If space exploration has proven anything to us, it’s how incredibly slim the chances of life flourishing in the ever-expanding universe is. Considering half the planets in our solar system consist of nothing but incredibly dense layers of pressurised gas and thus can’t even be walked upon makes us already pretty luck. Then consider some planets are permanently tidal locked and have to suffer being ferociously scolded by their host star creating an ocean of lava form which the only escape is permanent darkness till the planet is mercifully consumed by its blazing captor.
But it could somehow be even worse, you could have been born on HD 189733 b where howling winds send shards of glass ripping across the planet at 5,400 MPH. That’s only focusing on the problem of the planet being inhospitable, what about a galactic graveyard like MACS 2129-1 that has ceased making stars and is widely regarded to be a dead galaxy. So, yeah maybe the milky way is pretty reasonable with its centuries lasting super storms, species annihilating asteroids and the whole casually residing in a cosmic under-density otherwise known as a gigantic void. So, know that we’ve addressed that Earth is actually pretty chill and we’re incredibly lucky to have even been a single celled organism let alone evolve to the point of critical and creative thinking let’s celebrate a series that surrounds me in a heliosphere of happiness and causes me to produce a laugh louder than the Chelyabinsk meteor.
Let’s celebrate…
Attending school becomes an unexpected opportunity to discover and reconnect with the local wildlife. As a student lackadaisically ponders how to spend their time having been banished to the hallway for forgetting their homework, they notice the courtyard has become the grazing grounds for a wild deer. Before they can fully comprehend the sudden appearance of the majestic creature they are shocked by the equally as sudden arrival of the principal. What takes place is a dramatically presented lesson on the history of the relationship between humanity and nature. A truly beautiful showcase of the struggle for survival and the trivial tribulation of conflict. This awe-inspiring sequence concludes in a moment so unbelievably shocking and emotionally potent it brings tears to my eyes. Weather you view are natural environment as something to conquer and control or are attempting to find solidarity with nature and in the process hopefully discover the peace and tranquillity that comes from being connected with your surroundings. You’ll find this scene will present challenging questions that will leave you contemplating your place in this world.
That or you’ll be too busy laughing to even consider breathing.
Nichijou’s hilarious homespun humour makes the unremarkable, remarkable. A borderline surreal comedy only grounded by the familiarity of the simple situations the characters find themselves in. So, despite containing thrilling actions scenes, captivating science fiction subplots & riveting romance Nichijou is fundamentally a slice of life comedy. And I couldn’t think of any studio more suited to adapting something so outstandingly ordinary and quotidianly grandiose than Kyoto Animation, the studio so great they named a prefecture after it.
Emperor God King of the slice of life genre Kyoto Animation, otherwise known as KyoAni for short, have made a name for themselves by crafting some of the most meticulously detailed and amazingly animated series of the past 20 years and Nichijou is certainly no exception. The aforementioned excellent movie quality animation, exceptional background art, lived in environments, an outstanding soundtrack and phenomenal voice acting culminates to create the perfect adaptation. This may be controversial, but I personally prefer the Nichijou anime to the manga. Whilst you could say it has the advantage of movement, colour and sound those don’t necessarily guarantee a greater experience. In the hands of an incompetent team or lazy studio all those positives can quickly become negatives that destroy even the most solid of foundations, but Kyoani build upon that foundation to create a complete classic.
At first it may seem like Nichijou is only focused on delivering an expectation defying onslaught of gags but part of Nichijou’s charm is how incredibly interconnected everything is. The anime in particular showcases this communal aspect by introducing a structure to the series that was lacking in the original manga. By deconstructing the community and separating many of the characters that comprise it Kyoani can highlight the core dynamics and personalities of each individual character whilst slowly bringing them together in an extremely satisfying manner. It’s truly a learning experience discovering the interpersonal relationships of the cast and seeing how it effectively ties everything and everyone together. No matter how ludicrous and outlandish the situational humour becomes everything remains grounded because of how established the characters are.
In short Nichijou is super ultra great. But I would be remised if I stopped here, it’s Nichijou’s loveable ensemble cast that makes it truly super ultra great delicious wonderful and so I only think it’s right to highlight some of them.
(Please let be the right their, please be the right their)
The main character of Nichijou, Sasahara is the ultimate refined gentleman. The embodiment of elegance and grace, this sophisticated student exemplifies class at an elite level. But Sasahara is no snob looking down on those who are blessed to be in his presence, Na Na, Sasahara has a great deal of respect and care for those around him. Be it his classmates, his loyal butler, Hirose and his mighty steed, Kojirou named after his beloved master. Sasahara is also the proud president of the drama club, which is handy considering that, despite the aristocratic airs he puts up, Sasahara is actually form a family of farmers.
His mighty steed is actually a goat form the farm, his fancy ascot is nothing, but welly arranged napkins, and his spectacles are as much for show as his posh accent, demo, does that really matter. I believe you should always aim to be more than you are and Sasahara lives up to this maxim wholeheartedly. His flamboyantly opulent presentation is less about deceiving others or being ashamed of his background as it is Sasahara being the Sasahara he wants to be, and what’s wrong with that? Another aspect of his character worth mentioning is his optimism, in a series were misfortune strikes as often as lighting does Lake Maracaibo Sasahara is no exception, but he is typically able to turn these negatives into positives.
So, whilst Sasahara maybe mildly egotistical, slightly selfish and relatively rude, the positives far out way the negatives and Sasahara is generally an upstanding gentleman of the most noble standards. Although it would be remiss of me not to mention that he is incredibly dense towards the feelings of others, especially towards the feelings of…
Tachibana Misato (Chika Horikawa)
The main character of Nichijou is the childhood friend of the main character of Nichijou, Sasahara Koujirou of who she has a slight Mauna Kea sized crush on. Although Misato seems completely unwilling to own up to this, masking her emotions behind an increasingly impressive range of astonishing artillery. Misato’s formidable firepower consists of a Smith & Western with accompanying holster, a M134 Minigun, MK 153 SMAW’s which she dual wields, a literal cannon, the substantial amount of strength required to transport these massive pieces of machinery around and a blush that whilst might not seem as powerful as the previously mentioned armament is a lethal form of weaponised kawaiiness.
Aside from her wonderfully weaponised shenanigans in relation to Sasahara’s own shenanigans, Misato is also proven to be pretty proficient in the art of Kendo, because apparently, she wasn’t dangerous enough. She’s part of the kendo club actively partaking in tournaments and also attends the dojo with her imouto, which is where she met Sasahara. In these moments especially her interactions with her sister we see a calm, collected side of Misato, a relaxed and reliable side. Then a certain someone gets mentioned and that abrasive attitude comes out which boils over into anger, then BOOM!! Misato explodes alongside the instigator of her ire.
Misato is also close friends with two characters who make up the main trio of Nichijou, these three are extremely close and have a great dynamic. Every grouping in the series is multifaceted, meaning Misato isn’t the only part of this friendship worth talking about and so it’s time to introduce…
__Fecchan & Weboshi (Yumi Higuchi & Youko Tamaoki)
__
The main characters of Nichijou are pretty much always seen together. They have an unbreakable bond despite being complete opposites. The bright and bubbly Mahou Shoujo Positive Fecchan perpetuates the power of positivity even in times of mild misfortune. Despite her attempts to persevere in times of hardship, Fecchan’s is often broken by a combination of klutziness and her outspoken nature. Definitely the most vocal of the group she isn’t shy of asking risky questions, that’s if she recognise the risk she’s running, nor to vocalizing her random thoughts, of which there are many.
Weboshi on the overhand is far more reserved and rational, giving an air of reliability, seeming to be the most reasonable of the group especially in comparison to Fecchan’s fluttery nature and Misato’s outburst. However, Weboshi isn’t just some simple comedic foil for the aforementioned. Weboshi is a Rock ‘N’ Roll heart often fashioning an AC/DC shirt and being open to her love of punk aesthetics, especially in consideration to her interest in Tokisadame’s boldest delinquent. A mohawked maverick who she knows absolutely nothing about, clearly this love is as deep as the Mariana trench, but he has a mohawk which means he must be a rough ‘n’ rowdy rebel, right???
Nakanojou Tsuyoshi (Kazutomi Yamamoto)
The main character of Nichijou, despite his punk rock appearance is actually a well-mannered and well-liked honour student. Further destroying his yankee image is Nakanojou’s love for gardening. He earnestly looks after the school flower beds seemingly pouring a significant amount of effort in to keeping them nourished and healthy. So, once you get to know him Nakanjou’s nature isn’t that of a Rhododendron, but of Azalea, Jasimine and Hibiscus, basically he’s a massive pansy. Even his mohawk is grown out of necessity due to an inability to grow hair on the side of his head. This is a problem he has inherited form his father and he’s hoping faulty hair follicles is the only thing he inherits form his father, as he has no intention of running the family business his dad seems determined to pass on.
With lofty scientific aspirations, Nakanojou is aiming to turn his interest into a career, even at the behest of his father. His unshakable determination towards his goals is admirable and also gives way to some hilarious bits. In the name of science, he will dedicate his days off to hunting down spiritualist, mediums and psychics in order to expose them as frauds. Sciences serviceman isn’t just out to expose fraudsters but to completely irradicate any significant speculation surrounding the validity of the supernatural. The idea of something so illogical disrupting and devaluing the intricate series of miracles that’s responsible for life on earth infuriates Nakanojou. As with everything in Nichijou this sceptical behaviour is taken to the extreme, 8-hour hunts for mountain dwelling mistics, feigning possessions and assaulting priests during a staged bout of madness that quickly descends into a genuine case of momentary madness.
You kinda, start to understand why his dad might think it’s best for him to help out with the family business, I mean it’s just a simple Daifuku stand what could be so bad…
This, this is what could be so bad. Throughout the series not just Nakanojou but many cast members bare the shame that comes with wearing this. Someone who narrowly avoids having to publicly embarrass themselves in the name of Daifuku is ironically one of the few people who would probably enjoy and excel at wearing this objectionable mask and her name is…
Yoshino Naganohara (Motoko Kobayashi)
The main character of Nichijou is the onee-chan of aspiring mangaka Daisuke Naganohara but she’s not really important, Yoshino on the other hand is. She is extremely talented at kendo, as in she’s a national champion levels of talented and adding to this incredible achievement is that she hardly practices claiming it would make her worse. Instead of developing, or I guess weakening her skills, Yoshino spends that time pulling various pranks on her sister and because this is Nichijou these aren’t your average pranks. Dressing up in a multilayered disguise and terrorising her on the way too school, tricking her into taste-testing profusely disgusting jam during a water shortage and replacing the strawberry on her cake with a shogi piece because Kyoani refuse to let a strawberry be eaten in peace.
Yoshino’s mind is a riddle made out of mismatched puzzle pieces; More often than not it seems Yoshino is unreservedly unaware of those around her. weather she’s unconditionally selfish or uncompromisingly crazy is anyone’s guess. But sometimes it seems as if there’s more to Yoshino and that perhaps she's far more aware and interested in other’s then she lets on. despite torturing her sister it’s obvious this is done out of care and despite her proficiency in kendo she never blocks her sister’s physical retorts. And whilst she seems completely flippant about her natural skills with a bamboo blade, she does periodically attend her kendo dojo and enjoys sparing with her seniors and juniors respectively. Amongst her training partners are Sasahara & Misato, who, despite her quirky behaviour, both respect her.
But kendo isn’t the only sport focused on in Nichijou and Yoshino isn’t the only prodigy there’s also…
Sakurai Makoto (Takahiro Hikami)
The main character of Nichijou is seriously gifted at the super serious sport known as igo Soccer. Igo Soccer is an obscure sport like motorcycle chariot racing or cheese rolling but way harder to understand / totally impossible to understand. Nonetheless Makoto was the igo soccer MVP of his middle school and plans to carry on his most valuableness in high school. However, there is one massive problem, that being Tokisadame’s igo soccer-bu has no clue that igo soccer exist. To the pre-existing club members, the sport is as real as The Loch Ness Monster, Patty the Sasquatch or Saki Sanobashi using it as a fictional front to laze around and play various games. That’s until Makoto show’s up.
Everything I have mentioned before is actually a mere subplot, igo soccer is the real focus of Nichijou. If Nichijou was Su Hui’s epic palindrome, “Star Gauge” then Makoto would be the heart at the intricately woven centre of this community. Maybe that’s because he’s the only person who cares about igo soccer or maybe because he’s that damn good. Either way he plans on taking this club by storm and embedding the passion of igo soccer into his fellow club member’s.
This is a soul-stirring and heart-rending tale of impressive battles, impassioned romance, implausible twist and impactful character arches, this is a tale of igo soccer. And whilst he may have the most to prove this isn’t just Makoto’s tale, there’s still his fellow club members to discuss such as…
Yuria Sekiguchi (Ai Hirosaka)
The main character of Nichijou is probably the quietist character in the series, though her modest and mousy nature ironically helps her standout in a series containing every shade of crazy imaginable. So, whilst Sekiguchi is rather unostentatious in comparison to the various vivid personalities that make up the cast, I quite enjoy the relaxing pace the scene’s featuring her often take.
A distinct characteristic of Sekiguchi’s is her eye’s, which are black bars without pupils. This is most likely part of a conscious effort on Sekiguchi’s part to come off as inconspicuous as other character’s use this expression in a similar way. She’s also almost constantly reading; she often reads Helvetica Standard another Keiichi Arawi manga which has some segments throughout the anime. She is also often seen alongside, igo Soccer club president, Kenzaburou Daiku who despite her introverted nature she enjoys being around, as in really enjoys being around. I can only presume with absolute certainty that Daiku is Sekiguchi’s reason for joining the igo soccer club as, unlike Makoto, she doesn’t seem to be devastated in learning that the club doesn’t practice the sport. But to know why this romance has blossomed and these feeling have sprouted I guess I ought to introduce…
Daiku Kenzaburou (Ryouta Yoshizaki)
The main character of Nichijou is not named after a place in the Gunma prefecture, which actually makes him a rarity in relation to the cast. He is also from an insanely wealthy background being the heir to the massively successful Daiku Corporation. Throughout the series the name Daiku is often present even when Kenzaburou is off screen. Characters are often seen at various Daiku establishments across the town although the corporation most likely is a national or global institute considering the wealth inadvertently shown off by Daiku. I say inadvertently because despite his affluent origins he still attends a public school and is a pretty genuine and friendly guy.
I find myself wondering if Daiku’s relaxed, fun-loving nature comes from an understanding of the responsibility he will have to bear later in life. It adds a layer of poignance to his and Sekiguchi’s leisurely lounging. It’s probably his chilled-out constitution along with the welcoming and friendly atmosphere he provides that Sekiguchi finds comfort in and affection for. Plus, I think Sekiguchi is too earnest to be a gold-digger.
But not everyone is as happy as Sekiguchi with his dulcified demeanour. As previously stated, Makoto is desperate to carry on his igo soccer career and Daiku is surprisingly supportive. Makoto’s passion proves to be a powerful force as Daiku finds himself refereeing matches and even practicing the sport alongside Sekiguchi all the while having no clue what he’s doing. I find Daiku super endearing, in both his willingness to help Makoto and how he still partakes in non-igo soccer activities with Sekiguchi. But will he be able to maintain this balance with the possibility of the club getting a manager by the name of…
Manabu Takasaki (Tetsu Inada)
The main character of Nichijou is a dedicated, hardworking Japanese lit teacher and an avid gardener with a particular love of mushrooms, egg planets and Izumi Sakurai…
NO FUTURE!!!
You see when I said that igo soccer was the central focus of Nichijou that was in fact a trick, I’m sorry, it’s a mere subsidiary footnote in the actual main plot about one man’s desire to go mushroom picking with the girl he loves. Normally Manabu comes off as strong-willed and serious but when around Izumi he becomes a bumbling mess. This love induced hysteria often results in him carelessly unloading his thoughts. So how did this man’s quest for Izumi’s heart end up with him being scouted to coach igo soccer?
It's no coincidence that Izumi and Makoto share a last name. And it’s when attempting to pry information about Izumi form Makoto that Manabu accidently revels, both that he’s an accomplished igo soccer player and the massive crush he has on his sister. Thus, the blackmailing commences.
Will Manabu become the manager of the club; can he compose himself for long enough to have a rational conversation with Izumi and most importantly will he get to go mushroom picking with her. We can only hope Manabu builds up the courage to ask and that his feelings are reciprocated by...
Sakurai Izumi (Mami Kosuge)
The main character of Nichijou is supremely shy and forever flustered, yet she seems diligently dedicated to becoming more confident even taking on the role of student guidance counsellor. If you could measure the success of her attempts to grow based solely of earnest sincerity, then she would be the Novak Djokovic of personal development.
Izumi is very popular amongst students and piers, especially in relation to the aforementioned admirer of whose affection she is to self-conscious and socially awkward to notice. She is also the homeroom teacher of Yukko, Daisuke and Mai (Mariko Honda, Mai Aziawa & Misuzu Togashi) who are pretty ordinary and latter Nano (Shizuka Furuya) who is also pretty average despite being the robot caretaker of an eight-year-old mad professor called Hakase (Hiromi Konno) and the owner of a talking cat named Sakamoto (Love, Legend of Shiraishi Minoru) but that’s just kinda background stuff. The only person who seems to show any form of hostility towards her is Makoto, which is obviously typical of siblings but in this case it’s surprisingly more complex than that.
I always keep these spoiler free but recently I wondered how many people, if any, read these without having seen the series.
Spoiler, click to view
The familiar interactions between Izumi and “Mako-chan” are completely recontextualized when you notice in the background of the Sakurai households living room an alter. All of a sudden Izumi’s failed attempts at scolding, keeping order or educating Mako-chan seem less like typical annoying sister's behaviour. She is trying to make up for Hers and Mako-chan’s mum’s absence, which adds some emotional depth to what is fundamentally a comedy. This little twist is particularly effective because it’s not directly stated, in fact nothing says it’s their mothers alter, it’s a hidden background detail for eagle eyed viewers to detect. I use something called, The Kyoani Room Scale, which measures how lived in an environment is and scenes like this are exactly why it’s named after Kyoani. If you haven’t noticed this, go back and watch the scene where she finds Makoto’s ecchi magazine and realise that Izumi’s worrying that she has upset Mako hits totally different, straight stole the laughter form me.Will Izumi be successful in her journey of self-improvement; will she build up the social awareness to notice Manabu’s feelings and will this finally be the end of this section of the review?? Of course, Sakurai Izumi is the main character of Nichijou after all…
Spoiler, click to view
or was it Haruna Annaka (Kaori Sadohara)??I seriously can’t understate how incredible Nichijou is, it’s easy to take for granted the level of care Keiichi Arawi poured into creating Nichijou and how much effort Kyoani poured into crafting this adaptation. I find myself thinking of course the animation is amazing, of course the cast is so loveable, of course it’s gut-bustlingly hilarious and of course it’s one of the greatest slice of life comedies of all time. But it’s not that simple. Everyone who worked on this series gave it their everything. For instance, I don’t normally put voice actors and actresses’ names alongside the character’s but with this series it was a necessity because they all do such an amazing job. But those performances would mean nothing without the hard work of the script writers, animators, story boarders, colour coordinators, background artist, sound designers, music performers and directors giving it their all.
So, in a universe with planet’s that are being torn apart by their host star like Wasp-12b. Or 55 cancri e which rains lava with an atmosphere that predominantly consist of carbon dioxide and Gliese 1214 b a nearby planet to terrify both people suffering form astraphobia and aquaphobia as it’s a waterworld at permanent boiling point. I think it’s important to remember the hilarious life affirming celebration of the ordinary that is Nichijou.