blog post 5: Nichijou

Nichijou is a Japanese comedy animated series. This show focuses on a group of high school students who face bizarre random moments in their lives. The whole premise of the show is ironic because Nichijou translated into English means “everyday life”. But as one watches the show he realizes that it’s a paradox because nothing that happens in the show is ordinary.

One of the paradoxes involves an eight year old child who builds a robot which takes care of her and acts like an adult. Another contradiction is that the robot acts like a real person and wants to fit in with the other real students at the school. The eight year old also know as ‘professor’ makes a scarf for a cat which enables the cat to talk like an old wizard.

Though Nichijou is a comedy, it still portrays  the seriousness of the lives of high school students. The students always work hard in school and the ones who don’t finish their homework go through hardcore means to finish their homework on time. The means are so hardcore that they are portrayed in an over the top manner, such as yelling in the middle of class to ask to borrow homework from the nerdy ones.

Some animated comedies are just meant to make people laugh, and they will go to any means to do that. Nichijou, however, is a comedy with depth. The humor is drawn out by all of the ironies and paradoxes that are woven into the story. 😀