This thread is for discussion of the series "Azumanga Daioh". Please post comments, worksafe images and general triva. For those who have seen the series before, please refrain from posting spoilers until the relevant episode has been shown; we don't want to spoil it for the others now do we?

Now to confuse people

The opening song:

QUOTE:

LU LA LU LA The piano is a melody in the world's field of blooming dreams Believe in the broken clock and who's side will time be on?

Why is my heart waiting so much for that tender-hearted someone? Tell me a wonderful future MOONLIGHT,MOONLIGHT SLEEPIN'

LU LA LU LA The girl of awakenings will kiss the apple of memories and In a book opened with sorrow and longing, the bell meant for the two of us will ring

Because I want to hold you tight my dear one Don't cry any more GOOD BYE SADNESS The words on the mysterious door read "Ear-playing-tricks Cake"

WONDERLAND! Welcome, to you FAIRYLAND! It's the magic of love LOVE'S ALL THE WAY! Every day, the temptations of wheat, so fluffy

CAKE FOR YOU! Eat, for tonight is TEA FOR YOU! A tea-party in the constellations The chorus of angels at the window is to you, just your ear playing tricks? The voice saying "I love you, I love you"

LU LA LU LA To the piano the world is a tiny melody that is dreaming dreams A waltz of prayers overflows from the fingers and it feels oh so nice

My heart is always honest, a quiet greeting of sleep Because it is a secret wish HOLLY,HOLLY WHISPER

LU LA LU LA Everywhere the stove, even when the crescent moon rains down from the heavens Is thawing and giving a HUG to the freezing traveller's heart

A path of light in the clean air, if I walk along without straying WELCOME PLEASURE The words that appeared in the eyes read "Ear-playing-tricks Cake"

WONDERLAND! Welcome, for you FAIRYLAND! The joys of love LOVE'S ALL THE WAY! Every day, the adventures in wheat, so exciting

CAKE FOR YOU! A simple happiness TEA FOR YOU! With a big smile The chorus of angels at the window is to you, just your ear playing tricks? The voice saying "I love you, I love you"

A very funny series, if you're in the mood - that being for sketch high school comedy. The characters are charming to a T (except the creepy teacher dude, of course), and once it gets over stereotyping them all to hell there are actual slight bits of continuity and humanisation and you actually see the group grow up (a bit). Nice how a series can take you through their high school life while keeping it all funny.

Annoyingly, even if you did watch it dubbed, there are a fair few jokes that simply don't localise well (although sometimes you can guess, and their expressions are usually funny enough). The author/writer was a very clever punning machine, according to the notes in the Manga book (which I do recommend people read from the library!). Surprisingly most of the jokes transfer quite well to a short live sketch, they got the comedy timing really well done.

Speaking of sketches, there are a fair few brilliant ones in the series - parodied to hell on the internet mind you - some not in the Manga either, which is a reason why it's a great adaptation - it leaves out impossible to do 4korma manga comics and does it's own more inventive (and usually longer) sketches in their place, or interprets the action for the screen differently.

I think the mix of simple "normal" jokes (hiccup cures!) with the utterly random occurrences and dreams (chiyo-chans hair coming off, hehe), is a great and probably what makes a lot more people enjoy it then if it was one or the other.

For those who enjoyed this, Lucky Star might be recommended similar, if sillier and much more genre-savvy, viewing.

There is also a few odd Azumanga Daioh specials - well, more mini-episodes and remakes for advertising. It's surprising how the simple animation works in the series (since dialogue and reaction shots are emphasised over action), but if you check youtube you can see some of the classroom sketches redone in a much higher quality, and another set of ones where they're making a time capsule video. I guess they won't be shown at Namsoc so might be good series post-watching.

This anime freaks me out and is wrong on so many levels- take it from someone who is considered strange and not so sane.
The opening theme is weird. Yes, this series makes me laugh out loud and i would love to get to know the people that dreamt this stuff up because it is in a league of it's own. I may find some themes hard to accept since I'm a law student and that for some reason I cant seem to stop myself from going 'that's just wrong' every 5 minutes. I like this anime because we have no clue where this is going (typical for the s2 comedy slot). I like that all the characters are beyond all help on returning to sanity in their own individual way. If by some miracle a college will let me in a classroom one day, i'd probably use this anime more than any others to illustrate the odd legal principle (and be susbsequently sacked, lol). Despite its bizarre themes it is a laugh a minute and was a worthy committee choice.

Gotta say that personally I don't like the series, just not my type of thing. Just one person's opinion though.

I remember watching a bit of this randomly on TV a few years back and I thought 'WTF? How could THAT be popular?' but when I started watching that at NAMSOC I gotta say that I actually am enjoying it Maybe Im getting more into the random/cutesy anime more than I used to be.

Can't wait to see the rest of it

What I hate most about this anime is THE TWO ANNOYING PEOPLE SITTING BEHIND ME SINGING ALONG ANNOYING ME AND LOGAN!!!!!

Been saving this one until after last night's beach trip episode.

Heh, kinda funny parody

It's at this point in the series it goes a bit beyond a single-sketch comedy, where you actually need to know what people have done in the past to make sense of the present - but it was a good sketch in this case by itself (I think that's why it is so popular!).

Who need arnie when you have Osaka

Saw this today; snowball fights are fun