| Azumanga Daioh: The Animation | |
|---|---|
 Japanese Logo | |
Original manga | Kiyohiko Azuma |
Executive producers | Tatsuo Sato |
Series supervisor | Ichiro Okouchi |
Character designer | Yasuhisa Kato |
Chief animation director | Takashi Wada |
Art Director | Chikako Shibata |
Editor | Shigeru Nishiyama |
Music | Masaki Kurihara |
Director | Hiroshi Nishikiori |
Azumanga Daioh: The Animation is the anime adaptation of Azumanga Daioh. Produced by J.C.Staff, it aired from April 8, 2002 until September 30, 2002 on TV Tokyo in five-minute segments every weekday. It was later repeated as a 25-minute compilation collected in 26 episodes.Every episode ends with a preview of the next one, and the characters commenting on it, thus breaking the fourth wall.The compilation episodes included the opening and closing themes – "Soramimi Cake" (空耳ケーキCake of Mishearing)being the opening and "Raspberry Heaven" being the closing song, both performed by . The compilation episodes were released on 6 DVDs in 2003 and 9Universal Media Discs between 2005 and 2006 by Starchild Records, and a DVD box set of all episodes was released on June 24, 2009; the five-minute segments can be distinguished by their individual titles.
Other anime adaptations besides this one include Azumanga Daioh: The Very Short Movie and Azumanga Web Daioh. Both of these were released before the premiere of the animated series.
In the United States, the anime television series was released in six DVDs on September 9, 2005, and then later in a five DVD volume "Thinpak" set, both by ADV Films. In the English dub, the English class and English-speaking foreigners are changed to Spanish (and a few other languages) in order to adjust the jokes to English speaking audiences. In 2009, Nokia offered the first five episodes of Azumanga Daioh on its Ovi phone service. Madman Entertainment licensed the series for release in Australia and New Zealand. As of September 1, 2009, all of ADV's former catalog are transferred to AEsir Holdings, with distribution from Section23 Films. The series was later re-licensed in 2016 by Sentai Filmworks.
In South Korea, the anime was aired by local animation network Tooniverse from December 30, 2002 around 2009, and a DVD set was released in April 2008. The Korean version is completely dubbed and fully localized in the Korean style because of the political problems in Korea with Japan.
Manga to Anime Differences[]
- Main article: Azumanga Daioh: The Animation/Differences from the Manga
While the manga and anime follow the same storyline, the events do not entirely happen in chronological order. Upon the insistence of Kiyohiko Azuma, the anime was not released simultaneously with the manga, and thus the episodes are drawn in a style more similar to the later volumes of the manga than the early ones. Also, some early events from the manga are moved to late episodes of the anime, and the other way around. An example is Osaka getting hiccups which happened in the second volume of the manga, but in the second episode of the anime. Sakaki also claims in the anime that she has never been on an airplane, but in the manga she is one of the three people who have. Some stories from the manga are also cut entirely from the anime, and the existing ones are often prolonged. Other notable differences include the drastically increased role of Kaorin for nearly every episode and some character design details, such as Osaka being shorter than both Kagura and Tomo instead of the same height as Kagura.
Filler[]
There is only one filler episode: Episode 19, which is not based on any manga events at all. However, more or less all of the episodes include parts that do not have any manga counterparts.
Voice acting[]
Japanese[]
- Tomoko Kaneda as Chiyo Mihama
- Yuki Matsuoka as Ayumu Kasuga
- Chieko Higuchi as Tomo Takino
- Rie Tanaka as Koyomi Mizuhara
- Yuu Asakawa as Sakaki
- Houko Kuwashima as Kagura
- Akiko Hiramatsu as Yukari Tanizaki
- Aya Hisakawa as Minamo Kurosawa
- Sakura Nogawa as Kaorin and Yuka
Additional voices[]
- Kouji Ishii as Kimura
- Norio Wakamoto as Chiyo-chichi
- Sayaka Ohara as Kimura's Wife
- Akane Omae as Chihiro and Miruchi
- Hiroyuki Yoshino as Masaaki Ohyama
- Yonehiko Kitagawa as Dr. Ishihara
- Yuka Koyama as Eiko
- Ai Shimizu
- Hiroyuki Takigawa
- Kiyotaka Furushima
- Makoto Yasumura
- Masaki Kawanabe
- Mizuki Saitou
- Naoki Makishima
- Naoki Yanagi
- Ryoko Nagata
- Tadahisa Saizen
- Takahiro Yoshimizu
- Yuko Fukushima
- Yuko Nagashima
- Yuzuru Fujimoto'
English[]
- Jessica Boone as Chiyo Mihama
- Kira Vincent-Davis as Ayumu Kasuga
- Mandy Clark as Tomo Takino
- Nancy Novotny as Koyomi Mizuhara
- Christine Auten as Sakaki
- Allison Sumrall as Kagura
- Luci Christian as Yukari Tanizaki
- Monica Rial as Minamo Kurosawa
- Tiffany Grant as Kaorin
Additional voices[]
- Andy McAvin as Kimura
- Jason Douglas as Chiyo-chichi
- Kaytha Coker as Kimura's Wife
- Hilary Haag as Chihiro
- Sasha Paysinger as Miruchi
- Mariela Ortiz as Yuka
- Hiroyuki Yoshino as Masaaki Ohyama
- John Swasey as Dr. Ishihara
- Shelley Calene-Black as Eiko
- Afshar Kharat
- Bubba Callahan
- Chris Patton
- Cynthia Ann Feaster
- Cynthia Martinez
- Donaldo
- Greg Ayres
- John Gremillion
- Mike Yantosca
- Nomed Kaerf
- Sami Mikasa
Korean[]
- Min-jeong Yeo as Na-ra Yoon (Chiyo Mihama)
- Jeong-hwa Yang as Sun-jeong Maeng (Ayumu Kasuga)
- Seon-yeong Park as So-ran Yang (Tomo Takino)
- Won-ja Han as Jae-kyong Park (Koyomi Mizuhara)
- Myeong-sun Lee as Tae-hee Lee (Sakaki)
- Gyeong-hae Park as Seong-lee Na (Kagura)
- Hyeon-Jin Lee as Ji-na Cho (Yukari Tanizaki)
- Soo-jung Ham as Se-mi Ju (Minamo Kurosawa)
- Sin-jeong Han as Ju-yeon Bong (Kaorin)
Additional crew[]
Japanese[]
- Atsushi Umezawa (Co-executive producer)
- Shinichi Ikeda (Producer)
- Nobuhiro Osawa (Producer)
- Yuji Matsukura (Producer)
- Mayumi Tanahashi (Colour key stylist)
- Masaru Takase (Cinematographer)
- Yota Tsuruoka (Sound director)
- Eiko Morikawa (Sound effects)
- Kuri-Coder Pop Orchestra (Music performers)
- TV Tokyo Music (Music cooperators)
- GENCO (Series producer)
- Hiroshi Matsuda (Episode director)
- Isao Takayama (Episode director)
- Jun Takahashi (Episode director)
- Kenichiro Watanabe (Episode director)
- Kiyotaka Ohata (Episode director)
- Koji Masunari (Episode director)
- Kouichi Takada (Episode director)
- Makiko Date (Episode director)
- Makoto Nagao (Episode director)
- Setsugorou Tobari (Episode director
- Tadashi Iino (Episode director)
- Yayoi Minazuki (Episode director)
- Yuki Miyoshi (Episode director)
- Ichiro Okouchi(Script writer)
- Tomoyasu Okubo (Script writer)
- Aya Yoshinaga (Script writer)
- Tsuyoshi Tamai (Script writer)
- Hajime Satsuki(Script writer)
- Tatsuo Sato (Storyboard artist)
- Kakeru Watanabe (Storyboard artist)
- Hiroaki Sakurai (Storyboard artist)
- Toru Takahashi (Storyboard artist/episode director)
- Yayoi Minazuki (Storyboard artist)
- Hideki Tachibana (Storyboard artist)
- Ranta Ushio (Storyboard artist)
- Kazuhiro Sasaki (Storyboard artist)
- Kiyotaka Ohata (Storyboard artist)
- Yoshinobu Yamakawai (Storyboard artist)
- Makoto Bessho (Storyboard artist)
- Higashi Suehiro (Storyboard artist/episode director)
- Lantis (Music producer)
- Azumanga Daioh Production Committee (Producer of series)
- Toru Iwakami (International coordinator)
- Shoko Ono (Project translator)
Opening animation[]
- Kiyotaka Ohata (Storyboards director)
- Yasuhisa Kato (Animation director)
- Kazuhiro Orimichi (Key animator)
- Shuji Sakamoto (Key animator)
- Hideki Hashimoto (Key animator)
- Yumi Kato (Key animator)
- Tadashi Shida (Key animator)
- Yasunari Nitta (Key animator)
- Hisashi Saito (Key animator)
- Noboru Sanehara (Key animator)
Ending animation[]
- Hiroshi Nishikiori (Storyboards director)
- Yasuhisa Kato (Animation director)
- Kunihiro Abe (Key animator)
- Michio Fukuda (Key animator)
- Shinya Hasegawa (Key animator)
- Yoshiki Yamakawa (Key animator)
- Hidenori Fukuoka (Key animator)
English[]
- John Ledford (Executive producer)
- Mark Williams (Executive producer)
- Don Rush (Producer/Director)
- Sandra Krasa (Director)
- Mike Yantosca (ADR script)
- Sean Broesti (Subtitle script and timing)
- Industrial Smoke & Mirrors (English ADR recording studio)
- Cesar Inserny (Sound design and mix)
- Afshar Kharat (Recording engineer)
- Jacob A. Gragard (Recording engineer)
- Stanley Thomas (Recording engineer)
- Henry Rogers (Recording engineer)
- Michael Bubba Callahan (Recording engineer)
- Monkey Boy Post (Post production)
- Shelly Thomas (Post production manager)
- Patrick Givens (Editor)
- Neil O'Sullivan (Editor)
- Marta Bechtol (Production assistant)
- Miyuki Kamiya (Production assistant)
- Robert Marchand (Production assistant)
- Maki Nagano (Production assistant)
- Carole Pavlik (Production assistant)
Reception[]
The anime was positively received and spawned a lot of related merchandise, such as plushies and costumes. Many CDs featuring the soundtrack of the TV series, as well as character songs, were also released. Reviewers though that the show would cause former high schoolers to become nostalgic. The English dub for the show was mostly well received, earning six ADR Awards from fans voting on AnimeonDVD.com and Dubreview.com. However, there were fans who were less enthusiastic about the dub, calling it, among other things, "cheesy" and "ear-bleedingly bad."
