blog好き

Sep 28 2011

Categories: episodic review, nichijou
Tagged: nichijou

13 Comments »

“日常.”

Happiness is being where you belong. Nothing else strikes this chord as subtly as Nichijou. No one is perfect, but everyone is perfect together. Nano eventually accepts that she might look different than everyone else, but she isn’t different from everyone else. That’s a valuable lesson not many high school kids ever learn. Everyone has their own fears and insecurities, but she discovers that the most valuable friends are those who don’t care about those and only care about her cakii companionship. Poor Sakamoto-san discovers that maybe the grass isn’t greener at the Shinonome Labs, but at least there’s more people around. Yuko, Mai, and Mio develop the strangest circle of friendship since the Azumanga gals, with Mai clearly being the Osaka-class powerbroker. And, of course, Professor, who is true to her feelings and lacks that “grown-up” filter that we develop (sadly) with age. Nichijou delivers its message about friendship extremely well and in both sad and upbeat tones. Cheers, Nichijou, it’s been a fun ride.

But… we have dangling plot threads! How can we have dangling plot threads in a “simple” slice-of-life comedy? Unless… it’s actually more complex than we imagined. Consider:

1. The Principle is Principle Shinonome. Can’t be a coincidence that’s the same surname as Nano and the lab’s namesake. Professor’s surname is unknown… I would assume it to be “Professor” as in Professor Professor.

2. Annaka never met the fortune teller. The ED trolled us!

3. Did Takasaki and Sakurai-sensei ever make it past first base? Is he even in the batter’s box at this point?

4. Does child services ever come for Professor?

Spring has come for Nano! I love how Professor keeps trolling her with the key in the back. Just love how Professor gives Nano hope just to repeatedly crush it– haven’t seen a dynamic quite like this since I waited in line for four hours to watch The Phantom Menace. Damn you George Lucas!

(I do like the key on Nano’s back. Cute is cute. It’s a great accessory, like she used the piperlime.com wall thoughtfully.)

Maybe we should rename Schrödinger’s cat as “Sasahara’s goat” since as long as Mio doesn’t ask or confirm his relationship status, he’s still available to her. High school girl denial at its best.

Just an awesome sequence. One of the many underrated things that make Nichijou, well, Nichijou. And I enjoyed how Yuko managed to help Sasahara and Tachibana get closer… shouldn’t Yuko be helping Mio instead?

But this was just disgusting. Spit rainbow? Ugh. Who does Yuko think she is spitting everywhere? A pro wrestler doing his intro walk? My gosh, I think Keiichi Arawi loves some rasslin’.

“Why is this pumpkin so freakin’ hard?!”

Because you’re getting trolled by nature. Gotta love this sequence as well. Loved all of the rasslin’ moves. Loved how the stick broke. Loved how Yuko takes a short break to ride the slide with the watermelon. Loved how determined Yuko was to defeat the undefeatable watermelon. Loved how Mai went about her ways whistlin’ down that wood.

(You know who Mai reminds me of? Jed from Beverly Hillbillies. They’re always carving some wood. And you could argue Jethro is Yuko.)

I guess this episode gave us a clumsy but good outcome Yuko montage, a how to break a watermelon montage, and a Sakamo– err– Taishou-san getting misfortuned montage. Nichijou knows montages. Nichijou is at its best when it lets its characters do the work. The comedy is character-driven at its best, and it doesn’t rely on bathroom humor or shock scenes… the humor is warm-hearted humor. Very rare to find nowadays.

(Said it before. Say it again. The evolutionary Azumanga Daioh. And random other people are coming to the same conclusion.)

I had no doubt in my mind that cakii would not survive. I had no doubt in my mind that all the replacement cakii would not survive either. This. Is. Nichijou!

Gonna miss you Nichijou. From the EEEEEEEEEEEEH?!s to Sakamoto-san getting abused to Mio’s Chiyo-style hair to Mai’s trolling to Go Soccer to Mai’s trolling to Professor being Professor to Nano’s charms… everything. Well, not you Helvetica Standard. I won’t miss you.

(If I had a mechanical spinning key sticking awkwardly out of my back, it would be gently spinning as I watched each episode of Nichijou. Though I wonder how awful life must be with such a key since it prevents you from sitting anywhere with a seatback. I still don’t understand how Nano sits at her desk at school.)

Three MVPs…

1. Mai.
2. Mio.
3. Yuko.

Cy Young…

Professor.

Lady Bing…

Nano.