Azumanga Daioh Highly recommended

Director
Hiroshi Nishikiori
Production
GENCO, J.C.Staff, Kadokawa Shoten
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
26 episodes
Year
2002

Azumanga Daioh DVD V. 1

By David Rasmussen
2nd Apr 06

It’s not often that you find a series that really really hits it out of the ballpark for just about everyone.
A good series that fans really really dig and really really get into is a rarity.
There are a few. Cowboy Bebop for one (which just enjoyed a re-release with it’s Cowboy Bebop Remix series), or Planetes (abit of a cult following series that gets to you once you really start watching it) and Ghost in the Shell : Stand Alone Complex (great view now going into it’s second season with a third in the works from what I heard). This is one of those series, Azumanga Daioh for ADVFilms.

Back when I worked at this other site I got my first taste of this series. It’s been, like, a few years ago but I am still a strong fan of the series even now. Very solid, very good, very very excellent.
By now you know the story if you’ve seen it before, but in brief…
The Seinfeld of Japanese Anime/Manga, Azumanga Daioh is an experience for the senses in both formats you must see, read, and experience for yourself.
Experience three years in the life of a special class of girls from Miss Yukari’s English class, their quirks and up and downs, and their lives as you get to know them better until graduation day.

The manga is a bit of four panel refinement. The four panel format, best known from some of the classics like Peanuts, Garfield or Hagar the Horrible, works well here with an easy to get into format that readers can easily pick up and get into from the first minute the reader starts flipping the pages.

The anime, on the other hand, is a cult classic in it’s own right. The loving work of it’s staff from Director Hiroshi Nishikiori right down the production line, a sure hit with viewers. The results? A superbly crafted and designed adaptation which is true to the series and takes it steps beyond which makes it solid viewing.
So much so that I’ve recently converted a certain opinion of mine from the negative to the positive.
Once upon a time I had a not so glowing opinion of the English dub, but after repeat viewings of it (and I do mean repeat viewings) I have come to a new, more positive view of the English version.
Maybe it’s just because I’m such a damn fan of the series, maybe because you become so used to listening to the dub that you get into it, or maybe because it is good and I owe the cast an apology… probably that.
In anycase I now rank the English dub of Azumanga Daioh as one of the good dubs… except the beginning which is abit rough, but once they get into it and start swinging for the fences you get better work over time.

NOTES TO NOTE
Oh, right. First off…
FOR ADVFILMS
This is a Region 1 review, covering the release of Azumanga Daioh in North America (and wherever else the Region 1 of DVDs cover). This means only those in Region 1 can watch this… or anyone who owns a Region Free DVD Player, they can watch it too! I got one of those recently!

FOR LANGUAGE
The entire review is on the English language version, just so you know that I do watch those from time to time when I do my reviewing.

Volume 1
Episode 1
Welcome to the class of one Miss Yukari.
This is the story of the class of one most different English teacher named Miss Yukari Tanizaki, and her new class who’ll prove to be as different as the teacher herself. Want to see how different? Let’s peek.

Miss Yukari
She whose class we’ll follow for three long years (yet somehow not long enough). A most perplexing individual, which is just a nice way of saying she’s a few girls short a cheerleading squad.

Chiyo-chan
Chiyo Mihama, the 10 year old child prodigy who you’ll watch grow up as the episodes, and years, pass.
You’ll never see her parents but Sakaki will come to believe her dad is an alien cat (though we might yet find out that Sakaki was only half wrong… she might have gotten the face almost right, but just got the wrong girl), and she got a dog named Mr. Tadakichi (which Sakaki has a thing for).

Tomo
The longtime friend of Yomi, and the so called “wildcat idiot” of the class. She is the Assistant Representative of the class, which kind of makes her Vice President to President Mihama of the class… so does that make her Dan Quayle or Dick Cheney… bang bang (oops)…
Uh, where was I again… oh, right, Tomo. She’s the life of the class, and it’s twisted sense of humor.

Yomi
The opposite side of the Tomo/Yomi situation. She’s the straight girl to Tomo’s wilder side, which I guess makes her the Tony Randall of the pair. She is the next smart girl next to Chiyo-chan, but she is not so lucky when it comes to her weight management problems… (constantly on diets)… or her singing since she is not the most skilled when it comes to her karaoke abilities.

Miss Sakaki
The quiet and powerful personality of Sakaki is a contradiction. She’s good at sports, and seems like such a cool girl -- but in fact she strives for cuteness over coolness and has a fascination with animals (especially dogs and cats even if cats don’t seem to share the same affection she has for them in turn).

Kaorin
The Tomoyo of Azumanga Daioh… only without the urge to run around with a digital camera so she can film Sakaki… and only half of the costume making skills which can only be unleashed when paired with secondary character Chihiro… maybe they should have been paired together.
Anyway she loves Sakaki, and will never ever get to have her happily ever after with her… just like Tomoyo. Sad, really.

Uh… let’s move on before I ramble further. This episode introduces everyone and has a focus on Chiyo-chan and the newly arrived Osaka.

Episode 2
It’s Osaka-day, and we’re going to celebrate it because we want to… or something like that.
Osaka takes the lead in this episode and in her day she faces the ills of a deadly outbreak of the Osakan hiccups, learns that a volleyball can be a dangerous weapon, seeks “grains of truth”, and basically is Osaka.

Episode 3
A trip to the pool means a chance to see the girls in their school bathing suits… and a chance to renew that restraining order against a certain weirdo male teacher who probably would have been fired since the fifth of last decade if this series took place in America… or in reality in general… oh, and we watch Chiyo-chan go down for the count as she nearly drowns a few times. That and Kagura appears for the first time.

Episode 4
Today is focus on your Nyamo as we take a look at PE teacher miss Minamo Kurosawa, aka Nyamo.
Oh, and we also take a look at her “Odd Couple” relationship (Tony Randall) with English Teacher Miss Yukari (Jack Klugman). This includes a visit to Nyamo’s place, the “death” of a Hokkaido fishing bear (which you eagle eyed viewers will note is the same “Fishing Bear” that is part of the list of furniture “gifts” you can receive from Gulliver when you “save” him on the beach in the GameCube version of Animal Crossing), and drinking which leads to somebody chucking vomit over the streets of Tokyo… eew!

Episode 5
It’s summer and the girls of Yukari’s class don’t seem capable of doing much of the fun stuff… until Chiyo-chan invites them to her summer home for a little getaway R&R…. boy, will she live to regret that!
After surviving the ride down in the Yukari mobile we can get to the beach, sleepovers, fireworks, and more driving back… which will leave Chiyo-chan scarred for life. Oh, and there’s an attempt at “adult” discussion but we won’t get into it here. Wait a year and Nyamo will provide the details after she goes past the legal limit of blood alcohol allowed on a barstool before you’re arrested in Texas for public drunkenness… only nobody’s here to arrest Nyamo which leads to “the talk”… bad Nyamo, bad.
Ok, breakdown.

Azumanga Breakdown the 1st
What’s Hot?
It goes without saying that ADVFilms pulls a Necoconeco out of a hat and delivers a quality series worth raving about, worth talking about, worth forming a dozen fanclubs and organizations over, worth protesting should any halfwit attempt to bastardize it by making a live action movie nightmare, and worth owning for your collection. Without a doubt Azumanga Daioh is one of those home runs that hit’s the mark and scores high for the home team, which makes it worth checking out.
And now, now that you can probably get the thinpack in both the UK and US (I don’t know but by now it must be coming near to having it’s R2 availability) you can own this series today and enjoy it forever.
It’s out, isn’t it? By now the thinpack has to be making it’s R2 release!

What’s Not?
I can’t honestly think of a thing… wait, one thing.
I wish this had some of the depth of extras that Princess Tutu had.
I wish it had the outtakes section. I wish it it had the In The Studio section. I wish it had the commentary.
I wish it had more, but it didn’t. Doesn’t make it a bad release but still… I wish it had more extras.

Moments to Remember?
Just about everything is good.

What to Ignore?
The English voice acting at this early stage however… ahhhh…. It’s abit rough. It gets solid though so before you know it it’s going well and you’re getting into it. Even Osaka, who at first doesn’t sound in character, rolls right into Osaka mode and really bangs out a quality performance once she’s on her second wind and rolling with the punches.

Overall?
Three words. Buy-this-series. Nuff said. Own it, watch it, enjoy it. You’ll be glad you did.

-- David Rasmussen 2nd Apr 06

Azumanga Daioh Images