High school can be a very dramatic – and traumatic – experience, as many a manga series will testify. One series, however, takes some familiar – and thankfully, some not so familiar – secondary school situations and makes a highly amusing, nonsensical mess of them. Azumanga Daioh is absolutely hysterical; it’s not every day we see a high school student walking into class wearing a futon mattress, or a perverted teacher openly appreciative of the physical endowments of his female students, and it’s a good thing, too. It’s all safe within the pages of this addictive tale, where the characters are either daring enough or stupid enough to do and say whatever comes to mind.
The story begins with a new addition to the high school group, Chiyo Chan, who is only ten but quite the little genius. She is absolutely adorable, with orange ponytails and a sweet, open disposition that displays her willingness to please. Her family is rich and hospitable; the girls regularly drop in to visit and make use of Chiyo Chan’s summer home. Her parents, however, are a mystery. We never see her mother, and her father is the subject of dreams. The dreams of Sakaki, an animal lover who has bad luck with cats (all of them bite her) are filled with images of a tall, thin orange cat who claims to be Chiyo Chan’s father. Osaka, the loopy transfer student from Osaka – hence the nickname – dreams about him, too. He is protective of his daughter and threatens physical violence when insulted. He is cat, and yet not a cat. Make sense? Of course not. In Sakaki’s dream, he insists that Chiyo eat her tomatoes, which he claims are good, even though they are red. Clearly, he has issues with red food. When Chiyo reveals that she is aware that her father is Santa Claus, Sakaki can’t help the images of the lean orange cat in a Santa hat that pop into her head.
Osaka, who dreams about Chiyo Chan’s father once towards the end of the series, has bigger problems than strange cat dreams. She wonders why her classmates back in Osaka called her “moron” and “ditz” and is thrilled that her new friends accept her without judgment – or so she thinks. She states the obvious (“snow’s mighty slippery”) as a habit, and forgets what she was doing five minutes ago, earning the nickname “The Empress of Amnesia.” She ponders, aloud, deep philosophical questions, such as why some people call hemorrhoids “roids” and why panties are called a pair of panties, when they are really just one panty. She is concerned that sometimes, while alone in her bedroom, she smells other people’s farts. Her athletic ability is non-existent, so she obsesses about winning the bread-eating contest during the sports festival. Bottom line, Osaka has a good heart to go with her slow brain, and she seems to escape the notice of pedophilic teacher Kiruma.
One hopes a high school teacher would care about his students, but Kiruma lusts openly and boldly after them, particularly the well-developed girls, like Sakaki, who also has a female admirer in class president Kaorin. Kimura decides that even Chiyo Chan isn’t too young for him, and he develops a sick and disturbing thirst for the school’s pool water after the girls swim in it. Fortunately, the girls have a devout and faithful teacher in Kurosawa, who takes an interest in the girls’ well being along with their education. Her best friend and childhood schoolmate, Yukari, also teaches at the school, but is the polar opposite of Kurosawa – rude, lazy, self-centered, and careless with her students’ education as well as their feelings. Kurosawa’s loyalty to her, which is marked by her persistent attempts to reform Yukari when she is not venting her frustration at her, is a mystery but makes for an entertaining relationship for observers.
Will Yomi, the chronic dieter, ever pass her college entrance exams, even while suffering a cream puff deficiency? Will Kurosawa ever tire of Yukari’s annoying and insulting behavior? Will Sakaki ever have a cat of her own? Will Osaka ever be called by her real name? The answers are all in Kiyohiko Azuma’s lively tale, which covers three years of high school hijinks with the AD crowd. The anime – enriched with Chiyo Chan’s father’s deep, disturbing voice and Osaka’s flat accent – is equally amusing.
The part where Kimura asks for a glass of pool water slays me every time.
I know – he is just appalling.