Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou

Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou

男子高校生の日常

The Daily Lives of High School Boys

Status: Ongoing as of 3/24/2012

Genre: Slice of Life, Comedy

Type: Series

Synonpsis: Tadakuni, Hidenori, and Yoshitake are students at the all-boys academy, Sanada North High School. This is a tale about just that—their daily lives as students. Winning the basketball tournament? Finding true love? You won't find any of that here. Whether it's sparking random arguments while hanging out with friends, meeting that one weird co-worker at a part-time job, or even letting imaginations run wild on a windy afternoon, we've all experienced the show's ordinary but true-to-life themes at one point or another. 

Plot:

When judging the "plot" of a Slice of Life, special consideration is required. The plot in these genres aren't necessarily true in terms of their oxford definition, where the word "plot" would urge you to look for an actual storyline. This word and meaning instead takes an intangible form in a Slice of Life anime. Rather than examining a storyline we should be looking for how accurately portrayed the theme of the show is and how well it is done. 

In Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou we follow a group of High School boys going on about their lives in an ordinary manner. Naturally the more ordinary it is the better. Comedy in anime tends to be extravagant, or a bit far fetched. Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou deviates from that style of comedy and falls along the lines of Minami-Ke;  focusing on variations of the common and popular Manzai format of comedy in Japan. In the same manner as Minami-Ke, this is portrayed in a way we can more easily relate to, which is basically the everyday stupidity we deal with in reality. 

What Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou does so well is their wonderful exploration of the silly things we can very easily run into in the real world. As a high school student have you ever sat down with your friends during lunch and brainstormed the silly things they could do together but never do because it's just that ridiculous? These boys in this series will do it for you. Even the unspoken  and unexpected scenarios that a typical high school boy can think of is represented in this series. 

Plot Rating: 4.0

A brilliant mix between Comedy and Slice of Life. An enjoyable comedic experience for people who know how to look at that bright things in life.

Characters:

This series takes a very interesting approach towards the formation of their cast and the portrayal of them. A Slice of Life is not a fairy-tale book with an engrossing storyline. The roles of protagonist, antagonist, and sub characters are not needed in the cast for this type of genre. However, in years past this area of systematic design in anime has not been altered too much. Overall the general theme when it comes to putting together a cast of 2D heroes and heroines is a central protagonist group of characters. Typically in a Slice of Life it is always a group of 2 or more, never one except in rare cases (It's not my fault that I'm not popular!). Other than that there are the support characters to help make the show feel more populated, and if there is a driven plot then an antagonist is required for the show's success.

Well Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou goes out of its way to quite literally flip this concept upside down. The characters they feature in each episode are absolutely all over the place. There is no protagonist you could pin point down (although they do lead you on to believing there is one) the supporting roles and central group of characters are also thrown out of the window. If you go through the series you'll realize that each character is a protagonist in itself. Not to the extreme of Duradura or Buccano, but quite similarly in the way that each character has their own chance to shine. 

The characters are not boring. There are indeed some cookie clutter personalities but the production studios involved in creating this show has done a wonderful job of making different variations of each type of personality you'd expect in a an anime. You won't be able to sit there and say "Oh I knew he was going to do that" with rolled up glazed eyes and a blase tone of voice. The characters will be unpredictable, not in the likes of Nichijou, however, but they will still leave you feeling quite bewildered segment after segment.

Character Rating: 3.5

A very interesting array of characters. Each with equal value as the next one, the cast will not bore you.

Production

Going into the year 2012 and seeing what past studios have done to get ahead in the industry, Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou is trailing behind terribly. The concept of the show, and the way it seems to respond to the sudden rise of High School Girl oriented Slice of Life shows, is a very nice breath of fresh air into the arena. However, it's more of a breath of fresh air from a goddess with yellow decaying teeth. Very disappointing image right? Yes that is the state of the quality that is Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou. 

With picture or screen quality alone you could say we could let the series slide. It's not uncommon to have series every season with lackluster screen quality- meaning minimal special effects, no eye candy (no not that kind eye candy), just your bland bare bottom anime series. But what's even worse is the fact the animation is also mediocre. You could pull off these bland scenes with high quality animation. But not once is an instance of high quality, well rendered animation ever shown. Watching the series myself I've noticed that the frames in an active scene is horridly low, the fact that I can notice it with the human eye is already a tell that this series had very little emphasis on it. 

Production Rating: 2.0

The demeanor of the show overall holds true to the casual sober aloofness in a High School Boy, but that does not earn this series too many points on a quality examination. 

Conclusion:

Not too much into traditional Japanese comedy? But you still want a good laugh? Then give Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou a try. Albeit being a Slice of Life series it still strives to explore the boundaries of your typical format for anime. With comedy leaning towards the boke end of the spectrum and literally tossing out the tsukkomi, you will be able to relate to the comedy one way or another since we live in a world where random acts of stupidity are quite common and quite funny.

Snugtrition's Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 5