Azumanga Daioh

[Dr. Doom]

http://photos1.blogger.com/img/16/2534/320/azumanga1.jpg

I'm sure this picture turns some of you off imediately if you're not familiar with Azumanga Daioh.

"OMG, why is Doom posting anime about little girls"

"He must be a BAKA HENTAI!"

Yes, well, be that as it may.


My friend INSISTED that I borrow this series from him. Hadn't even taken it outta the shrink wrap yet. Seeing that it seemed to be focused on a cast of all females, I was a little skeptical, I'll admit. But based on his insistance and his assurance that the show was absolutely hilarious, I went ahead and took him up on the offer. Over a week had passed and I hadn't touched it, just like I told him I wouldn't. Then, on a whim, after I had been watching some Gantz at my friend's house, I decided I wanted to watch some Anime. So I threw in the first disc and watched it. Let me tell you, ladies and gentlemen, do not be deceived. This show is mercilessly hilarious. I ended up watching all 26 episodes over the course of maybe 4 or 5 days and I am absolutely in love with this series now. I recommend it to EVERYONE. ANd not onl;y is it funny as hell, it's viciously adorable. It's hard not to "AWWW" at certain moments.

In short, everybody must watch this series! The premise can only be really described as the insanely, unforgivablely, ridiculously amusing antics of a cast of 5 (eventually 6) unique and quirky High School girls in and outside the classrom of their dangerously unbalanced english teacher.

And for those who have seen it, please post your impressions here!

[GK Punk]

Oh man it's a great show. I love the episode about the school fair.

[Dr. Doom]

Which one? There are three. o_o;;

[Cerpin Taxt]

For some odd reason, I fell in love with this show. That was a while ago, though.

[DrSpengler]

Yeah...it's one of my guilty pleasures. Being the fan of horror movies and violence that I am, I find it hard to admit that I REALLY enjoyed the show.

I work at a video store that also has a huge manga selection, and while I don't normallly like most manga, I grabbed an issue of Azumanga Daioh while business was painfully slow.

What first grabbed me was the presentation. It was like a newspaper comic. Then the humor hooked me in. Very reminiscent of Charles Schultz and Peanuts from the characters to the jokes to the situations. It was cute, clever and had an actual progressing storyline that made you want to keep reading. I bought all four volumes of the manga not long after that.

When the anime came out I was a little hesitent. It wasbasically everything I read in the manga, just animated. I'm not a big fan of whacky Japanese facial expressions and painfully over-used reactions (like falling down all the time), so when the show started doing that I felt like I'd wastedme money. But then when I heard the music, the excellent english dub, and saw all the best jokes come to life, I changed my mind.

So yeah, a guilty pleasure as no matter what you tell people, they're still going to think it's "girly". And maybe it is. But it's still damn funny.

[Dr. Doom]

I heard a little of the dub, and I always have an open mind in that area, but I very much prefer the subtitles in this case, and reccomend watching it in Japanese for everyone. Of course in the end, you'll do whatever suits you best, but this is just my reccommendation.

[DrSpengler]

I watch both dubs and then decide which I prefer. In this case, I thought the english dub was superb. Particularly, Osaka and her country-accent. Very cute-sounding.

That's the thing about dubs, sometimes the english is better, sometimes the Japanese is better. I greatly prefer the english dub of Cowboy Bebop, but I think the Japanese dub of Lupin III is the best out there. Meh, it's all preference. I like to pick and choose.

[Dr. Doom]

Osaka is one the main reasons I prefered the japanese voices, as she was undoubtedly my favoriet character. I appreciate the country accent, but I guess I just didn't like the delivery. Her japanese VA does such an excellent job of making her seem distant and dreamy. Chiyo-Chan is also nowhere near as adorable in english. those two and Yuraki were the only characters I really heard in english, but that was enough for me to prefer the japanese cast, who did an absolutely phenomenal job in my opinion.

[GK Punk]

Which one? There are three. o_o;;

Ah man you want me to REMEMBER? It's been like 2 years since I watched it!

It was the one where they dressed whatsherface up as a Penguin.

http://koti.mbnet.fi/motu_fin/Azuverse.swf

[Dr. Doom]

That was year 2.

[GK Punk]

did you watch the link? I thought it was funny as hell