I came upon this book one day when I was in borders looking for a new manga to read. I didn’t intend to read a comedy but I picked up Azumanga Daioh when I saw it. It stood out from the other books. It was much taller and wider than the others. The cover showed several girls displayed happily in school uniforms. One looking very serious, another looking confused, and two smiling and laughing as they walked towards their high school.
The Story
Azumanga Daioh is a slice of life story about several girls who go to the same High School. Much of the story takes place around:
Chiyo Mihama: A very intelligent girl who is very young and should be in middle school but advanced onto High School. In the manga and anime you never see her parents. Unless you count “Chiyo Chichi” or “Chiyo’s Dad”, which is a cat type creature that appeared in first in Sakaki’s dream claiming to be Chiyo’s father.
Her family is wealthy and live in a sizeable house. They also have a summer home where all the girls, and two of their teachers, stayed. She is very friendly and despite her being in High School she does act her age.
Tomo Takino:
Tomo was never one of my favorite characters. Overall she is energetic and obnoxious. She seems to go out of her way to annoy others. She seems rather daft throughout, which is why some of her classmates have no idea how she made it into the school She later explained she has the capability of doing whatever it is she wants if she only concentrates and studies hard.
Koyomi “Yomi” Mizuhara:
She is commonly referred to as just “Yomi”. She is the more serious of the characters but not too serious to the point where you don’t like her. She and Tomo have been friends for years and she was the inspiration for Tomo to “buckle down” and work to get into the High School. She is one of the more intelligent characters and despite that she failed her entrance exam (an exam taken to determine what college you go to).
Sakaki:
Sakaki is one of my favorite characters. She is why and soft spoken and hardly speaks to anyone but manages to befriends everyone. She is seen as very cool and everyone wishes they were more like her. She has quite the chest that all the girls envied and she is amazing in sports beating out most of the guys. She has a love for cats and cute things that can’t go unnoticed. There are just some problems. Cats hate her. Several times throughout the whole series she was attacked, bitten, scratched, and ganged up on, by cats. Which led to her brandishing band aids over her fingers much of the time, and her parents don’t allow cats for her mother is allergic She became great friends with Chiyo once Chiyo got a dog whose name is Mr. Tadakichi. To Sakaki’s (and my) amazement, the dog let her pet him, and that was the beginning of a relationship. Soon Sakaki was able to find love in a cat on a school trip she took down to Okinawa. She befriended an iromoto cat which she was sad to leave, but when the mother died due to a car accident the cat found it’s way to her.
Ayumu “Osaka” Kasuga:
Commonly known as Osaka, is a spaced out girl who can never seem to get things right. When she first arrived to the school she constantly said to herself that she had to “get it together” so much so that she’d get lost in her own chants and not pay attention. Somehow she manages to scrape on by to my amazement. She is one of the funniest characters, often very random and spontaneous making for great laughs. Within two pages of her introduction I was laughing. Without Osaka, Azumanga Daioh just wouldn’t be as funny.
Kagura:
Kagura is Sakaki’s was Sakakis rival, until she joined her class. They are both athletically talented and popular. Kagura has some of Tomo’s traits. She seems daft as times and is quite comedic.
Kaori:
Kaori isn’t a major character but she is worth mentioning. She has a huge crush on Sakaki which Sakaki is totally oblivious to for the most part. She goes crazy over anything that has anything to do with Sakaki and it if funny to read and watch.
There are two main teachers Yukari Tanizaki who is their English and homeroom teacher who is lazy and doesn’t really care about her students, and Minamo/Nyamo Kurosawa, who is a gym teacher and seems to care.
Yukari has a habit of saying and doing things she just isn’t suppose to. In the first episode of the anime, she was running late so she stole a students bike who stopped by to help her when hers broke. She invites herself to the girls vacations and is a bad driver who almost kills people. She is hilarious. She is pushy and bossy and likes to put people in uncomfortable situations for her enjoyment, which is evident in a few episodes where she is out with Nyamo. There is one more teacher, Kimura. He is the only regular male in the series, with the exception of the cat creature that claims to be Chiyo’s father. He is a pervert, plain and simple. He tries to sneak into the girls swimming classes and even requested a cup of pool water during a school festival when a cafe was set up.
There is no real storyline. All the characters simply co-exist and go to school and clash. There are four volumes and each one is amazing.
Manga or Anime, which is better?
I am an avid manga reader so my opinions on this may be a bit bias but I prefer the manga to the anime. There are many times in the manga where there are pauses which are comedic they usually take up 2-3 panels and never more. In the anime; however, these pauses can last from one to two minutes, which is just annoying. There was one episode that If I recall correctly only took up eight to ten pages but somehow took up 25 minutes in anime form. Whilst there are moments that do not convey well from manga to anime, there are some that do. There are also hilarious moments that do not show up in the manga but do in the anime, like when Kaori was dancing with Sakaki. It was tremendously hilarious and made me tear up with laughter. Something like that could not convey well in the manga. I recommend both reading and watching the anime, you’ll get the best of both.
Azumanga Daioh is a great coming of age story of several high school girls. It is amazingly funny and is one of my favorite mangas to read if I am in for a good laugh. I highly recommend reading it and watching it.
5/5 for the story
5/5 for the characters
5/5 for the settings
