I have a few wallpapers I could have picked to lead the post with, but I went with this one because a) it makes me laugh, and b) I actually know where I found it, so I can properly credit its creator (my old IBook was always very good about recording the web address I saved an image from, but I've not figured out how to get my PC to divulge such information). So, the wallpaper comes from Desktop Anime, for the record.
A month ago I picked up a box set of Azumanga Daioh, as I enjoyed it when I watched fan subtitled episodes years ago, and I figured I ought to get around to actually paying some money for some DVDs. I've spent some of my evenings this week watching it again, and I wanted to start laying out some thoughts on it.
The series is based on the comic by Kiyohiko Azuma, who went on to create the comic Yotsuba!, which I've seen receive some fine reviews around the old comics blogowhatchamafloogle. I haven't seen nearly as much about Azumanga Daioh, though whether that's because I'm not looking in the right place, because it's an older work and so most discussion of it passed a couple of years ago, or because it just wasn't as good and so didn't garner as much attention, I don't know. Some of the reviews I've read about Yotsuba! have lead me to think it might be the third one, as I know Chris Sims read that first, then went back and tried AD and didn't quite dig it as much. I haven't read Yotsuba!*, so I can't compare the two qualitatively.
Azumanga Daioh is unique amongst animes I've actually watched all the way through, due to its complete lack of sword fighting, shooting, giant robots, people screaming while they power up in impressive colors, or anything like that. It's mostly a comedy, so its closest comp amongst series I watch is probably Excel Saga, but that series is considerably more, insane? Unfocused (intentionally, I think)? AD follows six girls (and a couple of their teachers) as they progress through their first, second, and third years of high school up to graduation.
The series starts by introducing us to Chiyo, who is 10-year old prodigy who was bumped up to high school. Chiyo is smart, cheerful, polite, a little naive, and frequently cute to an extent I'd expect someone to harness that cuteness as a weapon**. It could destroy civilizations***. She reminds me a little of myself at that age (though I wasn't bright enough to skip the 5th-9th grades) in that she's terrified of letting down or disobeying her teachers (forgetting to finish homework causes her to nearly break into tears). Chiyo's friendly nature means that she serves as the facilitator for many of the characters to start hanging out together, since she makes friends with Sakaki, the quiet loner that everyone is too impressed/intimidated by to approach, and Ayumu Kasuga, who just transferred in from Osaka (and is thus slapped with that for a nickname), and has to deal with being the new kid in school (plus she's a bit of a space case). So the group gradually forms around her, and things proceed from there.
Azuma takes advantage of the repetitive nature of life in school to use certain events as the basis for multiple episodes. So there are two episodes based on the annual culture festival, three on the similarly annual sports fest, and three about the group taking trips to Chiyo's summer home over their vacation. I think that's actually a good idea, because there are certain episodes that I feel lack any sort of connecting thread. Those seem to be more of a loose collection of short stories, grouped into a single episode. Which also works, they're usually amusing, but wouldn't work if you tried to stretch them over the length of an entire episode. The episodes with a common thread will also jump a bit, but they do have a greater sense of interconnectivity. So the series can change its pacing from episode to episode, which can keep things feeling a bit fresher.
OK, the humor. I remember that Sims, while discussing the manga, said that jokes had a tendency to hang there unfinished, as though there was no punchline. I think a discussion started up in the comments about whether this was a case of Sims not understanding Japanese humor, which I take it is not identical to American humor, but I don't know if any conclusions were reached. There are times watching where I'm left befuddled as to why characters react as they do, but the series delivers enough broad physical humor (usually in the form of hyperactive Tomo doing something over-the-top), or bizarre non-sequiters (that'd be Osaka's department) that I still find myself laughing quite a bit. Really, all the characters at times behave in either a silly enough, or angry enough fashion to provide some hilarity.
More serious moments occur occasionally, especially near the end, when the kids start realizing that once they graduate, they're all going their separate ways****. I know that bit hit me hard the first time I watched it, since I had just recently finished college, and figured if it went anything like high school, I was going to lose track of pretty much all the friends I'd made, which was not an uplifting thought. The fact that hasn't happened sort of muted the effect during the most recent viewing, but I can still recall feeling the same way once upon a time. The series doesn't do that often, though, and when it does, there's usually a point about focusing on what you gained from those times, not what you might lose as you go forward. Also a bit about not wasting time with regrets, though I think that's more prevalent with episodes that focus on the teachers, because they're farther along in life, and have more decisons to look back on.
I know that was a little scattershot, but I wanted to say something about the series, and the more intensive posts I've been considering were going to take too long to put together. They're somewhere in the recesses of my mind, so I'll dig them out, and get them polished up. Not sure when.
* I haven't actually read Azumanga Daioh either, only watched the anime, and I don't know how much the anime may have diverged from the comic. I read online that Kaorin had a much expanded role in the anime, and I think Mr. Kimura may have been more disturbing in the manga, though I kind of hope not. He was strange enough.
** Tragically, the practical applications of the cuteness as an energy source would be ignored. Until it was too late, of course.
*** Hmm, where is the Lantern Corps harnessing the devastating power of cuteness? Surely not all cats are acid blood spewing beasties?
**** Also, oddly enough, at the end of the first culture festival episode, when a few of the students have a 'victory parade'. The music includes what sounds to me like a kazoo, and the scene is always a bummer. I think it's due to the fact they really enjoyed the culture fest, and are trying hard to hold onto it, but they know tomorrow they'll be back to the usual grind at school. Time marches on.
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