Now that I have said this, I do have to say that I am one of those people… I actually like this show a lot. It doesn’t try to be something its not, so many shows try to be something else. This show, well… it just is. Here is an example, the very first show, they spend 7 minutes talking about different food and how they like to eat it. They don’t even explain the main characters, they just thrust you in. The characters are mostly 2 dimensional, though sometimes they do show little 3D characteristics.
I think the best way to explain why there is no story if I talk about the characters and the manga. First off, the manga is actually all about a 4 panel joke base much like our own comics in the newspaper. Because of this, they have a limited time to get a point across. Even then, most of the Japanese jokes may go straight over people’s heads if they don’t know any of the otaku life.
Now, the characters… Konata Izumi is the bona-fide otaku. She loves anything anime and even plays a couple dating sims along side her father. She may be good at sports but she would rather watch anime then be in a club. Kagami Hiirragi is a rather interesting character, acting rather tomboyish and crude but in the end, has a sweet side to her especially for her twin sister. Tsukasa Hiiragi is the younger twin that is rather clumsy and ditsy. The last one I will talk about is Miyuki Takara who is pretty much a moe girl with big breasts and cute glasses. She is clumsy but rather smart.
When the other characters come on, it just seemed like they rushed to add more characters. You see some more then others like Kanata’s little cousin. The others just seem to be pushed off to the side, and don’t get much screen time.
The artwork is very childish and bright. Although it’s like that, it’s very clean with characters going into chibi faces and sometimes they miss shape the face but its normal for comic shows. For something done by Kyoto Animation, the creators of Air and Clannad, this is way lacking but yet, I feel if it was anything like those shows that it would probably be off a bit. The endings both seem a little out of place, the live action a lot more then the other.
The voices are pretty fun, the English and Japanese actually sound very similar and that can be good and bad. Some characters sound really high pitched and really harsh on the ears. I like how the characters are mostly voiced by seasoned veterians which adds to the Otaku fandom even more as if you watch anime at all in the English dub, you have at least heard one of the many star voice actors here. The only voice I didn’t like was Patty’s. She just sounds like she’s forcing her voice. All in all, this is much like Azumanga Daioh.
