Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Azumanga Daioh - One of the Best!, May 5, 2009
Do I have qualifications for this review?? Well Yes I think so, I have seen a LOT of Anime!
If you have not seen this series yet I recommend it to you. If you are an "Action" fan then it may be a bit slow so have a peek on UTube first! then rush out and buy it!
Thats where I saw it first, it gained my immediate interest and soon I had seen all the episodes, and loved the whole lot.
I believe I have this edition, as I live in anaother country than the USA, It was released here as the six disks, in fat packs with the translator/character art booklets and all the extras on disk. Also a special "father" or "Chiyo-Dad" broach. There are 6 disks of episodes and the last disk has several "extras" including a "mini movie". I LOVE this boxset.
Like many, I have watched the English and Japanese versions, Both are great but I do enjoy the Japanese version more, it is cuter and seems more natural.
So you havent seen it? well simply put it is the story of 7 student girls, 2 female teachers and the leacherous Mr. Kimura! We follow them through 3 years of high school, to their graduation. The humor is light but enjoyable, animation is very good, the characters are drawn as not to appear 15-17 years old, but that is their supposed age. There are times their characters turn to almost exagerated stick figures as necesitated by the "moment".
The cast is: (no particular order)
Chiyo-Chan, the 10 year old prodigy, Cuteness is her fortay!,
Kagura, The not to studious but very sporty type, alway wants to compete with Sakaki
Koyomi, (Yomi) studious, smart and tends to worry about her weight.
Sakaki, Tall, clever, athletic and loves cats.
Kaorin, regular student infatuated with Sakaki.
Osaka, The space cadet! renown for her off beat non relevent statements, is good at puzzles and is a horror/ghost story fan.
Tomo, the exuberant, competiative dunce, does everything but her homework,
Miss Yukari, The home room teacher, very competative, and has to be first!
Miss Minamo the PE Teacher, the more sensible of the 2 female tachers, and Miss Yukaris friend and rival.
Mr. Kimura, the Math teacher and has self confesed "loves school girls" and is a bit of a pervert.
Quote an Osaka-ism: "You believe in ghosts when you are alone, and you smell a fart that is not yours!!"
Well this is a good view, light, entertaining and humourous and in the end a bit sad when the girls all graduate, why sad? well thats the end of the series, and you want it to keep going!! wheres episode 27?? AAAHHHHH!!
The set is now reasonably priced if you find the right retailer, the set is in large boxes, and so takes a bit of space on the shelf, but heck! it deserves heaps of real estate in my book! Has all the features of the single episode boxes, with a few extras to boot! Great value and a great Anime!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Azumanga DOH!, September 16, 2009
Episodic? Sort of. Similar to Lucky Star, the Azumanga Daioh anime is compiled from 4-panel gag manga comics of the same name; either you get the joke, or you don't. The manga is wonderful, to see it in anime is exceptional. Azumanga Daioh has also been compared to, strangely enough, the U.S. sitcom "Seinfeld", because of the episodic feel... supposedly a non-story arc affair. But realistically, the character development and day-to-day life (in this case, three years of Japanese high school) IS the story arc. The repetition of comic relief is quite intentional, this stems from the characters personalities... which makes you grow closer and founder to them. Also, like Lucky Star (and Seinfeld), what makes this series extra special is the reviewable opportunities... you don't feel weighed down by a series that is story-arc driven, this is all about the characters. No matter how many times I hear Elaine bust out "Get OUT!" on Seinfeld, it does not get old; either does this anime.
I would highly recommend viewing the anime with Japanese DUB and English subtitles... mainly because of Osaka's character. The character is from Osaka, which regionally, would be considered "down south" for us in the States. And like the English translated manga, the character is obnoxiously portrayed as being from Boston, which is a far cry... the joke in the manga, is that even though the nicknamed transfer student Osaka is from Osaka, she's expected to be cutting-edge and city-slick cool by the other students when they first meet her... but in actuality, she's quite spacey and slow on the uptake which does NOT come across in either the English translated manga or the English dubbed anime. You'll get and understand the true identity and hilariousness of Osaka by listening to the Japanese DUB with English subtitles... the original dialogue is always portrayed/delivered correctly... dub is often... lost in translation as they say.
Another treat, on a personal level, is that the characters are all Japanese girls, with dark hair and dark eyes... none of the westernized and often whitewashed look or feel of other anime character design... with bright hair and eyes of every color of the rainbow... which is still quite enjoyable, but a breath of fresh air for this anime. If you enjoy this series, I would also highly recommend Lucky Star; although much more in your face fun, it's also derived from the same 4-panel gag-style of manga and isn't story-arc necessary.
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1 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Comedy is the ony thing going for it..., September 2, 2009
I have watched ~18 episodes out of the 26 episodes available. Azumanga Daioh is only for people who are interested in its nonsense comedy. I found the jokes funny at first, but it gets old afterward; the same or similar jokes reappear across the episodes. The series is also episodic. There is practically no story (i.e. no overarching goal). I prefer a good story over having good comedy, but I did not find the comedy funny after the first 7 episodes or so; thus, I do not recommend this anime.
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