Mistake number one. Assuming that 4-5 eps wasn't enough to really "get" this anime for what it was: Mistake number two. Most people fall into one of two groups; those that really really like the series and those people like myself that were not impressed by the series in the slightest. If you don't like the series after 4-5 episodes stop watching.
Art:
The art in Azumanga Daioh is decent, not bad but nothing really ground-breaking either.
Rating: 7
Sound:
The voice acting was just about equivalent to the art of the series. My opinion of the voice acting in this series is probably biased by the fact that the nature of each character was tied to the voice acting so take this with a grain of salt. **The Japanese sub is very much better than the dub btw
Rating: 7
Character:
Where to begin. Tomo was annoying; no let me rephase that: Tomo was half the reason why I couldn't finish this series for as long as I did. Chiyo and Yomi were probably the better of the major characters in that they managed to not be either annoying, have ADHD or leave long unnecessary pauses in their speech.
Rating: 4
Story:
There isn't one. This is a slice of life anime that took the genre to the extreme. The "jokes" used in the series that everyone seems to find funny for some reason get old pretty quickly. Sakaki getting bitten by cats for example; funny the first few times but after a while it makes you wonder why the series kept reusing it... So goes every other bit of humor in the series. Ah yes the awkward pauses... How could I forget... This is the only series I could find that does this and for good reason.
Rating: 4
Enjoyment:
I didn't really enjoy watching the series much. I have a need to finish animes once I start them; so Azumanga Daioh ended up being an anime that I've had to force myself to complete. That's not a good sign.
Rating: 4
Overall:
Azumanga Daioh is probably the most overrated series I have ever seen. There is no plot; you've heard this before from other reviews and even some of the fans themselves but we are so very not kidding about this it isn't even funny. You could start midway in the series and miss absolutely nothing of importance in regard to plot. Yes there were times where the series was funny but much more often than not, the jokes were repetitive and punctuated by awkwardly long pauses. Chiyo and Yomi were the show's major redeeming characters and Tomo, the comic relief of the series, just turned out to be (see above) annoying rather than funny.
Rating: 5
