Anime Review: Danshi Koukousei no
Nichijou/ Daily Lives of High School Boys
Hello and
welcome back to another anime review. What I am going to talk about for this
one is anime titled Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou (Daily Lives of High School
Boys) or Nichijou for short. This anime falls to comedy category but it does
have some slice of life inside of it as well, in general. Without wasting any
more words let’s get started with the review.
Visuals
Speaking of
the visuals and anime-style of Nichijou, it looks anime alright but not as that
ridiculous as Kill la Kill yet it is not as sharp as Psycho Pass.
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| Hidenori's enjoying the sunset with a book and a thought in mind. |
As you can
see on the picture above, there are no things that really stand out in terms of
visual aspects. I don’t mean it in a bad way but it looks like your typical
standard anime as Nichijou itself mainly emphasizes on portraying the daily
lives of some regular high school boys.
Violence
does exist but only as a part of the comedic skits. Similar to the funny gore
and injuries portrayed in Kill la Kill, yet it is not as exaggerated to such
ridiculous extent. It is enough to make things funny to say the least. In
addition, the anime also includes those ridiculous faces gimmick to show its
character’s reaction in such a funny and overly detailed way as a part of its
comedic routine.
Characters
According to
the wiki, the main protagonists of the anime are Tadakuni, Hidenori and
Yoshitake. Yet, despite the fact of them being called the main protagonists the
stories do not always put them as the main focus.
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| Most of the casts of Nichijou--in costumes. |
There are
quite a lot of other characters making appearances throughout the series. Each
of them seems to have their own singular main characteristic without any layers
to add the spice for their characterization. In spite the lack of depth, as it
is a comedy anime each character does add some spice on the anime’s arsenal of
comedic value. For example, Mitsuo’s trait of being unlucky is one of the
things that made me laugh throughout the anime. Moreover, the voice acting
seems to be spot on and funny as it seems to fit the characters well, and the
overreaction voices and reaction hits me every time.
In addition
to the mostly characters, there are also female school students as well. Even
so, what is different from other anime is that they do not seem to be the focus
compared to the school boys. Some of the female characters are censored in a
way that their eyes are often be blocked with some shading technique, and their
names are rarely mentioned. Some are not censored and fully introduced like the
3 girls from the girl-only segment in each episode and the cute and tomboy
Ringo-chan, the Student Council President of Sanada East High.
Plot
Different
from some anime, the plot in Nichijou does progress but it is separated into
several segments in each of its episodes. Every small segments come with its
own title and theme, and usually it emphasizes on certain high school boy
related problems; from the curiosity of wearing a skirt to the roleplaying that
they had when they found a stick on the street.
Some of the
segments include physical and slapstick comedy, some present the wittier verbal
and contextual comedy, a sitcom perhaps. Each of them can be funny, but some of
the best ones are those that you can really relate with in real life. For
example, on the boys and bicycle segment in which Motoharu struggled to teach
himself how to ride the bike with the help Yoshitake is funny to me because it
is relatable—yeah I can’t ride a bike, happy?
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| The special female/ school girls segment. |
In addition
to the aforementioned segments, each episodes of the anime also include a
special segment after the closing sequence which is called High School Girls
Are Funky. Different from the shaded women in the normal segments, we are
presented another three “protagonists” which are all female and are not
censored through weird eye-shading. The girls are Yanagin, Ikushima and Habara.
Similar to the boy segments of the show, the girls’ segments are different in
each of its instalments. The type of humor is also different in each episodes
but not so different in general as it is either physical comedy or contextual
comedy. Even though some of the topics are hard for me to relate with, but they
are still decent enough to make me smile or laugh.
Conclusion
First of
all, this review may be the shortest and one of the shortest ones that I have
made so far. It does not mean that it is a bad anime but it is hard for me to
talk in details because…well…there are no other things to talk about. In terms
of the visuals, there are no overly weird and extraordinary aspect that stands
out. Its characters are mostly singular and do not have that much of a layer.
The plot is as simple as your typical situational comedy that we often see on
TVs.
Again, my
shallow opinion does not imply that this is a horrible anime per se. The humor
is decent but most its hilarity comes from one’s relatable-ness and subjective
connection with the situation or context being portrayed. I have some friends
who have watched the anime as well, and their reactions are indeed different. A
friend likes the reaching-for-a-hanged-bag episode more, while the other prefer
the horror story episodes for example. Speaking about rating…I’ll give it 6 and
a half. It is rather low because…again, the anime seems to depend solely on its
own viewer’s taste in terms of their own degree of enjoyment in watching the
anime. Nonetheless, it is still a good anime if say you are having a bad day
and in an effort to look for something that can make you laugh for a while.
Additional References:
http://dailylivesofhighschoolboys.wikia.com/
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