Story 10/10
I can understand why people can overlook the plot, but I found that it was really subtle, appropriate and really beautiful. What I saw were basically two arcs: the first is before Nano goes to school and the second is after she goes to school. If you put those together, you pretty much get the plot of the entire series.....Nano goes to school. It was the details and the build up that made me love the plot so much. Nano is a robot (is that a spoiler?) so she is kept around the house to do chores. At the same time she lacked the confidence to try to fit in with other children (she's 2 years old apparently) because of the key on her back and was afraid that she will be excluded for being a robot. Short scenes throughout the first arc were explicitly placed here and there that show that Nano really wanted to go to school, but it wasn't really emphasized until around midway through the season when Sakamoto-San mentions it out loud. I picked up on these hints over the course of many episodes by reading Nano's body language, so when she finally went to school it was kind of emotional for me. It made me think about what a blessing it is to be able to go to school with other kids your age.
My final point to add concerning the plot was an interesting quotation that Sasahara slipped in near the end of the season. He said something like "everyday life is a miracle" (that's the name of the show!), and after seeing how happy Nano was going to school and making friends, that sentence hit me like a train. These kind of hard hitting quotes kind of pop up here and there throughout the series and they are all relevant to the theme of everyday life.
I was really surprised by these couple details that swung the mood around, and I hope that everyone who watches this series will be able to see them and appreciate them as well.
Art 10/10
Though the art was very simple, the quality was just really good. I guess you could compare it to drawing stick figures in high definition. There are a lot of interesting background details in a lot of the scenes too, and the animation for certain scenes were just hilariously good. Well done KyoAni.
Sound 10/10
The opening theme songs were so amazingly hyper and the ending themes were sweet. Perfect for getting up in the morning and laying down in bed at night (kind of like a routine day! hmmm....). One of the reasons I like to watch subbed anime more than dubbed is because Japanese voice actors are pretty amazing. I think one thing that was kind of notable in Nichijou was the screaming, which they pull off very well and adds to the absurdly outrageous humor of the show.
Character 10/10
The characters were some of the most attractive aspects of Nichijou, so if you found that you didn't really like them you will probably not enjoy it so much.
I already wrote a little bit about my favourite character Nano. She's really cute when she sees cockroaches and the last few moments of the last episode were unexpectedly emotional because of her key.
I really liked how three of the main characters were designed as three very distinctly different people, but still somehow got along as best friends. Yukko and Mai never understood each other at all but they are still able to make up with each other and play games together (without knowing the rules; were there even rules?). From watching the way they interact with each other I often questioned whether they were actually friends, but it was adorable how every time Yukko would just shrug it off and continue.
There was and interesting bit of character development when Mio was "crushed" by her crush (hahaha dkm). After finally calming down she says something like "life is like baseball: you just never know what's going to happen". It's kind of random how she compares it to baseball, but at the same time I found that to be really relatable and I think about that quotation pretty often in my life.
Another special moment for me was some half episode near the end of the series where Mio's friends put together a gift for her. What they gave her totally sumo-slammed my heart because it came completely unexpected from the fun, somewhat shallow relationships we see in most of the series.
Enjoyment 10/10
Nichijou is the kind of show that caters to a pretty specific type of humor, and if you weren't charmed by the characters you probably will not enjoy it. Each half episode either features some outrageous random episode, or progresses the pretty mundane everyday life of the characters. I found that I enjoyed it the entire time I was watching it, and was suddenly amazed by the unexpectedly emotional bits they snuck in.
Overall 10/10
I found that this show was outstanding and I totally did not expect it. It was recommended to me by a close friend who thought I would appreciate the kind of humor it offered, but I ended up seeing a lot more than just that.
I hope that after reading this you will be able to appreciate the intricacy and subtlety that Nichijou snuck in because I think it's often overlooked and consequently underrated.
