In this short movie featuring familiar characters from Azumanga Daiou, Osaka is yet again having a
strange dream of Chiyo-Chan's pigtails being posessed. As Chiyo-Chan's pigtails bounce out of the
window, who knows if young Chiyo will ever be happy again.
(Source: Anime News Network)
This is the second short pilot film that JC Staff released, this one a lot closer(but still not quite matching) the animation style and budget of the TV release. It’s a bit longer than Web Daioh, and while it’s not quite as funny, it does put forth a more accurate representation of what the series would eventually be. Rather than a traditional intro, like Web Daioh had, this film opens with a shot of Chiyo riding on her dog, Mr. Tadakichi, introducing herself and nearly getting thrown off of him. The opening features some of the show’s iconic background music, which is always nice. Splitting it into two halves, the first half is probably the weaker one. It features a couple of minutes of Yukari’s class, squeezing several of the running gags and staples of the series into two minutes. This includes Yukari being a dick, Chiyo getting good grades, the Bonklers(which I’ll always call them because it sounds better than knuckleheads) acting out, Chiyo trying not to be cute, Tomo standing outside, Kaorin being in love, Sakaki musing over a cat bite, and keep in mind, thisall takes place in the span of two minutes... Including the opening. The second half, in contrast, plays out one joke on it’s own... Osaka and her pigtail dreams. If you’ve seen the anime or read the manga, you know what I’m talking about, and this goes on for almost 3 minutes. Unlike the first half, this one doesn’t stick to the established material, instead taking full advantage of the surreal situation to try some new jokes, like Chiyo slowly turning her head like an owl(creepy) and the entire class thinking she’s a lost child that doesn’t belong there. I’m not going to give away how this part ends, you kind of just have to experience it for yourselves. It’s weird. The short ends with a thirty second credits, marking the second appearance of Chiyodaddy, and if i’m being honest, I don’t feel as though this one’s as strong as Web Daioh. It suffers in terms of pacing, with so many jokes and in-show references thrown at you in such a short time that it’s hard to process what you’re watching. The Osaka dream is at least new and interesting, especially the way it breaks away from the script. There’s actual music in it, which I definitely like, especially since upon reflection, this is the pilot for the show’s iconic score, too. The dub is phenomenal, and the actors are on point... Save for Mandy Clark and Nancy Novotny, big surprise there... But I’d especially like to give a shout out to Jessica Boone and Kira Vincent Davis, as they play the most prominent characters in the short and absolutely slaughter their roles. All in all, not quite as good as Web Daioh, in terms of story, but a small improvement in the area of production values.
After completing the entire anime series that is Azumanga Daioh: the animation, I watched Azumanga Web Daioh and THEN this one. I'm pretty surprised, this animation quality is insane compared to what we're used to in normal Azumanga Daioh standards. Not that it's bad or anything like that, not at all. I'm just not used to seeing one frame being shown for like ten seconds straight or repeating frames that play out for a minute straight, get what I mean? Now that they ain't cutting corners for this short movie (again, it's not a bad thing that they did that in the anime series), it's time for me to fucking review this thing already. ........................................................................................................................................................ (WARNING, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS BELOW SO PLEASE DO PROCEED WITH ABSOLUTE CAUTION. Ok thanks lol. For those who have seen it, now you can read the review.) ........................................................................................................................................................ Ok so the movie essentially takes parts of a couple of episodes and reanimates them for this short movie. Those being Chiyo getting 100% on her test and the Knuckleheads screaming their scores add up to 103%, Chiyo being shit at tongue twisters (BASU GASU BAKUHATSU BASU GASU BAKUHATSU BASU GASU BAKUHATSU, Basugasubasubasu Basugasubakuhaku Gasubakuhakuhaku!) and Osaka sleeping in class. One new addition to one of the scenes is something similar to Osaka's Chiyo hair theories, by that I mean skip that shit and it just directly has her lookin at Chiyo's bouncing pigtails (better animated than the boob physics of the anime lol) and unable to resist the urge to touch them, which results in the pigtails falling off. This shit's funny as fuck, as everyone sees this but they now can't recognize Chiyo without her pigtails so they all assume she's a new student or some lost child. ........................................................................................................................................................ My FAVOURITE moment from amidst all the chaos from Chiyo crying is when Yomi pulls out a big ass lollypop to cheer Chiyo up (which doesn't work because Chiyo still resumes crying like a bitch but oh well). My ass is wondering where the fuck did she get a lollypop from?!? Yomi's whole character is based on her losing weight, so how did she so conveniently have a lollypop that she can just pull out and give to unsuspecting kids? The more I wondered on it, I realized that it's just a dream sequence, none of that shit was real, and it wasn't meant to be taken so seriously. ........................................................................................................................................................ Conclusion: It's a good short movie if u wanna experience what Azumanga Daioh is all about. It captures the average shenanigans from the anime series very well. I give this movie a 8.9/10. It's pretty entertaining if you wanna waste like five minutes of your time watching a funny short movie abt high school girls doing everyday shenanigans and that kinda stuff. If you are into that then I suggest you give this a go and have fun watching it. ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................