Nichijou

Nichijou
Cover of volume 1 of Nichijou, published by Kadokawa Shoten.
日常 (Nichijō)
Genre	Slapstick comedy, Slice of life
Manga
Written by	Keiichi Arawi
Published by	Kadokawa Shoten
Demographic	Shōnen
Magazine	Shōnen Ace Comptiq
Original run	December 2006 – ongoing
Volumes	9
Original video animation
Directed by	Tatsuya Ishihara
Studio	Kyoto Animation
Released	March 12, 2011
Runtime	24 minutes
Anime television series
Directed by	Tatsuya Ishihara
Studio	Kyoto Animation
Licensed by	AUS Madman Entertainment
Network	TV Aichi, Chiba TV, TVS, KBS, Tokyo MX, MRO, FBC
Original run	April 3, 2011 – September 25, 2011
Episodes	26
Game
Nichijou: Uchuujin
Developer	Vridge
Publisher	Kadokawa Shoten
Genre	Visual novel
Platform	PlayStation Portable
Released	July 28, 2011

Nichijou (日常, Nichijō, lit. Every Day) is a Japanese comedy manga by Keiichi Arawi (あらゐ けいいち, Arai Keiichi). The manga began serialization in the December 2006 issue of Kadokawa Shoten's manga magazine Shōnen Ace, and was also serialized in Comptiq between the March 2007 and July 2008 issues. A 26-episode anime adaptation by Kyoto Animation aired in Japan between April and September 2011. A PlayStation Portable game by Vridge and Kadokawa Games was released in July 2011. The manga and anime series were initially licensed in North America by Bandai Entertainment but both releases have been cancelled.^[1] The anime series has been licensed by Madman Entertainment for Australian distribution.

Plot

The series follows the lives of a group of high school students and their school. Various oddities and absurdities abound, such as a robotic girl made by a scientist who is an eight-year-old girl, a boy who rides a goat to school with his butler, a girl who can procure various guns out of thin air, a cat that can speak and a principal who has wrestled a deer. Despite its bizarre settings and characters, the students still lead normal lives.

Characters

Main characters

Yūko Aioi (相生 祐子, Aioi Yūko)

Voiced by: Mariko Honda

Yūko is an energetic high school girl with short brown hair. One of her negative sides is that she is often too lazy to do her own homework and always copies from either Mio or Mai. She knows that Nano is a robot, but never tells anybody about it. While generally easygoing, her mood will instantly change if insulted. Her nickname is Yukko (ゆっこ). She often greets her friends with "selamat pagi" (Bahasa Indonesia/Bahasa Melayu for good morning).

Mio Naganohara (長野原 みお, Naganohara Mio)

Voiced by: Mai Aizawa

Mio is a bright and cheerful girl sporting light blue hair and pigtails held by two small wooden cubes. She has a crush on Kōjirō Sasahara. At first glance she might seem more normal in contrast to her friends Yūko and Mai, but in truth she has a very short temper, and she is often prone to tantrums. She often has to humor Yūko to make her happy. She is also a talented manga artist who will occasionally draw dubious pictures of Kōjirō in her notebooks, particularly yaoi.

Mai Minakami (水上 麻衣, Minakami Mai)

Voiced by: Misuzu Togashi

Mai is a rather quiet girl who is very intelligent. She is seen to be multi-talented, excelling at using projectiles, fishing, wood carving and arm wrestling. In contrast to her looks she has a rather eccentric sense of humor, often frustrating her friends with her pranks. She has two pet dogs who also share their master's sense of humor.

Nano Shinonome (東雲 なの, Shinonome Nano)

Voiced by: Shizuka Furuya

Nano is an android schoolgirl that was built by the Professor. She often worries about keeping her identity as a robot from other people, despite the fact everyone already knows about it due to the noticeable wind-up key exposed on her back. Her limbs will sometimes fall apart, revealing dubious items that the Professor has installed without her noticing, ranging from beam firing weapons to Swiss rolls. She is the Professor's caretaker and also takes care of all the house chores.

Professor (はかせ, Hakase)

Voiced by: Hiromi Konno

The Professor is an eight-year-old genius scientist who created Nano, often making various adjustments to her without her noticing but refusing to remove the obvious wind-up key from her back on the grounds that it is cute. Despite her intellect, she still acts like any child of her age. Her favorite animal is the shark. She does not go to school—apparently because she has already graduated—and instead spends her days playing around in the house. Her name is never mentioned, but her family name is apparently Shinonome.

Sakamoto (阪本)

Voiced by: Minoru Shiraishi

Sakamoto is a black cat. He wears a red scarf created by the Professor, which allows him to speak. As in cat years, he is 20 years old—older than both Nano and the Professor—and speaks in a condescending tone towards them and tries to act like the adult of the house, though to his shame he occasionally succumbs to his cat-like habits. A running-gag is his tendency to endure comically horrific physical-abuse at the hands of the Professor, usually in the form of a childish booby-trap. His original name was Taisho (Boss) and was once Ms. Nakamura's pet cat.

Teachers

Izumi Sakurai (桜井 泉, Sakurai Izumi)

Voiced by: Mami Kosuge

Izumi Sakurai is a young, constantly flustered and easily frightened teacher. She tries to enforce the school rules, but is typically unable to accomplish much. She is the older sister of Makoto Sakurai.

Manabu Takasaki (高崎 学, Takasaki Manabu)

Voiced by: Tetsu Inada

Manabu Takasaki is a male teacher who has romantic feelings for Izumi, but is unable to tell her as he thinks too much and is shy to admit it. These feelings lead him to become the club adviser for the go-soccer club after Makoto bribes him with pictures of his sister.

Principal Shinonome (校長先生 (東雲), Kōchō-sensei (Shinonome))

Voiced by: Chō

Principal Shinonome is the bald principal at the school, where part of the story is set. While known for his old jokes and puns, unknown to most, he is a talented wrestler.

Vice Principal Kōsuke Ōra (教頭先生 (邑楽 耕介), Kyōtō-sensei (Ōra Kōsuke))

Voiced by: Hiroshi Naka

Known for wearing glasses and a yellow tie, he hates the Principal and doesn't hide the mean things he does to him.

Kana Nakamura (中村 かな)

Voiced by: Kaoru Mizuhara

Ms. Nakamura is a science teacher who is fixated on Nano's robotic nature. She constantly schemes to capture Nano for study, but her machinations invariably backfire.

Students

Kōjirō Sasahara (笹原 幸治郎, Sasahara Kōjirō)

Voiced by: Yoshihisa Kawahara

A flamboyant high school boy who acts like a rich aristocrat when in reality his family are just farmers. He likes to ride his goat Kojirō Sasahara (笹原 コジロウ, Sasahara Kojirō) to school and is often seen with his butler.

Misato Tachibana (立花 みさと, Tachibana Misato)

Voiced by: Chika Horikawa

A peach haired high school girl who generally acts as a tsukkomi towards Kōjirō whenever he does anything to annoy her. Misato, however, does this by shooting him with various guns and heavy weaponry that come out of nowhere, which he miraculously survives despite being injured. In reality Misato has feelings for Kōjirō, but due to her tsundere attitude, she constantly denies her feelings or shoots Kōjirō if he annoys her.

Tsuyoshi Nakanojō (中之条 剛, Nakanojō Tsuyoshi)

Voiced by: Kazutomi Yamamoto

A student with a natural mohawk which he detests. Tsuyoshi wants to be scientist in the future and thus doesn't believe in the supernatural.

Haruna Annaka (安中 榛名, Annaka Haruna)

Voiced by: Kaori Sadonaka

A girl with a large ribbon on her head. She unfortunately sometimes runs into crazy individuals much to her confusion. She likes to read manga.

Kenzaburō Daiku (大工 健三郎, Daiku Kenzaburō)

Voiced by: Ryōta Yoshizaki

A brown-haired boy who is the president of the go-soccer club. His rich father is the president of Daiku Industries.

Yuria Sekiguchi (関口 ユリア, Sekiguchi Yuria)

Voiced by: Ai Hirosaka

A quiet girl who is a member of the go-soccer club. She has a crush on Daiku Kenzaburō, the president of the club.

Makoto Sakurai (桜井 誠, Sakurai Makoto)

Voiced by: Takahiro Hikami

Makoto is Izumi's younger brother, who joins the go-soccer club.

Tanaka (田中)

Voiced by: Kōta Yamaguchi

A boy with a large black afro. He is friends with Tsuyoshi Nakanojō.

Weboshī (ウェボシー, Weboshī)

Voiced by: Yōko Tamaoki

Weboshī is Misato's green-haired classmate, who has a ponytail. Her real name is unknown.

Fe-chan (フェっちゃん)

Voiced by: Yumi Higuchi

Fe-chan is Misato's classmate. Ends her sentences with "fe". Her real name is unknown.

Mihoshi Tachibana (立花 みほし, Tachibana Mihoshi)

Voiced by: Manami Honda

Mihoshi is Misato's younger sister and a kendo student.

Other characters

Yoshino Naganohara (長野原 よしの, Naganohara Yoshino)

Voiced by: Motoko Kobayashi

Yoshino is Mio's easy going older sister who goes to college. She likes to wear costumes and often plays pranks on others. She is also Misato and Mihoshi's senior in kendo, a sport she is naturally talented at.

Media

Manga

Nichijou began as a manga series written and illustrated by Keiichi Arawi. Originally, the manga was meant to be a short, stand-alone series which was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Shōnen Ace magazine between the May and October 2006 issues. Starting with the December 2006 issue, the manga began regular serialization in Shōnen Ace, and was also serialized in Kadokawa's Comptiq magazine between the March 2007 and July 2008 issues. The first tankōbon volume was released in Japan on July 26, 2007; as of December 10, 2012, nine volumes have been published.^[2] The manga uses a combination of normal comic format and four-panel comic strips. Bandai Entertainment licensed the manga, but later cancelled its release.^[3][4] The manga is published in Finland by Punainen Jättiläinen^[5] under the name Arki, which is Finnish for weekday.

Anime

A 26-episode anime television series produced by Kyoto Animation and directed by Tatsuya Ishihara aired in Japan on TV Aichi from April 3 to September 25, 2011 and was also simulcast by Crunchyroll under the name My Ordinary Life.^[6][7] The series was re-edited into twelve episodes for broadcast on NHK Educational TV in January 2012.^[8] Prior to the airing of the anime series, an original video animation episode, titled "Nichijou Episode 0", shipped with the sixth manga volume on March 12, 2011.^[9] The series also incorporates skits from Arawi's other manga, Helvetica Standard (ヘルベチカスタンダード, Herubechika Sutandādo), which is published in Kadokawa Shoten's Gekkan NewType magazine. Bandai Entertainment had licensed the anime,^[3] but its release was later cancelled.^[10] However, Madman Entertainment still plans to release the series in Australia and New Zealand in subtitles only.^[11] It is being released as a two part collection containing 13 episodes each. The first part is due to be released on April 11, 2013.^[12]

Theme songs

Opening themes

• "Hyadain no Kakakata Kataomoi - C" (ヒャダインのカカカタ☆カタオモイ-C, "Hyadain's U-u-u-u☆unrequited Love - C") by Hyadain (episodes 1–6, 8–13)
• "Hyadain no Jōjō Yūjō" (ヒャダインのじょーじょーゆーじょー, "Hyadain's Amazing Friendship") by Hyadain (episodes 14–16, 18-23, 25)

Ending themes

Insert songs

• "Headlight, Taillight" (ヘッドライト・テールライト, Heddoraito Tēruraito) composed, written and performed by Miyuki Nakajima (episode 19)

Video game

A PlayStation Portable video game titled Nichijou: Uchuujin (日常（宇宙人）, lit. Regular Life: Alien) developed by Vridge and published by Kadokawa Shoten was released on July 28, 2011.^[13][14]

Reception

The Nichijou anime has reportedly had low BD and DVD sales, and did not come close to meeting the break even line according to animation director Shunji Suzuki.^[15] The first DVD volume sold 924 copies in its first week of sales,^[16] while the second and fourth BD volumes sold over 2,000 copies each in their first week.^[17][18]

Carl Kimlinger of Anime News Network reviewed the first seven episodes and gave it a B, calling the anime a "slice-of-life comedy with a penchant for lunacy and a taste for huggable cuteness; a rare chance to see talented animators fully indulging their love of the art."^[19]

References

External links

• Official website (Japanese)
• Nichijou: Uchuujin official website (Japanese)
• Keiichi Arawi's blog (Japanese)
• My Ordinary Life at Crunchyroll
• Nichijou (manga) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia