Hello everyone,
Let's go ahead with yet another review of a comedy/slice of life manga/anime series that got a massive audience at the time and that probably everyone remember named Azumanga Daioh based on an original work by Kiyohiko Azuma.
Let's start with a synopsis :
Azumanga Daioh is about high school life through the eyes of six girls with unusual personalities: Chiyo (the 10-year-old genius), Osaka (the resident airhead), Sakaki (the shy one prone to cat bites), Tomo (the loose cannon), Yomi (the short-tempered one) and Kagura (the resident jock).
Ok, this series does not have a real plot to follow as this is a slice of life show, but each of the little episodes couple up in the grand scheme of things adding new details for the progression of the story till the graduation of the girls.
Each of the episode (the anime is mostly episodic) follows one or a couple of characters in a particular situation that in most case is a clichè of the anime industry like the school trip episode or the culture festival episode, etc...
My favourites episode is by far the one where Osaka is first introduced with all the hilarity behind her origin/dumbness.
The characters are many, but most of them easy to remember due to particular voice/characteristics that distinguish the like Osaka accent and dumbness, Sasaki great stature, etc...
All the characters are likable and there are no evil character, but everything is mostly good in this ideal world. There is no personality growth in the characters of this series as its expected from a slice of life based show.
My favourite character like you probably already understood is Ayumu Kasuga also known as Osaka (her city of origin) that with her airhead personality and lovable voice (I love the Osaka accent so I end up loving most character with that voice) is by far the best character in my opinion.
Nice second for Chiyo Mihama, it's pretty nice defined the great difference between knowledge about school subjects and the innocence of a child.
The graphical quality is pretty high for the time it first aired (2002), the girls design is pretty normal looking (they really look like normal girls, not models) and the animation consistent for all the episodes with little to none problem.
The sound quality is top notch with many famous seiyuu (at the time of the publishing of this series) working on this project like Rie Tanaka in Koyomi Mizuhara's role, Yuki Matsuoka in Osaka's role and many other big names...
The opening and ending songs were quite funny, but nothing that you'll end up listening long in your playlist.
There is not much more to add other than...
This is one of the best comedy/slice of life series out there from all times so if you're a fan of this genre there are no reason or excuse you can make for not watching this series.
See you soon,
feal87.