September 29, 2023 1:45 pm
What do an eight-year-old genius professor and a goat-riding high school aristocrat have in common?
If you ever want to burden yourself with an impossible task — try to look up any kind of a reasonable best comedy/SoL anime list that does not include Nichijou. Trust me: there is no such thing. The main reason for that being its uniquely iconic status among anime watchers. Nichijou takes the concept of a nonsensical absurdist comedy and dials it to an absolute extreme — to a point when every single frame we see and every single sentence we hear the characters utter is somehow both a joke in on itself AND a setup for something else or a piece of some greater puzzle.
While on the surface Nichijou can be to a degree compared to something like Azumanga Daioh or Lucky Star, neither of them even attempt to embrace the level of sheer insanity that Nichijou brings to the table. The show is pure randomness with an equally random cast of characters that are not even supposed to be mentioned in the same sentence of phrase — let alone exist within the same universe: an eight-year-old genius professor obsessed with sharks, a mischievous talking cat with shameful habits, a goat-riding high school aristocrat and an animal-supplexing teacher and many, many more.
But this kind of setting coupled with a uniquely bizarre approach to storytelling does unfortunately leave the series vulnerable to at least one serious issue. Its jokes do tend to be either hit or miss, with very little in between — so, depending on who you are and what you prefer, you are going to be either constantly bursting into laughter (or at the very least chuckling) or sitting there with an absolute poker face.
It is also worth noting that Nichijou’s humor does require its viewer to have at least some grasp on the main concepts of both traditional and modern Japanese culture, as the show’s jokes are often constructed in a specific multi-layered way with understanding of the first layer being necessary for wrapping your head around the whole thing.
Ultimately, the author of Nichijou — Keiichi Arawi — did succeed in impressing the world, securing his project and ever-present spot on all the top lists. However, as it often happens with the bravest of creations, Nichijou did not quite manage to get the ‘mainstream’ appeal it needed to receive a season two. And according to a number of reliable sources (including Evangelion’s Shunji Suzuki) that is not going to change anytime soon.
What do an eight-year-old genius professor and a goat-riding high school aristocrat have in common?
If you ever want to burden yourself with an impossible task — try to look up any kind of a reasonable best comedy/SoL anime list that does not include Nichijou. Trust me: there is no such thing. The main reason for that being its uniquely iconic status among anime watchers. Nichijou takes the concept of a nonsensical absurdist comedy and dials it to an absolute extreme — to a point when every single frame we see and every single sentence we hear the characters utter is somehow both a joke in on itself AND a setup for something else or a piece of some greater puzzle.
While on the surface Nichijou can be to a degree compared to something like Azumanga Daioh or Lucky Star, neither of them even attempt to embrace the level of sheer insanity that Nichijou brings to the table. The show is pure randomness with an equally random cast of characters that are not even supposed to be mentioned in the same sentence of phrase — let alone exist within the same universe: an eight-year-old genius professor obsessed with sharks, a mischievous talking cat with shameful habits, a goat-riding high school aristocrat and an animal-supplexing teacher and many, many more.
But this kind of setting coupled with a uniquely bizarre approach to storytelling does unfortunately leave the series vulnerable to at least one serious issue. Its jokes do tend to be either hit or miss, with very little in between — so, depending on who you are and what you prefer, you are going to be either constantly bursting into laughter (or at the very least chuckling) or sitting there with an absolute poker face.
It is also worth noting that Nichijou’s humor does require its viewer to have at least some grasp on the main concepts of both traditional and modern Japanese culture, as the show’s jokes are often constructed in a specific multi-layered way with understanding of the first layer being necessary for wrapping your head around the whole thing.
Ultimately, the author of Nichijou — Keiichi Arawi — did succeed in impressing the world, securing his project and ever-present spot on all the top lists. However, as it often happens with the bravest of creations, Nichijou did not quite manage to get the ‘mainstream’ appeal it needed to receive a season two. And according to a number of reliable sources (including Evangelion’s Shunji Suzuki) that is not going to change anytime soon.
