Azumanga Daioh: More Of My Favourite Moments
Chiyo and Sakaki are playing with a skipping rope in a neighborhood park. More of her High-School friends show up, see how much fun they’re having, and join in. At this point, there is no one else in the park, in the streets, or in their city. Their Japan, and universe surrounding, disappears. All that exists is these high school kids getting back in touch with a simple pleasure in life, the world now theirs and our own. It’s a scene of rejuvenation of the inner-child.
Chiyo & Kagura’s Trip To The Kwik-E Mart
Episode 19, already magnificently directed this far, has one of my favourite shots in the entire show. At night, Chiyo and Kagura are looking up at the falling petals of a cherry blossom tree. Behind that is a lamp-post with two lights. Two girls, a source of light above them and a tall vertical plant between them. Two lights at the top, separated in the middle by the pole. The light source is at the top of the screen, and both of these girls sit in relative darkness and looking up, as they discuss where they want to go with life and where they are. They see themselves in a developmental stage, beneath brighter years yet to come.
Appreciating Yomi
While most of the girls are caught up in gabbing about their trip to an amusement park Yomi could not attend, Chiyo remembers not to ignore or forget about their friend, who’s cold prevented her from joining them. The others are too loud for us to hear Chiyo offering Yomi a souvenir she bought, and Yomi’s subsequent thanks. Maybe they don’t hear it either, but they know what they are saying. These are two kindred spirits of shared intelligence. They speak on the same level, and Chiyo has a longer history with her than anyone else on the show.
In fact, despite Chiyo’s admiration of Sakaki, I think she aims to be like Yomi more often. I believe she sees Yomi as being a more achievable goal, you could say. Chiyo will never have long dark hair, a cool demeanor or be 6 feet tall. But would she resemble something along the lines of Yomi in a few given years? I don’t think that’s too much of a stretch.
Yes, she had just as much fun as her friends at “Magical Land”, and not all of her friends are rubbing it in or being inconsiderate, but she was able to keep that from overloading her priorities. Making sure her friends feel wanted is of higher importance than her own enjoyment. In a way, this scene is more about Chiyo’s unwavering respect and admiration for Yomi than about Yomi herself. These two rarely have a scene to themselves, and it’s an even more uncommon sight for Tomo to not come along like fries with a coke. This was a welcome, if temporary release from that. For us and for them.
Osaka’s Very Own Episode
I’ve watched this one again and again, and it’s always wonderful. Little else has spoken so much to me about my own experiences growing up, and of throwing myself at the educational system in hopes of sticking. And I always like it when a show acknowledges eye-floaters, and the futile pursuit that goes with them.
Chopsticks Are SERIOUS BUSINESS
We finally see in the penultimate episode that Osaka has a mean-streak about something. And that something is breaking chopsticks. Tomo disobeys the instructions necessary to separate them from their original, joined state, and this sets Osaka off. This is one of my favourite scenes. The way they drew her cute little hissy fit, and the way she’s voiced never fails to crack me up. It’s so uncommon for this girl to fly off the handle like that, and of all things. Although I suspect she’s more worried than angry at Tomo. The girls are all concerned about their college entrance exams. If the good luck “charm” of cleanly breaking the chopsticks in two did work, then Tomo’s failure to do this would surely herald doom… We worry about our friends.
“Ero-Ero”
Possibly the best gag the show has to its name, it would be criminal for me to even begin to describe it. There are movies that aren’t constructed this well.
Revenge For Ghengis Khan
Another I dare not spoil, this one is humorous in and out of context, and it’s one hell of a punchline. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you’ll know it when you see it.
Since Chiyo is not taking the college entrance exams with the other girls but still wants to support them, all she can do is pray. The method she chooses for this is a touching and clever tribute to her friends.
Bummed out that a particularly rewarding day is behind them, Tomo raises a suggestion: They should have a victory parade. This is my favourite scene from my favourite show. I do not think it’s going to leave me, for as long as I exist. There is no other moment in Azumanga Daioh quite as artistic, or as enchanting. How many of you can face the declining days of your youth with a smile and a spring in your step? It takes a special kind of craziness, some gumption and a lot of inner-strength. We are watching four young women happily parading, not toward their eventual demise, but into the rest of their lives.
Television is seldom this brave.
END OF LINE
~A.H.
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