One does not purchase a volume of Azumanga Daioh and expect to get a mind-boggling story or plot. Rather, one gets Azumanga Daioh purely for its hilarity. Honestly, if you’ve watched Seinfeld, then you know exactly what “shows about nothing” consist of.

The story, if you can call it that, revolves around this group of high school girls, from their beginning in high school to their graduation. What makes this show so wonderful is not the story but the characters. With a show like this, the characters you put into it will either make it or kill it. You have a wide range of characters, each with their own unique traits. You have Chiyo Mihama, who is naive and innocent like a ten year old but is also a child-genius who is at the top of her class (her high school class, that is). Then you have Ayumu Kasuga (my personal favorite), a transfer student from Osaka, laughably random, and spaces out very frequently. (They even begin to call her Osaka despite how she isn’t actually from that area; she just lived there for a while.) She’s somewhat of an idiot savant since she performs very poorly in academics but has an incredible gift for riddles. Then you have Tomo Takaki and Koyomi Mizuhara, who have gone to school together since elementary school. Tomo is also quite random but also overly hyperactive and with no practical skills to speak of. Her other half, Koyomi (called “Yomi” by her friends and pretty much everyone else), is the antithesis to Tomo’s personality. She’s cool, reserved, and smart; but she often loses her temper as a result of Tomo’s do-and-think-later behavior. Yomi is also plagued by a weight complex, as she is constantly trying out new diets. Next, you have Sakaki, the truly quiet and reserved one of the group, comes off to her peers as “cool” and sometimes pugnacious. She often comes to school with bandages on her hands, which leads one to believe that she’s been in a fight. In reality, she has a love for cute things and animals, but when she tries to pet the neighborhood cat, it always retaliates by biting her, hence the injuries. And lastly, you have Kagura, the other athlete of the group. Of course, she’s a lot more like Tomo than Sakaki; she doesn’t perform well in school, and she’s very hyperactive. Despite her acting like somewhat of a tomboy, she has a heart of gold, always willing to help others out and sometimes breaking into tears. You will definitely be able to see some of your high school friends’ personalities within these characters.

Each episode is very stand-alone but also linear. You’re following these girls through their years in high school, so of course it goes in a certain order of events. However, you don’t need to watch other episodes to be able to enjoy whichever you want to watch. That’s not the point of the series. It’s just to have fun. You’ll meet their various teachers, experience their cultural and sports festivals, and just hang out.

The aesthetic qualities of Azumanga Daioh aren’t very groundbreaking. The animation is very clean, but it also looks low-budget. Thankfully, this isn’t an action series, so there is no need to depend much on incredible animation. Aurally, most of the music isn’t worth writing about, but the opening and ending themes are the trippiest ones I’ve ever heard. I can’t even describe it, but it makes you think that the creators of this show may have been on some less-than-legal substances when creating it.

Azumanga Daioh isn’t just a series about comedy, but it’s also about life. If you’ve graduated from high school, then this series serves to bring you back to high school, back to the familiar kinds of people you encountered everyday and the fun you had together. If you’re in high school, then you can easily relate to the series, but if you’re not in high school yet, then you might not be able to grasp the feel and humor of this series as well.

I highly recommend this series to anyone who enjoys humor, even more to those who are in high school or those who have graduated from high school. This series is one that I won’t forget anytime soon.

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Category: Series Reviews