argh…my brain is leaking out my nose. i think im dying. wheres my chicken noodle soup? since my brain isnt working to full capacity (lets say…half the cylinders are out of commission) i think ill take today to just highlight my new anime du jour (mois?)…azumanga daioh. this series features a staggering 130 episodes…that are um, 5 minutes each. hehe. lump some together, break it down, and i suppose you get 26 episodes. based off of kiyohiko azuma’s comic strip featured in the electric shock daio mangas, azumanga daioh follows the sometimes weird, sometimes asinine high school life of half a dozen girls, three of their teachers, a vicious cat, and a floating imaginary cat. right. amongst the myriad of characters, theres sakaki…the quiet athletic one whom girls look up to, tomo (the wildcat)…the hyper-competitive one who prefers “runner-up” to “loser”, ayumu…the brainless transfer from osaka who gets the nickname “osaka” just because shes from osaka, and chiyo…the 10-year old prodigy whom osaka is convinced has detachable pigtails.
azumanga is based off of a serial comic…more akin to western comics than manga (think 4-panels), so its something to see azumanga translated to an anime series. as such, an episode generally consists of 5 shorts that may or may not be related to each other. each ones like a little vignette, which could continue into the next vignette…so theres really no over-riding plot other than the fact that theyre going thru high school. azumanga actually kind of just cruises along, observing their everyday lives from their first day to graduation. the humor is never forced, and is instead drawn from simple and stupid circumstances…like watching two uncoordinated people attempt to practice volleyball (its rather sad), the brutal honesty of the pedophile classic lit teacher kimura when asked why he teaches (“because i like high school girls and stuff!“), and the trauma-inducing “yukari-mobile“. there are probably few animes out there that are even as remotely funny as azumanga, so def check it out. and dig the big floating orange cat.
> azumanga daioh official site
> azumanga daioh musical trailer
