Hello. This is my sixth review. I’m here to review another comedy anime. Before I dive in, I want to talk about the K-on effect. I made the word up but ever since this damn anime took notoriety, quality in anime significantly drops. A lot of studios followed the same path of K-on hoping to cash in on the anime’s hype. After K-on, a lot of copy cats came like Hyakko, A-channel and Yuru Yuri. All of these titles are different but they share one annoying detail. They are about everyday life of four girls in school. The K-on effect is annoying as hell. I’ll expand on it another day in another blog.

People seem to forget that before K-on was released by KyoAni, they had another four girl anime. It relies on comedy rooted from everyday life and the interaction of the girls. Crap, that sounds like K-on. No, I’m talking about Lucky Star. Forget it? That anime established K-on so imagine an anime with the same format but the characters are all boys.

I know it’s a stretch but, to me, that is Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou. It’s a twelve anime episode about the everyday life of high school boys. It’s pretty unique but oddly familiar.

Story

The anime is pretty straight forward. It’s about the everyday life of high school boys. It includes normal stuff like lounging around a friend’s house, talking about girls, playing prank on each other, cross dressing, being beaten up by girls and other everyday happenings.

Taking the Pants Off

Now this is an amazing anime. It’s not because of its plot or its characters. This anime shines because it delivers on what it promises on, which is comedy. The anime is tagged as comedy/parody and it does not disappoint. The anime is a compilation of short skits about the everyday life of a high school boy. There are very little boring moments in the anime and I am guilty of laughing out loud by myself in my dark room at some of the skits. The anime carries itself quite nicely. The punch lines are funny and worth waiting for. It’s really amazing how the anime branches of from a broken down genre and reinvents it.

Let’s break it down. First of all, there are a lot of characters but none of them really stands out. After a couple of episodes, it is clear who the main characters are. The anime starts out with three guys. There is Yoshitake, the blond guy. There is Hidenori, the guy with glasses and lastly, there is Tadakuni, the normal guy. They are the first guys to appear in the anime. Hidenori and Tadakuni mostly owns the screen time though. The anime would grow though from the trio to a huge cast.

It’s almost evident exactly what the anime is about after watching the first episodes. These guys are close friends talking about the most random things. They talk about anything under the sun and mostly pop culture stuff. They poke fun of over used tropes and parody some situation about popular anime. These guys are virgins and talks about girls. They fascinate about panties and skirts. They tell random stories that happened to them. These guys are natural idiots. It’s really impressive how the anime can pull you in with everyday stuff and make you laugh after the skit ends.

The anime would slowly introduce character after character in almost every episode. Up until the last episode, the anime still pulls out new characters. I saw the same thing in Ika Musume that I watched yesterday. It’s usually a weak approach to anime because you leave previous characters undeveloped. That’s the beauty of the anime. You don’t need character development. The characters are there to make you laugh The anime doesn’t over complicate the characters. You’ll recognize them soon enough after watching their demeanor and personality. That’s all you need from the characters. It works brilliantly because after one skit to another, you’d be surprised the ending song would suddenly play. The enjoyment factor is so high you’ll lose track of time.

The anime is about high school boys but there are girls in the anime. In fact, most girls are crucial characters. Some girls even deliver the punch line. I guess it is normal for a high school boy to have sisters and interact with girls. The sad part is that it’s almost a proof that you can’t do an anime about slice of life without having girls in it. K-on can get away with almost no male characters yet it almost feels empty when an anime about high school boys cannot progress without female characters.  These girls are different from your normal anime girl though. The girls in this anime are loud, obnoxious and abusive. In fact,some minutes are dedicated to three girls who points and laugh at the abnormality of K-on and the K-on effect. They are part of the main cast but the last minute of the anime is dedicated to them. It’s funny too because these characters are more developed then the actual cast.

Sight and Sound

The animation is pretty good. They don’t cut corners and aren’t stingy on the frame rate. Some characters are energetic and it is clearly very well animated. The facial expressions are nicely animated too. The background is simple. It’s bright and clear. Taking notes from KyoAni, some buildings are very detailed and some background is clean. The animation isn’t that special but it doesn’t stand out in a bad way.

I did notice that some characters aren’t drawn with eyes. I suppose its to differentiate them from the actual main characters but I feel that it is lazy animation on the studio’s part. That is the only detail I find unappealing about the anime. It doesn’t ruin the anime. It’s just a personal pet peeve.

The opening song “Shiny Tale” is a bit misplaced in my opinion. I guess its ok to energize you before you watch anime but it’s not as good as the ending song. The opening was a bit misleading but the opening sequence nicely summarizes the anime. The ending song “Oshima” fits the anime quite nicely. I usually skip ending songs but I find myself enjoying the ending sequence too. The skit in the ending sequence is really funny.

Overall Score

7/10 “It’s a brilliant tale about the life of a high school boy.”

This is an amazing and brilliant anime. The show knows exactly how to do a comedy anime. There are no boring moments. The pacing is just right. This anime will not disappoint and I’m sure it won’t take you long to laugh out loud while watching this anime. I highly recommend it.