Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Anime ATM 69 Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou

If I'm being honest I haven't watched a whole lot of anime these days. It's ironic because I'm in anime club at my college, so you'd think I'd be watching a lot more, but maybe deep down I know I have to be productive so I'm trying to stay away from anime. And then ironically at anime club I stumbled across this jam. How my club works is that we pick a show to watch episodes of from the current season and then the week is also themed like "shounen" or "slice of life" to give people exposure to a lot of different genres. So for the slice of life themed week we watched Daily Lives of High School Boys, or DLHS. I was hooked.

{Spoilers; JK this is slice of life}

It's like a lot of slice of life/comedy shows where there's not a whole lot of plot, but it's just a bunch of daily gags that revolve around a set of characters. I think the way it's executed so effortlessly and naturally is what makes it so funny. It has a diverse range of jokes from ones about awkward social situations, random embarrassing things that happen, unfortunate encounters, and satire commenting on different genres like the whole mini arc of "High School Boys and Literary Girl." Ah yes, that one's one of the most entertaining continuing jokes that happens throughout. It's hard to really hit the nail on the head here with why exactly it's so funny, but it's got a great variety of jokes for everyone to enjoy.

The vibe of the show reminds me a lot of Nichijou, but a less domestic and gentle Nichijou with commentary on the humanity of robots like Nano or anything like that. It was a lot more different in the sense of the kinds of jokes they were making at some points which is kind of the difference between high school girls and boys. So if you want more of Nichijou, but more ridiculous and sometimes more idiotic I think this would give you a lot of laughs. My friend V and I Rabbitted some of the episodes together and throughout the whole thing we were laughing and holding "L's" to our foreheads as the normal, highly educated citizens we are.

Can we just give a shoutout to the part of the show that's the secret star: Funky Lives of High School Girls. Like that was actually ridiculously funny. Well maybe I thought that because I've watched K-On and it was totally a rip-off of the whole K-On series and the movie as well. But it was just funny seeing an overly aggressive K-On with some insinuated romance.

All jokes aside, ahaha did you like that transition?, I think DLHS has a lot to offer in terms of insight into the transience of high school. Because there would be a lot of the time where there would be jokes about how the seasons were going too fast, or how there were so many characters randomly introduced way past halfway through the show, or how they only paid attention to the interesting points and not always the dull test taking or the monotony of a part-time job. I think that was commentary on the way we look back on high school. The seasons seemed to go way too fast when you think back on it, you could never tell when someone new would come into your life unexpectedly and shake up your world, and you don't really remember the suffering of everyday life and how you would fall asleep in class and instead remember the times you fell out of your chair laughing with your friends. I think DLHS really rings true for people that have finished high school or are going through high school, just in different ways. It's kind of interesting thinking about it like that instead of just some lighthearted anime only for laughs. It's so well-thought out that I just thought someone should talk about it even though it's been so long since the anime came out. I mean even thinking about the OP, once you watch through the entire season you come to realize that it was actually foreshadowing of everything to come. Literally the whole season was just Tadakuni's dream before the first day of school! And in the OP it said something along the lines of how the story was just a preface for what's to come which it really was. I'll just leave you with that thought.

Another interesting thing to note is the setup of the last episode. It went from ED backwards to the OP which gave me a full circle kind of feeling. And honestly the whole scary-fast transition from when they were all second years and then all of a sudden they were graduating really shook me. But that's just another depiction of how fast graduation really sneaks up on you. It's kind of weird thinking back on those times even remotely fondly, but I do miss going to school and seeing all my friends in one place without having to organize anything or being able to go home every day and eat good food. So, wherever you are in life, cherish the present moment.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised. I came here for some mindless laughter and comedy and ended up with some high school nostalgia, some feels in episode 12 and a pleasant experience in general. If you like the slice of life genre you probably have already watched this, but at least you can think about it a little bit more. Or if you haven't given slice of life a chance yet I think this is a really easy and fun watch.

LOL this is me and all my friends when we try to give each other any type of advice

Yui? Guita? Mio? Is that you K-On!?

wHAT Do yOu waNt to bE wHen YoU groW up?

My favorite part is when she's like Oh girls that cause trouble for guys are the worst but she literally chased Hidenori all over town just to tell him that the guy she was talking to was just a classmate

His dad calls him glasses but Hidenori's older brother also has glasses?

asdfghjl; preach

Okay this part actually made me tear up because when you're a kid you have all these endless aspirations and when you grow up you realize just how hard some of this stuff is like why can't we just stay small and endlessly determined? Who's fault is it? Is it anyone's fault? It's easy to blame someone for ruining your life or something preventing you from actualizing your dreams, but it's probably not their fault. Even though Yoshitake's an idiot, he's a cool and funny idiot. He's a hero in my heart.

And then it starts an endless loop of high school :')

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