If you ask a large group of anime fans what their favourite comedy anime is, I’m sure that someone would bring up Nichijou, and rightfully so.
Based off the manga by Keiichi Arawi, directed by Tatsuya Isihara, and adapted by the great Kyoto Animation, I remember watching Nichijou’s first episode a few years ago but, for whatever reason, not continuing with it after that.
Well, now that I have finished watching the series with everyone at the anime club I go to, I can say that I regret this decision because Nichijou is an absolutely perfect comedy in every sense of the word.
Every single episode got a massive laugh out of everyone attending.
The story (if you can call it that) follows two sets of people.
First up, we have the three high schoolers, the ditz, Yuko Aioi (Mariko Honda), the yaoi artist, Mio Naganohara (Mai Aizawa), and the emotionless-looking, yet still intelligent, Mai Minakami (Misuzu Togashi).
Next, we have the robot, Nano Shinome (Shizuka Furuya), her creator the child, Professor (Hiromi Konno), and their talking cat, Sakamoto (Minoru Shiraishi).
I know, it seems like these are two completely different storylines that don’t belong in the same show.
Well, Nichijou somehow makes it work completely, as we see both sets of characters go about their normal, over the top, everyday lives.
I say over the top because almost every single action in Nichijou is.
The first episode literally has a scene where Yuuko trying to catch some food she dropped is animated like it’s a stylized fight sequence.
There is a common joke in the fandom that they spent almost all of their animation budget on scenes like this and I honestly would not be surprised if it was true.
These scenes are so ludicrous that they’re hilarious and there is one of them in pretty much every single episode.
Just wait until you get to the Mio fight scene and the high jump scene.
You will know what I’m talking about when you get to those moments and I highly suspect you’ll be dying of laughter when you do.
This is what Nichijou is essentially, a series of skits, most of them focusing on the characters I mentioned, with very little overarching story.
There is development and plot progression for Nano but, other than her, there is next to none of this for the rest of the cast.
Ordinarily, I would say that the characters not being developed was a bad thing but this is not the case for Nichijou.
It’s not trying to be a show where every character grows to the point that they are different by the end.
It’s trying to be a show that makes us laugh at all the insane things going on in these characters’ everyday lives, and it more than succeeds at that.
If you haven’t seen Nichijou yet then I recommend you go see what you’re missing out on.
You will laugh so hard your sides hurt at least once every episode.
It is, in my opinion, the perfect comedy anime.
THE REVIEW MONSTER 