Synopsis
In Miss Yukari’s English class, every day is an adventure. First off, there’s the teacher herself. A bit of an air-head, she may have graduated from high school, but she sure hasn’t left.

And with the arrival of not one, but two transfer students, one ten-year-old prodigy and one space cadet, along with a super energetic girl who almost defines ADHD, a quiet girl in love with cute things, and… a normal girl? (yeah right), and two highly interesting teachers, it’s going to be an interesting year!

Review
Azumanga Daioh is a show about seven girls and three teachers. Seems simple enough, right? Well, you’re right there, since there is basically no plot except for going through high school. However, this small formula made what I and many others believe is the best comedy anime series ever made.

First off, Azumanga Daioh has some excellent characters. To start off, we have Tomo Takino, the girl who makes ADHD look like child’s play. She’s extremely energetic, but she has zero talent in whatever she does. Next we have a girl who grew up with her; Koyomi Mizuhara. She loves food, but you’ll always see her try to lose weight. Now, every series needs a character that everyone else looks up to, right? Sakaki (last name unknown) enters the scene. Sakaki isn’t your natural “cool” person though; even though she’s very athletic, she’s in love with cute things and will stop to stare whenever she sees it. Kaorin’s a girl who totally idolizes Sakaki, and will stop wherever she is to take a quick peek at Sakaki sitting in the shade doing nothing in particular. Finally of the regular students there’s Kagura
(last name unknown). She’s Sakaki’s self-proclaimed rival, and tries her best to out-do Sakaki in whatever comes by; from track, to swimming, even to eating food.

Now, we get to the special ones; the two transfer students! First off, we have the super cute Chiyo Mihama. She seems to be the excellent little high schooler. She is extremely smart and extremely cute. She also can take care of herself and is very responsible, unlike a regular 10 year old. She takes care of her own dog, Mr. Tadakichi,
studies on her own, can go to her beach house on her own, wakes up her parents in the morning and even makesher own lunch! Wouldn’t you want a kid like this?

Finally, there’s one character left of the students. She is by far my favorite anime girl ever. That’s right, I’m talking about Ayumu Kasuga, but no one calls her that. She transfered in from Osaka, so everyone forgets her name and just calls her Osaka. She has her own special brand of “intelligence”, and she’s not afraid to spread it to the world. From questioning kanji to spreading puns everywhere, to being a space cadet (joking) and even her ability to fly like a bird, Osaka is a character in which you’ll never see one like her again.

Now that the students are done, we have the teachers. Yukari Tanizaki is one of those teachers who never left high school. She sleeps late, and is extremely lazy. Her friend and PE teacher, Minamo “Nyamo” Kurosawa is one of the two normal characters in the school. The only interesting thing about her is that she went to school with Ms. Yukari and has trouble in her love life often. Finally we have Mr. Kimura. Ah, what would school be like if we didn’t have a roaming out-of-the-closet pervert running around? He blatently states why he became a teacher; because of high school girls. He never fails to entertain, either. You try becoming a teacher and then asking the PE teacher for some pool water that the female students just finished swimming in.

The Japanese VAs are great, especially Osaka. The english VAs are okay, except for Osaka’s VA. Osaka’s VA is the reason I didn’t watch more than 5 minutes of the dub.

The Breakdown
Azumanga Daioh is one of the greatest series you’ll ever see. Great characters, great music, and most importantly, great laughs.