Azumanga Daioh is almost illegally good.

Now, I would love to finish the review with that but something gives me the impression that that won't cut it as a review. Why is it so good?

Point number one: It is astoundingly faithful to its source material. The manga is a slice of four panel comic goodness and amazingly, the transition to the small screen has worked perfectly, picking up on the best jokes from the books and portraying them with immense amounts of faithfulness (and looooove).

Point number two: Normally in anime shows, you usually find one or two characters to like more than others. In Azumanga Daioh, all of the characters are so deliciously unique that you will love all of them. You could like Chiyo-chan's super cute childlike qualities, Osaka's goofy dithering, Miss Sakaki's super-cool-exterior/loves-all-cute-things-interior, Tomo's outlandish OTT behaviour, Yomi's balanced common sense or Kagura's sporty tomboyishness. It doesn't matter. You WILL like… more »

Azumanga Daioh is almost illegally good.

Now, I would love to finish the review with that but something gives me the impression that that won't cut it as a review. Why is it so good?

Point number one: It is astoundingly faithful to its source material. The manga is a slice of four panel comic goodness and amazingly, the transition to the small screen has worked perfectly, picking up on the best jokes from the books and portraying them with immense amounts of faithfulness (and looooove).

Point number two: Normally in anime shows, you usually find one or two characters to like more than others. In Azumanga Daioh, all of the characters are so deliciously unique that you will love all of them. You could like Chiyo-chan's super cute childlike qualities, Osaka's goofy dithering, Miss Sakaki's super-cool-exterior/loves-all-cute-things-interior, Tomo's outlandish OTT behaviour, Yomi's balanced common sense or Kagura's sporty tomboyishness. It doesn't matter. You WILL like all of them. God bless you Azumanga!

Point number three: It's remarkably poignant. It's not all comedy y'know. There are moments are sheer sweetness that you can't help but fall in love with it. In one episode, four of the girls have finished a culture festival and decide to have a victory parade. It's sweet without being saccharine, and poignant without being sappy and meaningless.

Point number four: It is HILARIOUS. Coming straight from the pages of a four-panel manga, you would expect it to be funny but each of the episodes follows a basic theme and while a couple of them are repeated in later epsiodes (the sports fest springs up three times but each one is as funny as the other!) they are extremely funny. This isn't just simple joke-string-joke-string-joke humour (although a fair amount can be). Even translated from the original japanese, it's not all wacky "typically japanese" humour either. There are some laugh out loud moments in every episode, especially when the perverted teacher Mr Kimura springs up (Key moment, when asked why he wanted to become a High School Teacher, he screams: "BECAUSE I LIKE HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS, THAT'S WHY!" - absolutely bonkers brilliance)

Point number 5: Loooook, if you have the manga then you should totally buy this without doubt. If you like anime, you should definitely consider giving it a look. If you're new to this sort of thing then you really cannot go wrong with this as a starting point. It's not typical of anime but it's extremely funny, it's completely insane and it'll make you howl.

Looking for a good comedy? Can't go wrong.

Therefore: Azumanga Daioh is almost illegally good.

There we go. Point made.