nichijou: my ordinary life, Volume 1

This manga follows the "ordinary" lives of a bunch of high school weirdos, including:

Mio - a girl who secretly enjoys creating BL manga

Yuuko (or Yukko) - Mio's best friend, who often forgets to do her homework and copies Mio's

Nano - a robot who thinks she is successfully masquerading as a regular high school girl (literally everybody knows what she really is)

Professor - Nano's creator

Misato - a girl who inexplicably has lots of explosive weaponry

Sasahara - a guy who acts like the son of a wealthy family

And various other characters, including a nervous guidance counselor, a principal who makes bad jokes and fights deer, and more.

I'd seen out-of-context scenes of the anime adaptation before but didn't otherwise know much about this show more series. It reminds me of Azumanga Daioh, except weirder. Also, context doesn't really make those anime scenes make much more sense. I still have no idea why the principal was fighting a deer.

Extras:

A couple full-color pages.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

What can I say about volume one? It has everything I love all rolled into one giant, juicy bread roll! Comedy, crack, and school, three of my favorite genres. It's light hearted and easy to get lost in the insanity.

If you like comedy or school manga, or just want something that's not bogged down with drama, this may be the manga for you.

Nichijou is a very funny and surreal manga. The story doesn't particularly go anywhere as it is a slice of life manga, however the comedy is very clever and hilarious, some of it is relatable and some of it is the most random thing in a book. The comedy stretches from basic puns to a principal fighting a deer. The story is made up of 2 stories, so far I've been talking about the first, now I'll talk about the second. In the second story line (both story lines are somewhat connected) a 8 year old genius named Hakase makes a sentient android named nano. The 8 year old also found a stray black cat and invented a scarf that allows the cat to talk, the cats name is Sakamoto and he is by far my favorite character. The first story follows 3 show more girls in there abnormal life. I really enjoyed this book and had a few good laughs. show less

The first chapter was laugh out loud funny, but after that I didn't get any of the humor. Does the humor not translate or is the translator failing?

It was kind of confusing at times, but you just have to roll with it. It's hilarious and totally random, and I actually love all of the characters too, plus nice art! Apparently this manga has everything...

2.5, not enough character development/plot beats to make the comedy feel worthwhile to me.

TSUTAYAでレンタル。あずまんが大王の人かと思っていましたが、全然違いました。でも絵柄はよく似ています。

マンガは・・・ごめん。非日常的なところやシュールなところがおそらくツボなんだろうけど、全然心に響いてこなかったです。頑張って読んだけど、3巻で挫折しました。