The last episode of Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou, aka Daily Lives of High School Boys, aka Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou, aka Daily Lives of High School Boys was an excellent half-hour of comedy. I’ve heard tell that this next episode isn’t so good, but let’s judge for ourselves by watching episode 6 of Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou.
…thirty minutes pass…
Communication is impossible. I don't know why I bother.
This episode was definitely a more laid-back, slice of life style episode than the previous. It still had some good gags in it, though. It was funny to watch the student council gradually becoming a victim of their own helpfulness. A lot of the humor was visual there though – Ringo getting catfaced, the random neighborhood girl with her oblivious expression, and then the subtle sight gag of the big pile of money in the eyecatch shot. I enjoy looking at funny faces and laughing at them, but if that’s all that’s on offer, Kill Me Baby does a better job. From Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou, I want character driven comedy. And there wasn’t enough in this episode.
Normally when a Christmas episode of an anime is aired at an inappropriate time it bothers me, but actually, I think airing this episode close to Valentine’s Day worked. Christmas is more like Valentine’s Day in Japan anyway – a special day for lovers to be together. Valentine’s Day is also like Valentine’s Day in Japan, I guess? The giving and receiving of chocolates is more ritualized over there, as I understand it. And then there’s White Day, which is like a second Valentine’s Day, or a third if you count Christmas. Japan gets three Valentine’s Days, huh. I guess that’s why they have a reputation of being so passionately romantic.
The horrible bullying continued in this episode. Not only are they bringing a significant female presence into a show that was billed as being about High School Boys, the girls seem to only exist to push the boys around, beat them up, and mock them mercilessly. You can argue that it’s more realistic that way, that girls in real life are sometimes terrible to people for no reason, but the boys in the show are comparatively angelic. They’re protecting the weak, finding lost dogs, and trying to cheer up people who are lonely, while the girls are shaking them down for their lunch money and responding violently to imagined insults. It’s unrealistic in the opposite direction, and seems a little misogynistic. Hopefully if they continue having a strong female presence in the show they’ll let the girls be a little nicer in the future.
Bonus Image Corner:
Actually, it's new games that are unreasonably easy.
High school girls are funky.
suntzuanime 