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Favorite Azumanga Daioh Character  

46 members have voted

  1. 1. Favorite Azumanga Daioh Character

    • Chiyo Mihama
      5
    • Ayumu "Osaka-san" Kasuga
      15
    • Sakaki
      14
    • Tomo Takino
      1
    • Koyomi Mizuhara
      2
    • Kagura
      1
    • Yukari Tanizaki-sensei
      2
    • Minamo "Nyamo" Kurosawa-sensei
      1
    • Kimura-sensei
      1
    • Chiyochichi
      0


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Azumanga Daioh: The Animation (あずまんが大王)
Imagica/GENCO/J.C. Staff/TV Tokyo/King Records, 2002
ADV Films, 2004
Directed by Hiroshi Nishikiori (Gad Guard, Angelic Layer)
Based on the manga by Kiyohiko Azuma (Yotsubato!)
Running Time: 25 minutes per episode
Rated 13+ for mature situations and mild language.

"Tsukurimasho, tsukurimasho,
Sate sate nani ga dekiru kara.
Hai! Dekimashita!" - Chiyo Mihama

Cast (Japanese)

Tomoko Kaneda (Marie in Please Teacher!, Bonta-kun in Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu) as Chiyo Mihama

Yuki Matsuoka (Alyssa in Uchuu no Stellvia, Hitomi in Appleseed: The Movie) as Ayumu "Osaka" Kasuga

Yuu Asakawa (Motoko in Love Hina, Jura in Vandread) as Sakaki

Chieko Higuchi (Shiho in To Heart, Ai-chan in Transformers Car Robots) as Tomo Takino

Rie Tanaka (Chii in Chobits, Saki in Steel Angel Kurumi) as Koyomi "Yomi" Mizuhara

Houko Kuwashima (Kirika in NOIR, Quon in RahXephon) as Kagura

Akiko Hiramatsu (Miyuki in You're Under Arrest, Nene in Bubblegum Crisis) as Yukari Tanizaki

Aya Hisakawa (Haruka in RahXephon, Skuld in Ah! My Goddess) as Minamo "Nyamo" Kurosawa

Kouji Ishii (Oji in The Legend of Black Heaven, Taiga in King of Braves GaoGaiGar) as Mr. Kimura

Sakura Nogawa (Hiroko in Narutaru, Tsukasa in Daphne in the Brilliant Blue) as Kaorin

Sayaka Ohara (Racquel in Scrapped Princess, Ezra in Vandread) as Kimura's wife

Norio Wakamoto (Coach in Gunbuster, Vicious in Cowboy Bebop) as Chiyochichi

Synopsis
Azumanga Daioh chronicles the adventures of high school students Chiyo (The 10-year-old genius), Osaka (the resident airhead), Sakaki (the shy one prone to cat bites), Tomo (the loose cannon), Yomi (the short-tempered one) and Kagura (the resident jock) - along with their rather childish homeroom teacher Yukari.

Story: A+
It's hard to believe that an anime based on school life can be this good. Right from the first episode, you'll be hooked on Azumanga Daioh's cheerful characters, witty storytelling and jokes that stick to your head like Krazy glue.

Animation: A-
The colorful opening sequence puts Disney to shame. The series animation itself isn't as flashy as other titles, but still a masterpiece on its own. Yasuhisa Kato's (Happy Lesson, Banner of the Stars) character designs are faithful to Azuma's original artwork.

Soundtrack: A+
Sometimes, there's an anime soundtrack that leaves a smile on your face. Azumanga Daioh's music by Masaki Kurihara and the Kuri-corder Pops Orchestra is a perfect example, mixing school instruments with retro '60s surf music perfectly like bread and butter. And the opening theme "Soramimi Cake" by Oranges & Lemons is easily the most kawaii anime theme today.

Sub vs. Dub
Congratulations, ADV. You've just given us the worst English dub since Neon Genesis Evangelion.

DVD Extras: A (Boxed Edition)
If you purchased the boxed edition, you get two limited edition cloisonne lapel pins featuring Chiyo-chan and Kamineko. More pins are available on vol. 3 (Neco Coneco), vol. 5 (Chiyochichi) and vol. 6 (Yamamaya).

The vol. 1 DVD itself has clean opening & ending sequences and an image gallery.

The Bottom Line
Arguably the best anime comedy for the whole family, Azumanga Daioh is a must-have for all anime fans.

Links
Azumanga TV Daioh (Japanese)
J.C. Staff's Official Azumanga Daioh Homepage (Japanese)
Media Works' Official Azumanga Daioh Homepage (Japanese)
ADV Films' Official Azumanga Daioh Homepage

Reference
Anime News Network

Edited by areaseven
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Ugly???

This show rakes in the cuteness. So does the manga.

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almost the same R1-thoughts as mine. here was my review on it posted at AOD-forum and at arstechnica-forum on 4/23/04:

R1 review:

-- english-dubs:

[*] Chiyo-chan:  OK enough. B-grade. She's pulling a mini-Sasami vocals (sherry lynn). Pleasant enough and no over-acting.

[*] Sakaki: Not enough vocals to gauge it, but from what I listened with, the vocals are still a C-grade. A miscast. She sounded like an old lady, instead of a tall girl.

[*] Koyomi: OK enough (b-grade). She settled down from the disgruntled fish-vendor of ep-1 to a more generic girl-vocal.

[*] Chihiro: Augh! D-grade. Unpleasant and disappointing.  Could have been done and should have been better. Hillary Haag's vocals are much better and really good, but her Chihiro just plain sucks.

[*] Kaorin: OK enough (b-grade). It's enough to project a good Kaorin.

[*] Yukari: C-grade. It's almost ok, but there was just way too much over-acting.

[*] Tomo: B-minus grade. Wow! After the initial shock of ep-1, the vocals kinda settled down and a good-enough english-Tomo came out. I must admit I really like that faux So-California accent, but she really needs to eliminate the adding of frigging on her lines.

[*] Nyamo: B-grade. Ok. No over-acting there, unlike Yukari. Good enough for an english-nyamo.

[*] OSAKA:  F-grade. This was the biggest disappointment. Her ep-1 stuff was good, so I thought it would be ok and would not go the awful Abenobashi-way for the rest of the episodes, but it was all downhill from there. That "houston-accent" is definitely fugly, misplaced, and misused for the Osaka-character. It was aggravating, irritating, and grinding to listen to. Most of the Osaka-jokes just didnt come out as humorous at all.

[*] Kimura: B-grade. It was ok enough.

[*] Kagura: not enough to gauge it, but she sounded ok and very interesting for an english-kagura. Will have to wait for the Kagura-episodes to gauge her properly.

subtitles:

-- pretty much ok and on par with the old fansubs, with the glaring exception of at least the Bean-Knowledge pun.

ADV's translator/s subtituted Grain of Truth instead of the Bean Knowledge line. Rice (adv) vs Soybean (fansub). From their posts at AOD-forum, they (ADV-translator/ADV-fanboys) believe it would be a more believable translation. 

I disagree fully.

The humor and the trivia presentation was pretty much lost, and with the awful English-Osaka vocals, it pretty much came across as corny and completely not funny.

-----

Final remarks:

For the good of all that's good, stay the hell away from the English-dub of AzuDai. This is ADV's biggest dub-flop since Nadesico.

Listen to it in japanese. PLEASE!

lots of issues with this ADV release, including the BOX-shenanigans that erupted at AOD-forum. I'd posted the box-pics there ( AzuDai box-thread ) .

here's the extra "$10" box+pins:

post-26-1083198597_thumb.jpg

Edited by treatment
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I

love

this

show!

Been waiting for a region 1 release for almost two years now... and I'm loving the box set. Beautiful. Some of my favorite seiyuu, really close to the manga... excellent show.

For me, it doesn't get much better than this for comedy.

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I will... once. But then, I'm a bit masochistic, sometimes.....

Abenobashi turned out okay, after all.... but I don't see how Azumanga will translate out of the Japanese.

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I've been able to see a fansub version of this series over the past year and I'll have to say it's a very funny series. :)

I've been hearing horror stories about BOTH the sub and dub job on ADV's release so I'm still deciding if I'll buy the US release...

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All you could hear during the entire span of Anime Boston in my room was "Azumanga Daioh! Azumanga Daioh!" (I roomed with the GF and two fangirls, what can I say?).

Daioh, if perfected into a weapon, would be able to melt through chobham armor at 1000 yards with a sheer beam of cute.

-NOS

It melts my heart everytime

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  • 4 weeks later...

Managed to finish watching the first volume today. Loved this show! I cannot wait for the other volumes to come out. Osaka rules!

And you ought to see some of the stuff they are selling on Yahoo! Japan: Cosplay Uniform. Some of it is pretty bizarre.

Edited by Noriko Takaya
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I got to see some preview eps in the newtype disk. I need to get my hands on this one :D Not as off-the-wall as Excel saga, but good enough to keep in my house without worrying about it being confiscated :lol:

As for Subs Vs. Dubs, well, i'll agree the Dub's a little horrendous. I'm glad I watched in subtitles first :D

I didn't like Eva's dub either but I thought Nadesico was pretty good. There's a few anime I'm willing to accept the Dubs over Subs (Vandread comes to mind...)

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  • 2 months later...

Picked up vol. 3 last week. The translation seems to be going downhill from here. On episode 13, Yomi is irritated by the combined stupidity of Tomo, Osaka and Kagura to the point where she calls them Bonkuraazu [ボンクラーズ] ("Bonklers"). ADV translates this as "Knuckleheads". Don't know if it's correct or not.

Probably the worst case is the "Blue Three" joke. While a select few will get it subtitled, the English dub has it completely screwed up.

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It's definately an acquired taste. Saw the first four episodes, and I'm still not into it. Granted, I admit, I watched it via Anime Network In English. But if you can't understand the show in your native tongue how in the hell can you understand it in a language you don't understand?

A try before you by grade by me.

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"Bestselling manga"?? Oh, you mean that one which no-one's ever heard of?!

"Puts Disney to shame"?!?!

Wow, you've really outdone yourself this time Areaseven, I mean... Jeez...

As I said before (a while ago, though), it's nothing personal, but your 'reviews' are really becoming mere adverts for Japanese popular culture. I'm sure you're a nice guy and everything, got nothing against you, pal, but come on. Instant praise for anything and everything even REMOTELY related to anime (Dekaranger, for God's Holy sake!!).

I'm gonna make a frickin' doodle on a piece of paper and expect to receive a Nobel prize from you next time!

(Sorry about that... didn't get much sleep last night and this morning I had to give a presentation, so I'm just letting off steam... Blame it on the evils of Powerpoint..)

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"Bestselling manga"?? Oh, you mean that one which no-one's ever heard of?!

It's a best selling manga in Japan. Just because you're ignorant of it doesn't make it any less "best selling."

And it DOES put Disney to shame. In my opinions, anyways, and obviously, in A7's as well.

It sucks for your having to make a presentation to some people somewhere, but it's not an excuse to insult anyone's opinions like that. It's completely uncalled for. If you disagree with his opinions, say so. Don't call A7's reviews just an advertisement for Japanese pop culture just because everything he reviews just so happens to fit his taste.

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"Bestselling manga"?? Oh, you mean that one which no-one's ever heard of?!

"Puts Disney to shame"?!?!

Wow, you've really outdone yourself this time Areaseven, I mean... Jeez...

As I said before (a while ago, though), it's nothing personal, but your 'reviews' are really becoming mere adverts for Japanese popular culture. I'm sure you're a nice guy and everything, got nothing against you, pal, but come on. Instant praise for anything and everything even REMOTELY related to anime (Dekaranger, for God's Holy sake!!).

I'm gonna make a frickin' doodle on a piece of paper and expect to receive a Nobel prize from you next time!

(Sorry about that... didn't get much sleep last night and this morning I had to give a presentation, so I'm just letting off steam... Blame it on the evils of Powerpoint..)

I don't always agree with A7's opinions on shows, but I would never even think to accuse him of being dishonest or being a japanophile shill. If you didn't like the show, then give a counter review. Attacking the reviewer just makes you look like a dumbass.

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(Sorry about that... didn't get much sleep last night and this morning I had to give a presentation, so I'm just letting off steam... Blame it on the evils of Powerpoint..)

WTF? Since when did this thread become a flame war? This is absolutely ridiculous. And just because you have some personal problem unrelated to the subject doesn't mean you can go on and take your frustrations on anyone else. :angry:

Edited by areaseven
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"Bestselling manga"??  Oh, you mean that one which no-one's ever heard of?!

It's a best selling manga in Japan. Just because you're ignorant of it doesn't make it any less "best selling."

Why do you think I am ignorant of it? I have read it. And I have seen the anime, and I even like some of it.

No Japanese person I know has heard of it. That's where I really wanted someone to say "actually it is bestselling because if you look at the sales figures, etc..." Alas.

If A7 had his own thread of reviews, then I wouldn't mind so much. But these are starting to feel like pop-ups. In MY opinion. Am *I* allowed to post my opinion?

  And just because you have some personal problem unrelated to the subject doesn't mean you can go on and take your frustrations on anyone else

However clearly I put it, still people only hear what they want to hear. I wasn't taking out my frustations on anyONE, I was disagreeing with your style of doing reviews. You interpret that as a flame war, fine. We have different opinions even on that, then.

But it's fine, I clearly have no defense, because the answer is always just going to be "Well, if you don't like it, don't read/buy/pay for it". So OK, you win.

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A7, I can't get into this series. I watched the first 12 epsiodes over and still don't think much of it. That's with getting all the jokes. Chiyo's also too cute for my taste. I wanna kill her. I think I'm just not into shojou HS manga stuff anymore. Especially, when all the characters remind me of people I went to HS with. I love Kamineko tho.

EDIT: Glad I missed the pointless flaming in this thread.

Edited by Jemstone
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If A7 had his own thread of reviews, then I wouldn't mind so much. But these are starting to feel like pop-ups. In MY opinion. Am *I* allowed to post my opinion?

You are perfectly entitled to your opinions. However, inciting a flamewar is something that should NOT be allowed.

And your post was the perfect start.

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The colorful opening sequence puts Disney to shame.

You got that right! Although it's not hard to put Disney to shame... :p

Nice review areaseven! I thought you summed up Azumanga Daioh pretty good!

Maybe the summer heat's causing a number of our members to be a bit cranky? :ph34r:

Here's links to two tests to see what character you are (no point in posting a seperate thread):

http://www.quizilla.com/users/EvilNaokiIID...%20are%20you%3F

http://www.geocities.com/padplace/quiz/azumangaquiz.html

I got Osaka on both :ph34r:

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