Azumanga Daioh

This all too cute little anime was actually unforgettable. The story line is pretty much a slice of life comedy but it has no romance which is a nice change. At first, without ever hearing about the show, I thought that this would be a romantic comedy or teen problems like all the other slice of life shows that I had watched but luckily it wasn’t. It’s a lot like Lucky Star but a little more realistic with characters you can relate to. It has pretty much no actual story so the characters keep the show going and do they ever. Each character is pretty much someone that you know or a mixture of who you know from the hyperactive girl to the girl who was a little too mature looking. Also, against the idea of every other school slice of life out there, the characters actually do grow and each season of the show (and I use the term Season loosely) is one of their grades from freshmen to senior and has them actually graduating at the end. That is not really a spoiler because the show is so random half the time that you never know which way you’re going to be pulled towards.
The Animation is rather good and fluid, but keeping a very simple tone to it. The artwork doesn’t really have much detail and I actually like it for that since it keeps its innocence and makes you look at the characters personality more. Sometimes they will even point out the characters different traits from Chiyo-Chan’s pigtails to Sakaki’s large breasts. They even make fun of themselves at times.
The Voice acting is perfect in both English and Japanese, Jessica Boone sounds just like Tomoko Kaneda in Chiyo’s voice. Some jokes work better for me in Japanese then in English but either area works for both.
The Music is cutesy but sometimes is annoying that it gets stuck in your head. The Opening is stuck in my head to this day and I can’t get it out!
This is one that you need to watch! It’s so cute!

This anime is based on a manga, by Kiyohiko Azuma which was published into 4 separate volumes from 1999 to 2002. The T.V series was produced by none other than "J.C.Staff" which is known for doing bizarre and above/beyond the call of duty weird shows such as "Excel Saga" . This anime aired from April 8th 2002, Until September 30th 2002 on Japan's main station "T.V. Tokyo" and is very well received in Japan as well as here in the states due to the uniqueness of the show and how well developed the characters are to a point that you can relate to them.

I am going to be blunt about this, this is not anime for everyone. It has a lot of Japanese Jokes and references so it might create a huge barrier there for a lot of people. With all of this said, this is a slice of life/comedy anime which some tend to avoid like the dark plague, This is a genuinely fun anime that you can show to about anybody and they will not get offended. I will say one thing though I hate the dub for this anime and I have my reason why I do so. It seems that everyone in the pulsing business in America must make anyone from southern japan "Osaka it seems" must have a southern accent like here in America which I find retarded and redundant to do, please just stop it's not funny at all just stop it please.

This anime is basically about following the lives of 6 "normal high school girl" and their weird teacher's daily lives. At the time is was ground breaking and still is with the character "chyio-chan" an elementary school student that skipped all way past middle to her 1st year of high school which she is introduced in the 2nd skit of the epiosde. I really can not complain much about this anime, it's a blast to watch over and over again, each character is unique from "osaka being shy lazy and tired all the time" Tomo-chan that is just the poster child for "adhd", each character is so unique that it goes to level that I rarely see in most anime today, "not carbon cut outs of stereotypes".

Now the only bad thing i can really say for it is that not everyone is going to like an anime little or no plot to it at all, if that's your case just avoid this series but for those who do like to mellow out and have fun this is something I highly recommend you watch, before you watch it's offspring like "lucky star or k-on" "I am not saying those are bad I am just posting those along the same line of the genre is all. You can watch full episodes of this series on Anime Network at any time via streaming, sadly it is only dubbed there but at least it's legal.

5/5-Cecilthedarkknight

I probobly have a soft spot for this anime because it was one of the first i watch...same goes for the manga of this... so that may change my point of view on it a bit. Overall i think it was a great anime for a younger person to start out with because it was just happy go lucky, no romance or violence ( well not that much ) so it was great. i dont think a younger person would have any problems with it. and its somewhat the same way for older people... maybe a little less if you are hoping for a good story line... because it really doesnt have that. its basically jusy funny to watch.

With that said the plot was basically none, while in both the manga and anime it had them going to highschool and growing as friends that about the best you will get from it.. but it wasn't bad.. because it was very funny and thats what makes it so great :)

the characters are funny as well while there are moments when you feel like they are all just stupid and a waste of time .. i saw that they were all just them selves and thats great again for little kids ( you know morals and all that jazz )

as for the music i've herd better and worse so its fine to me.. and i guess the same could be said for the animation but its great overall and while theres not much story its great for what it is.. and thats just a funny anime/manga

so Meany people I've seen on the Internet have said that this is not a very good anime that it,s way to random and make sometimes makes no seance so what do i thank you may ask well i love the anime i mean the character are awesome the music is awesome you see here the than i like that its random i like that it makes no seance that's what i like about it i live the character of Osaka because we all know the one kid who sleep in class that spaced out allot and seamed very weird over all i say give it a Chance and if you don't like that's fine

Overview

Azumanga Daio is originally serialized in a very popular "Electric Shock Daio" manga. The story revolves around high school girls. Each main characters have colorful and attractive personality for comic fans, such as gifted 10 years old highschool girl, cool highschool girl, natural highschool girl, highschool girl with glasses and weird older teachers. Based on four panel comic, each episode is rather short around five minutes.

Azumanga Daio also appeared as a short online movie, know as Azumanga Web Daio. Apparently they were also giving out free DVD of a short movie in March and April edition of Dengeki Daio magazine.

Production Information

Azumanga Daioh is a Japanese comedy manga created by Kiyohiko Azuma. It was serialized by MediaWorks in the shōnen manga magazine Dengeki Daioh from 1999 to 2002 and collected in four bound volumes. In May 2009, in conjunction with the 10th anniversary of the manga, three additional chapters began serialization in Shogakukan's Monthly Shōnen Sunday under the title Azumanga Daioh: Supplementary Lessons. It was adapted as an anime television series called Azumanga Daioh: the Animation by J.C.Staff, which aired from the week of April 8, 2002 until the week of September 30, 2002. It was broadcast on the TV Tokyo network and AT-X in five-minute segments every weekday, then rebroadcast as a 25-minute compilation that weekend, for a total of 130 five-minute segments collected in 26 episodes.

Besides the television anime, there have been two other animated adaptations: The Very Short Azumanga Daioh Movie, a six minute trailer released to movie theaters to publicize the upcoming television series, and Azumanga Web Daioh, a shorter pilot episode that appeared on the official Japanese Azumanga Daioh website for a limited time. Azumanga Web Daioh was originally intended to gauge whether there was enough interest to create a web-released anime adaptation; because of overwhelming demand, the original plan for web-release was changed to a television release. It featured different voice actors and music from the regular series.

Plot Information

Azumanga Daioh chronicles the everyday life in an unnamed Japanese high school of six girls and two of their teachers: child prodigy Chiyo Mihama and her struggle to fit in with girls five years older, reserved Sakaki and her obsession with the cute animals who seem to hate her, spacey Ayumu "Osaka" Kasuga with a skewed perspective on the world, Koyomi "Yomi" Mizuhara's aggravation at an annoying best friend, Tomo Takino, whose energy is rivaled only by her lack of sense, sporty Kagura and her one-sided rivalry with Sakaki, and their homeroom teacher Yukari Tanizaki and her friend, physical education teacher Minamo Kurosawa. Secondary characters include Kimura-sensei, a creepy male teacher with an obsession with teenage girls, and Kaorin, a classmate with a crush on Sakaki.

The story covers three years of tests, talking between classes, culture festivals, and athletic events at school, as well as time traveling to and from school, studying at Chiyo's house, and vacations spent at Chiyo's summer beach home and the fictional theme park Magical Land, concluding with the graduation of the main cast. It is generally realistic in tone, marked by occasional bursts of surrealism and absurdity, such as Osaka imagining Chiyo's ponytails being "unscrewed" from her head and an episode featuring the characters' New Year's dreams.

Main Characters Information

Chiyo Mihama
Usually called Chiyo-chan, is a child prodigy, having skipped five grades to 10th grade at the start of the series, yet she is still top of the class. Such grade-skipping would be unthinkable in Japan, and the series humorously explores its potential consequences. The other characters find Chiyo amazingly cute, but sometimes take advantage of both her youthfulness and her scholastic abilities. Her diminutive stature leads to her having a lack of confidence, particularly in sports where she fears she is a burden to others. Chiyo is frequently viewed with jealousy by fellow students, initially because of her intelligence, but later also because of the discovery that her family is exceedingly wealthy. The stylistic rendering of Chiyo's pigtails allow for several visual gags in both the manga and anime: Osaka often imagines them to be flapping wings, or even entities independent of Chiyo herself. At home, she can almost always be found in the company of her enormous dog, Tadakichi-san. Of all of the girls, she is the only one who does not sit through college entrance exams, as she intends to study overseas.

Tomo Takino
She is extremely energetic and competitive, despite being nonathletic and a slacker at the same time. She tends to irritate everyone around her, especially Yomi, who has been her classmate since elementary school. Tomo's character is extremely impulsive and never considers nor cares about the consequences of anything she says or does. During the second trip to Chiyo's summer house, Tomo actually grabbed Chiyo's house keys and threw them into the forest because she wanted to see what would happen if they had lost them which, of course, was a very bad idea. However, on the occasions when Tomo has actually been inspired to concentrate on something, she has demonstrated that she is quite capable. She succeeded in gaining the grades needed to qualify for the same high school as Yomi, though it was only after Yomi ridiculed her and openly said that there was no way that she could do so. Once Tomo began attending high school however, she returned to her lackadaisical ways.

Koyomi "Yomi" Mizuhara
Commonly known as Yomi, is a grade-school friend and general antithesis of Tomo. She is the voice of reason of the series, carrying herself as the most mature and serious of the group. Though smart and athletic, she is constantly dissatisfied with herself due to her weight and is always trying various diets in an effort to become thinner. She can never seem to stick to these diets however, as she finds herself constantly tempted by her favorite foods. Another weakness of Yomi's character is that while she is above average in everything else, she is an awful singer, yet karaoke is one of her favorite pastimes. While usually functioning as Tomo's "straight man", she sometimes manifests a rather cruel sense of humor. Compared to most of her peers, Yomi uses more masculine Japanese speech patterns, especially when dealing with Tomo's antics. Yomi also has an uppercut that Tomo is usually on the receiving end of whenever she pushes Yomi too far. However, even though she likes to think that she is well above the immature behavior of some of her classmates, Yomi has demonstrated on certain occasions that she can be just as childish as the rest of the characters, such as trying to get Chiyo to infuse a shrine charm with some of her intelligence so that she could pass her college entrance exams.

Sakaki
Is a tall, soft-spoken girl uncomfortable with her height and busty physique. Because she is so shy, she seldom speaks, and her reticence is misinterpreted as mysterious, or cool. This reputation has been compounded by the fact that most of the school's sports teams try to recruit her every year in the story because of her natural athletic ability, but, for the most part, she has no real interest in sports. In contrast to what the other students think of her, Sakaki is in reality a very emotionally sensitive person who holds a secret longing for all things cute. She loves cats, but the neighborhood cats dislike her, and her parents do not allow cats in their house because of her mother's allergies. Sakaki ends up spending a lot of time with Chiyo upon finding out that Chiyo's dog, Mr. Tadakichi, will let her pet him. This friendship actually shows the irony of their circumstances, as Sakaki wishes she looked more like Chiyo and Chiyo wishes that she looked more like Sakaki. Later in the series, Sakaki also befriends an Iriomote kitten that she meets on a side trip to Iriomote Island during a class trip to Okinawa. Later, the kitten loses its mother and proceeds to seek out Sakaki in Tokyo. Since Sakaki was in danger with the neighbor cat leader and the cat's kitty band, the kitten saves her and they soon become close friends.

Ayumu "Osaka" Kasuga
Commonly known as Osaka, is a transfer student from Osaka. Tomo, expecting her to act like the stereotypical Osakan, quickly chose for her the nickname "Osaka", although Ayumu's behavior could not be more different from the "typical" Osakan. Ayumu considers her label "too simple" and "icky," but she lacks the energy or motivation to dispute it. Unlike the stereotypical Osakan, she seems slow and easily distracted, but she merely has a mind that works quite differently than most people. This makes her prone to daydreaming, absentmindedness, and non-sequiturs, but it also makes her unusually good at answering very specific types of riddles. She is also easily amused by things that most people would consider bizarre. During the Sports Festival, she had made a big deal out of running the obstacle course because she thought the event of sticking her face in flour to get a piece of candy was funny and had a giggle fit when she got there. The manga also revealed that she actually likes to run outside and play in typhoons. Her unusual way of thinking gives her a very vivid imagination and a unique way of seeing the world that could actually be considered quite intelligent in its own way.

Kagura
Is a later acquaintance, joining Yukari's class in the 2nd year. She was originally in Nyamo's class and displays a very competitive spirit with her peers in all things. She devotes most of her time to the swim team but is an all-around good athlete, and genuinely nice to her classmates. She has a slight obsession with Sakaki, with whom she sees as an athletic rival. This is mostly due to the fact that while Kagura trains constantly to stay in shape, Sakaki is a naturally gifted athlete with no training at all. Like Tomo, Kagura tends to be quite impulsive in her actions. With the arrival of Kagura, the "Bonkuras" are formed along with Tomo and Osaka, their name for a trio of underachievers. Kagura has a sensitive side, which the audience sees in episode six of the anime following her homeroom's defeat in the sports festival, and the final episode following graduation. Kagura and Yukari enjoy playing video games. Like Sakaki, she is quite busty, but more tomboyish. She has also made it perfectly clear that she will not tolerate the antics of Mr. Kimura.

Overview

Azumanga Daio is originally serialized in a very popular "Electric Shock Daio" manga. The story revolves around high school girls. Each main characters have colorful and attractive personality for comic fans, such as gifted 10 years old highschool girl, cool highschool girl, natural highschool girl, highschool girl with glasses and weird older teachers. Based on four panel comic, each episode is rather short around five minutes.

Azumanga Daio also appeared as a short online movie, know as Azumanga Web Daio. Apparently they were also giving out free DVD of a short movie in March and April edition of Dengeki Daio magazine.

Azumanga Daioh is a Japanese comedy manga created by Kiyohiko Azuma. It was serialized by MediaWorks in the shōnen manga magazine Dengeki Daioh from 1999 to 2002 and collected in four bound volumes. In May 2009, in conjunction with the 10th anniversary of the manga, three additional chapters began serialization in Shogakukan's Monthly Shōnen Sunday under the title Azumanga Daioh: Supplementary Lessons. It was adapted as an anime television series called Azumanga Daioh: the Animation by J.C.Staff, which aired from the week of April 8, 2002 until the week of September 30, 2002. It was broadcast on the TV Tokyo network and AT-X in five-minute segments every weekday, then rebroadcast as a 25-minute compilation that weekend, for a total of 130 five-minute segments collected in 26 episodes.

Besides the television anime, there have been two other animated adaptations: The Very Short Azumanga Daioh Movie, a six minute trailer released to movie theaters to publicize the upcoming television series, and Azumanga Web Daioh, a shorter pilot episode that appeared on the official Japanese Azumanga Daioh website for a limited time. Azumanga Web Daioh was originally intended to gauge whether there was enough interest to create a web-released anime adaptation; because of overwhelming demand, the original plan for web-release was changed to a television release. It featured different voice actors and music from the regular series.

Plot Information

Azumanga Daioh chronicles the everyday life in an unnamed Japanese high school of six girls and two of their teachers: child prodigy Chiyo Mihama and her struggle to fit in with girls five years older, reserved Sakaki and her obsession with the cute animals who seem to hate her, spacey Ayumu "Osaka" Kasuga with a skewed perspective on the world, Koyomi "Yomi" Mizuhara's aggravation at an annoying best friend, Tomo Takino, whose energy is rivaled only by her lack of sense, sporty Kagura and her one-sided rivalry with Sakaki, and their homeroom teacher Yukari Tanizaki and her friend, physical education teacher Minamo Kurosawa. Secondary characters include Kimura-sensei, a creepy male teacher with an obsession with teenage girls, and Kaorin, a classmate with a crush on Sakaki.

The story covers three years of tests, talking between classes, culture festivals, and athletic events at school, as well as time traveling to and from school, studying at Chiyo's house, and vacations spent at Chiyo's summer beach home and the fictional theme park Magical Land, concluding with the graduation of the main cast. It is generally realistic in tone, marked by occasional bursts of surrealism and absurdity, such as Osaka imagining Chiyo's ponytails being "unscrewed" from her head and an episode featuring the characters' New Year's dreams.

Main Characters Information

Chiyo Mihama
Usually called Chiyo-chan, is a child prodigy, having skipped five grades to 10th grade at the start of the series, yet she is still top of the class. Such grade-skipping would be unthinkable in Japan, and the series humorously explores its potential consequences. The other characters find Chiyo amazingly cute, but sometimes take advantage of both her youthfulness and her scholastic abilities. Her diminutive stature leads to her having a lack of confidence, particularly in sports where she fears she is a burden to others. Chiyo is frequently viewed with jealousy by fellow students, initially because of her intelligence, but later also because of the discovery that her family is exceedingly wealthy. The stylistic rendering of Chiyo's pigtails allow for several visual gags in both the manga and anime: Osaka often imagines them to be flapping wings, or even entities independent of Chiyo herself. At home, she can almost always be found in the company of her enormous dog, Tadakichi-san. Of all of the girls, she is the only one who does not sit through college entrance exams, as she intends to study overseas.

Tomo Takino
She is extremely energetic and competitive, despite being nonathletic and a slacker at the same time. She tends to irritate everyone around her, especially Yomi, who has been her classmate since elementary school. Tomo's character is extremely impulsive and never considers nor cares about the consequences of anything she says or does. During the second trip to Chiyo's summer house, Tomo actually grabbed Chiyo's house keys and threw them into the forest because she wanted to see what would happen if they had lost them which, of course, was a very bad idea. However, on the occasions when Tomo has actually been inspired to concentrate on something, she has demonstrated that she is quite capable. She succeeded in gaining the grades needed to qualify for the same high school as Yomi, though it was only after Yomi ridiculed her and openly said that there was no way that she could do so. Once Tomo began attending high school however, she returned to her lackadaisical ways.

Koyomi "Yomi" Mizuhara
Commonly known as Yomi, is a grade-school friend and general antithesis of Tomo. She is the voice of reason of the series, carrying herself as the most mature and serious of the group. Though smart and athletic, she is constantly dissatisfied with herself due to her weight and is always trying various diets in an effort to become thinner. She can never seem to stick to these diets however, as she finds herself constantly tempted by her favorite foods. Another weakness of Yomi's character is that while she is above average in everything else, she is an awful singer, yet karaoke is one of her favorite pastimes. While usually functioning as Tomo's "straight man", she sometimes manifests a rather cruel sense of humor. Compared to most of her peers, Yomi uses more masculine Japanese speech patterns, especially when dealing with Tomo's antics. Yomi also has an uppercut that Tomo is usually on the receiving end of whenever she pushes Yomi too far. However, even though she likes to think that she is well above the immature behavior of some of her classmates, Yomi has demonstrated on certain occasions that she can be just as childish as the rest of the characters, such as trying to get Chiyo to infuse a shrine charm with some of her intelligence so that she could pass her college entrance exams.

Sakaki
Is a tall, soft-spoken girl uncomfortable with her height and busty physique. Because she is so shy, she seldom speaks, and her reticence is misinterpreted as mysterious, or cool. This reputation has been compounded by the fact that most of the school's sports teams try to recruit her every year in the story because of her natural athletic ability, but, for the most part, she has no real interest in sports. In contrast to what the other students think of her, Sakaki is in reality a very emotionally sensitive person who holds a secret longing for all things cute. She loves cats, but the neighborhood cats dislike her, and her parents do not allow cats in their house because of her mother's allergies. Sakaki ends up spending a lot of time with Chiyo upon finding out that Chiyo's dog, Mr. Tadakichi, will let her pet him. This friendship actually shows the irony of their circumstances, as Sakaki wishes she looked more like Chiyo and Chiyo wishes that she looked more like Sakaki. Later in the series, Sakaki also befriends an Iriomote kitten that she meets on a side trip to Iriomote Island during a class trip to Okinawa. Later, the kitten loses its mother and proceeds to seek out Sakaki in Tokyo. Since Sakaki was in danger with the neighbor cat leader and the cat's kitty band, the kitten saves her and they soon become close friends.

Ayumu "Osaka" Kasuga
Commonly known as Osaka, is a transfer student from Osaka. Tomo, expecting her to act like the stereotypical Osakan, quickly chose for her the nickname "Osaka", although Ayumu's behavior could not be more different from the "typical" Osakan. Ayumu considers her label "too simple" and "icky," but she lacks the energy or motivation to dispute it. Unlike the stereotypical Osakan, she seems slow and easily distracted, but she merely has a mind that works quite differently than most people. This makes her prone to daydreaming, absentmindedness, and non-sequiturs, but it also makes her unusually good at answering very specific types of riddles. She is also easily amused by things that most people would consider bizarre. During the Sports Festival, she had made a big deal out of running the obstacle course because she thought the event of sticking her face in flour to get a piece of candy was funny and had a giggle fit when she got there. The manga also revealed that she actually likes to run outside and play in typhoons. Her unusual way of thinking gives her a very vivid imagination and a unique way of seeing the world that could actually be considered quite intelligent in its own way.

Kagura
Is a later acquaintance, joining Yukari's class in the 2nd year. She was originally in Nyamo's class and displays a very competitive spirit with her peers in all things. She devotes most of her time to the swim team but is an all-around good athlete, and genuinely nice to her classmates. She has a slight obsession with Sakaki, with whom she sees as an athletic rival. This is mostly due to the fact that while Kagura trains constantly to stay in shape, Sakaki is a naturally gifted athlete with no training at all. Like Tomo, Kagura tends to be quite impulsive in her actions. With the arrival of Kagura, the "Bonkuras" are formed along with Tomo and Osaka, their name for a trio of underachievers. Kagura has a sensitive side, which the audience sees in episode six of the anime following her homeroom's defeat in the sports festival, and the final episode following graduation. Kagura and Yukari enjoy playing video games. Like Sakaki, she is quite busty, but more tomboyish. She has also made it perfectly clear that she will not tolerate the antics of Mr. Kimura.

Overview

Azumanga Daio is originally serialized in a very popular "Electric Shock Daio" manga. The story revolves around high school girls. Each main characters have colorful and attractive personality for comic fans, such as gifted 10 years old highschool girl, cool highschool girl, natural highschool girl, highschool girl with glasses and weird older teachers. Based on four panel comic, each episode is rather short around five minutes.

Azumanga Daio also appeared as a short online movie, know as Azumanga Web Daio. Apparently they were also giving out free DVD of a short movie in March and April edition of Dengeki Daio magazine.

Production Information

Azumanga Daioh is a Japanese comedy manga created by Kiyohiko Azuma. It was serialized by MediaWorks in the shōnen manga magazine Dengeki Daioh from 1999 to 2002 and collected in four bound volumes. In May 2009, in conjunction with the 10th anniversary of the manga, three additional chapters began serialization in Shogakukan's Monthly Shōnen Sunday under the title Azumanga Daioh: Supplementary Lessons. It was adapted as an anime television series called Azumanga Daioh: the Animation by J.C.Staff, which aired from the week of April 8, 2002 until the week of September 30, 2002. It was broadcast on the TV Tokyo network and AT-X in five-minute segments every weekday, then rebroadcast as a 25-minute compilation that weekend, for a total of 130 five-minute segments collected in 26 episodes.

Besides the television anime, there have been two other animated adaptations: The Very Short Azumanga Daioh Movie, a six minute trailer released to movie theaters to publicize the upcoming television series, and Azumanga Web Daioh, a shorter pilot episode that appeared on the official Japanese Azumanga Daioh website for a limited time. Azumanga Web Daioh was originally intended to gauge whether there was enough interest to create a web-released anime adaptation; because of overwhelming demand, the original plan for web-release was changed to a television release. It featured different voice actors and music from the regular series.

Plot Information

Azumanga Daioh chronicles the everyday life in an unnamed Japanese high school of six girls and two of their teachers: child prodigy Chiyo Mihama and her struggle to fit in with girls five years older, reserved Sakaki and her obsession with the cute animals who seem to hate her, spacey Ayumu "Osaka" Kasuga with a skewed perspective on the world, Koyomi "Yomi" Mizuhara's aggravation at an annoying best friend, Tomo Takino, whose energy is rivaled only by her lack of sense, sporty Kagura and her one-sided rivalry with Sakaki, and their homeroom teacher Yukari Tanizaki and her friend, physical education teacher Minamo Kurosawa. Secondary characters include Kimura-sensei, a creepy male teacher with an obsession with teenage girls, and Kaorin, a classmate with a crush on Sakaki.

The story covers three years of tests, talking between classes, culture festivals, and athletic events at school, as well as time traveling to and from school, studying at Chiyo's house, and vacations spent at Chiyo's summer beach home and the fictional theme park Magical Land, concluding with the graduation of the main cast. It is generally realistic in tone, marked by occasional bursts of surrealism and absurdity, such as Osaka imagining Chiyo's ponytails being "unscrewed" from her head and an episode featuring the characters' New Year's dreams.

Main Characters Information

Chiyo Mihama
Usually called Chiyo-chan, is a child prodigy, having skipped five grades to 10th grade at the start of the series, yet she is still top of the class. Such grade-skipping would be unthinkable in Japan, and the series humorously explores its potential consequences. The other characters find Chiyo amazingly cute, but sometimes take advantage of both her youthfulness and her scholastic abilities. Her diminutive stature leads to her having a lack of confidence, particularly in sports where she fears she is a burden to others. Chiyo is frequently viewed with jealousy by fellow students, initially because of her intelligence, but later also because of the discovery that her family is exceedingly wealthy. The stylistic rendering of Chiyo's pigtails allow for several visual gags in both the manga and anime: Osaka often imagines them to be flapping wings, or even entities independent of Chiyo herself. At home, she can almost always be found in the company of her enormous dog, Tadakichi-san. Of all of the girls, she is the only one who does not sit through college entrance exams, as she intends to study overseas.

Tomo Takino
She is extremely energetic and competitive, despite being nonathletic and a slacker at the same time. She tends to irritate everyone around her, especially Yomi, who has been her classmate since elementary school. Tomo's character is extremely impulsive and never considers nor cares about the consequences of anything she says or does. During the second trip to Chiyo's summer house, Tomo actually grabbed Chiyo's house keys and threw them into the forest because she wanted to see what would happen if they had lost them which, of course, was a very bad idea. However, on the occasions when Tomo has actually been inspired to concentrate on something, she has demonstrated that she is quite capable. She succeeded in gaining the grades needed to qualify for the same high school as Yomi, though it was only after Yomi ridiculed her and openly said that there was no way that she could do so. Once Tomo began attending high school however, she returned to her lackadaisical ways.

Koyomi "Yomi" Mizuhara
Commonly known as Yomi, is a grade-school friend and general antithesis of Tomo. She is the voice of reason of the series, carrying herself as the most mature and serious of the group. Though smart and athletic, she is constantly dissatisfied with herself due to her weight and is always trying various diets in an effort to become thinner. She can never seem to stick to these diets however, as she finds herself constantly tempted by her favorite foods. Another weakness of Yomi's character is that while she is above average in everything else, she is an awful singer, yet karaoke is one of her favorite pastimes. While usually functioning as Tomo's "straight man", she sometimes manifests a rather cruel sense of humor. Compared to most of her peers, Yomi uses more masculine Japanese speech patterns, especially when dealing with Tomo's antics. Yomi also has an uppercut that Tomo is usually on the receiving end of whenever she pushes Yomi too far. However, even though she likes to think that she is well above the immature behavior of some of her classmates, Yomi has demonstrated on certain occasions that she can be just as childish as the rest of the characters, such as trying to get Chiyo to infuse a shrine charm with some of her intelligence so that she could pass her college entrance exams.

Sakaki
Is a tall, soft-spoken girl uncomfortable with her height and busty physique. Because she is so shy, she seldom speaks, and her reticence is misinterpreted as mysterious, or cool. This reputation has been compounded by the fact that most of the school's sports teams try to recruit her every year in the story because of her natural athletic ability, but, for the most part, she has no real interest in sports. In contrast to what the other students think of her, Sakaki is in reality a very emotionally sensitive person who holds a secret longing for all things cute. She loves cats, but the neighborhood cats dislike her, and her parents do not allow cats in their house because of her mother's allergies. Sakaki ends up spending a lot of time with Chiyo upon finding out that Chiyo's dog, Mr. Tadakichi, will let her pet him. This friendship actually shows the irony of their circumstances, as Sakaki wishes she looked more like Chiyo and Chiyo wishes that she looked more like Sakaki. Later in the series, Sakaki also befriends an Iriomote kitten that she meets on a side trip to Iriomote Island during a class trip to Okinawa. Later, the kitten loses its mother and proceeds to seek out Sakaki in Tokyo. Since Sakaki was in danger with the neighbor cat leader and the cat's kitty band, the kitten saves her and they soon become close friends.

Ayumu "Osaka" Kasuga
Commonly known as Osaka, is a transfer student from Osaka. Tomo, expecting her to act like the stereotypical Osakan, quickly chose for her the nickname "Osaka", although Ayumu's behavior could not be more different from the "typical" Osakan. Ayumu considers her label "too simple" and "icky," but she lacks the energy or motivation to dispute it. Unlike the stereotypical Osakan, she seems slow and easily distracted, but she merely has a mind that works quite differently than most people. This makes her prone to daydreaming, absentmindedness, and non-sequiturs, but it also makes her unusually good at answering very specific types of riddles. She is also easily amused by things that most people would consider bizarre. During the Sports Festival, she had made a big deal out of running the obstacle course because she thought the event of sticking her face in flour to get a piece of candy was funny and had a giggle fit when she got there. The manga also revealed that she actually likes to run outside and play in typhoons. Her unusual way of thinking gives her a very vivid imagination and a unique way of seeing the world that could actually be considered quite intelligent in its own way.

Kagura
Is a later acquaintance, joining Yukari's class in the 2nd year. She was originally in Nyamo's class and displays a very competitive spirit with her peers in all things. She devotes most of her time to the swim team but is an all-around good athlete, and genuinely nice to her classmates. She has a slight obsession with Sakaki, with whom she sees as an athletic rival. This is mostly due to the fact that while Kagura trains constantly to stay in shape, Sakaki is a naturally gifted athlete with no training at all. Like Tomo, Kagura tends to be quite impulsive in her actions. With the arrival of Kagura, the "Bonkuras" are formed along with Tomo and Osaka, their name for a trio of underachievers. Kagura has a sensitive side, which the audience sees in episode six of the anime following her homeroom's defeat in the sports festival, and the final episode following graduation. Kagura and Yukari enjoy playing video games. Like Sakaki, she is quite busty, but more tomboyish. She has also made it perfectly clear that she will not tolerate the antics of Mr. Kimura.

Azumanga Daioh is an anime for all ages. Even though it does not have any romantic stuff, or out-of-this-world action, AzuDai will make you watch it over and over again. It shows events and happenings that can happen to all of us. And the crazy antics of each character will have you rolling on the floor with laughter.
The characters are well-done. The art was simple, but beautiful. Even though the characters are not that well-drawn, their different personalities make them stand out from the other anime characters. They are memorable.
The music is great. Their opening song ("Soramimi no Cake") and ending song ("Raspberry Heaven") got me LSS for two years. Even the background song was catchy. :)
Overall, I gave Azumanga Daioh 5 stars. This anime made me look on the brighter side of life. And it also taught me how to predict weather using your shoe (Yes, Osaka, I learned something from you!).

Azumanga Daioh is an amazing comedy that you can watch over, and over again.



Chio Mihama is a 10 year old prodigy that just entered high-school. She soon befriends Ayumu Kasuga, (nicknamed Osaka) who is an intelligent... but slow girl.

The story also follows Sakaki, Tomo, and a couple other girls.

It is almost IMPOSSIBLE to write a review for this, being that there is no actual plot, (but there is a sub-plot with Sakaki) and each character is so unique, that I could write an entire review for each of the characters, and sub-characters! The BEST I can say about Azumanga Daioh, is that it is a hysterical anime, that is a MUST watch for anime fans, and newcomers alike.

P.S. the anime is MUCH better if you watch it with a friend



5/5