174 reviews for:

Nichijou 1

Keiichi Arawi

3.64 AVERAGE

funny lighthearted fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: N/A
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
funny medium-paced
Loveable characters: No
funny lighthearted fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

absurdity cranked to eleven! gags hit fast, randomness never stops, and somehow, it all works. chaotic, charming, and clever

I guess this wasn't really my style or humor, so it fell flat for me. I thought it was funny probably 1/5 of the time and some of the jokes even seemed to feel hammered in a little too much. This was worse when I thought the joke wasn't even funny in the first place. Again though, this just might not have been for me.

(I don't know why this book only seems to be listed under the Finnish translation...)
funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

So goofy. So weird. A little better in show form than in manga form, in my opinion. The physical gags and absurdities translate a little better in video since the "action" shots are not always the best in the manga. Super fun though.

This manga is so quirky and that is really why I love it. The chapters are just snapshots of the daily life of several students and they are just so hilarious. Yes at times the humor can be quite dry and some of the jokes are a little lost in translation but it is still really funny.

Nichijou follows the everyday lives of various people in the town of Tokisadame, mainly focusing on the energetic Yūko Aioi, the bright and cheerful Mio Naganohara, the quiet and deadpan Mai Minakami, the anxious robot Nano Shinonome, her eight-year-old creator the Professor, and a talking cat named Sakamoto, along with an ensemble cast of characters. Random and/or outlandish events regularly occur throughout the series, mainly through the mundane situations each character undergoes.

Wow, that’s a terrible blurb.

Nichijou means ‘everyday’ in Japanese, and the claim to fame for this 10 volume manga series is its extreme take on mundane events in the lives of several high schoolers. Varying from a robot hiding her cyborg parts from her classmates, and the dramatization of a papercut or crashing into someone, to the senseless violence of disagreements, and the secret history of unnoticed things.

My favorites are probably the two friends, Mai, who is totally deadpan and Yuuko, who tries hard to make jokes. At one point Mio is trying to catch a sausage and it turns into something out of an action manga. I was so glad when she caught it again and was able to eat it — no matter whether the 5 second rule applies or not. I definitely sympathize with the robot girl, Nano, her professor is a little too blase about the random food hidden in her robot body!


So many highlights, but without spoiling anything, I loved the Principal and the deer, the cat Sakamoto and the boy with the goat. This book was filled with gags, puns, jokes and haiku just riffing on a genre that usually isn't so outlandish.

I like how the jokes build and the humor is gentle even while it is over the top. It’s an amazingly well struck balance. It’s an absurd take on slice-of-life and it’s really fun. I recommend giving it a chance if you want a laugh. With so much variety in a single volume, you're sure to find something you like.

...Basically, from what I can tell, this series REALLY wants to be Azumanga Daioh.

The problem is, it isn't. At all.

In Azumanga Daioh, we get the quirky interactions of basically normal high school girls who could be a little kooky (Tomo, Yomi), or outright eccentric and weird especially when it comes to dreams and daydreams (Osaka). In Nichijou...everyone is weird, and in ways that aren't really comprehensible. Azumanga Daioh excels in being a cute, humorous "slice of life" style story. This series...seems like it wants to be cute, humorous slice of life, but it's just waaaay too out there in too many ways to be funny (in fact, I'd go so far as to call it "un-funny"), relatable, or even cute.