Welcome to the Ordinary Life!

What is the ordinary life? For me, ordinary life is spending a relaxing day at home, picking on my older brothers, eating dinner at 5:30 sharp, and staying up late watching anime. Or when I'm at school, the ordinary life is going to classes, doing my homework, eating dinner at 6:00 sharp with my best friend, and trying to sneak a few hours of anime in here and there. Ordinary is what's routine, what's expected, what doesn't come as surprise. In my book, 'ordinary' in no way involves battling deer, having a precocious tyke build a working android, winding up with a handmade yaoi picture on my English test, or owning a boorish cat which speaks to me through a scientifically created scarf.

But for Yukko, Mio, Mai, Nano, and Hakase (“The Professor”) these are the incidents everyday life is all about. Each of the girls has their share of unexpected events, but as their lives are always random and unexpected, the day-to-day kookiness is part of their established routine... if that makes sense. If it doesn't, just watch an episode or two and you'll understand. But if you still don't, you might as well chalk it up to the all out craziness of Nichijou. It is quite the show!

Anything goes in the world of Nichijou!

Nichijou is a moe-comedy; in other words, it's about cute girls doing hilarious and cute things. Think Lucky Star and Azumanga Daioh, but with a touch more absurdism. The school life elements gives it the air of a slice of life, but expect way more insanity than you would get at your average middle school. Middle school was a long time ago for me (at least my memories of it are rather dim at this point-- thank God!), but I don't recall ever having to worry about a bazooka packing tsundere willing to do anything to make sure no one realizes her love for the nutty goat-riding class faux aristocrat. NOT THAT SHE REALLY DOES LIKE HIM, OR ANYTHING!

The cuties of Nichijou: Mai, Yukko, and Mio.

To learn more about what Nichijou is, the best method is to examine our main cast of ladies and the baffling world they live in:

Yukko Aioi: Yukko is lazy, a dunce, and possesses an overactive imagination which makes her amusing to tease and fire up. When at school, she rarely ever does her homework, and whenever she does, she typically fails to turn it in. To make matters worse, she has better things to do than pay attention in class, including imaging her best friend Mio's odd cube hair ties and blue pompom-like hair descended from a space-orbiting ship where a spoiled princess keeps an endless number of hapless entertainers to dispose of.

Yukko loves to tell jokes, but her delivery is so horrendous that no one, not even her friends Mio and Mai, can bring themselves to laugh at her attempts at humor. The less of a reaction she receives, the more Yukko insists on screaming her jokes until she gets her friends to acknowledge her (dream on, Yukko). She also has horrible luck, and whenever something goes particularly bad for her, a sympathetic dog comes around to rest a paw of comfort on her shoulder.

Yukko is blessed with athleticism, even though she's lacking in the brain department. On several occasions, she is able to keep up with Mio's cross city runs without too much trouble. She is often the character placed in the most absurd situations of the series: she witnesses the principal's attack of a stray deer, is the butt of Mai's deadpan pranks, and is the victim of every odd circumstance imaginable.

Mio Naganohara: Mio is Yukko's more intelligent and put-together counterpart, but has her own odd habits and traits. As a budding yaoi artist, she enjoys drawing sexy pictures of her crush Koujirou getting some BL lovin' in her notebook (it's a girl thing!) However, she's embarrassed of this talent, and goes out of her way to make sure no one knows about it. Unfortunately, her notebook first falls into the hands of Yukko, and then is discovered by her professor, who then uses one of Mio's pictures of Koujirou for her students to caption on an English test.

Mio also has a rather hot temper when provoked, and Yukko is naturally responsible for the majority of the provoking. Yukko's stupidity occasionally drives Mio up the walls, but the girls always mend fences after getting into large scale arguments that disrupt their entire class.

Later in the series, Mio becomes more open about her yaoi habit and decides she wants to become a mangaka, but the moment she recruits Yukko and Mai as her assistants, her carefully drawn treasures end up covered in ink courtesy of Yukko. But isn't that what friends are for?

Mai Minakami: Though the quietest member of the cast, Mai is responsible for quite a number of the shenanigans Yukko finds herself in. Her emotionless demeanor helps her mess with the heads of friends since they are never able to tell what she is thinking or when she is being serious or playing a prank on them. More often than not, Mai is orchestrating a joke or trying to make Yukko look foolish, but when it comes down to it, she is fond of Yukko and is happiest when her friends are happy and getting along with one another.

Mai's favorite hobby is carving Maitreya statues, which she tries to give away to whoever she feels would be comforted by them. Maitreya is a Buddhist reincarnation who will one day come to the earth, complete enlightenment, and teach the world the natural laws it has forgotten. Interestingly enough, Mai seems to be most willing to give her statues away when a character needs enlightenment or solace, though most aren't as moved by her statues as she herself is.

Nano Shinonome: Nano is a functional android created by Hakase, a juvenile professor whom she takes care of and disciplines much like a mother. But though Nano tries to yield authority in the Shinonome household, she is usually one-upped by Hakase, who uses the promise that she'll remove Nano's 'shameful' wind-up key from her back if Nano does what she wants as leverage. Hakase also has a habit of installing strange items into Nano without her knowledge including laser beams, food, and rocket launchers that propel her hands off. Nano is humiliated by the thought of people figuring out she's a robot, and is a bit wary of going out in public since everyone's attention is draw to her wind-up key.

However, Nano's fondest dream is to go to school and make friends with the girls she sees in the neighborhood. Hakase is deeply attached to her and doesn't want her to leave, but eventually agrees to allow her to go to school with encouragement from her talking cat, Sakamoto. Though Nano experiences some embarrassment due to her wind-up key, she thrives at school and eventually befriends Mio, Yukko, and Mai. She also gains a stalker in the science teacher Nakamura who is determined to discover how she functions, but for the most part manages to evade each of his traps.

Hakase: Hakase, the Professor, is one of the show's oddest characters. She is a juvenile genius who has graduated from school and has her own laboratory, but is very much a willful and stubborn child at heart. She loves to snack and eat shark shaped treats, and will whine incessantly to Nano when she doesn't feel she's receiving the share of snacks she deserves. She also enjoys turning Nano's body into a food dispenser through which she can receive more treats to enjoy without Nano being able to stop her.

One of Hakase's greatest inventions is a red scarf which translates animal-speak into Japanese. She gives this invention to stray cat Sakamoto and takes him under her wing as a member of the family. Sakamoto is deadpan and stuffy, but melts into butter as soon as there is yarn to bat around with his kitty-paws. Hakase loves catching Sakamoto in the act of cuteness and using her inventions to cause more trouble for him and Nano, though she often gets caught up in her own pranks as well.

After Nano starts going to school, she befriends Mio, Yukko, and Mai whenever they come to Shinonome Laboratories to visit Nano. Each of the girls loves playing with Hakase and drawing her shark pictures, pandering more to the child-like side of her character than to the genius.

All in all, Nichijou is one of the best moe, absurdist comedies out there. The strangeness of the events are universally recognizable, and the series doesn't rely overmuch on understanding Japanese terms to comprehend the humor. The characters are each endearing and likable, and you feel compelled to want them to succeed and do well (though unfortunate incidents are inevitability, especially to Yukko). Yukko's fictional imaginings of Mio's hairpieces are charming and inventive, and bring a nice change up pace to the show. The series also has excellent pacing, shifting from anecdote to anecdote so smoothly that the twenty-four minutes of the show goes by with surprising quickness.

Aside from the main cast, Nichijou has many other charming characters with plenty of antics of their own.

The moe elements are also kept from being too overwhelming. Male characters such as Nakamura and Koujirou have their chance in the spotlight, and the girls find themselves in situations that lead them to be more resourceful or befuddled than cloyingly adorable. Visually each is quite cute, but they spend so much time with their shocked-into-brain-death faces on that their sweetness of appearance is far from being the main focus.

Nichijou also makes an excellent series to view in between watching more serious titles. It does not have an in-depth plotline and is easy to pick back up after breaks, so a few episodes at a time works well in between shows or whenever you need a quick fix of anime humor.