So this is a new show that started about 2 months ago and i’ve seen a lot of people saying how boring it is or bland it seems. I’m not sure if they are watching the same show I am or wether or not that years of SNL has destroyed their humor sensor because this show is damn good. I think of it as a mix between Azumanga Daioh, Lucky Star without all the otaku refrences and Ichigo Mashimaro (mainly because of 1 character who i’ll talk about soon). So here is my sort of rundown on the show and  thoughts about the latest episode, which is #8. At least the latest subbed one.

Plot

Ok so plot wise there isn’t really much to say here. There are 4 main girls who the show follows as they go through their school days. No groundbreaking stuff here, just the tried and proved formula for potential comedy. Of course as they go through their days they encounter other students and ususaly an episode will focus on 1 or 2 people at a time. With that out of the way lets talk about the characters for a bit.

Ayumi Nonomura – She is what I expected to be the main main character of the show but it doesn’t look that way anymore. She is voiced by Aya Hirano of Haruhi Suzumiya and Konata so the roll of a quiet, nervious person is a refreshing change to her roles shes taken lately. Anyway about the character herself, she is a very shy person and finds it a little hard to make friends. Shes pretty popular with the boys in the school for having rather decent sized… er…. yeah and the photos of her that students take (this sounds creepy to me but this must have some sort of reality behind it) sell very fast.

Torako Kageyama – This girl here is what I consider the main character now. If you’ve watched Ichigo Mashimaro (and if you havn’t what is wrong with you?) you will notice straight away who she sounds an awful lot like. Miu. Well that would be because Fumiko Orikasa did both voices here and for me its just impossible to seperate the 2 so I think of Torako as Miu all grown up. As you would expect she is a lot like Miu and nearly always starts any trouble that happens. She tends to speak her mind and say things she rather shouldn’t; most of the time to the teacher who gets angry at her. She is the childhood friend of the next character.

Suzume Saotome – As mentioned above she is the childhood friend of Torako. She is rather silent for most of the show however she does have her moments when she talks and is rather emotive so she can’t really be considered a “Yuki type”. Oh and if anyone knows what the japanese term is for someone like that please tell me. Anyway. Suzu has a rather abnormal amount of strength and perhaps due to this, a huge appetite. She doesn’t seem to have a sense of shame or get embarrased at all and often does things normal people wouldn’t think of. Also she can be quite random with what she does or says.

Tatsuki Iidzuka – The first person Ayumi befriends in the show. She is a pretty serious person and is always yelling at Torako weither it be to leave her alone, stop doing something or even just yelling at her for nothing. Actually she is like that with everyone although she seems to have calmed down a bit with everyone now. Not much else to say about her and she would be the Tsundere character of the show. We all know how much I like those types ¬_¬

Ok so that about wraps up the info on the main characters. Due to the amount of material covered in the shows, talking about all the sub and secondary characters in this would be incredibly long so I wont.  Also there is some information i’ve intentialy left out in the bios up above but that is due to being part of the episodes so I consider it rather spoiler material. 

With all that out of the way we, and by we I of course mean me, can talk about the latest subbed episode which would be #8. This entire episode follows Inori Tsubomiya, a girl who has never been able to make a single friend. Lets see if you can guess why.

Yeah thats what I thought. Despite looking like Sadoko from The Ring (and Suzu even is scared of her because of this) she is a very nervious person and finds it very hard to strike up a conversation with people. She tries to be nice and smile but as you can see, it never really has the effect she was hoping for. So, this entire episode is about trying to help her make friends at school. Very basic plotline but it works as it leaves room for comedic effect pretty much everywhere. 

Since she is my favorite character in the show, having her come from an extremely minor roll to the main character of an entire episode was a very welcome and loved change. Of course the girls can’t leave her looking like an evil spirit so the 2nd half of the show did tend to turn into a make-over show. here is her ‘After’ look.

Huge difference no? Of course this lasts for just a single day as she is unable to dress herself up nicely (make up, hair and whatnot). Still though I thought this was a great episode and had a fair few laughs in it. All in all this is a series most people would enjoy if you havn’t been corrupted by crap like Everybody Loves Raymond. Chances are if you laugh at that or enjoy nearly any american sit-com today you are legaly dead.