Product Description

Boys and girls, yound and old, otaku and casual fans alike-everyone loves Azumanga Daioh. It's one of the most beloved anime series of 2004, and now ADV has brought all six DVDs together in a single affordable Thinkpak Collection!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14093 in DVD
• Brand: ADV Films
• Released on: 2005-09-20
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Animated, Box set, Color, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English, Japanese
• Dubbed in: English
• Number of discs: 5
• Running time: 650 minutes

Amazon.com
Like Seinfield or the juvenile novels of the '50s, the popular shojo (girl's) series Azumanga Daioh (2002) isn't really about anything. Based on the manga by Kiyohiko Azuma, the broadcast series follows a mismatched group of seven girls through their three years at an ordinary Tokyo high school. Chiyo is a cute prodigy who skipped five grades; Sakaki seems oblivious to everything except stray cats, which always bite her. Kaorin appears to be fixated on Sakaki; although she worries about her weight, Yomi is the most normal member of the cast. Osaka acts spaced-out,Tomo declares she's a "loose cannon," and Kagura is an outstanding athlete: this trio proclaims themselves "The Knuckleheads" when they face major exams. Hard-drinking, potty-mouthed English teacher Yukari resents the popularity of saner coach Nyamo, even though they're friends and former classmates; Kimura, who teaches because he likes to ogle teenage girls, is the only major male character.

Azumanga Daioh presents no sustained story arc or character development: each episode is a collection of more or less random incidents involving the girls and the three faculty members. The stories focus on everyday activities: classes, exams, festivals, field trips, athletic events. The characters don't pilot mecha or battle demons or lose their clothes or face major emotional crises. The normalcy of the girls' lives is the main source of the series' appeal. (Rated 13 and older: cartoon violence, minor profanity, alcohol use, minor risqué humor) --Charles Solomon

Customer Reviews

The Genius of Simplicity
So many people have said that this anime, like Seinfeld, is a show about nothing. I think that viewpoint misses something. Azumanga Daioh may not have a sustained story arc, or a grand destination in mind, but watching it reminded me of my own days as a high-school student.
Be it Chiyo wishing that people would stop treating her like a kid, or Tomo acting every bit a fool and enjoying every minute of it, or Sakaki being uncomfortable with her towering stature, or Yomi's constant concerns about her weight, or even Osaka's frequent non-sequiters, this is a series about growing up with your friends.
And the characters are all truely likeable, as well. Even those who can be seen as annoying at times can't really be faulted for their personality quirks.
The series is fun and heartfelt.

Uneven Distribution of Episodes On the Disks
The show is great. I am not reviewing the show. This a review of the actual disk set. This is why it gets 4 stars and not 5 stars.

This is a set of 5 disks. The first 4 are basically the original individual disk releases with all the extras ripped out. The start up screen is no longer animated but shows a still picture of Sakaki with the cat hanging onto her finger.

The 5th disk concerns me. It contains all the episodes on the original disks 5 and 6. It contains a total of 7 episodes. I worry that they may have increase the compression of the video to fit the episodes in.

You know, considering that they have to change the masters of disks 1 to 4 to rip out the extras, they might as well have redistributed the episodes more evenly to the 5 disks. I mean they have to make new masters anyway right? Damn, I hate sloppy work!

I like the packaging. A thinpak is essentially a box set containing the disks in thin plastic DVD cases instead of the standard thicker ones. It actually saves you shelf space. What you sacrifice are the paper inserts. Considering that I almost never read the inserts anyway, it is no big loss for me.

The best 'feeling' anime EVER!
I first watched this series on my computer. The animation was crisp, the subs were done by fans (and excellently), and the dubbing was great.
The only reason I gave the DVD set a 4 star rating is because the fan sub had so much extra (explaining japanese jokes and culture that otherwise didn't make sense). Everything else was top shelf and I didn't see any bad subs.

As for the story...
The movie takes place in a junior high school in Japan. Following a group of young japanese school girls you get to see their perspective of the world around them, and the way it is told the youths seem more mature than any of the adults. The characters are very developed and and engrossingly likable. You will find yourself laughing at physical humor and nonsense, tearing up when something is sad, and alot of the times just smiling stupidly to yourself at some youthful innocence. It is a story about growing up and friendship that anyone can enjoy.

If you breath air you should buy this set. Anime fan or not. And I have also found that this anime may change some peoples minds about what anime is.

A FANTASTIC anime that developed from a 4 cell comic strip.
A must have.