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. 5

By David Rasmussen
23rd Jul 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. This is one of those rarities.
The Senior year of reviews have finally come, and I never thought I’d be able to get ahold of these… and for such a cheap price too! Thank you Right Stuf International for closeout deals!

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 (Azumanga Daioh DVD V. 6 which is next week).

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 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.
And yes, I am still sticking to my reversal of opinion on the English Dub and still think it’s good.
And now… and no more Region 1 repeating since I said it the last four reviews, so I think it’ll stick by now that I am reviewing the Region 1 DVDs here, right? Right.

Volume 5
Episode 20
Junior year has come and gone, and the memories of those days are still fresh in mind as we start the Senior year of the series… maybe that’s because I watched DVD V. 3 & 4 a lot before I got ahold of this, so maybe that’s why I remember the Junior year so vividly.

Anyway this year is going to be rough on would be lesbian Kaorin because she got shuffled out of Yukari’s class and right into the waiting arms of Kimura… are we absolutely sure he’s not stalking her or something?!? I mean, damn, isn’t this illegal for this guy to be this way with her? What is he, her unknown father that her mother divorced years ago or something?!? What!!

But the rest of the entrance into Senior year fares better for the rest of the class as we see changes occur.
Tomo cuts her hair short, thus forsaking her “dream” of becoming the next Fujiko (Lupin III).
Everyone begins to get ready for final exams and entrance exams for college (which gets hectic next DVD).
And we prepare for the biggest episodes of the DVD, starting next episode with the trip to Okinawa.

Episode 21
Wake the Tomo and notice Chiyo-chan’s “new” hairstyle because it’s time to take a long trip to the place where Pat Morita once taught the Crane technique to Daniel-san in Karate Kid Part 2, aka Okinawa!

Looks like Tomo has never left the confines of Tokyo proper because her first trip out of town seems to make her hyperactive. Whether it is having panic attacks on the plane trip to Okinawa with fellow previously flightless Kagura (stop screaming), or it’s her energy driven “rampage” in the first minutes of the arrival in Okinawa, things are going to go weird with Tomo looming large (which won’t really stop throughout this entire episode, as Tomo occasionally gets on Yomi’s nerves during the episode… you two a bickering married couple or something?)

But besides the temple visits, store trips and scuba diving there’s the trip to Iriomote Island and the long awaited destined meeting between cat lovin’ Sakaki and the Sakaki lovin’ rare species Iriomote cat which seemingly cannot go anywhere as the cat is a protected species and couldn’t possibly get off the island.
(Unless of course it happened to sneak onto a freighter, get off in Tokyo, and somehow managed to track Sakaki’s scent all the way to her neighborhood… but what are the odds of that happening… next DVD.)

Episode 22
We are barely out of the episode for the class trip and already we’re going on ANOTHER TRIP!
This time it’s back to Chiyo-chan’s summer home for the third and final visit to her beach house!
Blame it on Kaorin if you must, but because she’s in this episode it looks like the gang will be splitting up into two vehicles once again, which means the Yukari-mobile shall ride once again… though technically it’s not really her vehicle perse, except for all the collateral damage to it’s body frame which is entirely her property and responsibility for causing.

Tomo won’t be throwing away housekeys this year, thank you very much, but other things shall fly left and right as the gang are supposed to be going on a summer study camp getaway yet find time to relax.
Between trips to the beach and more the gang do study, which leads to a new bit of humiliation for Nyamo (though this shall never overshadow the time she got blind plastered drunk and started yammering about human sexuality and the contents of the Kama Sutra in front of the girls, INCLUDING Chiyo-chan).

Let’s see, the trip is rounded out by Kaorin suddenly embodying the power of the Tomoyo Daidouji by becoming photography obsessed with taking Sakaki’s pictures (she’ll never return your love Kaorin!), and Osaka stalking Miss Yukari with a large “frying pan”… sharp, pointy, used in slasher flicks and the occasional “cut and flung” Bobbitt parody “frying pan”.

Oh, and Chiyo-chan takes the train to Animal Crossing town and mugs Officer Copper for his exercise radio so she can do morning exercises. No cameo of K.K. Slider or Gulliver in this episode.

Oh, and Tomo/Osaka are infected by a virulent strain of the OT Virus (created by an overworked employee of Umbrella) and obsess over it being a Summer Service Day… which technically it is because I’m writing this in the summer so today really might be a Summer Service Day… unless you’re reading this in a month that isn’t summer then all bets are off… because today is a summer service day, today is a summer service day, today is a summer service day…. (laughs)!! Summer will pick up again after Monday, let’s go back together to the -- uh -- what…

Episode 23
And now, now that we’ve done the summer trip thing let’s do the final Sports Fest.
Yeah, once again Yukari is probably betting … what? She’s not? Really? Damn. Well it’s not like she ever paid up on her “juice” debt which goes all the way back to DVD V. 2, Episode 6 so what’s the point.

Let’s see, at long last the fabled and rumored Bread Wars is on as Osaka engages in the Bread Eating Contest… though it’s not as much bread as it is sweet buns, which is better than bread except for well made french bread which should be soft in the middle and crunchy outside and… uh… I need to eat lunch.

The highlight is the final relay race, and the “wrath” of Sakaki as she becomes (in her own special way) “ticked off” at a loud mouth guy from another class who is mocking Chiyo-chan… yeah, he is so going to get his butt handed to him in 90 seconds or less. Oh, yeah.

And that, as they say, is that. Breakdown time!

Azumanga Breakdown the 5th
What’s Hot?
Fifth verse same as the first…. That’s right? Fifth verse right? We’re so far along it’s that far.
Once once once once once again It goes without saying that ADVFilms is going to pull Chiyo-chan’s dad out of a hat (and sends him flying to save a kidnapped Chiyo-chan in Episode 20) by delivering a quality series worth raving about, worth talking about, and worth forming two dozen fanclubs and organizations over -- you know the drill by now. Oh, and don’t forget that it’s also worth owning in your collection regardless of whether you live in R1 or R2 land.

What’s Not?
I can’t think of a thing. Nope… maybe that it hasn’t made the trip to PSP UMD land maybe but… OK, nothing, I have nothing to complain about. Bye.

Moments to Remember?
Everything, everything, everything.

What to Ignore?
I can’t think of a thing to ignore.

Overall?
Next to last time, please get the thinpack collection of the entire series if you haven’t already gotten the entire series on DVD, and enjoy. Nuff said.

-- David Rasmussen 23rd Jul 06

Azumanga Daioh Images