Nichijou


Nichijou is a Japanese comedy manga series written and illustrated by Keiichi Arawi. The manga began serialization in the December 2006 issue of Kadokawa Shoten's manga magazine Shōnen Ace, and was also serialized in Comptiq between the March 2007 and July 2008 issues. Kadokawa Shoten later published all chapters of the series in ten tankōbon volumes from July 2007 to December 2015. Set in a suburban Japanese town, Nichijou is populated by an ensemble set of characters, featuring moments from their everyday lives which alternate between the mundane and the strange, without ample focus on a narrative.
A 26-episode anime adaptation directed by Tatsuya Ishihara and produced by Kyoto Animation was broadcast on TV Aichi in Japan between April and September 2011, after an earlier original video animation was released in March. A PlayStation Portable game by Vridge and Kadokawa Games was released on July 28, 2011, entitled Nichijou: Uchuujin.
The manga and anime series were initially licensed in North America by Bandai Entertainment in July 2011, but both releases were cancelled due to the company's downsizing. The manga series was later licensed for publication in English by Vertical, with the first volume released in March 2016. Funimation released the anime in North America with subtitles on Blu-ray and DVD in February 2017. A dub was included in the Blu-ray re-release on July 23, 2019. Madman Entertainment licensed the anime series in 2011 for Australian and New Zealand distribution, releasing the DVDs in April and May 2013.
The anime adaptation initially received reserved praise from western critics, who commended the animation quality but found it lacking in consistent humor and substance. Retrospective reviews, however, have since given the series high critical praise for its heart and surreal comedy, with one critic deeming it among the "finest anime comedies of all time".

Plot

Nichijou follows the everyday lives of various people in the town of Tokisadame, centering on the energetic Yūko Aioi, the bright and cheerful Mio Naganohara, the quiet and deadpan Mai Minakami, the anxious android Nano Shinonome, her young creator the Professor, and a talking cat named Sakamoto, along with an ensemble cast of characters. Random and/or outlandish events regularly occur throughout the series, mainly through the mundane situations each character goes through.
In the anime series, Nano receives the most prominent story arc out of all the characters; the first half of Nichijou involves her desire to become a student in high school, while the second half deals with her fear of being exposed as a robot while at school. Vignettes which are mostly unrelated to the main focus of the series are placed throughout each episode, some of them adapted from another manga by Arawi, Helvetica Standard.

Characters

Main characters

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Teachers

; Izumi Sakurai
; Manabu Takasaki
; Principal Shinonome
; Vice Principal Kōsuke Ōra
; Kana Nakamura

Students

; Kōjirō Sasahara
; Misato Tachibana
; Tsuyoshi Nakanojō
; Haruna Annaka
; Kenzaburō Daiku
; Yuria Sekiguchi
; Makoto Sakurai
; Tanaka
; Weboshī
; Fe
; Mihoshi Tachibana
; Yoshino Naganohara

Media

Manga

Nichijou began as a manga series written and illustrated by Keiichi Arawi. It uses a combination of normal comic format and four-panel comic strips. Originally, the manga was meant to be a short, stand-alone series which was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Shōnen Ace magazine between the May and October 2006 issues. Starting with the December 2006 issue, the manga began regular serialization in Shōnen Ace, and was also serialized in Kadokawa's Comptiq magazine between the March 2007 and July 2008 issues. The first tankōbon volume was released in Japan on July 26, 2007. The manga series ended with its tenth volume, which was released on December 10, 2015, along with a limited edition commemorating the tenth anniversary of the series, which included a 120-page companion book.
Bandai Entertainment initially licensed the manga in July 2011, but later cancelled its release by October due to downsizing of the company. JManga, an American digital manga platform, was able to release the first four volumes of the manga through its website before shutting down in May 2013. The manga series was later licensed for publication in English by Vertical, which released all ten volumes in 2016 and 2017. Beginning in January 2012, the manga has been released in Finland by Punainen jättiläinen under the name Arki, which is Finnish for "weekday". It was translated into Finnish by Antti Kokkonen.

Anime

adapted the Nichijou manga into a 26-episode anime television series and an original video animation episode. The anime adaptation was first announced on May 22, 2010 through the July issue of Shōnen Ace magazine. The OVA, titled Nichijou Episode 0, was directed by Kazuya Sakamoto and bundled as a DVD extra with volume six of the manga series on March 12, 2011. Series composer Yūji Nomi orchestrated the score in Hungary. The anime series aired in Japan on TV Aichi from April 3 to September 25, 2011, with the final episode written by Arawi, creator of the original manga. It was as also simulcast by Crunchyroll under the name My Ordinary Life. The series was re-edited into twelve episodes for broadcast on NHK Educational TV in January 2012. The series also incorporates skits from Arawi's other manga, Helvetica Standard, which is published in Kadokawa Shoten's Newtype magazine. Bandai Entertainment had originally licensed the anime, but its release was later cancelled. However, Madman Entertainment managed to release the series in Australia and New Zealand in subtitles only. It was released as a two–part collection containing 13 episodes each. The first part was released on April 11, 2013, while the second part was released on May 9, 2013. Funimation later licensed the series in North America and released it on February 7, 2017 with subtitles. Funimation re-released the series with a dub on July 23, 2019.

Production credits

; Opening themes
; Ending themes
; Insert songs:
A PlayStation Portable video game titled Nichijou: Uchuujin developed by Vridge and published by Kadokawa Games was released solely in Japan on July 28, 2011. In the game, the player takes the role of a producer from "Galaxy TV" running the television series Nichijou, whose objective is to keep the ratings high by correctly deciding on what unusual situation to insert in the show. The Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu gave the game a score of 27 out of 40 based on four individual reviews.

Sales and reception

The Nichijou manga series sold 1,005,300 tankōbon volumes in 2011, reaching 49th place in the year's best-selling manga series chart released by Oricon.
The Nichijou anime has reportedly had low BD and DVD sales, and did not come close to meeting the break even line according to animation director Shunji Suzuki. The first DVD volume sold 924 copies in its first week of sales, while the second and fourth BD volumes sold over 2,000 copies each in their first week.
Anime News Network reviewer Carl Kimlinger gave the series' first seven episodes a B, stating that the anime is a "slice-of-life comedy with a penchant for lunacy and a taste for huggable cuteness...", giving praise especially to Kyoto Animation's lively animation of the series: "a rare chance to see talented animators fully indulging their love of the art." Fellow ANN reviewer Theron Martin stated in his review of "Nichijou Episode 1" that despite the series' ability to entertain, it is "absolutely not a series for everyone". Chris Beveridge of the now defunct Mania.com reviewed the first four episodes, giving each succeeding episode a lower grade. Beveridge stated in his review of episode 4 that " so full of fluff and pointlessness that it's hard to get enthused about."
After the North American Blu-ray release of Nichijou in February 2017, Nick Creamer of ANN gave a highly positive review for the series, considering it "one of the finest anime comedies of all time", in contrast to the reserved praise previously given by other reviewers. Creamer stated that "As a tumultuous collection of madcap skits, Nichijou is an unparalleled success.... Blessed by some of the most beautiful animation in recent memory, nearly every gag is elevated to some kind of surrealist beauty. Beyond that, the show's sense of heart is nearly as strong as its sense of humor." Beveridge would also revise his negative opinion of the series by 2017, giving it a grade of A+. He stated that " is that rare cult series that has such high end values to it and so many layers and richness that people will overlook because it's a comedy that I cannot recommend it enough."
Crunchyroll's editorial team chose Nichijou as one of the twenty-five best anime of the 2010s decade and writer Kara Dennison commented it is "a relatable slice-of-life series" whose characters and "charming art style, makes it impossible to look away. Writing for Forbes, Lauren Orsini considered it to be one of the five best anime of 2011; she wrote, "no matter how off the wall the story gets, its dedication to the realistically awkward teen girls who must navigate it gives it heart".