Azumanga Daioh

Azumanga Daioh Volume 4 came out on DVD today. The disc a month release schedule has made getting your next Azumanga fix quite nice. I think the first time I really heard anything about this show was one of the first issues of Newtype USA. They had some character art and I remember looking at the episode guide and seeing that one of the later episodes dealt with Osaka's perfect yawn.

And how could you not be intrigued by a show like that?!

The show is a wonderful slice-of-life series revolving around a group of high school girls. It's been compared to Seinfeld in that it's a show about nothing so much as everyday life. I'm not sure the comparison holds up much past some superficial similarities though. Each episode is made up of smaller segments that reflect the show's origin, a 4 panel comic strip. The strips tended to end with a punchline and so many of the episode segments rely on similar gags or setups. If you've read the four graphic novel volumes, much of their content is repeated in the show, but it's fun to see it come alive through the animation even though you know the joke.

We've been listening to the dub and have yet to be disappointed with it. This is one of those shows though where the sub/dub crowds have drawn their lines in the sand. As much of the humor relies on Japanese specific puns, the translation team tries to do their best to get the humor across. I certainly have no complaints with some of the changes they've made and the liner notes included always try and reference the original joke so that you understand why they made the decision they did. Personally, I'm of the opinion that translating the joke so that the spirit remains intact if not the actual joke itself is fine. But to each their own.

The visuals in the series are great and the soundtrack is catchy too. The characters are nicely drawn and their personalities are bound to remind you of somebody you went to school with. To me, that's the great achievement here - you'll remember those years, wondering who you'd be and enjoying all the moments you had with your friends. The teachers, in counterpoint, show you that growing old, while encompassing new experiences, is really just more of the same.

So, if you enjoy manga or anime, you really can't go wrong with either form of Azumanga.

Update Oddly enough, volume 4 is the disc with the episode about the perfect yawn. There really are no coincidences.