Azumanga Daioh
| Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Azumanga Daioh > (あずまんが大王) |
| Abbreviation(s): | AD, AzuDai |
| Creator: | Kiyohiko Azuma |
| Date(s): | February 1999 – May 2002 (manga), April 8, 2002 – September 30, 2002 (anime), December 22, 2001 (short movie), December 28, 2000 (Original net animation), June 11, 2009 (Azumanga Daioh: Supplementary Lessons) |
| Medium: | manga, TV anime, Web Animation, short movie |
| Country of Origin: | Japan |
| External Links: | Azumanga Daioh on Wikipedia |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Azumanga Daioh is an early 2000s slice of life comedy anime and manga series.
Canon
Azumanga Daioh focuses on a group of high school girls, including ten-year-old prodigy Chiyo Mihama, as they go through their daily lives. The story is low key, but even the most mundane situations can be high-stakes due to the personalities of the girls meshing and contrasting. It relies heavily on humor and character interaction to tell the stories, from the girls themselves to their teachers and even random surrounding characters.
The story follows all three years of the girls' high school education, ending with their graduation. In 2009, the manga celebrated its 10th anniversary by releasing Azumanga Daioh: Supplementary Lessons, showcasing moments that happened during the girls' three years of high school and were not featured in the main series.
There was also an Original Net Animation (ONA) and a Very Short Movie. Both can be found in Japanese with English subtitles on YouTube.
Fandom
The series enjoyed intense but quiet popularity in its heyday, loved by fans of comedy, cute anime girls, and slice of life stories. It's dipped into mild obscurity since, but is fondly remembered by anime fans who watched it in the 2000s. Some even consider it the quintessential slice-of-life high school anime.
The anime oddly hasn't received the amount of criticism or daggers as other old anime for elements that would be considered problematic today, namely creepy teacher Mr. Kimura and his habit of ogling the girls. This is possibly because he was never a popular character in or out of universe, and his scenes could be skipped without losing the flow of an episode.
There are many memes and memorable one-off scenes associated with Azumanga Daioh:
- A floating cat creature named Chiyo-chichi, supposedly Chiyo's father according to Osaka and Sakaki's strange dreams[1]
- Chiyo's penguin costume from episode 16
- Sakaki rolling around on the floor with her cat Maya[2]
- Osaka's fixation with Chiyo's kotatsu
- Nyamo's drunk sex ed lesson to the girls[3]
- Osaka walking into Yukari's room with a knife[4][note 1]
Azumanga Daioh is also the ground-zero origin of the term Waifu, which exploded in popularity in the mid-2000s. However, many have forgotten that it originated with Mr. Kimura.
The fandom has been notoriously calm, with only one instance of mild wank. This was still enough to disturb fans who felt the cute and wholesome nature of the series should not attract any form of discourse. [5]
Shipping
Due to the largely female cast, the series has a huge yuri following. This is helped by several pairs within the main cast having dynamics that lend themselves well to shipping, plus Kaorin's romantic feelings for Sakaki are canon.
Popular ships include:
Fan works
Fanfiction
- Azumanga Daioh at Fanfiction.net
- Azumanga Daioh tag at AO3
- Azumanga Daioh fanfiction on the Shoujo Ai Archive
Communities
Essays
Video Essays
- Azumanga Daioh Is The Perfect Comfort Anime by hazel
- Azumanga Daioh Review by Anime America
- Anime Review: Azumanga Daioh by Glass Reflection
Blog Reviews
AMVs
- Shameless Rhapsody - the original creator was never found according to the uploader
- Dare to be Stupid by RastaSaiyaman
References
Notes
- ^ Osaka had always wanted to wake someone with a frying pan, but due to being half asleep and her usual spacey self and still half-asleep, she grabbed the butcher knife by mistake.