The Quintessential Schoolgirl Anime: Azumanga Daioh

First I’d like to give a big shoutout to the nice fellows from ITGFreak and the Kyle Ward forums for visiting my site.  For the day, all fanservice is dedicated to you all! Domo Arigatou!

I think it’s safe to say that you can’t start talking about anime that features schoolgirls (and school itself) predominately than the ever-so-famous Azumanga Daioh.  When my friend Sunil mentioned it to me a long time ago, about how it was funny because it was about everything and nothing, I didn’t believe it.  I saw the dub before the sub, which was a shame because the dub doesn’t get all of the jokes (which are very Japanese by nature).  Perverted teachers (Kimura-sensei), messed up crazy teachers (Nyamo and Yukari), rivalries (Kaguya and Sakaki-san, Tomo with just about everyone else, again, Nyamo and Yukari), Lesbian crushes (Kaorin and her obsession with Sakaki-san), it as it all, and most of the time, it’s in the school grounds.

Yomi didn’t respond too happily when Tomo said this wasn’t a schoolgirl anime.

What tripped me out about this anime is that except for the really perverted Kimura-sensei, this anime is very female-centered.  And instead of it being about boys, which boys to love, which boys to lose their virginity to, thisthatandtheother, it’s really centered about the girls and how they interact with each other and the environment around them.  I love Sakaki and all of her interactions with pets.  She’s this quiet giant who seems really sweet, but anytime she goes near a cat, well, that gray neko, she ends up getting injured, and yet she still shows compassion for it anyway (however, the licking of her cat bites were a bit much for me).  Tomo is a little too energetic for me, but you have to admire her resolve to throw herself into everything she’s a part of…except for school.  Yomi is a hard-ass who always tries to keep Tomo in line (and usually fails), and Chiyo-chan is just plain cute.

Azumanga Daioh is a great anime. Seven out of Seven gals can’t be wrong.

My favorite character is Osaka (Ayumu Kasuga), though.  Everyone says she’s slow and stupid, she’s actually pretty insightful.  Her Japanese word plays are funny and interesting to say the least (it’s the reason why this anime is better seen in Japanese), and she just plain trips me out.  (She thought a knife, a KNIFE, was a frying pan…and the knife flew.)

Anyway, I really like this anime because in the absence of an ongoing storyline (this episodes have 3 or more vignettes in one episode), the little snippets of life that could be real, that are way out there, and yet are very funny nonetheless.  The dream episode is something we can relate to…come on, we’ve all had weird dreams at many points of our lives, and probably involved an Engrish-speaking orange cat.  In the middle of the crazy events, we’re getting a slice of Japanese schoolgirl life.

And there is girl-power.  Gotta love girl power.

I wouldn’t call this a shoujo anime because of all the girls, I’d call it an anime that everyone who loves Japanese culture will enjoy.  Plus, in true fan service fashion, those uniforms ARE pretty cute (Sakaki looks the best though, for, ahem…various reasons that well in the center of her body…but this is NOT a tasteless blog).  Plus, it does involve seven crazy schoolgirls in action, so that is good for something.  Don’t you agree?  Allow me to show you what happens to people who DON’T agree…

Kagura will come after you.  HARD.  And desks WILL fly.