It’s time for another episode of GME! Anime Fun Time, this time tackling proto-moe situational comedy Azumanga Daioh. CLICK HERE or on the image above to join me, Tom, Clarissa from Anime World Order, and Dave from Fast Karate for the Gentleman as we explore the whimsical world of idealized high school friendships and wax nostalgic on Grapple Baki, Dark Souls, and other things for which we are moe.
FINAL THOUGHT:
I think this animated GIF encapsulates Tom’s entire teaching philosophy.
The Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast 
Great an anime fun time episode where I don’t have to go and watch the series before listening and as a bonus Dave is here. just heard the cooking song as filler music in a recent Fast Karate episode a few days ago too.
Saw this anime/read the manga this year, and loved it. But I actually feel differently about the more melancholy aspects of the show — as much as I love it for the comedy, the episode where Tomo and Yomi listen to the radio and Kagura and Chiyo sit under the tree is probably my favorite. There’s a tonal spectrum to the show that isn’t just about humor, and that episode entirely informed my perception of ‘slice of life.’
I see now that slice of life is more about real life, where AZD is idealistic, possibly delusional (or, certainly), but I really like the idea of a show that just kind of takes it easy and spends time on the in-between parts of life that most TV flies by (I liked Master of None for the same reason). I don’t know what we’d call that, but I had called it slice of life, until this podcast
Azumanga is pretty great. For the most part it just makes you smile and laugh at whatever is on the screen, which is the highest praise you can give a comedy like this. I never saw all of it, but I saw a bit of it in my college anime club. I actually have a very high tolerance for “anime comedy,” for instance I believe Gintama might be one of the best manga to have ever run in Jump (Osomatsu-san is fantastic this season too). Something like Bobobo is basically the furthest along the spectrum of manzai style comedy, which makes sense why it would be hard to get into that.
If you are serious about a Grappler Baki podcast, just remember two things. 1 animals exist to be brutally murdered to show how strong the characters are. 2 Hanma Yujiro is stronger than America. Literally.
Also, I’ll just say that the best Moe show I have ever seen is Ikoku Meiro no Croisee; which has almost no creep factor, an interesting historical angle, and an overall charming cast. Totally worth watching.
Okay – you used the term “Moe” a lot – what does it mean?!?!?
Although it’s undeniably true that the Fulmors (RIP) are wrong in the general sense and that the author of Azumanga Daioh, Kiyohiko Azuma, seems to have a thing for teenage girls, I’m going to assume that the man with the mega-Lolita complex whom Noah was referring to was in fact “Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals” author Hiroki Azuma, vanguard of the “lolicon”/”moe” movement and more recently “superflat” art. Take it as a point of pride that one of the first images that Google Image Search returns is of him reading Otaku USA magazine with a big frowny face.
The conversation came from Yotsuba, so -subject- matter was clear, but I’m willing to believe Noah got his wires crossed over which Azuma was which. The man likes his declarative statements. 😀
Just wanted to chime in and say that I’ve heard a Japanese person can basically use the phrase ‘nande yanen’ as an adorable get out of jail free card…
Speeding ticket? Nande yanen~ …oh it’s okay I’ll let you go, you silly Osakan you, hahaha.
Had sex with your boss’s daughter? Nande yanen~ oh it’s okay Tanaka! How could I possibly be mad at such an endearing chap, hahaha.
Murdered somebody? Nande yanen~ oh, hahaha, you’re from Osaka… you just don’t know the rules up here; I’ll let you off with a warning this time.
Also, a bit off-topic, but has the almighty Goob & friends ever reviewed a J-Drama? Just asking cause I’m a big Jun Matsumoto fan, and Bambino’s my guilty sin amongst all the unhealthy things Japan provides us. Yep, Bambino and Iryu, with that Sorimachi clone are probably my top 2 favourites. Not to mention that guy that always plays the antagonist in every production… forgot his name but he’s the Yakuza live-action actor, and I believe he had some sort of space invader role in that Robozilla film a couple of years back.
Been a while since I’ve listened to GME, glad to see Full Metal Goki’s & Co. are still churning out quality shows! ^_~
@Rober Nightsky: I don’t think they’ve ever done any dorama. I once asked Paul about it, and he said that wasn’t his show’s brief as he saw it – of course, that was before he started doing Anime Fun Time and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic discussions, so maybe his position on that has softened some.
Ahh, much obliged Liebe~san! Yeah it’s been a while since I’ve heard a good olde GME episode, be it a regular or Anime Fun Time show. I think the last one I heard was the Zardos one eons ago, or the Commando one… oh gosh that thing was the auditory equivalent of Batman the Animated Series laughing-gas; hahaha.
Yeah, Dorama & Tokusatsu fall in that strange realm of goofy as an anime and real as a TV show. I’d gather that they’re a bit more niche than live-action J movies like, oh I don’t know… Cutie Honey… dun dun dun!
But yeah, some of them are a tad on the snooze~side; although every now and then you get those pretty cool ones. Bambino just has that shonen trope feel, and it’s characters may as well have jumped out of the ani-silver-screen. Iryu’s a fave’ of mine cause of it’s cheapo House MD theme, and we can’t really fault the studio for not having the budget of an America TV show.
In either case, both came from manga, which automatically gives them that boost to rise above the lovey dovey standard dorama fare. Tokusatsu on the other hand one thousand percent brilliantly borders the line between a kids’ show and an NC-17 flick… actually just Kamen Rider, cause Sentai frequently falls into the kiddos pool. But yeah, not your typical Planters Peanuts airline romance.
Also, to veer more off-topic on the non-Azumanga tangent. Is Mr. Pepperbox still alive? I ask this because his musical arrangement featuring Yanni back in the 1956th year of our lord, was a musical rhapsody to my ears… even though it never actually came out, hahaha.
Dave: “(Kiyohiko Azuma) has his own predilictions.”
Clarissa: “Yeah, I don’t know, just because, I don’t feel there’s any of that in Yotsuba”
Dave: “There totally is! There’s the one dude who has a crush on the middle sister.”
Do you mean the character Jumbo? He has a crush on the oldest sister who’s a college student in her early 20s. There’s nothing really creepy or predatory about it. It’s played for laughs because of how awkward he is and how oblivious she is to his infatuation for her.
It’s sad that you guys paint Kiyohiko Azuma as a lolicon based on misinformation.
If you look further up in this very comments section, you’ll see that Daryl offered a correction and Dave admitted that he might have been working from faulty information.
At present The Anime Network seems more like an in-name sort of front for distributing several titles that are placed up on Hulu (going by what I see on their website, which doesn’t have Azumanga Daioh listed at all).