Daily Lives of High School Boys

When it comes to comedy, what carries the show are characters and humor. Those two components are correlated because the shticks/quirks of the cast interact with every given scenario and build internal jokes, funny misunderstandings, and colorful relationships. The Daily Life of High School Boys is comedy gold but fails in two fundamental aspects that I will refer to later.

Without further ado, let's get started with the good and bad of the anime.

As the title suggests, this is an episodic story about high school boys being high school boys. It was love at first sight! First, the choice of the voice cast was amazing. Tomokazu Sugita and Kenichi Suzumura, who also played Gintoki and Sougo from Gintama, are guaranteed success comedy-wise. Besides, it's not a secret that their characters single-handedly stole the show. Second, the breaking of the fourth wall was done splendidly, a difficult task to pull off and maintain humor simultaneously. Third, it was reminiscent of my own school years, and I believe many males will be nostalgic after watching this. Last but not least, the direction took the extra mile and boosted the comedic value. I won't elaborate on the last part because I want to keep the review short and not spoil the fun. Apart from the main cast, characters like Mitsuo, Ringo-chan, and the girls in the ending scenes were great additions.

Unfortunately, my initial enthusiasm almost crashed and burnt. I was certain that it will be my next 9 or 10 since I adore comedies, and it's difficult to find quality ones. The first major downside was the faceless female cast. For some reason, many creators consider abusive girls funny. It can be funny depending on the circumstances, but rarely. They were straight-up bullies, beating and harassing the boys in EVERY episode. Due to its frequency and magnitude, it soon became old and extremely uncomfortable. Another downside is one of the MAIN protagonist's total neglect. Yes, I'm speaking of Tadakuni (who?). He happened to be my favorite character in the first episodes and then blended into the background. They tried, masterfully, to pass it off like a joke but, unluckily, I liked him. What hurts me the most is that they focused on some uninteresting characters instead, like the faceless girls and some student council members. Someone may call me irrational but, in my defense, it's normal to set some expectations since he was featured on every cover, poster, etc, and he was the first protagonist to be introduced.

All in all, it's a show that I will recommend to comedy fans despite my disappointments. In my opinion, it has some of the best comedic moments out there. It just happened to have some elements that didn't click with me.

Note: A huge shout-out to Yassan and Hidenori's poetry, they cracked me up every time. If I had to pick my favorite scene, it'd be every single one that includes them.