Dai Scoop! - Musings on Nichijou

I remember the days when a 20-something episode anime would only be 4-5GB. What happened? (Not that I'm complaining about the better quality nowadays.)

Nichijou was a sleeper hit for me; it began very, very slowly and I felt that I wouldn't have anything to write about. However, as the episodes wore on, I began to really like it. A combination of an extremely complicated storyline coupled with interesting story-telling made me draw similarities to School Rumble. Even so, Nichijou stands on its own two feet and presents an amusing 26 episodes that had me feeling sad for its end.

So many quirky lies, Professor...

Animation
This wasn't the shiny and sparkly animation style that a lot of anime show. There was something very simple and 2D about this. Some drawings were "intentionally" bad, with sharp lines and ridiculous proportions. However, I'm pretty sure the type of story-telling called for it, just like how I wouldn't call Yondemasu Yo, Azazel-san's animation terrible; it was just the type of slapstick humour that was used. Looking at it from that perspective, the character designs were a combination of simplistic and unrealistic, with wider faces and strange details (such as Mio's hairstyle). Overall, there wasn't anything spectacular about the animation; that's not what stood out for me.

I worried that this was a spoiler, but it's in the OP.

Setting
This was initially a very simple story, about a handful of characters living their not-so-normal everyday lives (for one thing, Nano is a robot). However, the story slowly became more and more complex, with connections being drawn between characters until a huge relationship tree grew. The story elements were driven by the characters, so the larger picture of episodes portraying everyday lives never went away. It definitely did something right if both Rho and I, the former liking the anime from the beginning and the latter needing some time to adjust, were brimming with anticipation at the possible next encounters and connections.

So much is happening...!

Story Presentation
Each episode was segmented into scenes, long and short, that were seemingly disjointed but became clearly tied when the characters became connected. The outrageous style of jokes was apparent from the very beginning, and the subtle jokes were also there for interpretation (upon re-watching scenes and episodes). Without character knowledge - and especially without the larger cast that the anime ended with - there really was a slow start where everything pretty much were misses for me. This was really a personal issue, since Rho liked this anime from the beginning, so I assume that it's more something about the viewer's interests. Without knowing more about the characters involved in the jokes, I wasn't that interested; a lot of people are different. The main point is that I eventually came to like this anime because it didn't disappoint with giving me new information to make both old and new scenes hilarious.

What fruit is that? Or it's just fakes?

Characters
For me, this was the meat of the anime. Each character was represented in a 2D manner, with new traits appearing by-and-by as the story went on and as the scenes dictated it. It didn't feel hollow most of the time, because the characters themselves never forgot that they had these traits. Everyone treated a certain rich kid like a rich kid even before I knew he was a rich kid, so there was no break in flow. The lack of overall growth in characters is only apparent if you really look; their robust and vibrant interactions with their surroundings and each other easily hides that. For me, a character I disliked (Professor) never really did redeem herself, even though I came to enjoy most scenes including her because, in the end, it was never about just the story or just the characters. This is one of those anime where both drove forward together.

Again, so much happening. Scenes were really packed.

Final Words
Judging from the first few episodes, I thought I was in for a long and painful ride. I'm really surprised and happy that this turned out the way it did. The series ended with obvious hints of a larger story, in the style of School Rumble, and the last episode really did embody everything that Nichijou had created over its long season. I really became attached to characters, bemoaning their lack of screentime even though each episode was packed as it was. I'd say to watch more than just the first episode to really get the feel (although, for people like Rho, just the first episode is enough to understand).

It's hard to comment on this.

Scoring - [7.0/10]
I had this anime scoring pretty low for the first few episodes, but it steadily began rising. Once the story picked up and a lot more of the previously-disjointed scenes came together, this reached the levels of School Rumble for me.

~Aaro

Nichijou Ep26

A secret is that I may or may not have accidentally watched ep26 before ep25. No wonder some things didn't make sense...

Final episode! It's been a really long 26ep, I must say; I remember beginning this series and not liking it so much. Part of why I kept going was because of Rho; if I hadn't watched beyond the first handful, then I wouldn't have come to like the characters and understand the Nichijou world better. This episode ended the series on a feel-good note - it's Nano's birthday. To be fair, it was just a harebrained scheme that Yukko came up with, to throw Nano a surprise birthday party (with Professor thrown in after Mai's insistence), but it turned out at the very end that it was her birthday. What a world.

Happiness blooming!

After the pre-OP (even though there was no OP this episode) scene of Yukko, Mio and Mai talking about throwing Nano a surprise birthday party, the scene shifted to Nano as she was leaving for school in the morning. Professor suddenly took off Nano's key, which took her (and me, actually) by surprise. Professor had apparently made a smaller one, which made Nano over-the-moon ecstatic. However, after losing it and then Sakamoto accidentally stepping on it, it looked like Nano's day would be miserable. Professor, unable to stand Nano's tears, promised to have a new one made by the time she got back from school.

Getting caught red-handed must suck.

The two top dogs of the school were finally shown in the same scene, where it seemed that the vice-principal (the disgruntled old man seen in previous scenes throughout the series) disliked the principal. It also turned out that the vice-principal had once actually been the principal, which led me to wonder what had happened. Demotion? Old age? The scene was about the vice-principal playing a (cruel) prank by moving the principal's statue and replacing it with one of him; he was caught when the movers came to ask him if his instructions were complete. Other than seeing the two men mumble and fumble, what was most amazing about this scene was that the principal's last name was Shinonome. Was this ever mentioned before? What's the relation with Professor? Is this why Nano got into the school? So many questions!

A near miss.

After a quick scene of Sekiguchi and Daiku (they're cute; it's so obvious they're on the verge of doing it dating), another one focusing on Yukko, Mio and Mai came around. This time, Yukko's amazing luck was showcased with the backdrop of her heading off to make sure with Nano that it was okay to visit after school. When she playfully slapped Mio's back, she did it too hard and Mio lurched forward - just barely missing the baseball hurtling for her head. When Yukko bowed as apology, she bumped into Mai, who was pushed to the side - just barely missing the chalk eraser falling from the rooftop. This continued for the entire scene, with moments like Yukko's tugging keeping Mai from stepping on ants and gum. It was a must-watch to really see what Nichijou is about.

The setting up!

Of course, one thing of note with Yukko's shenanigans is the Tachibana-Sasahara pairing. Essentially, Yukko bumped into Sasahara, causing him to drop his coffee. She ran hurriedly passed Tachibana, which caused her to hilarious misclick black coffee on the vending machine. The machine heralded her a winner and gave her a free drink - the same thing that she initially wanted. Their scene ended as the two of them looked at each other (awaiting the next season?!). Yukko continued through the halls, eventually getting to Nano - and accidentally pulling her hand off. However, in typical Yukko manner, she simply asked if Nano was okay and then went straight to her point. This moment was very important for Nano later.

The poor cat...

An almost-wordless scene followed, of Mio and Yukko trying to break open a watermelon. I can't say much about this scene; it was just an escalation as the girls attempted to get at it but the melon was just a resilient fruit. It's not like it wasn't funny, though. The next scene was actually a very surprising one - Sakamoto ran into Nakamura-sensei and it turned out that he used to be her cat, one named Taisho. I really didn't see that coming, although I knew that Sakamoto had escaped a house in one of the first episodes so he wasn't really a stray. Apparently, Nakamura-sensei was not a very intelligent pet-owner, feeding her cat instant noodles (for instance), and so Sakamoto ran away with the first chance he got. He continued to evade the teacher in this scene, although he served as a means for Nakamura-sensei and Nano to become closer, with the latter promising to visit the teacher's house to see the cat. (Lies! Deceit!)

How many cakes can you destroy in one day?

Upon getting home, Professor was still making the smaller key, since Sakamoto had stepped on the second one as well (which means that the earlier scene where he was out of the house made sense). She did take off Nano's larger key, though, and the robot waited in anticipation. However, as she thought about it, she realized that she had been accepted for just being herself (especially with the earlier scene of Yukko not caring that her hand had come off), so wanting to become more of a normal girl was not necessary. Just as she made her (obvious) decision to keep the larger key, though, Professor revealed that the smaller one was actually just an upgrade, meant to go under the larger one. The deception didn't matter, though, as the other girls arrived and happy chaos ensued with cakes being destroyed.

Even a tiger can't open this watermelon.

This last episode of Nichijou really embodied what the series was about; a larger story was shown from different viewpoints and different scenes that actually connected together. With this season over, the development can clearly be seen - Tachibana and Sasahara are closer together and Nano has been accepted into the group, for example - and there's even a lot of plot points left open - Sakamoto being Nakamura-sensei's old cat and the principal being a Shinonome, for example - so I'm actually easily hopeful for more at this point.

~Aaro

Nichijou Ep25

So far, my external drive seems to be holding out well. Then again, did I really expect immediate failures? I put too much faith in random reviews from a few people with bad luck.

This episode of Nichijou was somehow focused on Sasahara again. What is with this sudden interest? Once again, it had very little to do with him directly and was more about random things that happened. One day, as the classes were changing, Fecchan and Weboshi pointed out to Tachibana that Sasahara had been sleeping (upright with his arms crossed, too) and so had remained in the classroom. After some prodding, she headed back to get him, embarrassed and in tsundere-mode. However, her excitement caused her to shatter his glasses when she slapped her hand down onto the desk.

Sasahara is so stiff...

Thus began the segment of the episode where Tachibana and Sasahara walked arm-in-arm through the school. Tachibana was quite embarrassed (but probably super happy), constantly rationalizing that she was the one at fault and it was her job to get Sasahara through the day since he couldn't see. Anyone who looked at them was undoubtedly confused - and, in a moment of excitement (for me), Mio, Yukko and Nano could be seen watching with fallen jaws.

It was funniest since he didn't see a problem with it.

The climax of the scene came when Sasahara informed Tachibana that he wanted to drop by the restroom before class and, after panicking for a little bit, Tachibana agreed to come along. However, Sasahara asked point-blank why she needed to and after her explanation of wanting to help due to being at fault, Sasahara revealed that his glasses were fakes. Tachibana, of course, shot him with various weapons, proclaiming that she was only getting rid of a bug on his arm. This entire scene almost leads me to believe that Sasahara knows that Tachibana likes him, but then I remember that he's more of a "laidback" guy that just wouldn't notice or care about these things. I would like to be proven wrong, though.

Breaking through real glass is supposed to hurt!

After a short with Takasaki-sensei asking Sakurais-sensei what kind of curry she liked, the scene returned to the moment that Mio, Yukko and Nano saw Tachibana and Sasahara walking down the hallway. Mio was completely unreachable, constantly replaying the moment in her mind, and she suddenly ran off - obviously in an attempt to literally run away from what she had seen. Yukko chased her while instructing Nano to run off and tell the teacher why they were absent. The scene of Yukko running after Mio, constantly yelling out "Mio-chan", while Mio did some outrageous things was much too funny to properly discuss.

The guy with the top hat!

As the scenes continued (including Mio and Yukko destroying a daifuku photoshoot by running passed Nakanojo's father and revealing his mohawk), it culminated in Mio diving into a river (after licking her fingers and putting them in her ears for a moment; what was that supposed to do?). It turned out that she, acting with her all-consuming emotions, had dove in to save a drowning boy, pulling him out and taking him to shore right before the boy's friend arrived with a police officer. (The same guy that Mio had beaten up in a previous episode to protect her yaoi drawings.) The old man with the top hat arrived, wanting to offer Mio the chance to join him and take over the boxing world (back-door pilot for a shounen show?!), and Mio finally broke out of her reverie to laugh at everything that had happened.

I wonder why that statue is randomly there.

This episode really did the connections well, as the next scene focused on Nakamura-sensei. She saw Nano running passed her with Sakurai-sensei and Mai (in order to chase after Yukko and Mio), but then lost them when they turned a corner. As she attempted to determine what to do, especially on how to find Nano's house, she stumbled right to the Shinonome Institute. As she tried to calm her beating heart, her concepts of what the house was like was very ridiculous. On that note, though, I have no idea what Professor's lab looks like and I can't say that I'm not interested.

So surprised that her heart's heart jumped.

As she actually did approach the house, Biscuit-kun (I'm glad he wasn't put out of commission or anything like that) found her and asked what she was doing. Nano came out and invited her teacher in. (So when is this taking place? Has Nakamura-sensei really been wandering around until the school day finished?) Nakamura-sensei was constantly careful, but she eventually just blurted out the purpose of her visit - to get to know more about Nano. Of course, the robot took that in quite the wrong way, stating that she thought it would be best to be normal in "those regards" (lesbianism). Seeing the two characters sitting at the table and just blushing off their faces was actually a little cute.

How can she manage getting more and more covered by it?!

Professor actually walked into the room and while Nakamura-sensei initially assumed it was a little sister of Nano's, Professor just came out and said that she had made Nano. While they argued over the fact that Nano was trying to pretend to be a normal girl, Nakamura-sensei freaked out in trying to determine what was going on. Sakamoto walked in as this was going on, with a bag on his head that Professor had tied on (in an effort to make a teru-teru bouzo?). Nakamura-sensei freaked out even more, thinking it was a homunculus (really?) and tried to make her exit discreetly by asking for the bathroom and then running straight outside - into the glue that Professor had created ages ago. Ah, life is so hard for her.

That would probably freak the hell out of me.

The last little bit of this episode was Yukko, Mai and Nano worrying about Mio. She seemed fine, but they worried that she was just hiding her pain. So their brilliant plan was to dress up in daifuku costumes and accost Mio on her way home, giving her a prize after she won the rigged lottery. As strange as it sounds (and looked), Mio was actually really touched with her prize - a note saying that they would be friends forever, complete with their personal stamps. (Mai had also thrown in a carving as Mio was walking off, as if their identities weren't already pretty clear.)

What could have compelled you to walk through this kind of tall grass to begin with?

There was one more scene after the ED, where Tachibana and Sasahara had managed to get lost and were walking through some really tall grass. It's scenes like this that makes it pretty clear they'll be a pairing. However, with just one more episode to go, I don't think it could possibly be resolved for this season.

~Aaro

Nichijou Ep24

This is just so late, but I'm trying to not feel bad about it. Better late than never, I think. Gambatte~

This episode was - surprisingly - quite focused on Sasahara. After complaining now for a few episodes that he's an interesting character who should get more coverage, he's the finally the focus! I was quite pleased with this episode; interestingly enough, despite being the "theme" of the episode, he actually wasn't on-screen for a lot of it. Still, the entire situation was quite well done and it definitely squashed an inklings I had about this anime tapering off.

For science!

The episode was another one without an OP, beginning with Nakamura-sensei and her epic love of Nano. She was going through sneakily-shot photos of the robot (a theme that continued throughout various short scenes in the episode; that Nakamua-sensei is quite the spy), when she saw a black cat outside. I'm pretty sure she assumed that it was Sakamoto, because she threw caution to the wind and attempted to chase after it. It only led to her getting caught standing on the fence on top of a rather large incline with the members of the surrounding houses yelling in confusion. I wonder if her fall broke any bones?

Ah Mio, you brought it on yourself.

After the sponsorship message, Yukko was seen playing her way through the hallway when she stumbled onto Nano and Sasahara. It was hardly anything candid; Nano was carrying a lot of books (most likely assisting a teacher - Nakamura-sensei?) and she dropped one, which Sasahara picked up for her. However, Yukko's mind twisted it and she ran to the classroom to tell Mio, who was busy writing a report. Despite pretending to not care, it was a situation where it was clear that Mio did care, as she wouldn't drop the topic and kept asking Yukko for more details. By the time the full story was out, Mio had realized it wasn't such a big deal at all and showed her relief by making fun of Yukko's excitement.

That switch is quite disastrous.

As we saw in an episode prior, Yukko's evil side is quite extreme. Not content to be made fun of, she suddenly began lying with the sole purpose of disturbing Mio. The reaction was instantaneous; Mio was fully engrossed in the outrageous story that Nano and Sasahara were kissing and whatnot, with the courtyard involved. As Yukko sat down to hurriedly write her report (I had been wondering why Mio would have work that Yukko didn't), Mio's imagination ran away with her in what can only be described as a terrible shoujo scene. She finally gave up just daydreaming and ran out to see for herself. Nano, being coincidentally right outside the door, refuted the strange claims of yakisoba bread and courtyards. Yukko's punishment for lying was just as instantaneous.

What an easy 1million yen to make.

Helvetica Standard is usually a hit-or-miss with me, and this episode's was absolutely hilarious. It featured two classmates, with one attempting to get the other to tell her about her crush. Secrecy was promised on the condition of 1million yen, and so the blue-haired girl finally revealed it. Her friend immediately told everyone...and then dropped a stack of 10,000 yen notes onto the desk. This scene was amazingly funny, considering its simple premise.

What kind of acting club is this?

The second scene about Sasahara featured his other admirer, Tachibana. At the dojo, where she got defeated quite quickly by Mio's older sister, she was walking home with her younger sister when Mihoshi dropped a bombshell - Sasahara had been attending the dojo recently. This scene gave away some very important news - Sasahara and Tachibana used to attend the dojo together and, upon entering high school, Sasahara decided to join the Acting Club instead of the Kendo Club. Apparently, this didn't mean that he was no longer interested in kendo, given his recent attending. This scene was only so-so, mostly because I don't like Tachibana that much.

I first thought his food was poisoned or something.

The only scene to not really have anything to do with Sasahara in this episode dealt with Nano-Professor-Sakamoto. Apparently, Sakamoto had quite the cold and was (appearance-wise) at death's door. This scene actually taught me a few important lessons: first, that cats get sick (I feel so sheltered...); and second, that cats can't have green onions. The scene wasn't really about taking care of Sakamoto at all; it was more about Professor wanting to be paid attention to. She did this by pretending to be sick - but Nano saw right passed her (it's not like her acting was even that good, to begin with). The scene eventually devolved into Professor being pissy-face and Nano attempting to placate her with words. (It's good that she didn't give in to the demands of chocolate; Nano is becoming a better care-giver by the day.)

It's probably safe to assume she doesn't like him.

Before getting into the final scene, I wanted to talk about this short featuring cold days. So, these two boys were walking down the road, talking about how cold it was, when a girl (classmate, most likely) ran up, pressed her hands to one boy's cheek, cried out, "Cold attack," and then ran away. What the hell? That's just... Are Japanese girls really like this? There's a lot of touchy-feely going on there. As a child, I recall people flicking other people's extremely red ears to conflict pain; that's an attack, if anything. I just don't understand...

Quite the aristocrat.

The final scene to do with Sasahara actually involved his presence; Mio was at the vending machine when she dropped her coin and it rolled right into the boy of the (half) hour. I realize that a lot of my interest in this character has to do with hearsay and not his actual personality; he really came off as quite mean by using Mio's coin while haughtily performing a monologue. I do have to give him points for staying cool under pressure; he's just too good to flip the upside-down cup so that the drink comes out right, hm?

So, that's how Mio knows Sasahara! That's a nice one.

It's good to see such a strong episode so close to the end of the series; I know I shouldn't, but I suddenly have a lot of hope for the remaining 2 episodes (still unwatched by me). I'll try to not go into it with breakable expectations.

~Aaro

Nichijou Ep23

The hassle of moving and a changed routine also had a strange side-effect - since Rho and I only see each other for a few hours each day (despite living together, oddly), we just had no time to watch Nichijou. But that changed; I grabbed her this morning and we watched ep23 and ep24 back-to-back. One less thing to catch up on!

This episode was incredibly big on the continuity, in a strangely School Rumble manner. A rather large scene later on in the episode was comprised on many smaller scenes, occurring with quick switches between characters that were all located at the same venue. The episode began with Yukko being the first in class (interestingly, with a bandaged hand from the dog bite in the previous episode) and doing some strange things (like pretending to be a stag beetle). Getting caught by Takasaki-sensei took the wind out of her sails and she ran out furiously, begging for confidentiality, just as Nano (running out of air) came out of her hiding spot in the curtains. I surmise she had also been doing strange things; it must be a necessity for those that arrive early.

So many injuries...

In the first scene after the OP, Mio once again fell prey to her elder sister's antics, with taste-tasting some freshly-made jam. However, it turned out to be so awful that it burned out Mio's senses. In an attempt to clear her palate, her sister offered her some steaming hot milk, which only really served to burn her tongue (and, after a moment of pondering, Mio realized that the coffee was just awful as well). After an accident involving having more of the jam (which was deceptively stored in an empty milk container in the fridge), Mio came to the understanding that the jam was made from fermented fish. (How disgusting... I mean, really.)

Absolutely. Who is this "president" whose office this is, anyway?

Sakurai-sensei's "good-natured" attempt at cleaning her younger brother's bedroom was halted quickly and suddenly with the discovery of an "adult magazine". Now, to be fair, I guess I can understand her thought process, but wow. She started flipping through it, even. When Makoto was confronted about it, he freaked out and started making up strange excuses, finally cumulating in the lie that it belonged to the club president. What is the basis of Sakurai-sensei announcing that he was too young for such things, anyway? I thought Japan was better with the repressed sexuality business; has it all been a lie?

Too eager, run slower!

This episode's Helvetica Standard was quite hilarious, seeing as I'm remembering the sports festival from The iDOLM@STER. It's really not fair to be passing a strip of cloth instead of a baton; the wind resistance turned out to be quite difficult. Speaking of shorts, though, this episode recalled the old shtick of featuring a specific location for a few seconds throughout the episode. This one was a riverbank, and the occurrence was that Yukko arrived to draw, with an easel and everything. There wasn't anything particularly funny about it, though (maybe I just didn't get it).

I wonder how long a dog bite takes to recover from.

The beginning of the next scene featured the classroom, potentially during a break between classes. Yukko and Mio approached Nano to talk about what had happened in the previous episode, with Professor and the dogs. (The continuity was quite interesting. Throughout the episode, Mio and Yukko were both seen with bandages wrapping their wounds.) Anyway, this conversation focused momentarily on Mai, though it wasn't touched on until much later.

Takasaki-sensei just wants whatever he can get, doesn't he.

A shift to the hallway showed Makoto questioning why Takasaki-sensei wouldn't be the advisor for the club, seeing as how he had won the challenge from a prior episode. Takasaki-sensei insisted that it was a draw, to which Makoto once again blackmailed him by threatening to announce the teacher's feelings for his sister. Takasaki-sensei went all the way to the clubroom with Makoto (where they found Daiku and Sekiguchi making a banner), but then once again chickened out and ran away.

I agree; he does look pretty weird without a mohawk.

The scene shifted to another part of the school, where Weboshi and Fecchan were on their way to the classroom so that Weboshi could confess to Nakanojo. As they spoke extensively about how great mohawks were, Takasaki-sensei and Makoto ran passed them towards the rooftop, where the camera also went. Makoto managed to bribe the teacher with a photo of his sister from her middle school graduation, appealing to the "hungry wolf". The scene slowly went back to Weboshi and Fecchan (while Daiku and Sekiguchi were seen parading outside in the rain with a recruitment banner), who were in for a special surprise since Nakanojo had effectively become bald once again.

I get that the seat was stolen, but why they did have to leave a stalk of broccoli?

I considered this scene to be the final amusing scene, which catalogued a very terrible day for Yukko. It started off minor, but then became really serious - sitting on wet paint? having your bicycle seat stolen? people falling asleep on you on the train? I didn't particularly understand the part with the kite, though... If the episode had ended here, I wouldn't have minded. Instead, I had to sit through a very confusing scene involving what may be my least favourite character - Mai.

...I just don't get it.

So what is her deal anyway? After hearing earlier in the class what fright her dogs had caused, she went to the Institute to make amends with Professor. She seemed to try really hard, not giving up until she succeeded in giving the little girl a present (a picture of a shark). She quietly left after that, going at "Mai pace" as always. I don't understand her at all. The scene wasn't funny; it was just a little heart-warming, at best. But I didn't expect that from Mai. What is going through her head?

The controller of a nation, 300yen.

This episode was interesting and, nearing the end of the series, is showing its similarities to School Rumble way too much for me to look passed it. It's not like all the scenes were funny; the interesting story-telling and continuity kept some slower scenes going (much like it's "predecessor"). I'm not adverse to seeing more of Mai, but I really couldn't stand her scene this time. I hope her next appearances are better.

~Aaro

Nichijou Ep22

How come Doki keeps releasing episodes of Nichijou right before the next one comes out? Just as I watched this, I noticed that HorribleSubs has released ep23 already. It doesn't really matter though; I'll be archiving Doki's version of this in the end, so I'll stick with them.

Ah, Santa, causing so many family problems.

This episode was exceptionally funny, generally focusing on "side characters" instead of the mains. Nakanojo was the main character of this episode (given his base premise of having a natural mohawk, I expected him to be a hilarious character to begin with). Weboshi and and Fecchan had their own scene, set right after Yoshino (Mio's older sister) and Mihoshi (Tachibana's younger sister) interacted with each other. The final scene was based on Professor and Sakamoto encountering Mio and Yukko, along with Mai's dogs, which led to a good ending scene. After my strange dissatisfaction with last week's episode, I'm pretty happy with the quality of this one.

Nichijou Ep21

To my commenter "karry": With the Dota2 tournament over (and potentially no more future references), you can come back now! It's always a little lonely to talk randomly.

What do you mean, "happily every after"?!

This episode of Nichijou didn't feel as funny as others; while watching it, I almost felt like time had regressed back to when I first picked up this series and didn't think too much of it. Was it the formatting? the material? I still don't know, but it just wasn't that great. The long sequences didn't intrigue me and the shorts felt quite humdrum. This episode featured an extended scene with Takasaki-sensei and Sakurai-sensei, and then a return to the fantasy land where Mio's ponytails and hairbands came from (now named as Fay Kingdom).

Nichijou Ep20

I kind of lost a lot of interest in watching the Dota2 tournament for the time-being, after the sad games last night that dropped EHOME and iG to the Loser's Bracket. Yeah, there's a chance one of them will still make it to the final, but I don't really want to watch the road there. I like plays that's based heavily on analysis and specialization, and both matches with these teams last night seemed to show them choking and crashing, often running around without any kind of coordination. That just made me sad.

The perils of eating first, reading second.

This episode followed essentially just one story, with a handful of tiny shorts interlaced in between. Mio had gathered Yukko, Mai and Nano to help her out to her manga deadline, leading to all kinds of hilarity because the three of them seemed to be quite inept in various ways. I actually liked this kind of story-telling (one long scene that appeared throughout the episode), although it made me really question Mio's taste in friends...

Nichijou Ep19

Finally, a Nichijou post that's relatively "on schedule". I feel surprisingly accomplished. (Still not watching Someday's Dreamers 2, if anyone is keeping track. I don't know what's wrong with that anime but I don't want to get involved.)

Daifuku causes enlightenment.

This week's episode was especially heavy on thematic parodies, beginning with a Hellvetica Standard (not a typo...) and featuring two scenes making fun of sports anime. It was also revealed that, almost as a rule, Tachibana's friends were also as strange and random as the comedy trio of Mio, Yukko and Mai. Thinking about it, though, this episode had appearances of these "main characters" in abundance; I feel almost needy to say that, even though I asked for more and more random characters, it still feels really good to pay attention to the mains every once in a while.

Nichijou Ep18

Sadly, the delay of Nichijou this week wasn't my fault; Doki was pretty late in releasing it. Considering I'll be keeping this series for archiving, I'd rather wait for a good copy rather than rush it.

I'm reminded of Kyouya from Ouran...

This episode reminded me a lot of ones from the previous half, partially because it returned to the format of having a few long sequences broken up by lots and lots of smaller ones. The biggest difference was that the long sequences here were continuing a concept already presented, which made the little details really pop. From Biscuit #2 (the successor to Biscuit #1, obviously) and Mr. Rust+ (after Mr. Short Circuit failed) to the fantasy world that created Mio's hairstyle, this episode really reminded me why I like Nichijou to begin with: a funny joke isn't repeated; it's the funny concept that's never discarded.