Jan 19, 2014
First review, please don't hurt me ;w;
Non Non Biyori is one of the best slice of life animes I've ever seen, and probably the best anime for the latter half of 2013. It offers everything you usually expect from a slice of life - comedy, relaxation, some more emotional moments - basically, LIFE at its finest. But let's start from the beginning.
Non Non Biyori tells the story of four girls living in the country. Ichijou Hotaru, a fifth-grader from Tokyo had to move out due to her parents' work duties. The school in the country isn't exactly what she expected - together with her there
...
are only 5 students, each one from a different year. There she meets the rest of our lovely main cast:
- Miyauchi Renge (or Ren-chon), a seven year old girl with great imagination,
- Koshigaya Komari (or Koma-chan), an eight-grader with a height complex and the yuri love interest of Hotarun,
- Koshigaya Natsumi (or Nattsun), the younger, energetic sister of Komari.
The fifth student is Koshigaya Suguru, the older brother of Komari and Natsumi who actually never gets to say a thing - it's a running gag. There's also room for a few side characters - my personal favorite was Kagayama Kaede, referred to by the rest of the girls as "Candy Store".
You get to see a lot of funny situations they are encountering - there are of course your mandatory summer/winter/New Year/school festival episodes, however, they are made quite differently, so you won't get a deja vu. Take the school festival as an example - remember there only are 5 students, and you should get the idea. Overall the story was handled masterfully - all slice of life series should look like NNB.
As for the art - I had no bigger remarks. It looked just like the rest of modern animes, luckily there was no 3D art (which I despise in anime). The backgrounds were created with a lot of detail - I assume the location the anime takes place in was based on an original place, because there is always a photo of a landscape at the end of each episode. You get to see a lot of wonderful, detailed places that just feel natural - a lot of it is shown in Episode 1. My personal favorite moment was at the end of the first episode, when the main cast approached a cherry tree - it was a great part. As for character designs, they were good, but sometimes you could notice a minor flaw.
I really liked the soundtrack and voicing for this anime. The music gives a peaceful, almost lazy vibe - a perfect example would be when Renge plays on her recorder for a longer while, walking down a road. I wasn't a big fan of the opening, but the ending, sung by the 4 main seiyuus was very enjoyable and silly. As for the voices, the seiyuus did a very good job, it wasn't above the usual standards though. Renge's voice was funny and memorable - I'm not going to forget the "Nyanpasu!" she greets everyone with, miss Koiwai Kotori who voiced her did a great job.
All of the characters were lovable - Hotarun's silly ideas about Komari, Komari's puberty shenanigans, Nattsun's laid-back attitude or Renge's childishness were a lot of fun to watch and couldn't be possibly developed better. The side characters also deliver - they're funny and memorable, Candy Store and Renge's sister, who is also a teacher in their school were the best. I feel that the running joke of Suguru being silent was overused and we should have at least gotten a short sentence from him in the last episode.
Overall, I really, really enjoyed Non Non Biyori and will try to recommend it to anyone looking for a good slice of life series. There's just a certain feeling about this anime that makes you think about it and miss it more and more. The over 20 minute-long episodes pass like a few seconds and you really crave for more. I will be impatiently waiting for the OVA and hope for another season.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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