Episodes: 26
How: DVD {Owned}
Grade: A
Summary: 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).
Thoughts: I attempted to watch this show years ago and couldn't even get through the first episode, it bored me to tears. Now, I'm not sure why... maybe my preference has changed and I like more casual and unusually amusing shows.
Azumanga is of course a slice of life type show and it surrounds just one group of girls and a few teachers within the school, there's nothing all that magical about it {other than Chiyo's father?}and there's no fighting and really no fanservice either.
It's just, life...for these girls. An amusing life but still...
Who we have....
Chiyo Mihama- A 10 year old in High School, at least at the start of the show. I suppose by the end she's... 12 or 13. She's obviously incredibly smart to have skipped from 5th grade all the way up to tenth, which of course is a bit of a running joke in the series. Seeing she's smarter then most the older students and she's just so tiny...
Her family is also quite rich, though you never actually see her parents in the series {not counting the strange Chiyo's Father floating around.} It's Chiyo's summer house that they spend their breaks at, including the teachers oddly.
Her only true disadvantage is her size, making her other unconfident in the sports and physical activity area.
At the end of the series she's the only one not taking the college entrance exams, deciding to go abroad to America where they are a little more tolerant of such a young person going into Colleges.
Tomo Takino- The annoying, overly energetic yet lazy academically girl. She's been best friends with Yomi since grade school and loves to irritate her. If she's on the screen she's usually doing something to cause some sort of ruckus.
Apparently, she's not a total moron though. For High School Entrance exams she wanted to get intot he same HS as Yomi and did. I really think Yomi telling her she couldn't do it was what fueled her to actually do it however.... after being accepted she went back to her Knucklehead Ways.
Ayumu Kasuga/Osaka- I love this character, she transferred in from Osaka and figuring that she'd act like a normal Osakan, Tomo nicknamed her "Osaka" which really stuck.. Even to the point of her teachers calling her it and it was in the official sheets for the school.
Seeing as I watched the show with an English Dub, her dub actress gave her a slow, southern type sound which made her quite amusing. She's a bit dense when it comes to pretty much everything and is a member of the "Bonkuras" or "Knuckleheads".
Somehow, she did pass an entrance exam and get into a college.
Koyomi Mizuhara- Yomi for short, she's been friends with Tomo since grade school and is pretty much her exact opposite. Smart, calm...not really annoying. She does seem to get a little annoyed that Chiyo scores better grades then her and at the end of the series has to wait the longest to see if she gets into any of her college picks.
Yomi also has a bit of a body image problem and is constantly dieting...then falling off her diet... Tomo kind of pokes fun at this throughout the show.
Sakaki- The mature looking one, tall and well endowed she's incredible with athletics {though she's not in any clubs} and apparently not so bad with academics either. With her attitude rather distant most the time the fact she LOVES cute things is lost on most people.
She's always trying to pet this stray cat, but it keeps biting her.. she's also absolutely in love with Chiyo's dog Mr Tadakichi. It's not until near the end of the series when Sakaki finally gets a cat that likes her, an Iriomote cat gets attached to her while on the class trip to Okinawa.
At the end of the series she decides to go to school to become a Veterinarian and since she's moving out of her parents house she can actually keep some pets.
Kagura- She joins the main class in the 2nd year, only being shown a little during the 1st. She seems to have been brought over so that Yukari's class would have a better chance during the Athletic contest during the year.
She's on the schools swim team, is very athletic and has some sort of one sided rivalry going on with Sakaki. Who tends to beat her at most everything without even trying.
Minamo Kurosawa/Nyamo- She's the gym teacher and in many ways she's the "Yomi" in the best friend relationship with Yukari {who is the "Tomo"}. The students really seem to like her and Yukari seems a bit jealous by this.
In one episode, during the summer beach house events she gets drunk and tells the girls about sex. Most of the girls are quite impressed by this but.. poor little Chiyo may be scared for life.
Yukari Tanizaki- The girls homeroom and English teacher, she's a bit of a....nutjob. Yep, she's just a freaking lunatic sometimes. She's best friends with the gym teacher Nyamo and likes to freeload off her.
The End: The girls all get into college and I'm not really sure what the teachers end up doing, That's pretty much all there is to say about that. Oh, They also ALL get to go to the amusement park together seeing that Yomi missed the last time due to being ill.
-Other Stuff-
The only male that really shows up in the series is Kimura, an eccentric teacher that is a bit of a pervert. Always trying to peek at the girls in the swimsuits or any other revealing outfit. He also has some strange hangup on Kaorin.
Kaori- Called Kaorin by her friends and the perv Kimura, she has a very strange infatuation with Sakaki. It's although she's in love with her, but Sakaki doesn't even notice.
Chiyo's Father- Although he's never seen in the series, Sakaki had a dream that he was an odd looking flying cat alien.
Chiyo's Hair- Osaka has many dreams about Chiyo's pigtails and that they have the power to make people fly. Also, that they are controlling Chiyo and if you take them off she dies.
