Mega Megane Moé
Hell and Heaven Moéltdown
Hell and Heaven Moéltdown
Dec 16th

The “12 Days of Christmas” series is a joint feature by some members of the Anime Blogging Collective recognizing twelve moments, twelve series, or just twelve things about anime that we’ve enjoyed over the past year, that really make us enjoy loving what we do, and that is being an anime fan. Feel free to join in the list-making fun too if you wish. We hope you enjoy this feature.
Anime doesn’t need to be touching to be awe-inspiring.
It doesn’t need to be dramatic, to be moe, to be well-animated, to have any logical merit to be enjoyable.
Sometimes, it just works. Sometimes, all you need is something light to relax with and laugh with, and that can be all an anime needs to work.
A sense of humor is something that a lot of anime in my genres – slice-of-life and harem – strive to have; a sense of humor is something that not all of them can obtain. Some rely too much on moe, on cliches, on the same jokes we’ve seen over and over.
But funnily enough, some of the most brilliant jokes are the most ridiculous, the ones that on paper, shouldn’t be funny. It’s this sort of skewed humor, almost at home in a Monty Python skit, that nearly always seems to work for me, and like this post, it’s all to do with repetition.
Repetition.
Repetition.
Repetition.
Azumanga.
Episode eight.
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Aug 27th
Azumanga Daioh is a show about everything and nothing. It’s so unfunny at times it’s funny and sometimes it tries to be so funny that it’s not. Whatever it may be, it’s certainly one of the bigger-name shows, being the benchmark to which many slice-of-life/4-koma anime have been compared to. Rightfully?
Probably. I can certainly say that I enjoyed the anime very much, but coming from Mr. Likes Everything that may not be saying much.
The most balanced way to evaluate Azumanga is probably to say that it’s appeal and downfall stem from the same aspect of it, in that it’s a very simple show.
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Jul 3rd

Unable to screenshot the pictures or anything, but here’s the facts in today’s shortpost:
The famous Lucky Star coronet eating scene (”What end do you eat it from?”) in episode 1…has a twin brother. *dramatic revelation music*
Set the stage: Azumanga Daioh episode 16, the 2nd Culture Festival. Osaka and Chiyo, on their break, are eating taiyaki.
Osaka: “Y’know how some people eat taiyaki starting from the end and others eat it starting from the tail? Which do you start eating it from?”
Surely these kind of conversations aren’t incredibly common. But, the question is; coincidence, or something far more sinister?
To be honest though, a parody in this style is too subtle for Lucky Star of the Haruhi Vans/Doujins/Figurines/Ringtones/Books/DVDs/Message Boards/Conversations. C’mon, at least get some diversity in there.
Jun 15th

So, as you may recall from a few days ago, I watched the first episode of Azumanga Daioh, and didn’t think very highly of it. I thought it a pointless, plotless anime with overused and overstretched gags that were occasionally funny but mostly predictable.
Now, if you will direct your attention to the title of the post, you will notice that my post is covering all of the first disc of the Azumanga anime. Incidentally, the first disc contains nine episodes – much more than a usual R1 release of 3 or 4, for some odd reason (but, the poor Japanese rarely get more than 1 or 2 at any case).
Which, implies, correctly, that in the span of a few days that I have watched 8 episodes of Azumanga Daioh. I think that means I don’t hate it anymore.
So, why? What changed me into a convert?
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Jun 11th

I think that shall be the new title for Azumanga Daioh around our household, “What”.
It’s similar to the ol’ “Who’s on First?” skit. For when I sat down to watch the first ‘episode’ – which, apparently, consists of a bunch of 5-minute skits piled together, not unlike Monty Python or most other 4-panel animes, my first reaction was pretty much “What is this?” i.e. What = is this. Thus, this (Azumanga Daioh) is ‘What’.
If I’ve confused you, you’re probably in the same state of mind as I was when I finished Azumanga Daioh, or at least the first episode.
It’s safe to say that this is a bit tentative on my ‘watch list’, as with the watching of new shows such as Wangan Midnight and the catching up of old shows such as Shuf!Memo/Da Capo/H&C/Tsukihime/TH2/ONE/KimiGa – it’s a bit of a large crowd.
So, after the jump, we’ll delve into why Azumanga Daioh is shaping up to be cut from the list – or is it?
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