Premise
''Azumanga Daioh'' chronicles the Slice of life, everyday life in an unnamed Secondary education in Japan, Japanese high school of six girls and two of their teachers: child prodigy, List of Azumanga Daioh characters#Chiyo Mihama, Chiyo Mihama and her struggle to fit in with girls five years older; reserved List of Azumanga Daioh characters#Sakaki, Sakaki and her obsession with the cute animals while certain ones seem to hate her; spacey List of Azumanga Daioh characters#Ayumu "Osaka" Kasuga, Ayumu "Osaka" Kasuga with a skewed perspective on the world; List of Azumanga Daioh characters#Koyomi "Yomi" Mizuhara, Koyomi "Yomi" Mizuhara's aggravation at an annoying best friend; List of Azumanga Daioh characters#Tomo Takino, Tomo Takino, whose energy is rivaled only by her lack of sense; sporty List of Azumanga Daioh characters#Kagura, Kagura and her one-sided athletics rivalry with Sakaki; their homeroom teacher List of Azumanga Daioh characters#Yukari Tanizaki, Yukari Tanizaki; and her friend, physical education teacher List of Azumanga Daioh characters#Minamo "Nyamo" Kurosawa, Minamo "Nyamo" Kurosawa. Secondary characters include List of Azumanga Daioh characters#Kimura, Kimura-sensei, a creepy male teacher with an obsession with teenage girls, and List of Azumanga Daioh characters#Kaori, Kaorin, a female classmate with a crush on Sakaki. The story covers three years of tests, talking between classes, Japanese Cultural Festival, culture festivals, and athletic events at school, as well as time spent traveling to and from school, studying at Chiyo's house, and vacations at Chiyo's summer beach home and the fictional theme park Magical Land, concluding with the graduation of the main cast. It is generally realistic in tone, marked by occasional bursts of surrealism and absurdity, such as Osaka imagining Chiyo's ponytails being "unscrewed" from her head and an episode featuring the characters' New Year's dreams.Production
The series title has no particular significance to the story. "Azumanga" is a Portmanteau word, portmanteau of the author's name "Azuma" and "manga", while "Daioh" comes from the magazine in which it was originally published, ''Dengeki Daioh''. In the anime, "''daioh''" is mentioned during the next episode previews, used in context with the meaning "great king". "Azumanga" is also used as a general term for Kiyohiko Azuma's other comics and illustrations. Two previous collections of Azuma's works, including official tie-in comics of Geneon, Pioneer animations, were published as ''Azumanga'' and ''Azumanga 2'' in 1998 and 2001, respectively. ''Azumanga'' was later republished in a reduced-size edition called ''Azumanga Recycle''.Media
Manga
''Azumanga Daioh'' was written and illustrated by Kiyohiko Azuma, largely in ''Anime
The anime television series, ''Azumanga Daioh: the Animation'', was produced by J.C.Staff and aired from the week of April 8, 2002 until the week of September 30, 2002. It was broadcast on TV Tokyo, TV Aichi, TV Osaka, and AT-X in five-minute segments every weekday, then repeated as a 25-minute compilation that weekend, for a total of 130 five-minute segments collected in 26 episodes. For the compilation episodes, the respective opening and ending themes were and "Raspberry Heaven", both performed by Oranges & Lemons (Japanese band), Oranges & Lemons. The compilation episodes, which were the only versions to include the title and credits sequences, were released on 6 DVDs in 2003 and 9 Universal Media Discs between 2005 and 2006 by Starchild Records, and a DVD box set of all episodes was released on June 24, 2009; (Note Google translate API) the five-minute segments can be distinguished by their individual titles. Besides the anime television series, there have been two other animated adaptations: ''The Very Short Azumanga Daioh Movie'', a six-minute trailer released to movie theaters to publicize the upcoming television series, and ''Azumanga Web Daioh'', a shorter original net animation made available for paid streaming on chara-ani.com beginning from December 28, 2000, then offered as a paid download for a limited time. ''Azumanga Web Daioh'' was originally intended to gauge whether there was enough interest to create a web-released anime adaptation; because of overwhelming demand, the original plan for web-release was changed to a television release. It featured different voice actors, music, and staff from the series. In the United States, the anime television series was released in six DVDs on September 9, 2005, and then later in a five DVD volume "Thinpak" set, both by ADV Films. The sixth DVD volume included ''The Very Short Azumanga Daioh Movie''. In 2009, Nokia offered the first five episodes of ''Azumanga Daioh'' on its Ovi (Nokia), Ovi phone service. Madman Entertainment licensed the series for release in Australia and New Zealand. As of September 1, 2009, all of ADV's former catalog are transferred to Section23 Films#AEsir Holdings, AEsir Holdings, with distribution from Section23 Films. The series was later re-licensed in 2016 by Sentai Filmworks.Soundtracks
Several soundtrack albums for the anime of ''Azumanga Daioh'' were released by Lantis (company), Lantis, including two volumes of the ''Azumanga Daioh Original Soundtrack'', collecting the show's score and themes; two tribute albums; and ''Vocal Collection'', collecting character image songs. One single was released for the opening and closing theme of the anime, and eight singles of image songs were released for the main cast members. Most of the releases charted on the Japanese Oricon charts, with the highest ranking album being ''Tribute to Azumanga Daioh'' at number 68, and the highest ranking single being ''Soramimi no Cake/Raspberry Heaven'', the opening and closing themes, at 36th. * The opening and closing theme single ''Soramimi no Cake/Raspberry Heaven'' was released on April 22, 2002, and peak ranked 36th on the Oricon singles chart. The two volumes of the soundtrack were released on June 26, 2006 and October 23, 2002, and peak ranked 72nd and 99th on the Oricon albums chart, respectively. The soundtrack albums were re-released as a two-disc set on June 24, 2009 in conjunction with the 10th anniversary release of the DVD box set. ''Azumanga Daioh Original Soundtrack'' Volume 1 was released in the United States by Geneon. * ''Azumanga Daioh: Vocal Collection'' collects the character image songs performed by the voice actors in the personas of the characters they played, and the opening and the closing theme songs. It was released on December 25, 2002 in Japan, Eight image song singles were released as ''Azumanga Daioh Characters Songs'' Volumes 1 through 8, which focused in order on Chiyo, Sakaki, Osaka, Tomo, Kagura, Yomi, Sensei, and Kaorin. Volumes 1 and 2 were released May 22, 2002, Volume 3 on June 26, 2002, Volumes 4 and 5 on July 27, 2002, Volume 6 and 7 on September 4, 2002, and Volume 8 on September 25, 2002. ''Azumanga Daioh Characters Songs'' Volumes 3 through 8 peak ranked 63rd, 80th, 79th, 70th, 75th, and 49th on the Oricon singles chart, respectively. ''Azumanga Daioh: Vocal Collection'' was released in the United States by Geneon on July 5, 2005. * Two tribute albums, ''Tribute to Azumanga Daioh'' and ''Tribute to Live Azumanga Daioh'', were released on October 2, 2002 and December 10, 2003. ''Tribute to Azumanga Daioh'' peak ranked 68th on the Oricon albums chart. ''Tribute to Live Azumanga Daioh'' is the live album of the concert held on October 4, 2003 at the public hall of Toshima, Tokyo.Other media
Two art books for the anime were published under the titles () and () were published by MediaWorks on August 26, 2002 and December 10, 2002, respectively. Three ''Azumanga Daioh'' video games were released. ''Azumanga Donjyara Daioh'', a puzzle game similar to mahjong, was released by Bandai for the PlayStation (console), PlayStation on April 18, 2002. A crossover game with ''Puzzle Bobble'', called ''Azumanga Daioh Puzzle Bobble'', developed by Moss and published by Taito, was released on December 13, 2002 for the List of Sega arcade system boards#Sega NAOMI series, Sega NAOMI GD-ROM Arcade game, arcade system only in Japan. ''Azumanga Daioh Advance'', a card-playing game, was released by King Records (Japan), King Records for the Game Boy Advance on April 25, 2003.Reception
In Japan, the ''Azumanga Daioh'' manga was named a jury recommended work of the sixth Japan Media Arts Festival in 2002. The manga was named as one of the top 25 manga at the 2006 Japan Media Arts Festival. English reviewers have commented positively about ''Azumanga Daioh''. In ''Manga: The Complete Guide'', Jason Thompson (writer), Jason Thompson refers to it as a "charming comedy" and a "quiet master of the four-panel form", praising the series comedic timing and use of running gags. He felt one of the series' best points was its "character-driven writing", but does warn that its ''Moe (slang), moe'' nature and the jokes that revolve around the "vaguely pedophilic teacher" might disturb some newer readers of manga. He later said that ''Azumanga Daioh'' was an "almost totally innocent" kind of ''moe'', centered around "peep[ing] at the chaste world of girls", in which "adorable girls do adorable things". The French manga dictionary ''Dicomanga'' noted that despite being a ''moe'' series targeted at ''otaku'', it also appealed to female readers for celebrating "friendships between girls as well as [its] comedy". Marc Hairston describes ''Azumanga Daioh'' as being "slightly disjointed", with "frequently oblique" and "culturally biased" humour, and says it is both "lighter" and "more wry" than ''Maria-sama ga Miteru''. He describes the characters of ''Azumanga'' as being "individuals with slightly offbeat personalities". Mark Thomas, writing for Mania.com, says that each character has "a defining personality trait that is ramped up to abnormal levels" and that each has a Foil (literature), foil, which highlights these traits and prevents them from becoming too annoying or unbelievable as characters. Thomas said that the yonkoma format does not lend itself to "complex story arcs", and the story is presented as "quick snapshots of random moments in their daily routines", noting that the narrative is character-driven. Patrick King, writing for Anime Fringe, considered it to be "one of the funniest, most adorable manga series I've read". IGN noted the lack of background art, but said that the expressive faces of the characters made up for it. Fred Patton of ''Animation World Magazine'' described the anime as "delightfully witty and even an educational window onto what Japanese high school life is really like". Chris Beveridge of ''Anime on DVD'', stated that "There's a lot to laugh with here and a cast of characters that grow quickly on you as you start finding those you favor and those you don't." Andrew Shelton from Anime Meta explains that "The character of the girls is extremely well brought out. The superb observation, and ability to capture expression, makes the anime incredibly fun to watch in addition to meeting the story requirements. The action, and very rich comedy, are also wonderfully represented. There is just so much meaning, and charm, in even the most minor of expressions." The reviewers of THEM Anime Reviews and Anime News Network felt that fans who had already graduated high school would feel nostalgic at times while watching ''Azumanga Daioh''. Lauren Bryant of Art Decko Magazine, noted that the series is "filled with silly gags and hijinks", having a "lighthearted humor", but said that the animation is "very minimalist" and that the show makes Kaori "overtly gay" as she has a crush on Sakaki. However, Bryant criticized the series for having a character, Mr. Kimura, who seems to be a pedophile, even as she called the series, on the whole "very wholesome and hilarious". The licensed manga had sales that reached top 100 lists on occasions and was included in the top 25 manga recommended by International Correspondence in ''Retailers Guide to Anime/Manga''. and The English Dubbing (filmmaking), dub for the show was well received, earning six ADR Awards from fans voting on AnimeonDVD.com and Dubreview.com. Four of the girls were included in ''Newtype''s top 100 anime heroines of 2002: Ayumu Kasuga, Osaka was awarded 7th, Chiyo Mihama, Chiyo 11th, Sakaki (Azumanga Daioh), Sakaki 21st, and Koyomi Mizuhara, Yomi 78th. Together, they made ''Azumanga Daioh'' the second most popular series of 2002 for female characters.References
Further reading
* * *External links
* *