Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Slapstick at its Best (Azumanga Daioh)
Among all the comedy-slapstick themed anime I've watched so far, this one made it to my number one best comedy anime show of all time. (beating Doraemon for the title) Azumanga Daioh is an anime that portrays the everyday lives of certain high school girls and their teachers filled with hilarity and weird antics. The combination and clashing of each character's individuality (which I like the most of course), running gags, puns and weird and funny situations definitely completes the comedic experience of this anime series.
The crazy bunch of main characters in Azumanga Daioh.
The anime's story revolves around three years of high school and the events in between. From days of classes in school to vacations in Chiyo-chan's seaside rest house to trips around Japan to leisurely walks on weekends and even in the thoughts and New Year's dreams of each character. Each episode never failed to make me chuckle at the very least, but mostly, laugh my lungs out.
The series sometimes contains a bit of dirty humor, which in my opinion makes it more laughable. Tomo-chan apart from other girls, shows a lot of interest in and is really good with dirty jokes.
Now, on with the characters!
Mihama Chiyo, the cutest of the bunch is really popular in their campus for her size and intellectual prowess, being able to skip five grades to 10th grade. (first year high school). She really can't compare with other other girls when it comes to athletics though, and is very envious of Sakaki's height and skill in sports.
Osaka and Chiyo inside the infamous "Yukari-mobile" Seems they had fun having tasted Yukari-sensei's notorious driving skills, Chiyo especially, being scarred for life after this.
Tomo-chan is one of my favorite characters in this series. Being the resident 'wildcat' of their class, she loves action and challenges whether it be challenging Sakaki in sports or Chiyo in academics in which both cases she never wins. She also loves to make fun of others, particularly Yomi, whom she has been troubling since elementary and Chiyo whom she loves picking on.
Having a "green mind", Tomo annoys Yomi by repeating out loud the name of a biscuit that sounds like penis in Japanese.
Among the other girls, Tomo has the most interest in sexuality. This time she succeeds in getting her much desired "information" from a drunk Nyamo.
Yomi is Tomo's classmate since elementary. She has weight troubles which amuses Tomo and most of the time, is the point of her jokes thereby putting Tomo on the receiving end of her punches.
Sakaki is the tallest and most reticent of the group. Her being silent is usually misunderstood by her classmates as being cool or mysterious. Despite her height and busty physique (which is the cause of her shyness), she loves cute things and animals, cats in particular. She is also naturally athletic and is frequently challenged by Tomo and Kagura.
Despite of her love for cats, she always gets bitten whenever she tries to touch one. Kagura says, the cats seem to think she approaches them with murderous intent or maybe her hand just smells like fish.
Kaorin is a girl who has developed a strange infatuation with Sakaki. Sakaki though doesn't seem to mind or realize this but Kaorin always gets anxious and extremely jealous whenever the other girls get closer to the former.
Ayumu or Osaka (the name given to her by Tomo because she is from Osaka which has been her name for the rest of the series) is one of my favorite anime characters of all time. She has an extremely weird personality, slow, spacey and always gets lost in her intense imagination. Despite this she is amazed by the bizarre and has a morbid sense of humor.
Having a weird yet vivid imagination, she imagines Chiyo being able to detach her pigtails and replace them with new ones. She even dreamt of Chiyo being able to fly with flapping pigtails and her pigtails controlling her mind.
Osaka, groups the girls according to their bust sizes, categorizing them as different nationalities. Sakaki having the biggest, she called an american, Kaorin and Yomi as hawaiians and in this one, Tomo and herself as Japanese, being the smallest. Yomi though grouped them both as Chiyo's equals.
This part of the series really had me going. Osaka plans on waking Yukari up by banging a frying pan. Still drowsy, she went to the kitchen and took a butcher knife instead.
Kagura is a member of the swim team and has declared a one-sided athletic rivalry with Sakaki. She only became their classmate during the second year where she and Sakaki became friends but still sports rivals though the latter is only on her part. She always gets tricked by Osaka to showing her tan lines in class.
Though she excels in athletics, Kagura sucks at academics. Together with Osaka and and the dumb ass Tomo being the leader, they formed their study group "Bonklers" (as Yomi calls the three of them after failing an exam) in which they are proud of being one.
Kurosawa-sensei or "Nyamo", as Yukari calls her, is the girls' PE teacher. Both Nyamo and Yukari are alumnae of the same school they are teaching in and are very old friends. Whenever they fight it usually gets to the point of digging up old secretswhich they try to conceal from their students. Despite her modesty though, Nyamo can get wild and sleazy when drunk.
Yukari-sensei, the girls' homeroom teacher is very similar to Tomo being a crazy woman herself. She is very skilled and appears to be fluent in speaking English which she uses to show her superiority over Nyamo.
Yukari is also very notorious for her driving and her derelict car has earned the ill-fated nickname "Yukari-mobile". Though, the other girls who had ridden the Yukari-mobile experienced extreme shock and trauma Tomo seems to enjoy riding with her. No wonder they are very much alike.
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2 comments:
ang cool ng anime na to..sayang lang di ko napanood ng buo, sa TV ko lang sya napanood...di ko pa nasubaybayan hehe ang kulit ng mga babaeng characters dito :)
so far ito pinakanakakatawang anime na napanuod ko. sobrang LOL experience talaga hahaha.
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