Nichijou is a 26 episode comedy anime based on the manga series. The anime centers mainly about Yukko Aioi and Naganohara Mio, although there are several other characters as well. Yukko and Mio are both in high school; they are friends with Mai, a quiet girl who shows little emotion. Yukko on the other hand is energetic and constantly forgets to do her homework while Mio is cheerful herself and a model student. The other main set of characters are Professor, an eight year old girl, Nano, the robot girl she created, and Sakamoto, their talking cat.
The anime excels at exaggerating events as well as going in a direction that you will not expect at all, which is where most of the humor is derived from. Each episode is split up over several shorter segments. Some of the character thoughts are weird, some of their actions are weird and sometimes you can’t even follow it at all. It has an odd sense of humor but this is a double edged sword as it frequently becomes too odd. There will be extremely funny scenes, followed by bouts of boring mundane events. Yet a lot of those times, it manages to make those mundane events quite funny or interesting with its over the top nature.
The anime quickly establishes each character’s personality and traits. Yukko is a big klutz and as a result, she does a lot of embarrassing things or gets the short end of the stick in most situations. Camping? She accidentally spills all the curry onto the group. Forgot to do her homework? She tries to copy Mai’s answers but whether Mai is just oblivious or if she is playing Yukko like a fiddle, she keeps giving her the wrong one. So despite Yukko wanting to act mature and cool, her inexperience or cluelessness usually is her downfall and this is hilarious.
Mio, while calm most of the time, gets really aggravated by her sister’s antics, who loves to play what can be called pranks on her. Mio also has a secret hobby of manga drawing, which she is embarrassed about due to the content of those drawings. These are usually some of the funniest scenes in the anime, with Mio’s expectations and then having those shattered.
Nano, despite being a robot created by Professor, is almost perfect in passing for a human apart from having a massive classic wind up key protruding from her back. This is her weakness given Nano wants to look less like a robot. The dynamic between the Professor and Nano is that while Professor created Nano, Nano acts more like the mother of the pair. The trio of Professor, Nano and Sakamoto never directly interact with Yukko’s group to a significant degree early on. At best, they were a background character passing by, although this does eventually change.
The anime keeps you guessing at what will happen next, by throwing surprise after surprise. A normal school morning with students walking to school? Someone will randomly ride a goat in. The teachers walking down the corridor? We then get an entire monologue of one of the teachers who is currently debating how the breach of topic of whether another teacher is single. There will also frequently be segments that don’t feature any of the main characters or their classmates at all. This are in a completely different setting, like a sci-fi action piece or some sort of thriller. These take you out fo the moment and makes you wonder whether you’ve accidentally watched the wrong anime.
The aesthetics are simple but overly cute, although they are very colorful and looks great all of the time. It is reminiscent of classic older anime. There are frequent art shifts to accompany the exaggerated reactions. The season doesn’t give a proper ending since there is no indication or acknowledgement that it is the last episode. It goes on as per normal, but one of the characters comes to the understanding that things are okay and they got their wish.
Overall, Nichijou is an odd series. There are genuine amazing funny moments, and when they come, they hit hard. However, equally, there are a lot of weird over the top scenes that may not make sense. The animation and aesthetics are welcoming as it reminds you of older anime in a good way. It’s hard to say whether Nichijou is worth watching or not, since it’s a slice-of-life anime that takes time to warm up to and appreciate.
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