Nichijou (2011)

Nichijou is another one of those anime where nothing really happens, but somehow it is hilarious any.  The show focus on two groups of friends.  There is a group of three school children, who spend the whole show antagonizing each other and having crazy adventures.  There is also a group consisting of a child professor, her robot creation, and their cat.  Eventually these groups meet and their adventures become intertwined once the robot starts attending school with the three girls.  The shows format consists of three or four shorts per episode.  Some have to do with the main groups of characters, and other are completely random.

The show is very random.  Even though the title of the show translates to “Ordinary Life”, the girls’ antics are anything but ordinary.  Some sketches involve extreme manga drawing, a high-speed chase trough the school, and the principal engaging in hand to hand combat with a deer.  It is difficult to even describe an overall arc to the show, because it really is just a lot of miscellaneous antics.  It is drawn in a cute, simple style to match.  There are a lot of moments where the style completely changes to add humor to a scene.  It is unpredictable.

Shows like this are never for everyone.  There is not much in the way of plot.  Some storylines are visited multiple times in the 26 episodes, but they are not really important stories.  The humor is another aspect that takes getting used to and will not work for some.  Not all of the jokes work, but luckily the pacing moves the show right on to the next one.  Though it is fast paced throughout, 22 episode could seem a little long for something of this nature.

Nichijou isn’t the deepest anime out there, but it a pleasant way to pass the time and laugh.

Overall…

Good

• fast paced humor helps smooth over jokes that miss
• interesting animation style through out
• great voice acting
• interesting characters and interactions

Bad

• there is not a ton of plot involved
• a couple of shorts are total misses
• sub only
• humor style isn’t for everyone

Where to watch

Nichijou can be watched on Crunchyroll.  There are currently no plans to release it on DVD and Blu-Ray over here, which is a shame.