Nichijou, Vol. 4

日常 (Nichijou) #4

by Keiichi Arawi

普段はおとなしめな夢見る女子高生・みおのまわりにはロボやら大福やら謎なものがいっぱい。四巻に待ち受けるのはさらに微妙な日常。話題のポストモダンギャグ第4巻！

Genres: Manga, Comedy, Comics, Humor, Fiction, Slice Of Life, Graphic Novels

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 26, 2009

About the author

Keiichi Arawi (あらゐ けいいち, Arawi Keiichi) is a Japanese manga artist and illustrator.
Arawi was born in the prefecture of Gunma in 1977. He started his comics career at age 19 and for about a decade he published short stories. His series Nichijou, a slice of life comedy manga, was first serialised between 2006 and 2015 in the magazine 'Shonen Ace', and collected in ten volumes. In 2011 Nichijou was adapted into a 26-episode anime directed by Tatsuya Ishihara, now considered a cult. From 2016 to 2021 Arawi worked on the comedy manga CITY. In 2022 he resumed the serialisation of Nichijou, as well as starting a new strip called Amemiya-san.

Reviews

[Sam Quixote · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ah well, it had to happen: an unfortunately crappy book from Keiichi Arawi, my favourite new creator. The fourth volume of Nichijou doesn’t have nearly the amount of fun sketches that I’ve gotten used to reading in this series.

I laughed at the teacher in love with the other teacher and the repeating gag. The poor hapless principal is still funny - this time not only did his toupee fall off but also his false teeth!

The best characters, the Professor, Nano and Mr Sakamoto, didn’t really have any great scenes but the Professor is just so cute. And it’s interesting to see Nano has a nemesis now: the school’s science teacher, who wants to study her!

Otherwise, a lot of the stuff here just fell flat. The word chain drawing, the fantasy realm (still the worst part of this series), the baffling Go/Soccer club, and the blossoming romance between one of the girl’s and Sasahara - all so meh.

Nichijou, Volume 4 is a very weak addition to the series but hopefully this is just a blip and the quality will pick back up again soon.

[LG (A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Miss Sakurai's younger brother becomes (or always was?) a student at the high school, joining the Go/Soccer club and giving Mr. Takasaki anxiety. Ms. Nakamura, the science teacher, makes several attempts to capture Nano in order to study her. The principal continues to have more animal and toupee issues. Mio is exceptionally bad at sports or anything physical. Also, it looks like Nakanojou, the kid with the mohawk, is becoming more of a series regular, poor guy.

This series continues to be reasonably fun, if a bit too weird to truly be funny, with enough new things happening in each volume to keep the jokes from getting stale.

Extras:

A couple full-color pages, a page detailing a few things from the professor's laboratory/home, and a page of random Nichijou facts.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh.

[AB · Rating 5 out of 5]

The world of nichijou is expanding and it keeps proving that this ordinary looking world has nothing ordinary in it at all.

[Mehsi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nichijou is one of those manga series that I just look forward to.

It is also a series which has humour that is hit and miss. Some jokes work fine for me, some jokes just get old. For instance in this one I was just annoyed with the professor’s childish things. Yes, I know she is a child, but it seems she never does grow up. Instead she does the most stupid things, blames it on others, hurts people’s feelings, and in overall she is the least favourite of all my characters.

Luckily the rest of the volume was great. There are some recurring jokes, or things that go on through the whole volume. I love that. It makes the jokes even better because afterwards you can still laugh when you see, for instance, a crow, and then think back to what happened when those showed up. And of course there are just things that keep ongoing in every book, like Mio’s love for Sasahara (though I still can’t see why she likes him), or Yukko’s continued stupidity.

This time we also had the science teacher going after Nano, and all the hilarity that ensues because of the stuff she tries to get Nano. This is then also followed by several sketches where 1 student gets into trouble (both times the same guy, poor fella), and another goes to find a teacher only to get x reaction about it.

I also saw several parts that I still recognised from the anime, and it was a lot of fun to see them again in this volume. Like the espresso, and how Yukko just got so confused at it all.

We have a big cast of characters and I always love to see each of them get a bit of the spotlight, even if it is only a small part.

The art is also still very fitting for this kind of manga. At times it is silly, at times it is detailed. You never know what you will get with Nichijou.

I have to give extra points to the cover, Nichijou sure does have funny covers which hint very closely to the content of the volume.

All in all, I can’t wait for the next volume to come out! And I would recommend this series (manga and anime) to everyone.

Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/

[Emmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the funniest book in the series so far. Sooo many excellent moments from the anime. There were several times that I literally laughed out loud while reading this book, and I'm very glad I was alone at the time, haha.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

The theme park chapter with Yukko's lost wallet is the best evereverever.

[Nadina · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, after reading four volumes I will not be continuing this series. I find the changes in the layout from chapter to chapter to be quite confusing, you have to spend the first page figuring out if you are reading right to left from top to bottom or top to bottom then left to right. Additionally I feel as if there are too many characters to follow. Finally it is really hard to figure out the ages of the various characters as everyone looks the same age. It could have had potential, it just needed a little more focus.

[Penguin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn’t enjoy this one as much as the past few volumes, but still overall hilarious. Some gags and settings didn’t hit me that much (the bit about the princess and the subordinates entertaining her was alright) but there were still a few that did (the coffee shop one was endlessly hilarious yet relatable as someone not too knowledgeable on all things coffee). While it was a bit of a dip downwards for me, I’m still endlessly excited to continue this series.

[Luke Larson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I felt so seen in Chapter 67 and 68.5. Especially since the revamped Daiku Coffee very obviously takes inspiration from Starbucks and the sizes make no sense. Then, chapter 68.5 Yukko takes Mio to the store wanting to show off her new knowledge and watch Mio suffer like she had in chapter 67, but Mio ordered flawlessly. How Mio ordered is practically like another language to the likes of Yukko and me.

[Aaron F. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am continuing to enjoy this funny/comedic manga series. My favorite so far is the building story between the guidance counselor at the school and the teacher Mr. Takasaki! The daily lives of these characters that are filled with randomness, humor, and silly moments really does help bring some smiles and laughter to my days.

[Vilma Diaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series is kind of ridiculous. It's a slice of life, but a slice of life filled with the absurd and the extraordinary. We have robots, talking cats, and kid mad scientists. And that's just in one family. It's a quick, silly read. I've requested the next volume.

[Nam · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were quite a few funny ones here. My faves were the coffee shop, the theme park, and the daruma.

[Stick · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really funny book with not that many translation issues. Some jokes just don't work due to the language barrier though.

[Josephine (biblioseph)]

Not as big a fan of the teacher hijinks as the students. So far volume 2 is my favorite of these bizarre sketch series.

[Jessica DeSanto · Rating 4 out of 5]

This manga series is just a bright little part of the day. It is so funny and I love the characters they truly crack me up.

[Eva · Rating 4 out of 5]

i really like this manga series the style is so cute and funny!

[Maya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love how everything on the cover appears in the manga. Like the 80 points test or the 4016 Yen that were in Yuko’s wallet.
Brilliant!

[Faith · Rating 4 out of 5]

So charismatic and funny, I'm sad there are only 10 volumes.

[Siobhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was actually quite funny in some places.

[Anne Wi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read volumes 1 - 4 so far. I find this series pretty funny. I also think high schoolers will be able to relate to several situations in this series.

[Slater · Rating 3 out of 5]

(2.5) so sad it wasn't a great 4/20 read

[Leo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one felt like it had a lot more ordinary shorts than the other ones

[Vanilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn’t really get it but it was good
Why I really didn’t get it was cuz I didn’t read the 1 book so yeah

[Beck B · Rating 2 out of 5]

As usual, some short fast-paced stories with nonsensical humor. Not as funny as the previous volumes but still enjoyable.

[Terrence · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I thought the last volume was the best yet, this one was a step back, especially if you're a fan of the anime. The vast majority of this volume is stuff that was adapted for the small screen, and it's just personally not my favorite content. While Nichijou isn't a big feel good series, as characters are the butt of jokes most of the time, there's usually a cute moment or two throughout, but these particular stories all caught our characters at their worst with not a lot of levity to end their chapters.

The unadapted content is pretty sparse, one being a strip with no spoken dialogue.

There were two things I liked about this volume though. It explained what the deal is with the Daruma's one painted eye with a translator's note, and there's a page or two of extra content in the book with additional little tidbits you won't find in the book, like the name of Mai's cat.

Overall, not my favorite volume. While I do think there were better panels towards the end, it still fell flat. Also, Eh-chan says "Whaaaat" in this translation, so, Eh, I don't like that change much here.

[Matisse · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love you, Weirdly Japanese Peanuts. This volume went a bit more dry and mundane than the last one, and it's nice that Arawi switches it up once in a while.

Also: Sakamoto looks fuggin' shifty in the manga. In the Anime, he's a mildly-frightened-looking cat, but here, he just looks like he's got something to hide. There are a few vignettes that end with him just staring, almost like he's plotting his time. (It's hilarious, of course.)

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arawi really uncorks the weird in this one. It's more what I wish the rest of the series has been so far. There were still a number of gags that went right over my head, but I laughed out loud plenty.

[Holly Letson · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like Yotsuba&! or My Neighbor Seki, you will love this hilarious series.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

He never misses a beat.