"Azumanga daiô" (2002)TV series

Director:

Nishikiori Hiroshi

Seasons:

1

Genre:

Animation | Comedy

Tagline:

School goes crazy

Plot:

A humorous and highly unpredictable animated series following a group of high school girls and their teachers.

Plot Keywords:

Melancholy | Manga | Based On Comic | Beach | Drinking

Cast

Tomoko Kaneda	...	Chiyo Mihama (26 episodes, 2002)
Yuki Matsuoka	...	Ayumu Kasuga / ... (26 episodes, 2002)
Chieko Higuchi	...	Tomo Takino (26 episodes, 2002)
Rie Tanaka	...	Koyomi Mizuhara / ... (26 episodes, 2002)
Yu Asakawa	...	Sakaki (26 episodes, 2002)

Runtime:

Japan:24 min (26 episodes)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Certification:

New Zealand:PG | Germany:o.Al. (episodes 15-19) | Germany:6 (episodes 8-14) | USA:TV-PG | Germany:12 (episodes 1-7, 20-26) | South Korea:12 | Australia:PG | Canada:PG | UK:12 (part 1) | UK:PG (part 2) | Australia:MA

Company:

J.C. Staff

Trivia:

According to Osaka in the manga, she was actually born in Wakayama, then raised in Kobe, though Tomo still insists she is "from" Osaka, finding it too confusing to understand.

Quotes:

Chiyo Mihama: [at the summer home] Okay then, I'll open the door now. If I were to lose this key right now, we wouldn't be able to get into the house.
[Tomo takes the key out of her hand and hurls it]
Tomo Takino: [pause] I did it!
Koyomi Mizuhara: BUT WHAT THE HELL FOR?

Movie Connections:

Follows Azumanga daioh (2001)

Soundtrack:

Raspberry Heaven

A wonderful Anime--great for those unfamiliar with the genre

My teen watches, breaths and lives Anime and Manga. And after hearing about Japanese animation NON-STOP for some time, I thought I'd give it a whirl several years back. As a kid, Japanese animation was synonymous with lousy production values and dull plots. Often this was not the fault of the original production company, but due to American companies cutting the shows to pieces and splicing it all back together in an awful and confusing mess. SPEED RACER is the best example of this. So, despite my predisposition to hate it, I did agree to try some Anime once again.

Some Anime, not matter how much I try, I cannot and never will enjoy--particularly ones featuring exploding giant robots ("mecha" anime)--I'm just not particularly interested in this style. And some I have enjoyed mildly (such as DEATH NOTE), but of all the anime I have tried, by far my favorite is AZUMANGA DAIO. Regardless of where it was made, it is just wonderful entertainment. What I particularly like is that unlike so much of the super-fanciful anime, this is about a bunch of high school girls--and most of their adventures are very mundane--no explosions, no Pokemon battles and no life or death struggles. It's so good because the characters are all so well made and endearing--you really come to love them. Unlike many other Animes I have watched, the girls on the show seem almost like real people (except 'Osaka'--who is just plain weird!). This really surprised me--I thought Anime was pretty boring up until I watched this series! I am a high school teacher and apparently this series is pretty popular among my students as well. For teens and adults not 100% "gung-ho" about anime, this is an excellent series that will surely entertain. If you don't enjoy it, then there really is no hope for you coming to appreciate Anime.