Review on my 2nd anime for spring 2011 "Nichijou/My Ordiany Life"

Nichijou (日常 Nichijō^?, lit. Regular Life), or know as "My Ordinary Life" in English. This is a anime adaption based on manga written by Keiichi Arawi first published in 2006 by "Kodokawa Shoten" in their manga magazine "Shonen Ace". The manga is a simple 4 panel comic like "Azumanga Daioh" or "Lucky Star" so you can already guess what the anime is going to be like.  Another slice of life/comedy anime which is something that I happen to personally love. However this is a genre that still gets mixed reviews so I will do my best to present a fair/equal review that anyone will be able to understand.

Now this something that is really hard to review not due the fact the show is bad it is due to the fact this show has a huge barrier of entry. Okay now follow me on this one  take shows that have panty shots or nudity for example. No matter how good the story nor how matter they develop the characters people will not watch it. It's the same for this show, the humor is for a niche market or certain kind of fans there for some will just hate because of that. Setting up culture boundaries between people to where you have to look up the jokes online is also hard for mainstream fans to do, cuts out time/enjoyment from the show thus some people will be turned off. Due to this fact I will be giving this show two scores in order to represents where I stand and where mainstream fans please try to understand this.

Alright now on to the summary for the first half of the show or what could be seen as the "main plot". It focuses on a group 3 high school girl freshmen by the names of Mai Minakami, Mio Naganohara and, Yūko Aioi who have the biggest personality differences between anyone I have seen in a long time. This usually deals with the daily antics they get into with each other such as Mai purposely doing things to mislead Yuko and make her do things that she wouldn't normally do. Now on to the other half show which would be about a young 5 year old "Professor, her robot caretaker "Nano" with there talking male cat "Sakamoto-san" who just show off more crazy/bizarre routines but what makes it so interesting is the fact that the professor actually acts like a real little girl instead of an grown up character wanting to screw the male lead."I will talk more about this more clearly in later post"

There are other characters that I will mention as well, like a junior named Kōjirō Sasahara "who has a fascination with riding his goat to school",  Misato Tachibana " she has an weapon arsenal that could make the NRA jealous and keeps Sasahara in check." and my favorite random character Tsuyoshi Nakanojō "who has the best animated Mohawk ever and it's known why due to fact his hair doesn't grow on the sides...WTF?" The characters In this show are just random hit or miss as well. Meaning that you will either like or hate some of the characters from the get go but this can be said for nearly any form of visual medium.

That's I can really say  for the story to be honest with you. It just a random collection of scenes with running gags put together that seem to work flawlessly for me since I am such a hardcore fan but this will not work for all. The only real life show I can compare this to is "Seinfeld" so if you liked that show you will love this anime. Okay now onto a high point for the series which happens to be the animation. Just the smooth flow off the screen flawlessly to a point it feels makes me feel as I am doing a paint by numbers in real-time.

Everything is just so clean, clear and crisp thus making everything nice to look at. As I just stated above the hair animated in this show is probably some of the best rendered hair that I have seen in the past ten years" cromotie high school was the last". Hell even watching this show on in low quality still looks better that most anime series that where put out in the early turn of the century. The only chink or flaw in the animation is that it's to cutesy for some, thus driving shonen fan-base away.

Okay moving on to my favorite part of this anime is the music which I absolutely love. Yeah that's being hugely biased on my part but I don't give a shit. What surprises me even more is the fact that "Hyadain" a well know flash musician that  has made videos from old games like Final Fantasy IV or Super Mario Bros Did the OP for the show called "The O-o-o-one-sided Love of Hyadain - C", as seen above.

It seems that his music has had such a hit with mainstream people it caught on enough for him to do a record deal which is fine with me. Now that's all well and good but rest of the music is also what makes the series just plain enjoyable to watch. From the high funny piano music to the low key soft music that could help anyone some fall asleep. I do know one thing I will be buying this soundtrack when it does come out.

 

Overall as a series this is just a fun anime to watch to mellow out if your having a bad day. Now there is a hit or miss for a few people and even some episodes for some. If you love this sorta show I highly recommend that you watch it but if the barrier is to hard for you to get through just don't I do not want you watch something you will not like. That's all I can really say for the show nothing major happens no plot to destroy the world or ground breaking material here just wacky fun for all. You can fine the show legally at crunchy roll for simulcast this season.

Age Rating 13+

My Ordinary Life Legal Steam

Music 5/5


Animation 4.5/5


Plot/Story 3/5


Characters 3.5/5


Overall Rating 4.5/5

-Cecil The Dark Knight