cultural jokes that were lost in translation, no matter which version you read -- but can someone PLEASE explain that to me without saying that it was TRYING to be random?
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Art
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To be honest, there's not much to say about the art. Although Azuma Kiyohiko is amazing when it comes to hilarious expressions, the art for Azumanga Daioh has never been perfect. Then again, it IS mostly a 4-koma, so what's to expect?
I will say, however, that the art for Supplementary Materials was nothing like the art of the original series. His previous work on Yotsuba&! really shows here -- the characters are a lot rounder than they were, and there are a lot more closeups than in the original. However, unlike Yotsuba&!, there was a lot less detail, and it was pretty plain most of the time. Again, it's a 4-koma, so there's not a lot of detail to be had anyway.
As for the colored art... It's average. It's certainly not as good as some of the colored art from the original Azumanga, but it's fine.
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Characters
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And, of course, the characters. The characters were the thing that really made Azumanga shine. Though most of their personalities could be explained in one word (the loud one, the weird one, etc...), their antics and interactions with each other were what made the series.
And THIS is where the series REALLY falls apart. Because here, the characters are... Gone. Every last one of them are gone, complete shells of their former selves. Most notable is the character of Tomo, who seems to have taken a Ritalin since the original series. In a scene where she oh-so-randomly decides that she wants to cosplay as a giraffe, she sits there in the classroom with a completely monotone expression, choosing not bounce around to show off her "quirky" attire as she normally would. When she's finally yelled at by the gym teacher, she whimpers, saying "That was scary..." For God's sake, when would Tomo ever whimper?!
The other most notable change is in Osaka. Osaka is already strange enough as a character, but there was just something about her here that didn't seem right. For example, she makes a stamp of the hiragana for "O". "O is for Osaka!" she says cheerfully, as she innocently stamps O's all over Yomi's textbook. Er... Yeah, there's not much you can say about that.
As this series has no plot, there was never really any character development either. Therefore, some of the new developments introduced here didn't seem to fit at all, and they were really unnecessary. For example, did we really need to know that Tomo's dad has the same haircut that she does? Or that Sakaki is scared of robot construction guards? Or that Kaorin sees her crush on Sakaki as "just a teenage thing"? (The part with Kaorin really confused me... Tomo straight-up asks her if she's gay, which seems to be something that just never would have happened in the original. Did we really have to resort to gay jokes?)
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Overall
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I read this right after finishing up the original manga series, and I thought it was going to be great. In fact, I thought that it was going to be even better. But this manga honestly upset me. You may think I'm being overdramatic, but this manga literally had me pulling my hair and slapping my forehead. I love Azuma Kiyohiko, but this was just so bad...
I don't recommend this to anyone. If you're a fan of Azumanga, and you haven't read this yet... Don't. If you're not familiar with this series, but you want to try it out... Just stay far away from this and read the original, infinitely better, Azumanga Daioh.
(Thanks for reading.) read more
4 of 12 people found this review helpful
| Overall |
9 |
| Story |
9 |
| Art |
9 |
| Character |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
(Warning: Kind of long... Also, I will be referring to this series by its Tokyopop name, Chibi Vampire, because I read the Tokyopop version for the majority of the series.)
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Story
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For a high school vampire romance that has a female lead, Chibi Vampire does a good job at being everything but your typical high school vampire romance. I found the storyline to be incredibly unique -- something that the story really had to its advantage.
The series stars Karin, a cute but shy and easily embarrassed high school girl. Karin is secretly a vampire...But not exactly. Instead of drinking blood, her blood increases monthly, and if she doesn't inject it into someone in time, it will explode out of her nose. Unfortunately for her, there's something about Kenta Usui (the new transfer student) that makes her blood increase like crazy -- and there's no way to avoid him, either.
One thing that I really liked about the story was how the romance between Karin and Kenta developed. Over the course of three main story arcs, they find out more about each other, but their romantic relationship doesn't officially begin until later on in the series. Unlike so many other series where the romance is established early on without much build-up, the romance in Chibi Vampire was mostly build-up. This led to a pretty developed and reasonable relationship.
Another thing I really liked were the vampires themselves. I can't think of anything about them that didn't have a valid explanation and didn't make sense. There were also a lot of elements, such as Karin's blood problem, that gave vampires a really original spin in this series.
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Art
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I'm going to be honestly biased and say that I preferred the English manga covers over the Japanese ones. While both versions used the same main pictures on the cover, the English ones had a red background that had another picture in it -- the Japanese ones just had a plain white background. Anyway, the main cover images were all great nonetheless -- I'm not sure what media was used to make them, but I loved the way they were colored. It looked so clean and pretty. I also really enjoyed the puppet pictures shown on the back covers.
The art was just as great inside the manga as it was outside. I really like Yuna Kagesaki's style -- the art is beautifully detailed, and the tones made it look kind of colorful, despite being black and white. The hilarious extras that came after the manga weren't as detailed, but even those looked great. The art was pretty ecchi at times, and the nosebleeds were especially detailed -- but those aren't exactly bad things.
I also really loved the character designs for the series. Karin and her vampire family all looked really awesome -- I loved the gothic lolita clothing that Anju wore, and they had great hairstyles and colors. The human characters, though not as detailed as the vampires, looked pretty good as well. I honestly think that everybody's individual character design fit them in their own way.
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Characters
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Honestly, I think that the characters is where Chibi Vampire really shined. The main cast of characters were all interesting, and they all got their own stories to further this.
First, we have our main couple, Karin and Kenta. Karin is a pretty typical shoujo heroine, to be honest... She was cute, but she was very shy and easily embarrassed. She was emotional, and easily prone to tears. I can see how someone else may have been annoyed with her while reading -- however, I wasn't one of them. I loved Karin.
Kenta, on the other hand, was just awesome. Unlike Karin, who was a typical shoujo heroine, Kenta was not your typical shoujo love interest. First of all, he was no bishounen. With "creepy eyes", he was not exceptionally handsome. He had a sad past -- in fact, his misfortune is what drew Karin to him. However, he wasn't "emo" and he didn't constantly angst about his past. He had a strong work ethic, and his goal was to graduate high school, go to college, and live his life as a good citizen with a loving family. All in all, Kenta was just an awesome character.
As for the supporting cast, I have to say: I loved Karin's (incredibly) dysfunctional vampire family. Calera and Henry were a hilarious couple, and though Anju was often expressionless, I found her dedication to helping her sister to be very sweet. I honestly hated Ren, though.
I can't say too much about the villains of the series without spoiling anything. However, I will say that the villains were great -- I really hated them.
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Enjoyment/Overall
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Overall, Chibi Vampire is a great series. Though it's a bit long, I never once grew bored with it. It had a very unique plot and a great cast of characters that really kept me wanting more. I would recommend this for fans of shoujo romance, and fans of vampires who want something new. read more
53 of 68 people found this review helpful
| Overall |
9 |
| Story |
9 |
| Art |
10 |
| Character |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
(Warning: Long review!)
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Story
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The story of Chobits can be described as a cross between sci-fi and romance. Set in the 22nd Century, it follows Hideki, a poor, 19-year-old virgin who wishes he had enough money to buy his own Persocom -- a humanoid computer. By a stroke of luck, he manages to find one in the garbage; however, she turns out to be much more than he expected.
Personally, I found the story to be very interesting. I know that the formula has been done many times before -- average guy meets an extraordinary girl -- but I think that the setting and concept kept this from being as generic as it could have been.
One thing that I found to be very important was the way Persocoms were portrayed. Although they were shown to be perfect beings, the negatives about them were heavily stressed. (The personal stories of the supporting cast made up a lot of this stress. Just about everyone had a sad, Persocom-related story to tell.) Because Persocoms were a main focus of a plot, showing different sides of them made them very balanced.
The story was spread out very evenly throughout the eight volumes, and it had no trouble keeping me interested. It is established very early on that there is something special about Chi, and you gradually learn more and more until it is finally explained toward the end. The main events of the story are generally presented in a straightforward fashion that I found pretty easy to follow.
Also, I would like to point out the genre of the story. Chobits is often listed as an ecchi series, and I won't lie: it certainly isn't for kids. It does have its perverted moments, such as one of the very first scenes where Hideki finds out the location of the button that "turns (Chi) on". However, don't think that this is a dirty series about a guy getting it on with a sexy robot. The ecchi is more of a comedic undertone than a main focus of the series.
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Art
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Despite being a seinen series, the covers to the manga are quite girly. They're bright and colorful, with the main figure in the pictures being Chi herself. Nevertheless, they are all gorgeous. I was recently able to look at a copy of the art book, Your Eyes Only, and the pictures there are gorgeous as well. I wasn't able to buy it due to the price, but I would suggest that any fan of the series should take a look at it.
As for the black-and-white art, it's also very nice. The pages are clean and very detailed -- never rushed or scribbly. The only parts that aren't very detailed are the "City With No People" segments -- however, those can be overlooked as they're meant to be illustrations for a children's book. Some of the expressions can be hilarious, particularly with the character Sumomo. Since the series does have ecchi undertones, there are pictures that are pretty suggestive; those are very well drawn and detailed too.
The only real problem that I have with the art are the character designs. While the Persocoms have very detailed and colorful hairstyles, the human characters' styles are pretty bland -- they're all dark and kind of shaggy. I think that this is meant to show the difference between humans and Persocoms, and once again, portraying Persocoms as "better" -- however, it would have been nice if there was more variety with the human characters. The same thing goes with the outfits that the characters wear -- the Persocoms wear very detailed outfits while the humans wear plain ones. Once again, it would have been nice to see more variety.
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Characters
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Although Hideki is the main protagonist, most of the spotlight goes to his adorable yet clueless Persocom, Chi. Now, I'm not saying that this is a bad thing, because I loved Chi. Always cute, her lack of understanding about the world around her was both funny and endearing at the same time. However, Hideki often looked somewhat bland in comparison to Chi. His only real character trait outside of caring for her is that he's poor and likes porn. (Which is often found and misunderstood by Chi.) The other characters are constantly saying that he's a good guy, but no real reason is given. (Except for his caring for Chi.)
Speaking of the other characters, I have to say, Chobits had a brilliant supporting cast. As I mentioned earlier, just about everyone had a sad, Persocom-related story, and if they didn't, then they were closely related to someone who did. Hearing their stories really added depth and doubt to the concept of Persocoms as a whole, though, because of their backstories, they were often more interesting than Hideki himself. I think my favorite characters were the laptop Persocoms, Sumomo and Kotoko. The incredibly hyper Sumomo was always hilarious, and was mainly used for comic relief. Kotoko, on the other hand, was very serious and usually sarcastic. However, she served as a contrast to Sumomo, which made their scenes even funnier.
As for the villains of the series, they're not really all that interesting. I won't give anything away, but I'll just say this: I didn't really find them that threatening.
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Enjoyment/Overall
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Honestly, I loved Chobits. It was actually my first CLAMP title, and it didn't disappoint me at all. It's a beautifully drawn series with a good story and great characters. I wouldn't recommend this to someone who's afraid of a series that has mature themes, but besides that, I would recommend this to pretty much anyone.
(Thanks for reading!) read more
4 of 11 people found this review helpful
| Overall |
8 |
| Story |
7 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Character |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
(Warning: This is long!)
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Story
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Azumanga Daioh is a slice-of-life comedy that was adapted from a four-panel manga -- in other words, it has no real plot to speak of. Basically, it's about six Japanese high school girls getting through high school. Although the series itself is pretty plotless, most of the individual episodes have a theme to hold them together. The episodes tend to either center around an event or a certain character. Since the series follows three years of high school, the episodes can get pretty repetitive; for example, there are three sports fest episodes and three beach episodes. While it's not the most exciting storyline in the world, it does give a very laid-back setting for the humor that takes place.
Speaking of which, let's talk about the humor. Because this is a very character-driven anime, a lot of the jokes come from the antics that the characters get into, be it Tomo's recklessness, Osaka's stupidity, or Chiyo-chan's innocence. Despite what the official summaries may have you believe, this is a pretty slow-paced anime, and there are lot of times when the jokes are followed by awkward silences. While not particularly insane, the humor can be very random at times. (The New Year's dream episode comes to mind...) Since this is a Japanese anime, there are jokes that relate to Japanese culture, and if you're like me, you may not understand some of the jokes. However, the rest of the humor tends to be pretty funny, so that kind of makes up for it.
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Art
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Azuma Kiyohiko's artwork is well known for its use of over-the-top expressions, and the anime does a good job of keeping them in. Sometimes, the humor doesn't come from the actual dialog, but from the expressions on the characters' faces. A great example of this is Mr. Kimura's constant facial expression. He's already a pretty funny character, but the fact that his creepy facial expression barely ever changes makes him downright hilarious at times.
For the rest of the character designs, I have to say, they're pretty bland. Most of the time, the characters are seen in their pink winter school uniforms, which can get pretty boring. For me, the thing that always stands out the most in anime is hair -- I just love shiny, technicolor hair. That being said, Azumanga Daioh is pretty boring in that respect. Most of the characters have dark, straight hair in pretty normal styles. The most interesting hairstyle is Chiyo-chan with light-colored pigtails that look detachable. However, the realistic character designs add to the realistic setting for the series.
As for the rest of the art, it can range from realistic to cartoony. Sometimes, in a way to portray a full and active classroom, you get a bunch of scribbly drawings of people that's just a step above stick figures. Other times, you get beautiful backgrounds that look real. And of course, there are the cartoony animals -- the various cats come to mind.
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Sound
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Upon turning on an episode of this series, the first thing you hear is the opening theme, Soramimi Cake. To be honest, I felt that it was the perfect opening for this anime. Not only is it cute and catchy, but the tone fits the anime very well -- it's fun, but it's not hyper. The song was not dubbed into English, so you get to hear the original Japanese no matter which version you watch. (Which I'm pretty glad about -- the Japanese lyrics are already strange enough if you read the subtitles, but I can't imagine how weird the lyrics would be if they tried to adapt them.) Although I rarely stick around for the ending theme, I did hear it once, and it was quite good -- also a relaxed song that fit the mood of the series.
The soundtrack for the series itself isn't spectacular. Most of the music is very simple and laid-back. However, it goes well with the simple, laid-back nature of the anime, so it's not all that bad, really.
Now, for the most part, I watched the English dub of this show. I have seen some of the original Japanese, though, so I'll say this: While all of the Japanese voices obviously fit very well, I felt that the dub voices were great too. I'm sure that a lot of fans were upset about the treatment of Osaka's accent in the dub, and I admit, I didn't think I was going to be too fond of it either. However, I felt that even Osaka's voice fit well, and I found myself thinking that her southern accent was kinda cute at times. Also, I would like to say that I really enjoyed Chiyo-chan's dub voice. A lot of dubs seem to have trouble with voicing little girls with high pitched voices, and a lot of them tend to sound incredibly faked. This was not the case with Chiyo-chan. I felt that her English voice was very well done -- it didn't sound faked or nasally, just cute.
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Characters
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Ah, yes. The characters are the biggest part of Azumanga Daioh, with a lot of the humor coming from the characters alone. Although it doesn't even take a sentence to describe each one, their basic personalities and interactions with each other make up quite a lot of the series.
As I've mentioned before, the series mostly follows six girls. There's Tomo, who is a reckless idiot; Osaka, who is incredibly slow and spaced out; Sakaki, who is tall and quiet but loves cute things; Chiyo-chan, who is a child prodigy; Kagura, who is really athletic; and there's Yomi who is sarcastic and obsessed with losing weight. Other regular characters include Miss Yukari, the lazy, airhead teacher, Miss Kurosawa (a.k.a. Nyamo), the popular gym teacher, Kaorin, the fangirl who obsesses over Sakaki, and Mr. Kimura, the perverted teacher who likes high school girls.
The characters' interactions are very funny -- however, since this anime has pretty much no plot, there's no actual character development either. Sure, Tomo and Chiyo-chan change their hairstyles slightly, and Sakaki admits to liking cute things, but...None of them really change by the end.
Another thing that can get annoying is that, because the characters don't change much, the jokes about them don't change much either. Sakaki will always get bitten by the gray cat. Kaorin will always fangirl over Sakaki and then get creeped out by Mr. Kimura. Miss Yukari will never drive safely. It just gets really repetitive after a while, and I wish that there was some real character development so the jokes could develop too.
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Enjoyment/Overall
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Personally, I really enjoyed this series. While it's not always piss-your-pants hilarious, it's still an amusing series to watch to pass the time. The character interactions are always fun to watch, but the unchanging personalities and settings make the anime pretty repetitive at times. All in all, it's a good series, and I'd recommend it to anybody who wants something funny and laid-back to watch.
(By the way, if you read all of that, you're amazing.)
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