S5E8 - AZUMANGA DAIOH: THE ANIMATION Review: The Slice-of-Life 2002 Anime by J.C. Staff

Our Grand Tour now takes us to the turn of the century, and the dawn of modern comedy anime, with the classic series Azumanga Daioh: The Animation! Based on the celebrated four-panel manga by Azuma Kiyohiko, which has proven itself one of the most influential series to the last 25 years of comedy manga, the TV series is a landmark in its own right, helping to crack the code of how anime can adopt short, gag-driven, mostly plotless comedy manga, and in so doing helping to birth the ‘slice-of-life’ genre now beloved around the world. Historical import aside, the show is also just a ton of fun, with a memorable group of characters we follow throughout their high school years, and a tremendous vocal cast giving consistently hilarious performances. It makes for an episode where we ourselves can’t stop laughing as we talk about the show – and that’s always a good sign. Enjoy, and come back next week as our Grand Tour takes us back out into space for the classic Studio Gainax OVA Gunbuster: Aim for the Top! Time Chart: Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:15 Intro and History: 0:01:15 – 1:01:34 Eyecatch Break: 1:01:34 – 1:02:18 Azumanga Daioh Review: 1:02:18 – 3:01:13 End Theme: 3:01:13 – 3:02:15 Subscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK “Welcome to Japanimation Station” – Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku. “Rolled Into One” – Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com