So, which anime studio did the animation for this? Is it Kyoto Animation? AIC ASTA? No. From what I heard, it is……..JC STAFF!??!?!?!??!?
The same J.C. Staff that made the awful first entry of an already awful show Ikki Tousen?
Not only that, it’s the same company that made my least favorite anime and what I considering to be the most awful piece of s*** anime I ever seen…….Eiken.
The characters are:
Chiyo Mihama - a child prodigy who has skipped five grades to tenth grade (the first grade in Japanese high school) [2] at the start of the series and is still at the top of the class.
Tomo Takino - a very hyper energetic (sometimes annoying as fuck) and competitive girl, despite being nonathletic and a slacker. She is extremely impulsive and never considers—nor cares about—the consequences of anything she says or does.
Koyomi “Yomi” Mizuhara - she is a grade-school friend and general antithesis of Tomo's. She is the voice of reason, and the most mature and sometimes bitter of her friends—and as such, the comic foil to the others' silliness.
[Both Yomi and Tomo are seen as manzai (a traditional style of stand-up comedy) comedians, with Yomi being the tsukkomi (the straight man) and Tomo being the boke (the simple-minded one).]
Ayumu “Osaka” Kasuga – Well, you guess it, a transfer student from Osaka and many people (mostly Tomo) at first, expecting her to act like the stereotypical Osakan—loud, exuberant and fond of bawdy jokes—chose for her the nickname "Osaka", although Ayumu's behavior could not be more different as in she considers herself “slow” and “spacey”.
Sakaki – The tall, shy and soft-spoken one of the group and sometimes uncomfortable with her height and physique and because she seldom speaks (something I can relate to), she is often misinterpreted and admired as being “tough”, “mysterious” and “cool” and that her reputation compounded by her natural athletic ability. She is also obsessed with cute things and blushes whenever she sees a cat or dog, but whenever she pets a cat, she always get bitten and that’s play for comedic effect.
Kagura – While she makes most appearances in the first year, she does not become a true acquaintance of the group until sometime later, joining Yukari's class in the 2nd year (Yukari selects her as a ringer to win the school athletic competitions). She is often similar to Tomo in her level of sheer energy and lack of interest in studying but isn’t prone to her impulsive outbursts.
The two main teachers, Yukari Tanizaki & Minamo “Nyamo” Kurosawa, both of whom are high school friends and sometimes rivals, despite of that, they are still at good terms with each other – Yukari being the girls’ English and homeroom teacher of Class 3 with vary of unconventional methods and has a close relationship with the class, especially the main characters (obviously), and often selfish, irresponsible, miserly, and generally dysfunctional, and shamelessly expects somebody to not only tolerate all of this, but to enable it. Nyamo is the P.E. teacher at the school and is very kindhearted, popular with the students and less obnoxious than Yukari.
Also, Yukari's driving is just horrible. If her and the mom from Ponyo ever be in a race, expect a lot of casualities and warped psyches.
Other characters include Kimura, the only regular male character who is a creepy and semi-perverted teachers who personally just creeps the hell out of me and his character design just says to me, “Somebody call Chris Hansen right away.” Also, he openly admits becoming a teacher to be close with high-school girls. Still, he really is the only cringe worthy character on that show.
Kaori¸ or also known as Kaorin, is the unofficial part of the main group and yes, she is the one who either is infatuated or has a crush on Sakaki and nobody is aware of this and it’s unknown that Sakaki would reciprocate or if Kaori would want to……..well, guess. But I bet a lot of fan fiction writers would like to contribute to that. Also, she has to deal with the very creepy Kimura and I don’t blame her for mostly acting in shock most of the series, even if it can be very annoying.
The animation is very gag-based and has these strange and chibi/moe-style visuals and it fits appropriately for this type of series with its disjointed and oblique humor. It may not be a visual marvel but compare to the other JC Staff anime I reviewed so far, it is glorious. The music is very upbeat and very cutesy and could sometimes drive you crazy and even the names of the opening and ending songs could drive you into a sugar coma. Get it? The songs for the opening and ending are called, “Soramimi Cake” and “Raspberry Heaven”. I’m surprised they didn’t make a song called “Vanilla Sky”.
FINAL VERDICT: I really did enjoyed or love this show. It makes laugh among numerous times, while most of the characters can get annoying, it isn’t overbearing and nerve-racking, they can rebound on their likeness and while it does get emotional, it doesn’t get depressing and I can myself re-watching this. Would I recommend this to people? I have no clue about that.
Maybe.
Maybe not.
If it fits your taste.
