Daily Lives of High School Boys

What’s the first thing that pops into your head when you hear “high-school slice-of-life comedy anime”? If your answer is “boring,” then congratulations—you and I used to be on the same page. I used to think those kinds of shows were all recycled jokes, recycled uniforms, and recycled tropes. Then Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou—or Nichibro, as I’ll call it from now on—came along and punched that opinion straight in the face. Now, you might be thinking, “Wait, a comedy about high school boys? What’s so great about that?” And honestly, I don’t blame you. On paper, it sounds like the anime equivalent of lukewarm tea. But Nichibrostands out for one simple reason: it does exactly what it sets out to do—make you laugh—and it does it brilliantly. The title says it all: The Daily Lives of High School Boys. No, it’s not about cute boys doing cute things. It’s about dumb boys doing dumb things—and doing them spectacularly. From slacking off at a friend’s house to pulling pranks, debating the mysteries of girls, and overanalyzing the universe for no reason at all, these guys turn mundane teenage nonsense into pure comedy gold. Like its spiritual sister Nichijou, Nichibro is a gag-based show. Each episode is made up of several short skits, most of which are completely unrelated. Think of it as a sketch comedy show where every segment ends with a punchline—sometimes brilliant, sometimes predictable, and sometimes an ugly Christmas sweater. You never quite know what you’re getting, but that’s part of the charm. Comedy’s subjective, after all. What makes one person howl might make another shrug. Personally, I laughed way more than I expected. Visually, Nichibro looks decent—not jaw-dropping, but solid. The backgrounds are simple yet detailed enough, and the characters actually look like real high school boys: shirts untucked, ties undone (or missing entirely), and an overall aura of “I woke up five minutes ago.” Karasawa even wears a hat constantly, because apparently, school rules are optional. The facial expressions alone are worth the watch—some of them had me wheezing. That said, I did notice the studio occasionally decided to “save budget” by simply not drawing certain characters’ eyes. Whether that’s a stylistic choice or someone ran out of caffeine, who knows. But it doesn’t really hurt the show—it’s part of the weird charm. Now, let’s talk about the cast. Nichibro doesn’t bother with “character development” because, frankly, who needs it? The goal isn’t to watch them grow as people—it’s to watch them make fools of themselves. We’ve got Tadakuni, the “straight man” of the trio—the poor soul who’s just trying to survive the chaos. Then there’s Hidenori, the brains behind the group’s dumbest ideas, and finally Yoshitake, the blond sidekick who enthusiastically joins every ridiculous scheme. Their over-the-top reactions and dead-serious delivery make every scene gold. What’s great is that the side characters also get time to shine. The show makes it clear: if you’re too normal, you won’t get screen time. The supporting cast adds plenty of spice, though I’ll admit—the girls can get a little too violent sometimes. Like, “please don’t try this at home” levels of violent. Still, slapstick is part of the package. Sound-wise, it’s pretty standard fare. The opening’s okay, but the ending absolutely steals the show—it’s a hilarious mini-skit set to upbeat music, complete with cultural festival chaos. The randomness is chef’s kiss. Voice acting? Perfect. Sugita Tomokazu (yes, that Sugita from Gintama) absolutely nails Hidenori’s dramatic inner monologues. Every time he overthinks something, I lose it. In conclusion, Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou is a solid comedy that does exactly what it promises: it makes you laugh. Every episode had at least one or two skits that genuinely cracked me up. And the best part? You’ll probably recognize bits of your own school life in their antics—just, you know, less extreme (hopefully). It was my first anime with a full-on sketch format, and honestly? I loved it. It’s hilarious, weirdly relatable, and never overstays its welcome. If you’re hunting for a comedy that doesn’t take itself seriously, give Nichibro a try. It’s pure, unfiltered high school stupidity—and I mean that as the highest compliment.

“I suppose if we couldn't laugh at the things that don't make sense, we couldn't react to a lot of life.” – Hobbes, from Calvin and Hobbes. As a stressed out college student, I constantly find myself looking back at my high school years and remembering the fun old times. My all boys school meant that we could rein in free chaos without the worry of having to act proper around girls, so my class and I did all sorts of pranks and whatnot. From playing football in the hallway, to accidentally taking down a security camera, to taking down the school flag and wearing itas a cape, lighting up fireworks in class, all those things. Truth be told, high school was boring, but my classmates made it so much fun during our free time. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou is about. A comedy anime like no other, Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou (or Daily Life of High School Boys if you prefer) had me laughing just as much (and probably more) as any comedic work out there. I found myself wiping tears from my eyes constantly and enjoying every single second of it. At twelve episodes in length, Danshi Koukousei promises that you will enjoy every single moment. First off, Danshi Koukousei has no overarching story. There is no typical high school plot in here as you would imagine from most generic slice of life animes. In fact, the show is presented in what most people would refer to as a ‘skit’ format. An episode of the anime will generally contain in average eight skits, each of them representing wildly different aspects of the free time that high school boys face on a day to day basis and what they do to liven up their boring lives. Of course, most of these are exaggerated at some points, but there isn’t anything wrong with that. In fact, it adds more to the realism of the show and how high school boys tend to exaggerate normal situations in their mind. Add that to the fact this anime is a HUGE parody of anime as a whole, taking in various anime tropes and destroying them before your very eyes. Oh you were expecting this to happen? Well haha, FUCK YOU PREDICTABILITY! On the subject of characters, there is no better way to describe the main cast as extremely human. Each character has his own little quirk that makes him instantly relatable to someone. I found myself constantly laughing and thinking along the lines of: “Oh my God that is so my friend from senior year!” The main cast is comprised of the trio of destiny: Tadakuni (whose last name is never revealed and in fact parodied by the show itself), Hidenori, and Yoshitake. Tadakuni is your straight man, the guy who is dragged into the crazy and manic antics that his two best friends get themselves in to. Hidenori is the bespectacled one, the playboy of the group and generally the inner monologue heavy guy who analyzes situations over and over again in a very comedic fashion. And finally, we have Yoshitake, the blonde dyed member of the group who is usually the idiot and goes along with whatever the situation around him dictates. Aside from those three, the anime introduces many many characters throughout the course of its run, giving us a well varied and excellently written cast. However, due to the sheer amount of characters, it’s kind of hard to remember the names of all of them. But, this is beautifully averted when the anime itself tells you that, while it knows its introducing many characters late into the show, it’s not important to remember all their names. It is also important to acknowledge the main female characters from this extensive male cast. At the end of every episode, there is an extra skit titled “High School Girls Are Funky!” which features three girls (Yanagi, Habara and Ikushima) who are basically the female counterparts of the main trio. While their skits are not as funny as the male ones, they are still the parts of the series where backstory is heavy handed and offers some insight into the past of some of the characters which, at least in my book, is a step in the right direction. On the topic of animation, the studio responsible for animating this is Sunrise Inc., famous for shows such as The Visions of Escaflowne, Cowboy Bebop, Code Geass, Tiger and Bunny, among others. In itself, the animation is very simplistic and it actually works in favor of the show’s theme. Add that to the fact that most of the characters sport some weirdly exaggerated faces to go along with some of the jokes makes said jokes all the better. A curious thing to note about the animation is the decision to shadow the eyes of the majority of the small female cast. This, I found out much later, was surprisingly parodied by the show as well in one of the later skits. The voice cast does a beautiful job with the characters as well. Most of the voices are blown out of proportion for some of the jokes, which makes the delivery of them all the better. You might find some of the voices rather familiar, particularly with Hidenori’s seiyuu Tomokazu Sugita, famous for lending his voice to Gintama, another comedy anime. Miyu Irino is present here as the voice of Tadakuni, showcasing his amazing talent, and Kenichi Suzumaru is here as well, giving his voice to the bumbling idiot that is Yoshitake. Add to those three Daisuke Namikawa as the voice of everyone’s favorite delinquent Motoharu, and you have one of the best voiced casts in recent anime history (at least that’s how I see it). Aside from that, the music is also very well executed. Audio Highs, known for their previous work in Bakuman and Gintama, are responsible for the masterfully well-crafted music that is present in this show. The anime sports one opening and one ending, with the opening being “Shiny tale” by Mix Speakers, Inc. while the ending theme is “O-hi-sama” by Amesaki Annainin. Both are very good, with the first one really pumping you up for a high school anime while the ending is… well, stupid. It simply fits with the whole theme of the show in its own, unique, way. Now that I’ve covered everything there is, it’s time to go down to the final verdict. This show means a lot to me. Not just because it made me laugh, but because some of the skits that the show has are actually situations that occurred to me during my daily life while in high school. The days I spent laughing with my friends, worrying about a friend’s little sister (well, actually it was his cousin) and whatnot really brought me memories that had long passed. It made me look back in life and smile at how beautiful everything was with my old friends and how much I miss them. It’s an anime I hold very near and dear to my heart simply because of the feelings it evoked in me while watching it and, truth be told, for being the funniest anime I have seen in my entire life. Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou gets a very well deserved 9/10. It would be a 10, but the short length left me wanting for more. But, just like everything else, even the short length is parodied by the show. Aside from that, a couple of jokes fell flat on their faces, but this didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment of the show. Much thanks to Mel, for proofreading this (I love you my little internet daughter), Erika, for providing her helpful insight, and my good friend Wendy, who should write some reviews of her own because she is a FREAKING GENIUS. There will be more to come, so expect more from me in the following months. AND AS ALWAYS, ANY FEEDBACK WOULD BE MUCH APPRECIATED. This is Team Dai-Squirtle, to the stars and back!

Warning: There will be a copious amount of taking my comedy anime seriously Daily Lives of Highschool Boys is a satire of anime's depiction of highschool life. The entire name and set up is a direct reference to the glut of anime about a bunch of girls doing cute shit in highschool, although it frequently jumps into referencing romance anime or other dude wish fulfilment stuff. From the very direct referencing of K-ON to the highlighting that boys 'are only any use in sports or battle anime', it's constantly lampshading this genre. But what makes it better than most anime's attempts at parody is it's nota 'playful parody'. It's not doing the exact same thing these other anime are doing except pointing to itself occasionally and shouting 'look at me, I'm doing this thing that other anime does, aren't I cool'. It mocks these aspects and satirises them, and through its depiction highlights what makes them ridiculous or dumb. Take the show's seemingly most popular segment, Literature Girl. The characters start to spout lines about the weather is, except in poetic ways to indicate their feelings at the time. But instead of leaving it at that, which is what many self-serious romance anime do, it provides a running commentary track with the male character constantly berating his own attempts to sound cool, and in turn laughing at the girl's own attempts to fulfil this ideal romantic scene she's seen in romance stories. It's also satirised it from the girl's side too, a character whose own attempts to put herself into these idealistic romantic situations turn her into this raving mad girl whose desperation to fulfil these checklists from her fanfiction only serve to drag her further down in the eyes of the male love interest of her choice. Another area of choice Nichibros mocks other anime is the depiction of girls. Instead of cutesy ideal girlfriends, the women in this series are how highschool boys in real life feel girls are like. They're scary monstrous beings, completely incomprehensible, whose only aim is to jam more suffering onto the lives of the boys. The depiction is no less realistic than the hyper cutesy versions of other anime (although many of the women I follow on twitter seemed to find this less-celebratory depiction more realistic), the fact that they go all out with this depiction of girls as universally horrible is a large part of the reason I respect its devotion to satire. This all comes to a head in the Highschool Girls Are Funky segments, which takes a group of girls starting scenarios the exact same way the girls in something like K-ON does, but go in completely different directions due to how horrible they all are. The first segment in particular stands out, for one girl asks what they are going to do today, followed by another girl yelling at her and punching her in the face. Completely fucking ridiculous, but its direct contrast and reference to K-ON and its ilk frames the scene and uses this contrast to highlight how ridiculous the insufferably nice versions of highschool girls are. And so on and so forth, the show satirises so many various aspects of how unrealistic the depictions of highschool life is. Sometimes it's just through placing this scenes in more realistic settings, such as the above literature girl segment, or how the boys try to act out scenes from their favourite RPGs but completely lose the sense of the plot. There's satirising through exaggeration, such as the depiction of girls or the very opening segment where the main character leaves house with a piece of toast in his mouth, followed by his friends eating bowls of ramen. There's a few ones that defy classification, such as the depiction of sisters. They're not desirable love toys. Rather, they're inhuman creatures that you've spent so much time around that you don't even consider them as girls anymore. They're referred to solely as "X's imouto" and are never shown to have any eyes. Again I could go on, but all I'd be doing is continuing to spoil the various jokes in the anime. What I'm trying to say is that Daily Lives of Highschool Boys is a satire of modern anime's depiction of highschool and how this can warp the expectations of teenagers for how this life is supposed to run. When viewed through this filter, every joke in the series takes on a new light. It's not the actual daily lives of highschool boys. It's the daily lives of highschool boys as viewed through the filter of how anime thinks their lives should go. On a personal note, I had pegged this show completely incorrectly pre-season. I probably shouldn't have, what with the director being the same guy who did School Rumble and Gintama. But a season before this we got Kimi to Boku. It was an unusual idea, having cute boys doing cute things rather than girls. But the end result was the exact bloody same. You could have swapped those genders around and got the exact same shit we have been getting for the past few years, except now seen through a more shoujo-y filter. It made me depressed. I love anime because of how it can take totally crazy ideas and animate them to make wonderful stories no other medium would even dare to try approach. Yet we were living in an era where it was becoming commonplace to make non-stories about a bunch of kids doing nothing. The announcement of Daily Lives of Highschool Boys struck fear into my heart because I thought perhaps Kimi to Boku was not just a once off, and that cute girls doing nothing was going to spread into other genres. So thank you Daily Dudes. Thank you for not only being that, but satirising the very thing I thought you were going to be.

Maybe expecting this to be anything even similar to Nichijou was a big mistake, but I had hoped this anime would be something similar to it. Still, I think there's a lot of appeal in just reliving the high school days and the unique experiences it allowed us to have with friends. And I got none of that with this anime. For a final comparison to Nichijou, despite it being insanely more whacky and outlandish, I found it way more relatable than this anime. Daily Life of High School Boys is really frustrating because it continues to be on the cusp of something fun andrelatable. But my hopes really started to die away by the first episode. I thought it was charming that the characters would just decide to randomly pretend they were in an RPG regardless of how dumb they looked, and I think that's an important quality to highlight. High school can often be a time when we try to hide and abandon our true selves and/or our favorite hobbies for fear that it may make us look dumb to our peers. So, a true friendship where they can just do what they want is great. One thing I liked about this anime was the real sense of friendship. At first, I thought the student council might in some way be the antagonists or bullies to our trio, but they're not. They make jabs at each other, but at the end of the day, they're friends, and it's very refreshing. But here in lies the problem. As nice as it is to be reminded we can have fun regardless of how we're judged, they do it near constantly. They really can seem like elementary school kids at times. And shouldn't have taken up the bulk of the scenarios. Unless this is just what theater kids do to kill time? I remember playing RPGs with my friends over, and we'd make up our own silly voices for the characters as we played and had a lot of fun in that, so there's definitely something nostalgic it could have tapped into, but it missed its mark. Now for the comedy itself. I probably exhaled air about 5 times during the whole run of this series. There are some "cute" jokes in this that I found mildly amusing, and that's about it. Episode 1 was probably the funniest, mainly because you don't know yet that the series will never try to stray from the very simple jokes. And that's just it; the show is safe and doesn't really try to make a lot of unique jokes. And unfortunately, when they do make a good joke, it's oftentimes that they just drag it out too long, and it loses any punch it had. I enjoyed the joke about the characters slipping into puddles, but after the 2nd or 3rd time, you know what to expect; there's no subversion anymore. Repeating the joke does not make it funnier. Then a lot of the time I can barely even identify the joke. I understand the show can be very lowkey, but it's to the point where I can't even figure out where I'm supposed to laugh. There were a lot of times a scene would end, and all I was left to think was, "ok..." and it gets hard to watch that over and over again. Characters: I'm gonna say it straight off the bat: I really do not like the way basically any of the female characters are written. Yassan is fun, and Ringo is cute and probably the best-written of them, but that's about it. I get it. It's an anime about high school boys, but I get weird objectification vibe from them. I hated the skit where the entire point was just to look up Ringo's skirt, and that's the entire joke. I don't care if they feel ashamed afterward; that's something you don't do. The other girls are just really annoying. They all attack the boys for literally no reason. The scene where they try to shave Motoharu's beard is so weird? Like this literal toddler-type behavior, it's so weird. I'm not asking for these girls to act like your typical dere girls because I'd probably hate them even more, but it's just weird how randomly hostile and loud literally all of them are. There were some real missed opportunities. I liked that at the start, Motoharu seemed to have a great relationship with his sister, which was a bit healthier than most siblings, but then she also turned out to be crazy. It would have been a nice example to show that it's cool to have a great friendship with your sister. Something, again, can easily be made fun of in high school. Anyway, the post-credit funky high school girls... They're super obnoxious, and they don't end up tying into anything by the end, purely pointless. All they do is try to make themselves more appealing to boys, which, again, goes back to that weird objectification. It's taken to the 11th degree, so sure, it's still comedy, but it's just awkward. Plus, they make the same K-on movie joke twice, which is wild to see them just casually not address. The guys aren't much better, they're all so bland and they all blend into each other. I thought the main trio was gonna be fun to bounce off each other at first, but then they barely showed up together for the entire series, and I think that led to a lot of the show suffering because I think a decent dynamic could have been built off of them. It was annoying going into a lot of the different skits because you first had to try and figure out how the characters would react to each other. A lot of comedy revolves around you knowing the characters and their personalities; personalities bounce off each other, and that's what makes for some fun dynamics. So when you don't know what boy A thinks of boy B then you just sit there and watch the joke blandly play out. Lastly, art and music. The art is really bland. Some of the characters look cute, but most of them are average. Some of them look really ugly, some unintentional. I think it was more of a time crunch thing vs anything else, but still, there are a lot of not great shots in this. Because of this blandness, it makes it even harder to determine who's who unless they have some obvious distinguishing factor. Why do the student council boys look so similar to the main trio? There's no point. The girls aren't good either, a lot of them have very similar hair styles so a lot of the time, the characters had to directly say who they were before I understood anything. Also really hated how basically all the girls didn't have eyes. Except for Ringo and Yassan. Just why? It got pretty distracting and only made telling them apart harder. And for the music, it was pretty annoying. So much of it was repeated throughout the series, and it gets grating, especially the skit transition music. A lot of the music I wouldn't mind I think it sounds fine, and I actually like the heavy use of electric guitar, but there's not enough variety. The OP and ED are fiiiine. The ED has a weird charm to it for me, but I know that's just my incredibly weird tastes in music saying that, and to the average person would probably find it rather eargrating. Anyway, this anime is crazy mid, don't watch it. It's just a waste of time.