Azumanga Daioh

Azumanga Daioh
File:Azuarticlepic.PNG Azumanga Daioh
Genre	Seinen, Comedy, High School, Slice of Life
Created by	Kiyohiko Higashi
Manga
Written by	Kiyohiko Azuma
Published by	Mediaworks ADV Manga
Anime
Azumanga Daioh THE ANIMATION
Directed by	Hiroshi Nishikiori
Studio	J.C.STAFF
Related works
Wallaby (manga), Yotsuba&!

Azumanga Daioh (あずまんが大王, Azumanga Daiō) is a manga by Kiyohiko Azuma that was adapted into an anime in 2002. Published in the magazine Dengeki Daioh, the manga consists almost entirely of four panel comic strips that are known as yonkoma in Japan, subsequently compiled and rereleased in tankōbon format. While comparatively few manga of this type are released in the United States, this is superficially similar to anthologies of Western newspaper comic strips, with the primary difference being Azumanga Daioh has a vertical, rather than horizontal layout.

The anime, which aired from April 8, 2002 until September 30, 2002, was broadcast in 5-minute segments every weekday, and as a 25-minute compilation each weekend. Thus there are 130 5-minute episodes which can also be seen as 26 episodes, each 25 minutes in length. These episodes were released on VHS and DVD. In addition to these episodes, there were also two others: The Very Short Azumanga Daioh Movie, a 6-minute trailer, and Azumanga Web Daioh.

In the United States, the anime was released on both a 6 DVD volume set September 9, 2005 and later a 5 DVD volume "Thinpak" set by ADV Films. The 6th DVD volume also included The Very Short Azumanga Daioh Movie. The manga was published in English by ADV Manga. The two soundtracks to the anime were released in the United States by Geneon.

Azumanga Web Daioh is a 4-minute story with its own peculiar plot distributed in 2000. Although there was a charge to view Web Daioh, its sound and image quality was so low that Hideki Satomi denounced it as "a swindle". Image and sound quality have improved, but it has remained unofficial.

Web anime  : Azumanga Web Daioh
Directed by	Fumiaki Asano
Studio	Chara-ani.com
Original run	December 28,2000
No. of episodes	1

Title origin

The title of the series has no meaning. "Azumanga" is a portmanteau of "Azuma" (the name of the series' creator) and "manga", while "Daioh" comes from the magazine in which it was originally published, Dengeki Daioh. Daioh is also referred to during the next episode previews as meaning "king," or "great king." The name Azumanga is the general term for Kiyohiko Azuma's works (illustrations and comics) advocated to get readers to keep the author's name in mind (The originator is unknown). For example, the titles of two work collections published in 1998 and 2001 containing official comics of Pioneer animations (Tenchi Muyo, Battle Athletes Victory, Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure, El-Hazard, Pretty Sammy and Serial Experiments Lain), Doki Doki Pretty League and Forestall Army Corps were Azumanga and Azumanga 2. Azumanga was published in the form of a reduced-size edition later, called Azumanga Recycle. Though Azumanga was defined with the intention of implying all of Azuma's works at first, the current opinion is divided among Japanese fans on what is included within the limits of this title. One faction maintains that only Azumanga as work collections are called Azumanga, another holds that Azumanga Daioh is also a kind of Azumanga, and the others claim that the original meaning should include Wallaby, Yotsuba&! and even Inma no Ranbu, a collection of short stories which enthusiasts have given the nickname "Underground Azumanga" （裏あずまんが, "Ura Azumanga"）.

Plot

Both the manga and the anime follow the trials and triumphs of everyday life in a Japanese high school. The readers and/or viewers follow Sakaki's obsession with neighborhood cats, Chiyo's struggle to fit in with an age group far above her own, and Yomi's (sometimes lacking) patience with a rather silly best friend, Tomo, whose energy is rivaled only by her total lack of sense. They get to see yearly accounts of summer vacation, holidays, tests, and athletic events. Although it generally follows everyday life, this series is occasionally marked by bursts of surrealism and absurdity, such as an episode featuring the characters' New Year's dreams.

In the anime, Episodes 1 through 10 cover the first year of high school, and introduce the main cast and their personalities and foibles. Episodes 11-19 cover the second year as the girls become more mature and Kagura joins Yukari's class. Episodes 20-26 cover the third and final year, as the girls prepare for college entrance exams, and the series concludes with graduation.

Characters

The main characters. From left to right: Sakaki, Kagura, Chiyo, Tomo, Yomi and Osaka

Six schoolgirls and two teachers make up the main cast alongside a few secondary characters, including a creepy male teacher with an abnormal obsession with teenage girls (Kimura-sensei), another girl (Kaorin) in the same grade who seems to have a crush on Sakaki (the most distant of the main characters) and a friend of hers with a relatively small role in the story (Chihiro).

Four of the girls were included in Newtype Magazine's top 100 anime heroines of 2002: Osaka was awarded 7th, Chiyo 11th, Sakaki 21st, and Yomi 78th. Together they made Azumanga Daioh the 2nd most popular series of 2002 for female characters.

Character profiles are given in Western order, with the surname after the given name.

Students

Chiyo Mihama (美浜 ちよ Mihama Chiyo)

A child prodigy, Chiyo has skipped five grades to 10th grade (freshman in Japanese high school) at the start of the series and is still at the top of the class. This type of grade-skipping would be unthinkable in Japan, and thus the series itself humorously explores its consequences[2]. People find Chiyo amazingly cute, but her friends sometimes take advantage of her young age and scholastic abilities. Her lack of stature in comparison to her classmates leads to a lack of confidence, particularly in physical pursuits where she feels she is a burden. However, she tends to draw jealousy not only with her intelligence, but the fact that her family is exceedingly wealthy (they own an enormous mansion and a summer house where Chiyo is visited by her classmates on several occasions). The graphic rendering of Chiyo's ponytails later allowed for several visual gags in both the manga and anime, usually as flying wings in Osaka's daydreams. At home, she can almost always be found in the company of her enormous dog, Tadakichi. Out of all of the girls, she is the only one who does not sit through college "entrance exams" as she intends to study overseas, possibly in America.

Tomo Takino (滝野 智 Takino Tomo)

Tomo is extremely energetic and competitive, despite being unathletic and a slacker at the same time. She tends to irritate everyone around her, especially Yomi, her classmate since elementary school. This is mostly due to the fact that Tomo is extremely impulsive and never really considers nor cares about the consequences of anything she says or does. On their second trip to Chiyo's summer house, Tomo actually grabbed Chiyo's house keys and threw them into the forest because she wanted to see what would happen if they'd lost them. However, on the occasions when Tomo has actually been inspired to concentrate on something, she's proven to be quite capable. The most notable example of this is the fact that she managed to get the grades to qualify for the same high school as Yomi. Of course, she did this mostly out of spite, since Yomi ridiculed her and openly said there was no way she could pull it off. Once Tomo got into high school however, she basically returned to her lackadaisical ways.

Koyomi "Yomi" Mizuhara (水原 暦 Mizuhara Koyomi)

A grade-school friend and general antagonist of Tomo's, Yomi is the title's voice of reason, carrying herself as the most mature and serious of the group. Though smart and athletic, she is constantly dissatisfied with herself due to her weight and is always trying various diets in an effort to become thinner. She can never seem to stick to these diets however, as she finds herself constantly tempted by her favorite foods. Another weakness of hers is that while she is above average in pretty much everything else, Yomi is almost criminally bad at singing. This tends to make her hard to be around at certain times because singing karaoke is actually one of her favorite things to do. While usually functioning as Tomo's "straight man", she sometimes manifests a rather cruel sense of humor. Yomi also has an uppercut that Tomo is usually on the receiving end of whenever she pushes Yomi too far.

Sakaki (榊 Sakaki)

Tall, soft-spoken Sakaki is uncomfortable with her height, and her busty physique. Because she is so shy, she doesn't speak much, and her reticence is misinterpreted as mysterious, or cool. This reputation has been compounded by the fact that most of the school's sports teams try to recruit her every year because of her natural athletic ability (she's usually stronger and faster than most of the male students in school), but mostly she has no real interest in sports. But in contrast to what the other students think of her, Sakaki is in reality, a very emotionally sensitive person who holds a secret longing for all things cute. She loves cats, but for some strange reason cats always bite/scratch her - in particular, the grey one she calls Kami-neko (lit. God Cat/Biting Cat, depending on the kanji Or Gray-Cat / Spirit-Cat, for a more indirect translation). However, Sakaki ends up spending a lot of time with Chiyo upon finding out that Chiyo's dog, Mr. Tadakichi, will let her pet him. This friendship actually shows the irony of their circumstances, as Sakaki wishes she looked more like Chiyo (so she could openly pursue her interest in cute things) and Chiyo wishes she looked more like Sakaki (so people will take her more seriously).

Ayumu "Osaka" Kasuga (春日 歩 Kasuga Ayumu, also known as "Osaka" 大阪 Ōsaka)

Ayumu is a transfer student from Osaka. Tomo, expecting her to act like the stereotypical Osakan (loud, exuberant and fond of bawdy jokes), quickly chose for her the nickname "Osaka," although Ayumu's behavior could not be more different from the "typical" Osakan. Ayumu considers her label "too simple" and "icky," but she lacks the energy or motivation to dispute it. Unlike the stereotypical Osakan, she seems slow and easily distracted, but she merely has a mind that works quite differently than most people. This makes her prone to daydreaming, absentmindedness, and non-sequiturs, but it also makes her unusually good at answering very specific types of riddles. She is also easily amused by things that most people would consider bizarre. During the Sports Festival, she made a big deal out of running the obstacle course because she thought the event of sticking her face in flour to get a piece of candy was funny and had a giggle fit when she got there. The manga also revealed that she actually likes to run outside and play in typhoons. Also, her unusual way of thinking gives her a very vivid imagination and a unique way of seeing the world that could actually be considered quite intelligent in its own way.

Kagura (神楽 Kagura)

Kagura is a later acquaintance, joining Yukari's class in the 2nd year (Yukari selects her as a ringer to win the school athletic competitions). She was originally in Nyamo's class and displays a very competitive spirit with her peers in all things (though with little success in studies). She devotes most of her time to the swim team but is an all-around good athlete, and genuinely nice to her classmates. She has a slight obsession with Sakaki, whom she sees as an athletic rival. This is mostly due to the fact that while Kagura trains constantly to stay in shape, Sakaki is a naturally gifted athlete with no training at all. Like Tomo, Kagura tends to be quite impulsive in her actions (although unlike Tomo, Kagura is consciously aware of this and makes a genuine effort to try and keep it under control). Kagura does have her sensitive side, however, which we see in episode 6 of the anime following her homeroom's defeat in the sports festival, and the final episode following graduation. Like Sakaki, she is quite busty, but is something of a tomboy (in contrast to Sakaki's more elegant nature). She has also made it perfectly clear that she will not tolerate the antics of Mr. Kimura.

Teachers

Yukari Tanizaki (谷崎 ゆかり Tanizaki Yukari), also known as Yukari-sensei

The girls' English and homeroom teacher (class 3), but a teacher with very unconventional methods and a rather close relationship with the class. Her students are casual enough to call her by her first name: Yukari-sensei, and some of them even use the very informal and intimate name and title of Yukari-chan. Depending on the day, time, and her mood, she can be either a horrible tyrant or one of the sweetest, most touching teachers ever. Like Tomo, Yukari is incredibly impulsive and has a tendency not to think things through (such as stealing a student's bike to avoid being late for class), in sharp contrast to fellow teacher Minamo's more reserved nature. Yukari is also a reputedly bad driver, as evidenced by the horrid condition of her car the students' have lovingly dubbed "the Yukari-mobile" (although in reality, the car belongs to her parents, Yukari simply borrows it from time to time). Apparently, on the first trip to Chiyo's summer house, Yukari's driving was so bad that poor Chiyo was pschologically scarred for life and she has gone to enormous lengths to avoid riding with Yukari at any point in the future. In fact, the only student who seems to actually enjoy the way Yukari drives is (not surprisingly) Tomo.

Minamo Kurosawa (黒沢 みなも Kurosawa Minamo), also known as Kurosawa-sensei or "Nyamo" にゃも Nyamo

A gym teacher at the girls' school. In the girls' first year of high school, she is the homeroom teacher of class 5. During their last two years, she is the homeroom teacher of class 2. An old high school friend and rival of Yukari. Popular with the students, Nyamo is nicer, less obnoxious, and far more in control than Yukari. A fact that causes so much resentment in Yukari that she'll go to just about any length to prove that she's a superior teacher (including signing up Kagura for her class so Minamo wouldn't have anyone who could challenge Sakaki in the Sports Festival). But although they do have their fights, Minamo does try her best to take the high road and not let Yukari's antics get to her. She also tries to help Yukari out from time to time and tries to inspire her to become a better teacher (although most of her efforts are met with failure). However, Minamo has proven that she can be just as vulnerable to losing control as Yukari is. During one of their trips to Chiyo's summer house, she drank a whole bottle of alcohol in an effort to keep Yukari from getting drunk and embarrassing herself in front of the students. But her plan only resulted in getting herself drunk and she ended up spending half the night telling the girls perverted sex stories from her youth. Fortunately, Chiyo was too young to understand what she was talking about.

Kimura

The only male teacher seen regularly in the series, Kimura's open-mouthed expression (as well as his ability to simply appear out of nowhere) tends to creep out most of the female students. While he has shown tendencies to be responsible and kind-hearted (he recycles littered cans, donates frequently to charities and even offered 10,000 yen as an offering at a Shinto shrine to pray for world peace), he openly enjoys looking at girls wearing buruma sports gear and swimsuits (he even so much as admitted that he became a teacher because he liked looking at schoolgirls). Obviously, the girls find this perverted, but it also creates empathy with the male students, most of whom would like to do the same thing. He does come dangerously close to crossing a line in the third year though, through his borderline harassment of Kaorin (one of the series' secondary characters, most well-known through her enormous crush on Sakaki). Kimura also has a pretty wife and a school-age daughter, a fact which shocks several of the students.

Differences between manga and anime

The Azumanga Daioh manga is relatively short, totalling a mere four volumes. This, coupled with the fact that the series has a very straightforward premise, means that there are few outright changes between the manga and the anime. There are, however, still a few differences. Some jokes simply could not be adapted to an animated format, and were either changed significantly or excised completely, although both of these are few in number. Also, in the first manga volume, Osaka looks noticeably different from the anime and the 2nd-4th volume.

The anime also contains some "filler", perhaps to help round out the number of episodes, or simply to explore aspects of the characters that were not explored in the manga. For example, in the anime, Miss Kurosawa actually goes out on a date at one point. This episode, while still comedic, has a somewhat more serious tone, and gives the viewer a look at the adults when they are not annoying the daylights out of each other. The slight re-arrangement of episodes within the anime as well has given rise to one minor character point: in the manga, Yukari-sensei's birthday occurs on summer vacation, (presumably in the space between the annual summer trip and the start of school on September 1st), while in the anime it occurs during the spring holiday in March.

Popular cultural references

• Tomo appears to be a major fan of the manga and anime series Lupin III, to the point of choosing a hairstyle to emulate Fujiko Mine (of whom she believes she can do an amazingly good impression). She later expresses an apparently serious desire for a career as an INTERPOL agent - much like Lupin's nemesis, the Inspector Zenigata.
• Tomo is also a fan of "Ayu" (Ayumi Hamasaki)
• According to the manga, Tomo is also a fan of Ryoko Hirosue.
• Tomo frequently refers to Manzai comedians, and expects Osaka to join in (manzai being a form of stand-up comedy particularly popular in the Osaka region).
• Osaka has been known to use the phrase "O-ha!" (short for おはよう, ohayou, "good morning"), which was popularized by Shingo Katori of the pop group SMAP, as an example of how "normal" Japanese people talk. As Tomo points out, this is not a correct assumption.
• Several of the girls have a fondness for horror stories. Tomo, Osaka and even Chiyo have tried to tell them at one time or another; Osaka's method of telling a horror story is especially disturbing, especially since she tends to tell stories about serial killers. Tomo's "The Terror of The Moldy Bread" is more science fiction than Osaka's stories. Oddly enough, what bewilders Chiyo is "dirty stories", of which Tomo seems particularly fond. Sakaki doesn't enjoy scary stories at all, but is quite embarrassed when listening to the "dirty" ones.
• Kagura and Yukari enjoy playing video games.
• Yotsuba Koiwai from Yotsuba&!, (another of Kiyohiko Azuma's creations) physically resembles Chiyo, but also shows specific traits from other Azumanga characters as well. Some Azumanga Daioh characters may have had brief cameos in Yotsuba&!.
• There is a reference in the manga of AzuDai to another Azuma title, Wallaby, when Kosaka Kokoro, the female lead, appears in the stuffed-toy café storyline. In Wallaby, a classmate of Kosaka-san's died, and she made a stuffed toy of a wallaby as a tribute to him. The toy, however, ends up being possessed by the spirit of the dead boy. In her Azumanga appearance, Kosaka has the wallaby in her pocket.
• In the manga, during the costume race at the sports fest, Chihiro is seen dressed up as Chihiro from Spirited Away, with a No-Face in tow.

Important places

Numerous places play an important role in the series. The most important is The High School itself, which is never explicitly named. Apparently it is a prestigious school and not that easy to get into (Yomi frequently expresses annoyance that Tomo and the other "Bonkuraazu" were somehow able to pass the same entrance exams she did). Many episodes revolve around important annual events at the school, such as the Sports Festivals (on which Yukari frequently places extravagant wagers) and the Culture Festivals.

Chiyo Mihama's house (in Japan a "mansion" is an apartment complex), the most impressive home any of the girls have ever seen, eventually becomes the de-facto headquarters for the group, where they meet to study and socialize. The group also made annual trips to Chiyo's Summer Home on the coast, an hour-long drive from Tokyo that Yukari finds utterly irresistible. These trips frequently became crucibles for embarrassing revelations about Nyamo's past.

The unnamed shopping district near the school is the scene of much activity -- holiday outings, shopping trips and the like. It is unlikely that the karaoke parlor in the district will forget the girls' Christmas Eve visit. There is also a bookstore in the district that is frequented by the girls, Chiyo and Sakaki in particular.

Magical Land is a theme park of relatively recent vintage modeled on Tokyo Disneyland. Among its attractions is a roller coaster considered "the best in Japan". A group trip to the park and plans for a repeat visit after graduation caused great difficulty for Yomi.

A class trip to Okinawa, with a side trip to Iriomote Island, would prove to have important implications for Sakaki in particular, who met Mayaa there.

In the manga it is never stated which city the girls live in, only implying it is neither Osaka, Nagoya or Okinawa through conversations and events. The anime confirms that the series takes place in Tokyo.

Episode List

Main article: List of Azumanga Daioh episodes

The Azudorama Da Yo! Hoax

Shortly after the end of the animated series, rumors began circulating that a live-action version of the show was going to be made by the Tokyo Broadcasting System and Suntory which would be named either Azudorama Da Yo! or Azumanga Daioh: The Drama. Professional-looking promotional material and photos were prepared and presented on the internet. Although quite convincing - with "actresses" who resembled their animated counterparts to an amazing degree - the rumors were nothing more than an elaborate hoax.

Music

Opening theme

• "Soramimi Cake" (空耳ケーキ soramimi kēki translated as "Cake of Mishearing". Translated by ADV as "Fancy Hearing Cake")
  • Performed by: Oranges & Lemons
  • Music by: Masumi Itō, lyrics by Aki Hata.

Ending theme

• "Raspberry Heaven"
  • Performed by: Oranges & Lemons
  • Music by: Yōko Ueno, lyrics by Aki Hata.

Ending theme for "Short Movie"

• "Sarabai"
  • Performed by: Tomoko Kaneda
  • Music by: Hikaru Nanase, lyrics by Masaaki Taniguchi

Original Soundtrack

• Music by: Masaki Kurihara

Other Media

Azumanga Daioh inspired a PlayStation video game, Azumanga Donjyara Daioh, which is a puzzle game similar to mahjong.

Azumanga Daioh Advance was also released for the Game Boy Advance, taking the form of a simplistic collectible card game (or CCG). The idea was to arrange five-card hands into an order that maximised the number of lines of three stars or more, either horizontally or diagonally. The eight main characters (the six girls, Yukari and Nyamo) were playable, the two teachers being unlockable. Secondary characters, such as Mayaa, Tadakichi-san, Kami-neko, Kaorin, Kimura-sensei and even Neko-Koneko (if the latter can be called a character), appeared if good hand scores were achieved. Chiyo-chichi appeared as a 5-second warning.

An arcade-only Puzzle Bobble spin-off was also produced. As well as featuring characters, graphics and sound-bytes from the series, the 2-player mode allowed each player to fire balls into the other player's arena, a feature not present in any other official Puzzle Bobble game.

Several AzuDai doujin games became notably popular [3] — variations included side-on beach volleyball, snowball fights which owed something to the Bomberman franchise, and kart racing. There was also a vertically-scrolling shoot'em-up written by an amateur coder, which had Chiyo-chan shooting down multiple Chiyo-chichis.

One Japanese PC game entitled "Ah, Let's Fight" (あ、対戦しよ～, "A, Taisen Shiyo"), known as Azu fighter [4], seems to be modeled after the popular Street Fighter series. This game is entirely produced (artwork and all) by a third party. Single player game mode, single player vs chosen character, two-player, and practice modes are available playing options.

The open source screen saver package Xscreensaver for POSIX operating systems contains a module called FuzzyFlakes which emulates, and was inspired by, the pink-on-green snowflake (or cherry blossom?) art shown in the ending credits of the anime.

See also

• Ichi-go ichi-e (the expression that Osaka uses in episode #3 of the anime).

External links

• Template:En icon Azumanga Daioh - Everyone's goin' blonklers!!!, the official English site by ADV Films
• Template:Jp icon Azumakiyohiko.com, Kiyohiko Azuma's personal website
• Template:En icon Azumanga Daioh at IMDb
• Template:En icon Azumanga Daioh at the Anime News Network Encyclopedia
• Template:En icon Template:Tvtome show
• Template:En icon Great King Shezotaku's Episode Guide, an Azumanga Daioh episode guide
• Template:En icon Azudorama Da Yo!, a site detailing the hoax, including pictures of the "actresses."
• Template:En icon Wonderland, an Azumanga Daioh fansite