Azumanga Daiou The Animation

I'd like to begin this by saying sorry to those who loved it, as I can see there are a lot who do. It's just that I look for something more in anime. I'd heard this anime lacked plot, focussed more the slice of life qualities, and had little point to it. I was ready for that. But I didn't expect the truth in these points to be as extreme as it was.

(I would also like to let readers know that I've seen half of this anime. I may not have watched it all, but I did give it a chance.)

Plot:
Even those who loved it ... will agree that there's no plot. I can extend that and tell you that, if you're looking for something with depth, don't look here. I didn't find any; and I looked pretty hard. The focus is instead on repeated jokes and silly/dumb/immature characters (Osaka anyone?) getting into "amusing" situations; none of which I found that amusing...

Characters:
I found all of the characters a bit grating, aside from the taller girls (who didn't really talk). Their childish demeanours made it feel like I was watching something aimed at young children. Despite there being a couple of underlying truths about (some) people in the ways the characters acted, I can't say I identified with any of them.

Humour:
Comedy is what this is praised highly for, right? Well, I couldn't understand why... Not only did it not work on multiple levels; the repeated jokes (e.g. one character getting bitten by a cat; flapping pigtails making the girls fly) just felt unwitty and chidlish. In short, they did nothing for me. At the end of each episode I couldn't help but feel it had all been a waste of time and money.

So what're its redeeming qualities? Uhm. Well, the animation itself is pretty nice. Each character has been designed well physically to match the personality of their character. The quality of the DVDs is good... There's a choice of dubs and subs, although whether that's a good thing depends on who you are. Apart from that... I can't really pinpoint any.

Azumanga doesn't have a plot. There is nothing in Azumanga that even vaguely resembles a story. So it must be character driven, right? However, Azumanga lack conflict and character development. The show covers 3 years of their lives (High School) and after 3 years all the characters look and act the same. umm wait Chyio-chan did change her hair style by putting her pig tails lower…

So what exactly is Azumanga? Azumanga is a gag anime, designed to get a quick laugh out of the audience. They use an ensemble of students and teachers with distinct quirks ... all of which are female (except one). We watch the characters go through a variety of normal everyday situations. Through the characters quirks and exaggerated expressions, we get most of the humor in the show.

The character's quirks and jokes are very funny. That is until you watch a few more episodes. Then the jokes get old and very repetitive. How many times did the same cat bite Sakaki? How many times does Koarin obsess over Sakaki? Yes, we know you are a freak that likes high school girls. The repeated use of the same quirks makes many of the characters seem shallow and one-dimensional. I mean is there anything else beyond the two, three word description you can give to each character (ie "airhead" "pervert" "smart/cute" "athletic" "energetic"). The jokes did not come from the characters, the characters themselves were the joke. What breaks this anime for me is that even the situations are repetitive. How many times did we have a Sport fest, culture fest, and beach episode? By the time I was at the 5th episode I was getting bored, ok I’ll admit there was the occasional funny scene.

An interesting thing about this anime is its pacing. Azumanga is not the fast, hyperactive anime that most AMV's will lead you to believe. In fact, many times it’s pretty slow paced and requires you to be in a certain mood. Perhaps the use of still shots and repeated animation gives this feel. The use of "still shot" sometimes help establishing the mood similar to Neon Genesis Evangelion did, but for comedic purposes. In turn, the use of repeated animation can get tiring and boring fast. Perhaps its a pet peeve of mine concerning repeated animation.

The animation was bright and very vivid albeit fairly simplistic. However, the animation in general was not really note worthy.

Azuamga's greatest strength was its nostalgic mood and feel it often invokes. It reminds us of a more carefree time, especially since there are no real conflicts. My favorite scene was one that invokes a strong nostalgic feel. That scene was in the end of episode 9 were the main characters were walking and laughing in the field of clouds.

Perhaps I’m being too critical on Azumanga, the source, a 4 panel comic can’t really give that much substance, right? However, I think about Lucky Star, also based on a 4 panel comic and realized how Lucky Star is superior to Azumanga in every possible way. In addition, the jokes come from the character in Lucky Star, not the character themselves being jokes.

Overall: Everyone was talking about Azumanga Daioh, saying "OMG check it out its funny stuff!" so I took a look see, and I have to say, I am very disappointed... I seriously dont see how all these people can call Azumanga Daioh a truly funny or great series... People might say, "oh you dont get the jokes", but I get them, they just are not funny... its a series of EXTREMELY weak jokes that some kids would laugh to, maybe is funny because all the jokes are so bad its funny how bad they are? I dont know, Lucky Star, Inukami, Seto no Hanayome, and ... a couple other series make me laugh like mad at times, but Azumanga Daioh makes me even more bored then when I started watching it. in the end its up to the watcher to really say if its funny or not, if you dont laugh your pants off in the first couple episodes, I doubt its worth torturing yourself for the others. to me it seems to be made of fail... but others may say otherwise

Story: well, theres not much of a story, its just random moments in school life

Art: well its not bad looking, usually the art is pretty bland though...

Sound: nothing really outstanding, but nothing objectionable.

Character: well... the characters are weird, but to me, it seems like its a bunch of pretty boring normal kids in school that might have a couple exiting occurrences happening to them.

Enjoyment: I swear, I came into this expecting a good laugh, instead I nearly drift asleep... I really dont understand why so many people think that it is funny. If you find these weak bland jokes funny, then you might like this series, or else its not worth watching.

Maybe one of the most overrated anime I have ever seen IMO. Got to about 6-8 eps and I had to drop the series because it was so painful to watch.

- Story: There is none, period.

- Art: The artwork might be the only half decent think in that anime.

- Sound: Nothing special about it.

- Character: The main character is boring as hell. She is just a girl with attention disorder. I don't even remember the other characters, oh yeah there is that perv math teacher... meh.

- It's slow, there is nothing that makes me want to watch the next episode, no story to follow ... and the jokes made me smile at best.

- Overall. Not sure why it s rated so high. I can't find anything in that anime that made me want to watch more but since my friend recommended it to me, I tried, really!

Being regarded as a classic of the slice-of-life comedy genre, I was prepared to enjoy Azumanga Daioh. Unfortunately, it's just not funny.

Where other slice-of-life comedies such as Nichijou and Lucky Star create characters from which comedy can arise, Azumanga tries to make the characters themselves the entire joke, relying on repetitive one-note gags based on character's quirks: Chiyo-chan is cute, Osaka is dumb, Sakaki-san is aloof but likes cute things, etc. And I mean it when I say it's repetitive - the first time Sakaki gets bit by a cat, it's not very funny. The tenth time Sakaki gets bit by a cat, with ... the same set-up and execution, it's...still not very funny.

One of Azumanga's biggest problems is that these characters aren't developed much besides their singular personality quirks. Osaka and Chiyo-Chan are the most popular characters from Azumanga, and my own theory is that this is because they may be the only characters who have more than one personality trait, making them into more than the mere archetypes that make up the other characters. The other characters, especially the ones who were unlucky enough to receive the more forgettable personality quirks such as "straight man" and "has a crush on another character", are incredibly forgettable.

Credit where it's due, Azumanga can be funny sometimes. The anime has a talent for pacing, slow and awkward, letting the comedy slowly set in and allowing each joke time to breathe, something which elevates even the most one-note of one-note gags. The real problem arises when Azumanga attempts to write similar jokes based on characters whose quirks are in-your-face unfunny. Maybe it was funny enough when Yukari, whose only trait is her rivalry with Minamo, forced her way into Minamo's house to sleep on her bed, but now that she's breaking her things and taking her money it's just irritating. The worst offender is the character Kimura, whose one trait is that even though he's a teacher, he's a pervert who's sexually attracted to the high-schoolers he teaches. There's a real disconnect between the anime and the audience as Azumanga seems to regard Kimura as a harmless rascal as he comments on Sakaki's breasts, while the audience is merely uncomfortable. Maybe it'd be funny if the joke weren't merely "wow, this guy sure is a pervert, huh?", but that really is all there is to it. All twenty minutes of episode four are dedicated to repeating this punchline.

All-in-all, while Azumanga Daioh is far from the worst anime I've ever watched, it's one of the ones I find myself most disappointed by, seeing as Azumanga is frequently compared to Nichijou and Lucky Star, which are two of my favourite anime. In my eyes, however, Azumanga fails where those shows succeed, first failing to create good characters from which comedy can arise and then by failing to create much comedy besides.

I went into this anime with high hopes. I'd heard good things about it and was expecting a lot for the anime which "defined the SoL genre"

Imagine my disappointment when I found out it was so boring I struggled to watch past episode 1. I kept an open mind until episode 7 when one scene finally switched me off. 40 seconds of nothing, people who have seen it should know what I mean.

People like to compare this show to the likes of Nichijou and Lucky Star. While I didn't think Lucky Star was amazing, it was far more enjoyable than this, and Nichijou is in ... an entirely different league to both.

The only remotely interesting part of the show was the rivalry between the teachers.

In the end I decided it simply wasn't worth my time to continue watching. I gave it more than a fair shot. Perhaps if I had watched it back when it aired I'd have liked it more, or even if it was one of my first anime, but as it stands it really doesn't hold up for first time viewers in 2019.

Azumanga Daioh, eh?

the story is very simple at first. It's all about high school girls. Typical high schoolers.The story resembles about the random things or maybe the typical things that happens inside the classroom. But the story is really funny. So it's really enjoyable to he viewers.

The art is poor. Yes, it's poor. Sorry for all the A.D fans but, guys, this IS a review. I can write whatever I want. cause it's MY review. So yeah, back to the topic. It's nothing really interesting. I mean, I think this was made a long long LONG time ago. So, I'll make an exemption ;)

The ... sound effects are okay. Simple and very natural. The voice characters are cute. Although, the Opening and Ending song is too much of a noise. I dislike the first part which kinda irritates my ears. It's unpleasant most especially when you're using Youtube as your T.V to watch it. Hee .

The characters are well planned. There different students as well as teachers that resemebles everyone in the society. There are nerds, nerds, cuties, etc.

Enjoyment. IT"S FUNNY! Watch it.

TL;DR - If you are a fan of fun, meaningful, and hilarious slice of lifes with fun characters that offer up enjoyable characters and memorable humor, this anime has unfortunately none of those things. This is perhaps one of the worst pieces of animation I will ever have the misfortune of viewing with my own two eyes. This anime's audience in my opinion is narrowed down to boys of the age 12-14, and nothing else. If you are a fan of both infantile slapstick and pandering to pedophiles, by all means please dive head first into this show. If not, I suggest you stay away ... from an anime that will hopefully be forgotten as people turn their attention to shows with something, anything, to give.

I will preface this review by declaring my love for shows like Nichijou, Lucky Star, Polar Bear Cafe, and many other anime from the Slice of Life genre. Azumanga Daioh has always been on my radar as something I should probably watch sooner or later, but after having watched about 3 episodes of this anime however, I wish it had been never.

Slice of life is in of itself a calmer and much more slow genre, as the workings of every day life don't necessarily lend themselves to something of a fast and exciting pace, but Azumanga Daioh is even slower still. Pace, for me personally, has usually nothing to do with how much I'll enjoy the show however, as I enjoy anime such as Polar Bear Cafe which has a probably even slower pace than this. No, pacing is not the reason I dislike this show; the reason is much more simple. This show is bereft of either value or tasteful humor. I would much more compare this anime to that of today's ecchi, which is both distasteful and unappetizing to most people, as is this anime. I will thus detail my dislike for this show, because on paper I should like it, but in reality this anime will forever scar the genre of Slice of Life in my very humble opinion.

The...substance of this anime consists of jokes surrounding 6 high school girls and two or three of their teachers living their lives in a very slapstick sort of way, but the only word I can use to describe watching this show is...embarrassing. The jokes in this show could perhaps appeal to maybe an 11 year old boy...maybe. The jokes in this show I suppose take advantage of the characters, none of who are relatable or realistic in any way, and while that in of itself isn't a bad thing, the characters of this anime are horrendous.

The characters of this anime all seem to have a flaw of some sort, but the flaws pointed out are not only shallow and uninteresting, they are also completely nonsensically rude and overall abrasive to watch. The female teachers that are almost more important than the six girls at most times are embarrassing to watch as well, and the teacher "Yukari" is the most abrasive in the show. This leads me to the male teacher in the show; the incel pedophile who is hard to look at and ruins the mood of this show.

Perhaps this anime is dated, and perhaps the humor has simply not aged well enough to be likeable to a more modern audience, but I would argue that if I were to have seen this show even mere years after its release, I would have found it both unappetizing and boring at best. This anime shares so many similarities to the ecchi genre, but is neither as lewd or generally as straightforward as the shows in that genre.

This anime was...grueling for me to watch. The characters have a semblance of fun that I attempted to latch onto, but these characters are puppet-show-tier simplistic, with each and every personality in this show as flat as a board. This anime is based off the 4-koma by the same name, and perhaps reading it may enlighten me to the point of this show, but as of writing this review, I am filled with some of my deepest loathing an indigestion I have ever experienced from watching an anime.

If you watch ecchi and are fine with no plot, no depth, no artistic or intrinsic value, then go ahead and watch this anime. I personally will have to finish this anime while intoxicated at a bare minimum. I don't enjoy berating an anime that has a deep foothold in classic anime fans everywhere, but I truly beg this anime to offer up something better than at least its first three episodes, because that is all I will most likely ever have the strength to watch.

I am a huge fan of the slice-of-life genre. Something about seeing cute girls sit around and do... Stuff is somehow entertaining for me. Slice-of-life however, seems to be one of the most hated genres only second to ecchi/hentai stuff. The only expectation to this rule seems to be a few iyashikei (healing) slice-of-life shows and Azumanga Daioh. While I could rant on how the iyashikei genre isn't very good, I am instead going to rant about why Azumanga Daioh, one of the most celebrated slice-of-life anime, is one of my least favorite ones out there, as I do not like this at all.

Now, the ... most important thing in a slice-of-life shows is the characters. While I consider characters the most important part of all anime, as if you don't care about the characters, what's the point of watching them, this is especially true with slice-of-life anime, where the whole point is watching a random group of people mess around and do stuff. If these characters fall flat, then the show automatically falls flat too. A common complaint for the slice-of-life genre is that it recycles character archetypes a lot. Now, I personally consider that to be part of the genre and judge the characters not by whether we've seen their personality ten times before, but how much they add new stuff to their personality and become their own character. Now, Azumanga Daioh, being one of the first “a bunch of school girls mess around” show creating all of these archetypes we see so much in today's slice-of-life, the characters in Azumanga Daioh would be unique enough that everyone would want to rip them off, and the answer to that question is a big no.

While you don't go to slice-of-life shows looking for multi-layered characters, you can't just give them a personality and role with it, you need to flesh out the personality and add details to it and that is one thing Azumanga falls at miserably. The teacher, Yukarin, is lazy, Tomo is the energetic goofball, Chiyo is the small, cute, and smart one, Yomi is the straight man in the group, Osaka is the ditz, Sakaki is the tomboy who likes cute things, and Kagura... Is tomboyish? I guess? That's all there is to it. Nothing more. That's literally the whole show right there. These have to be some of the most one-sided characters I've seen in any slice-of-life anime.

So due to the fact we have a group of dull characters with only one or two traits to them, the comedy suffers. And there is no plot to this show, just comedy. Jokes get over-used all the time. Goofy, random stuff happens for no reason to be goofy and random, and some people might, but I do not find random humor to be that funny. Well, okay, maybe it's funny in all doses, but if I sit through a show where the whole purpose is goofy random humor, I just get used to the randomness and it isn't funny anymore. I didn't laugh once through the energetic comedy FLCL as the comedy just bounced off me as once I quickly got used to the randomness, you well, get used to the randomness and it doesn't become funny anymore. While Azumanga Daioh does try to pull out a more slow pace than other random comedies out there, in a way that's even worse as it drains whatever personality this show is trying to have even more. Not to mention that four episodes in, whatever comedy the show had quickly gets old as these are one-sided characters with nothing to them and they can't do much else besides act to their one-sided personality. Not to mention that this show reuses plots so much. Three beach episodes, 3 sport festival episodes,and 2 festivals. That means that 5 episodes in this show reuse plots from previous episodes. And stock footage too if I recall correctly.

Which brings me to my next negative on this show, the animation,which, to be honest, sucks. Characters never move while talking, the character designs are about as undetailed as you can get, with some of the cast members even looking alike as there's little variation. Backgrounds are dull and just fade in. Footage is sometimes repeated for little reason expect to save money. The voice actors are also pretty mediocre too, but who can blame them with the terrible characters they're put into. The music is rather good though, with catchy background tunes and a very memorable opening and ending theme.

Azumanga Daioh Final Consensus
Story- Comedy falls flat and relies too much on randomness-3.
Characters- A terrible, one-sided cast-3.
Art-Very poor- 4.
Sound- Dull voice actors, good music-6.5.
Comedy anime around 2004 must have all sucked if this is seen as one of the greats in the genre (and now that I think about it, the only other comedy from around that time that I ever see get recommend is Cromartie High School, so perhaps that's true). Azumanga Daioh is everything a slice-of-life anime should not be. While you cannot ignore its influence on the genre and on anime in general, I still cannot recommend this to anyone. Overall, a score of 4.