Non Non Biyori

I honestly feel quite bad that I'm giving this such a low rating compared to everyone else. But oh man... I had to finish this anime on double speed just so I can finish it...
I am not a huge fan of slice of life, but I don't hate it either. And since Renge is such a meme on the interwebs, I decided to watch it... But oh my goodness. Definitely not MY cup of tea.

(Since this is a slice of life and there practically is no plot, I'll just decide to give 5/10.) I thought the art was quite nice. The scenery was ... peaceful, the characters were quite cute, no doubt about that. The sound was... Alright. There was nothing memorable, in my opinion anyway. But oh, the characters... The characters. The only thing that's stopping me from giving it a 1/10 is Hotarun and Suguru, and I'll explain why.

This is just my personal opinion, but I personally detest characters who act/are way stupider than their age. And I know anime is never realistic, but this was just WAY too much. Maybe it's because the characters grew up on the countryside without proper education, but honestly... Really? The idiocy of the characters weren't cute to me at all, it just pissed me off. (It makes sense that my favorite loli character is Shiro from NGNL, who I believe is around the same age as Komari.) I really should have just dropped it at the first couple of episodes, but the reason I stuck with it was the older brother. He was literally my favorite character even though he didn't speak a word. And at least, Hotarun was bearable... Although she was also way too mature for her age (physically and psychologically), it was better than having such stupid characters trying to go through their daily life. I felt my brain cells dying one by one as I was trying to watch this normally, and soon I was watching it at 4 times the original speed.

Although the characters' designs were cute, I felt like I was watching a kids' show. Renge is still a good meme, but this anime personally didn't fit my taste. However feel free to watch it if you're a huge slice of life fan.

This is one of those I had on the ‘must watch’ list for years, and finally got around to it. The iyakishei genre is one of my favorite, and the opening scenes are breathtaking, the music is pleasant and everything about the town and the fields; the peaceful serenity of the everyday in the countryside of Japan is exactly a place you want to be. Non Non Biyori is one of the best known in this genre and is widely loved… So why after such a promising start do I think this show is so dull and overrated?
I’m basically going to complain about everything ... I didn’t like about the anime, and make it sound a lot worse than it actually is… but I feel like I need to justify such a mid rating and explain something that’s been bugging me.

It has a great opening song, which is very inspiring, but everything that follows fails to live up to what the song promises. The problems begin with the characters: Komari and Natsumi are sisters, Renge is in 1st grade, and Hotaru just moved to town. That’s the main cast- these four girls. So right away there’s this imuoto thing going on with Komari and Hotaru develops an extremely odd and not-at-all funny obsession with her that didn’t make sense for the kind of story this seemed to want to tell; a girl moving to this new life in the country.
And Komari isn’t the kind of girl that makes a very good crush- she’s barely grown out of being a loli and acts very immature. Every scene with her and Hotaru is about her complex with her immaturity, and Hotaru makes lovey-dovey eyes at her, and I don’t find it cute or entertaining. But the worst offender in this foursome is that thing with purple hair and lintels for eyelids- RENGE. Oh dear god she is annoying as fuck. It took a few episodes, but pretty soon every second she was talking- in that annoying baby talk sounding desperate yet psychotic- it was like fingernails on a chalkboard!!! And she never shuts up. She points at things and goes “waaaa”- like a baby- and they seem to be playing it up as if it’s funny. And she’s unbelievably stupid. I get that she’s a first grader surrounded by older girls and would not be as smart as them, but when you have a young child around older ones- that usually rubs off on the younger one who will act more mature. If you don’t believe me, watch how your nieces and nephews, or your own children- act around older kids. But in Renge’s case, she is single-mindedly thick as a brick and dumb as a plank of wood to the wide-eyed confusion of all those around her. Possibly one of the best episodes she meets another girl her age- and approaches the new girl the same way she is around the older girls- she acts like a clueless idiot. But then something incredible happens: the new girl is mature, interesting, and kind- which (incredibly) inspires Renge to act like a normal human. Her time spent with the girl are some of the best moments; and the look on her face that doesn’t fully register the shock of realizing she’s moved away abruptly just about made me cry before she did. That moment gets played out a little too long… but… then the anime just moves on from all this as if nothing happened. Renge doesn’t even seem to care anymore. Why? No reasons given, the show could easily have been about how that photographer girl brought Renge out of her shell and taught her a vocabulary higher than an ape- but nope. Half an episode she’s gone, and Renge goes back to being a baby.

The rest of the characters in the show aren’t much better. The teacher seems just as clueless and boneheaded as Renge. I think the strongest character is actually Natsumi, Komari’s older sister. She’s the most unique of all the girls, is somewhat a tomboy, gets into trouble, and runs away from the house when she does. But she’s dragged down by a cast of utter morons.
…And then there’s the brother. UGH. The writers obviously decided they wanted this to be about girls, in most anime that usually means no boys allowed. This show’s answer though is not to banish him completely- but to have him basically be mute, so he’s just a cardboard prop that shows up in the background now and then. It was one of those things that- the attempt at making him an unimportant background prop actually made him more noticeable… his silence is deafening. Literally- the absolute worst moment is in the last episode of season 1 when Renge finds him eating leaves (I can’t explain) and he just stares at her munching the leaves while Renge looks at him with a typically dumb stare… two boneheaded idiots looking at each other with blank faces, unable to say anything. It’s utterly painful to watch, but it sums up this anime perfectly. Who thinks this is a masterpiece??

I dunno.. I don’t hate Non Non Biyori, but I just don’t think it lives up to the praise it gets, and most of all- it did not live up to the expectations I had for it, which may have been unfairly high. That might really be the show’s greatest weakness, that it’s remembered for being better than it actually is. You can tell me the later seasons are better, and I will be glad to take you at your word. I have no plans to watch any more of this show.
If you wanted a calming slice of life anime, there are so many that are better than this. You would have to really like the characters to choose this one- and you’re choosing between an 8 year old who talks like a baby, a teenager who acts like a baby, a new girl with no personality, a teacher who is dumber than all of them; a couple other characters that are cardboard props; a nonexistent story that goes absolutely nowhere, and some nice backgrounds and music. It doesn’t add up to a great anime in my book. 6/10

Season 1 of Non Non Biyori is a great show because the audience gets to watch how a country setting can nurture people and their relationships.
The setting itself is a character in Non Non Biyori. It has a relationship with the characters and it helps them grow and develop. This is amplified by the minimalistic but beautiful art design that accompanies the show. The simple colors add to the personality of the setting, and beautiful backgrounds help give the audience an emotional core to latch onto. This allows for the audience to feel the same emotional connection to the setting as the characters. Thus ... allowing the drama of the narrative to be more immersive.
Then there is the characters themselves, who are simple yet enjoyable to watch. The shows narrative basically consists of situations that the setting puts them in. And what makes this narrative so compelling is the characters themselves. Each character has a very different personality that when clash together make for good television. Furthermore what makes this show so much better than other moe-girl shows is how the characters grow throughout the story. The characters grow by learning to face these situations that are presented to them. Each episode a character learns something about growing up or themselves. But the real crowning goal of Non Non Biyori’s story is the relationships of the characters. Without these very specific relationships that are made possible by the setting; the show would be no different from the usual moe fare. These relationships are great because each of them has a few specific quirks that work well with the other character’s quirks. It’s this perfect balance of quirks that makes them work so well.
There are other pieces of merit within Non Non Biyori as well. For example, there is great comedic delivery given to us from visual presentation of the film. Great timing and shot composition give the comedy the spark that the show needs to stay entertaining. Furthermore the music of the show is very adorable and fitting, and it gives the show the tone and character it needs.
So overall Non Non Biyori gives the medium of anime a strong addition into the slice-of-life genre, and it is a show that can encourage other moe slice-of-life anime to properly use its setting and relationships to create an emotional core for the world presented in the show but also for the people watching.

Non Non Biyori

Art: I absolutely love the art of this show. It is fluid and fresh and looks very new. It is rather interesting that there are so few characters in the show, but each of them are able to be easily distinguished between each other without falling into the stereotypical type casting. The background art is beautiful. The landscape and the countryside really wonderful and the colors are just fantastic. Really this show is about 75% art and scenery.

Sound/Music: There was quite a bit of direction on this title. Really the music is what drives this show outside of the art. They clearly ... knew what they were doing with the sound direction. Having a bit of great music really takes this show to a better place for me. With things that are both fun to look at and nice to listen to it creates an atmosphere that makes me want to get invested into the show.

Story: So, while there isn’t much ‘story’ to this show there is an overall plot, while it is pretty bare. What I could assume to be the main character, Hotaru, comes in to the country from the city and joins a class of four students, all different grades, in a single room. This then leads to the group becoming fast friends and over the course of the year that the story takes place, they go through all sorts of experiences together.

Personal Reflection: I really enjoy story when it comes to shows. While this show doesn’t have much of that, it has beautiful art and wonderful music. My gripe is that there was really no story. I wanted to be able to get invested into the characters, but I felt that they were pretty 2-dimensional, one didn’t even have a single line the entire series! And that made it really hard to enjoy the show. Sure it isn’t a bad show by any means, but to me, i felt that it fell short in a way that I would not recommend it. If you like little-to-no plot and cute characters than go for it, anything else, this might be a pass for you.

Overall Score: 6.5/10

I grew up in the country. This show made me nostalgic in ways I haven't been in some time. There's not a lot to do. You have to make your own fun. It's the epitome of a relaxing show. The scenery really shines and the music sticks out as particularly good, embodying the carefree nature of the show.

Not too much happens story-wise, but that's what I wanted when watching this. The tone seems very similar to "Gochūmon wa Usagi Desu ka? (Is the Order a Rabbit?)" A few episodes really warm your heart.

Apart from a couple of common tropes, the characters are likable ... and even relatable. A good mixture of ages.

Basically, It's an anime based on manga which mostly the story looks like this. I'm not the fan of this type of story.
First, of all first thing you will see in episode 1 which I called this part is "Introduction", And it's a normal thing that most of anime(s) do. If I compare to Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon. This anime has nothing to compared with. And next is opening is "Great" I like the sound of harmonic that merge and sound really enjoyful and the melody or Vocal is match the title, sounds like 3rd year primary school kid is singing a song.
Let's jump ... into story, slice of life anime is okay for me but it's not my type. I watched many of anime(s) with slice of life and I do not really enjoy all of anime that I watched which is this one does too. It's not that comedy yet not drama. When it comes to drama event it's just not drama it's just passed away and it's not drama that not even touched my heart.
Character. Hmm... I could say in one word is "not optimized" and this is the main selling point of the manga "Renge" the girl who is really genius but not smart. When doing something people will be like "Oh my god she is really good at this" and my thought is not like that it's too overpowered but I might think that she was taught by someone who has knowledge.
Okay, now the characters. Main protagonists has Hotaru, Renge, Komari, Natsumi. Hotaru she is a kind of too joyful when she is with Komari, I mean she is too annoying. But why is that happening I don't know. Renge is a girl who has a recorder that is the main instrument of the main theme. Sound really ironic good and well made. But art skill is better than her friend does but worse than me in 1st year I did better than Renge but with the long time that I didn't draw so I completely lose this skill. Most importantly that the most of her is the voice. She has low-tone voice right in the alto section. Dialogue is annoying a bit. Komari is a tsundere girl that doesn't even admit herself that she is small. Natsumi is the girl that playful talkative. So the non-protagonist is just a background all I called "Known person" because we didn't even pay attention to these people.
Sound. OST is very well. Relaxing yet okay.
Art is mediocre to another anime.
Enjoyment is just like the radio when you don't pay attention to it.
Overall for the fan of slice of life anime. You watch nothing will go wrong and not disappointed.

Sometimes watching an serie with no story in it. That is fun at some moments. But this serie was for me just a chill anime. And why? Well I can explain it to you...

As I said first there is no story in it. Its more like a parody of the life from the girls in a small farmers village. There is really some calm music wich make me...as a ADHD person very calm after a long day of work. And personal its not the greatest serie but still good enough to watch 1 time.

The artwork in this serie was good, no doubt about it. Easy ... to watch and some of the buildings where nice made.

There are 4 MC's and all of them are girls. A little girl who is confussing me sometimes. A older Little sister, Who is very unconfident about her length and age. A younger Big sister and the sister of the smaller one. Little bit a rebel sometimes but has some nice moments. And the new girl in town. A big child from tokyo who is in love? Well she is kinda weird. Maby thats why I like her so much (hehehe)

The story is in Parody so no direct line and cliff hangers. Maby thats the bad part about this serie, or not? Well if you like parody series and watching someone life in a small village. Where is absolute nothing to do. And happy with the old stuff. (Super Nintendo Console and other stuff.) When i'm typing this maby its not so bad to life there. Serious all the new stuff makes me maby a little bit arrogant. And trying the old stuff again for maby a year or two shall be nice.

Well guys see you next year i'm gonna visit this place (hehehe joke...)

This serie was fair not one of the best if watched but still fun to watch for you.

Story: A peaceful anime and it's just the main cast just living their life, nothing wrong with that.

Art: I like the background with the nature and the opening is quite charming.

Sound: It's good, nothing else to say about that.

Characters: I don't really care for any of them, but will give credit to the back story between Kaede and Renge, that one is pretty adorable. I hoped there would have been more scenes of Natsumi getting embarrassed like that one clip in episode 9. Komari was kinda of annoying with how guillible she is when a misunderstanding happens.

Enjoyment: It was a peaceful ... anime to watch, but not my cup of tea but it could be yours if you have time to spare.