Posts Tagged ‘nichijou’

Available via Crunchyroll

My Ordinary Life Eps 1-13 Released By: Crunchyroll Premiere Date: 4/2/11 Review Date: 7/22/11

Two anime for the price of one!

In this incredibly surreal comedy from Kyoto Animation, the gloves of comedy are off! On one side of town, there is a seemingly normal high school attended by Mio and her best friends Mai and Yuko. Filling their daily lives with insanity, within the first 13 episodes there will be deer wrestling, a plot to overthrow a king, a camping trip from hell and the more mundane forgetting of homework, fights with friends and keeping BL manga drawings a secret at all costs.

On the other side of town lies the Shinonome Laboratory where a loli professor has invented her own robot Nano. Constantly fitting her with new and consistently pointless updates and features, the pair live together with their talking cat Sakamoto dealing with every day situations including the consequences of the professor’s inventions, snacking and how to kill a bug trapped under a cup.

Good and the Bad

I had such a difficult time when it came to write the story synopsis for this series because really, how are you supposed to describe this one? In the latest outing from Kyoto Animation, the gods of comedy are smiling gracefully on this series as every episodes pulls out the stops and unleashes a tidal wave of sight gags, overreactions and set ups that will last for entire minutes on end just to get the audience laughing. From where I’m sitting, they’ve succeeded.

What I found so hilarious about My Ordinary Life is its willingness to go the extra mile to get the laugh. To be a fan of this series, audiences are going to have to get used to one thing very quickly and that is incredibly long set ups. Ranging anywhere from 30 seconds to 8 minutes, most of this series is when its in a period of setting up whatever joke its going for. Once you get to that moment however, sometimes you’re going to find that your moment is actually just an illusion that was never coming to begin with. The absence of a punch line is the punch line and I couldn’t help but laugh every time.

When this series is on its mark however (particularly throughout the Hakese/Nano scenes), the comedy in this series is a rain of gold down upon your brain. Going to extreme lengths, My Ordinary Life will never stop with the incredible reaction gags and physical comedy which pits woman on man, man on psychic medium or even principal on deer.

Music

What shocked me the most about My Ordinary Life is the incredibly strong musical score that goes along with this series. From deep dramatic tones to more whimsical horns, the orchestra behind this series really does an amazing job of playing up each scene to epic proportions and when you have incredible reaction gags like this series does, having a background score that can play it up to 11 is always a good thing.

Overall

This is the surreal comedy of the year that should have everyone laughing. While a good sense of patience is required for this one, there is little else standing in the way of anyone having a good time with this series. This is another comedy gem!

Reposted from Ani.me

Nichijou
My Ordinary Life
Studio: Kyoto Animation
Premiere Date: 4/2
Reviewed: 4/4
Genre: Slice of Life Comedy
Available via Crunchyroll

First Impression: I love this series.

 

In this very surreal slice of life, we follow the every day lives of students in high school, Yuuko and Mio. Their lives involve walking to school, getting motivated to do work and getting random food stuck on them in someway. Meanwhile on the other side of town there is a loli inventor leading her life along with her wind up robot that she invented that does all the cooking, cleaning, toe shooting and exploding.

Good and the Bad

Before I even knew what hit me, My Ordinary Life had me hooked in. Within seconds of the series beginning, I was feeling so taken in by the animation. While most fans who follow Kyoto Animation are used to bright, shiny moe; this series takes a much different tact. Using an older animation style filled with muted colors and lines, the style seems like it could be almost out of place against the moe landscape of today. But the easy going nature and sense of humor makes this style work.

Once I was done being pulled in by the art style, it took only a couple of minutes before I realized that I really enjoyed the sense of humor in this series. From there, I was hooked and knew I would be watching this series. Completely off the wall in a style reminiscent of Lucky Star (only without the otaku humor), this is a very surreal series that isn’t afraid to make the absurd into the completely normal. In the first two minutes, we’re introduced to a loli professor and a robot that looks like an entirely normal girl except for the wind up key in her back. It’s not that she needs it but it is there for a purpose. But just moments later we’re also already witnessing a massive explosion that will send everyone and everything (or 3 things in particular) right back to Yuuko and Mio.

There is a quiet genius in this first episode that always managed to keep me laughing throughout the episode. Everything is a short gag that rarely takes much more than a minute or two to complete. Some towards the middle are even shorter vignettes that don’t even appear to have relevance to the overall episode (the eggheads with the jump rope was my favorite) but still manage to get chuckles or even full laughs just for their absurdity.

Where My Ordinary Life fails however are when the jokes start to delve even further into the culturally absurd. While much of the humor are sight gags that anyone can laugh at, there are an equal number of cultural gags that only natives are going to understand without liner notes. While still retaining some of the visual humor that can get some laughs, there aren’t many fans who are going to genuinely understand what it means to be randomly hit with raw food.

 

Overall

This is a quiet winner that I already know I’ll be following all the way. A comedy that will catch you off guard with its wit and off the wall sense of humor, this is going to be a fun series. While sometimes going a little too far into the obscure, this is a series that also knows how to time its jokes to get the best possible impact. This is the quiet and capable comedy that will have everyone laughing and smiling along the way. This is worth looking at!

So I’m a little late again but this time it’s because of my new phone. It’s just so much fun to play with! So in today’s game of catch up there are 5 series continuations, a completely original series and brand new manga adaptations! It’s been a very busy few days!

Toriko: The first manga to get the anime green light this week is food series Toriko. The series has been running since 2008 and follows a master, gourmet food provider as he travels to the world to collect the rare ingredients he needs to make his dishes. The series will premiere this coming April though no word on which studio will be producing it.

Nura: Rise of the Yokai Gets 2nd Season: Speaking of firsts, the first in this list to get a second season announcement belongs to shonen series, Nura: Rise of the Yokai. Premiering earlier this year (and simulcast by Viz Media), the series about a young boy who is part yokai is being pressured into succeeding as the new head but he resists due to wanting to live a normal life. No firm dates on when the new season will hit airwaves.

Bakuman 2nd Season: The second series to get a second season announcement this week is comic series Bakuman about two teenagers trying to become the next big manga stars. The JC Staff produced series managed to gain quite a large number of fans and so I know that more than a few fans have been pretty excited ever since the news hit. The new season will air in the fall of 2011.

Seikon no Qwaser 2nd Season: Ready for another 2nd season announcement? The breast feeding vampire series Seikon no Qwaser will be getting a second season at some point in the future. All that has been made known is that most of the crew will remain the same from the first season. For once I’m not shedding any tears over the lack of information. Can you tell how I felt about the first season yet?

Kampfer Gets New Something or Other in March: According to a wraparound jacket on the 5th manga volume, there will be more Kampfer airing on television in March. It goes onto say that a promotional video will be shown at Comiket 79 but fails to mention on if the new release will be a full series or just a one time special episode. Another series that fails to fill me with enthusiasm at the idea of more being made. Yay.

ufotable to Animate Fate/Zero Prequel: Thought I was going to say sequel again there didn’t you? But nope, instead it’s been announced that a new TV series and manga will be created based on the novel Fate/Zero. Taking place in the same world as the Fate/Stay Night series, this series takes place during the 4th Grail War which both Rin’s and Shiro’s foster father fought in to obtain the Holy Grail. – DO WANT!!!

Naruto Movie #8: Naruto is getting another movie next summer. It’ll be it’s 8th. I couldn’t care less about this if I tried. Next!

Original Series C Gets Noitamina Slot: In the completely brand new, not based on anything category; a new series titled C will be will be getting a slot in the now much publicized Noitamina block. No word on which season it will premiere in but more information will be made available in a press conference held on January 7th. An official teaser website launched on December 17th.

Hen Semi Heads for TV: I never got around to checking out the OAD released for this series earlier in the year but from what I hear, it was pretty extreme in its humor. So imagine my shock to hear that the series about a class of abnormal psychology students is getting green lit for television. More information will be made available in the next issue of Morning and Morning 2 magazine available on January 22nd. – Hm, wonder how this one is going to get marketed on DVD later in the year.

And finally wrapping things up…

Nichijou Premiere Date Confirmed: Kyoto Animation has finally confirmed that their new slice of life comedy series, Nichijou, will premiere on television in April. An ‘Episode 0’ OVA will be released a month earlier.

Over the weekend, the latest issue of Shonen Jump announced that Kyoto Animation would be adapting the 4 panel gag manga, Nichijou, into an anime. And once again, that was it. No word on when or how the anime would be released, just that it would be. Luckily, a notice was sent to retailers just a few hours later with a bit of additional information. It’s still not entirely clear on if Nichijou will be getting a full TV adaptation but it will at least be getting an OAD which will ship with Vol. 6 of the manga in January 2011.

Listening to reactions over the weekend, it seems like most people are on board for this though many question Kyoto Animation’s ability to a surreal slice of life comedy with flat, round character designs into marketable moe bait. To which I reply: Lucky Star and K-ON.

<Via MyAnimeList>