Notes on Daily Lives of High School Boys - 01
With the Japanese title of Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou, Daily Lives of High School Boys title couldn’t be more simple and appropriate. So what is it about? Well, from the looks of it (since I really have no idea about this anime and just decided to give it a go), it’s about the daily lives of high school boys. Surprised? No, don’t be.
If I were given the chance to rethink of a title for the anime then I would go for Random Daily Lives of Three Batshit Crazy High School Boys.
(L-R): Hidenori Tabata, Tadakuni, Yoshitake Tanaka
Yes, these three are crazy
Plot Summary:
Let me give this anime one short and sweet plot summary. The anime revolves around the everyday insane (and very, very random) antics of Tadakuni, Hidenori, and Yoshitake, three friends who attend an all-boys school.
Episode Summary:
Since the episode doesn’t really have a connecting plot, which resembles the style of Working!!, Mitsudomoe, AND Nichijou, the episode is spliced into short skits.
The first part introduces Tadakuni who is seen leaving his house with a toast on his mouth.
Just a normal Monday morning.
Even the anime concurs with my caption above
After this we are introduced to one of his friends, Yoshitake who eats a curry meal on his way to school (while running mind you.)
More like, the hell are you doing! On a personal note, having this skill is beyond awesome.
Another one of Tadakuni’s friend, Hidenori, appears. He ups the ante displayed by Yoshitake and eats with a bowl of ramen while jogging on the way to school.
You’re obviously supposed to eat a fresh hot bowl of ramen when you’re running late.
Then, a beam falls from the sky and the three witness an explosion.
Explosions seems to be the theme in animes this Winter 2012
Then out of nowhere, Robots (resembling mobile suits) begin to terrorize the town (or city, or - yeah whatever)
At this point, I told myself that I stumbled into another mecha series. Hell, was I wrong. Very wrong.
A robot shoots the trio and a book falls out from somewhere (which my mind couldn’t recollect where it came from).
A Tale of Insanity
The three then began to imagine themselves as warriors who would defeat the mobile suits.
Seriously, something’s wrong here. Why does Tadanuki represent a blond, staff-wielding magician?
It turns out that the scenarios above where the imagination of Hidenori.
It didn’t occur to them that the collab Square and Sunrise were doing is the anime they were starring. What irony.
Apparently, Tadanuki knows he is starring in an anime about everyday normal life. Again, I’m wrong.
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The next part is entitle High School Boys and After School.
On this part we see Tadanuki asking his two friends on how to get a girlfriend. The trio reenacts a situation. What’s funny here is that Hidenori and Yoshitake were completely awkward (and a bit unsightly) acting as girls.
Do high school girls in Japan always look like Yoshitake? Looking from the picture, Yoshitake badly needs a constipation pill.
The three tries various scenarios and fail because of their own silliness and idiocy. The part ends when the three began to realize their futile actions since they attend an all boys school and therefore, have a 0% chance of meeting a high school girl on their campus.
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The next part is entitled High School Boys and Skirts.
The big question of 2012
In this part, the trio (led by Hidenori’s sudden intllectual pursuit for skirts) try what is it like to wear skirts. After “borrowing” the skirts of Tadanuki’s little sister, they set out to feel for themselves how is it like to wear skirts.
As if some of the girls doesn’t have leg hair
This part was outrageously funny especially when it Tadanuki tries to act like a shy girl in front of Hidenori and Yoshitake.
When one of your friends is laughing at the background, what they’re telling you can’t absolutely be the truth.
THIS.
This part finishes when Tadanuki’s little sister suddenly arrives and accidentally caughts her brother and friends messing up with her skirt (and other personal things).
Words can’t express how they (Tadanuki and co.) suddenly want to disappear from the face of the Earth. Especially Tadanuki.
If words can’t express, then surely these faces can.
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The next part is entitled High School Boys and Ghost Stories
Here, we deal with the trio telling ghost stories but interestingly enough none of their tales are scary.
Hidenori tells his story about a girl he saw while eating udon and after eating the girl leaves. Hidenori then proceeds and tells them that there were three chopsticks. This (for some unknown and completely absurd reason) scares Yoshitake and Tadanuki.
Three chopsticks for three idiots
Next, we have Yoshitake tells his own ghost story (in which neither ghosts nor monsters are involve).
A normal concern for young adolescent boys
According to him, tweezers weren’t enough to pull the hair out and that’s when…
Oh God, please Yoshitake, don’t tell me…
PLEASE NOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By this time, I was totally out of breath because of too much laughter
Not wanting to lose to his friends, Tadanuki tells his own ghost story which is about a friend’s puke containing a centipede.
The ghost stories of today’s generation
The part ends when Hidenori and Yoshitake proceed to the bathroom (apparently to puke and find a centipede in their’s) and where completely taken by surprise when they find Tadanuki’s sister puking in the bathroom. The two conclude that she was listening to their stories as well.
Silver, shiny puke FTW
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The next part is entitled High School Boys and Female Companion.
For me, this was the weakest link in the episode since I didn’t really laugh at the premise being presented here.
In this part, Tadanuki was spotted walking with a girl, much to Yoshitake and Hidenor’s, as well as their other male classmates, surprise.
A classmate of theirs named Motoharu suddenly interrupts and deduces that the two couldn’t be possibly a couple based on their awkwardness with each other.
The nickname I would totally allow for others to call me
The part ends with all of them finding out that Tadanuki was just helping out the girl who was lost. All eyes lead to Motoharu who replied, “Well, how was I supposed to know they weren’t a couple?”
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The last part of the episode was entitled Highschool Boys and Literary Girl.
This puts Hidenori in the spotlight as he quietly reads beside the riverbank with the sunset as his background. We are then introduced to Literary Girl who happens to pass by and sees Hidenori.
Reading a small green book entitles you to the name Literary Girl
My heart would have skipped a beat if this had been a romance anime but my mind is telling me that it would crumble to absurdity in the next minute
Hidenori senses Literary Girl’s presence and somewhat came to the conclusion that he should say romantic lines to the girl.
So he summons his inner poet and decides to say this…
Shakespeare would have quit his job as a poet and devote his life to hunting Hidenori upon hearing the above lines.
Embarrassed by what he just said, Hidenori looks at the girl to see if she liked it.
Definitely, the looks of happiness.
After a few seconds, the girl replies to Hidenori
At this rate, Hidenori’s mind was about to explode so he decideds to call his two friends for help. Yoshitake suddenly appears and says the single most unartistic line I’ve heard in my 21 years of existence.
It seems to me he is referring to a large-scale fart
Hidenori continues playing a poet and further spouts poetic lines.
Tadanuki then appears and completely destroys the artistic and poetic interaction between the Hidenori, Yoshitake, and the girl.
The part ends with Hidenori finding out that Literary Girl was turning her fantasy of “a boy meets girl in a riverbank scenario” into reality by choosing to sit near Hidenori. He is disappointed when his supposed to be character was labeled as an introverted and lonely otaku.
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Great pilot episode and for an anime which I didn’t really have high hopes for, it definitely exceeded my expectations. The jokes made were not overtly done and while there were some stale moments, I think that the future episodes would be more funnier and crazier than the first episode. I don’t think that everybody will get the jokes though but anyone who manages to tune in to the same wavelength of Danshi Koukousei will surely enjoy this anime made by the collaboration of Square-Enix and Sunrise Studios.
