Plot

Nichijou follows the story of, well, there are multiple stories actually. The main story-line features Yuuko, Mio, and Mai, middle-school students who basically have a completely normal life. Now, that may sound boring but trust me, watch the first episode (or all of them) and you'll see exactly why people love it so much. The second story-line features Nano and the professor. Nano is a robot created by the 8-year old professor to help around the house. That also sounds really boring, but trust me. It's amazing. The other story-lines come and go throughout different episodes. Just a bunch of fun shorts cut in there. There honestly isn't much else to say about the plot, since it changes every episode. There's no overarching journey or challenge for the characters to overcome over the span of the whole show.

What I like

Nichijou is a hilarious "slice-of-life"-styled show that earns its score from how much of an actual slice of life it really is. I should elaborate. The main characters are middle-school kids. Everything is exaggerated in their eyes. It's hard to put that kind of thing into words but this anime captures it perfectly. The show is so funny because of how overblown they make every little thing in their daily lives. For example, swatting mosquitoes suddenly becomes a DBZ-Naruto-drama-action-battle with all-out crazy effects. And then Yuuko's mother coming in and telling her she's too loud and needs to go to sleep. It captures the middle-school kid mindset perfectly, which is a huge part of why I absolutely love this show. While watching the show it actually really brings me back to when I was a kid and when all this kind of stuff was my slice of life.

There are sort of multiple stories happening at the same time that it switches in between every now and again during each episode, which cameo in each other every once in a while. I think this was handled very well, the show never felt rushed or anything like that. The tone of the show gets major props. Another note is between the characters Nano and the professor. They have such an interesting and hilarious dynamic, because the professor made Nano to help around the house, but Nano ends up being like a mother to the professor anyway, telling her not to eat too many snacks before dinner and reminding her to brush her teeth. It's very, very interesting and sets up for adorable jokes.

Not to mention that it's a nice break from all the common tropes you see in seasonal anime. The show doesn't fall into anything like fan service and it doesn't feel like it was pumped out just to make money. This show clearly had massive amounts of love put into it, it feels extremely genuine.

This show resonates with me. It makes me happy.

Aside from all of that however, there is one small note I'd like to make. It was kind of hard to pick up on all their names. It might just be because I'm still pretty new to anime and aren't completely accustomed to subtitles, but it might be worth it to point it out anyway.