| Azumanga Daioh | |
| Episode 01 | |
 | |
| Air date | April 08, 2002 |
| Written by | Ichiro Okouchi |
| Directed by | Hiroshi Nishikiori |
| Episode Guide | |
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Child High School Student / She's a Prodigy / Scary Maybe? / Wildcat Tomo-chan! / The Osakan Gal (Japanese: こども高校生』 『天才です』 『こわいかな？』 『爆走ともちゃん！』 『大阪人や』) is the first episode of Azumanga Daioh.
Synopsis[]
Introduction of Chiyo Chan.
Part 1: Child High School Student
While running late to school, the Yukari Tanizaki's bike unexpectedly breaks down. The late male student stops by his teacher. Yukari mentions her possible reprimands from the vice-principal, and she kicks her bike in temper. After stopping her reckless behavior, the student soon discover that the bike chain is off and offers to fix it back. Unknowingly, Yukari steals his bike and speeds away.
She enters the class and recites her welcoming address and her measurements, but one of the class students reminds her that her actual class is at the next door, Room 3-1, which she demeaningly realizes that she has been in the wrong class, Room 4-1. She enters Room 3-1 as homeroom teacher, and she introduces Chiyo Mihama, a ten-year-old child prodigy who skipped middle school. She also tells them not to bully her. After Kimura is featured as cameo, Chiyo goes in food-making segment, cooking Neko-Koneko and her dad while singing "Let's Make It". After she finishes her work, she admits that both of her creations aren't look like food at all--presumably plush toys.
Part 2: She's a Prodigy
Chiyo teaches Chihiro some English, and Yukari (Cheering "Oh! Go! Fight! Fantastic!" in English, with a comment saying she is the English teacher technically) mentions that Chiyo is giving a help for anyone, but Chihiro sadly confesses that she is the one who seeks help, crying randomly. At lunch break, Kaorin and a friend invites Chiyo to eat lunch together. Chiyo tells them that despite school lunches are less she is making a lunch by her own, making them surprised. She opens her lunch, displaying a delicious meal which astonishes them further. Next, she makes double bridge with Yomi, and Yomi asks her which things she is not good in. Chiyo replies that she is not good in tongue twisters. As she recites one, Yomi is blindly bewildered by her cuteness.
During the next class, a male strict teacher (one-time appearance) orders the students to raise their hands if they haven't done with homework. Several of them including Tomo and Chihiro volunteered, and, nevertheless, Chiyo is included. The teacher tells them to do their homework better next time and beats their heads with his notebook, but he gets surprised by Chiyo's weeping eyes and her reason. Feeling sympathetic, he hits her head lightly. In second food-making segment, singing Chiyo bakes a cake with strawberries and vanilla icing and a basket of assorted cookies. As she is about to tell everybody to eat together, Yomi and Tomo blankly eats her desserts without warning. Chiyo tries to stop them in panic.
Part 3: Scary Maybe?
Chiyo, as class representative or president, obtains career sheets from few of her classmates, and lastly Sakaki, the soft-spoken, quiet girl. As she comments how intimidating Sakaki is, she reads Sakaki's three career plans: veterinarian, florist, and stuffed animal collector, concluding she is not scary at all. During the gym class, Kaorin and her friend admire Sakaki behind her, and Kaorin finds a cat drawing on Sakaki's underwear before wearing her bloomers, indicating she finds something cute. In the regular class, she greets Sakaki, and narrates her astronomy club. When Sakaki says that she could join, Kaorin shyly regrets her for letting her come and leaves.
After school, Sakaki finds a stray black cat sleeping on the wall. She slowly reaches her hand at him to pet, but is immediately bitten. On the next day during the class, she had her hand bandaged on bite marks, and Chiyo asks what happened. Sakaki ignores her and stands at the window, hinting her that someone was having a bad time. Chiyo guesses that Sakaki had picked a fight. After that, Sakaki walks down the same path, thinking that the cat may have been cooled down. The same cat appears, yawning twice and crawls near her. So Sakaki kneels to pet her again with her same hand, but again the cat gnaws her hand.
The scene quickly cuts toTomo Takino, identifying herself as fastest and most energetic wildcat on school. She does corridor sprinting, pool swimming and pole jumping which causes her to land her body flat hilariously. As she opens the classroom door, she notices Miss Yukari is already present, meaning she is late. She performs self-punishment outside, not realizing that Yukari doesn't care about it.
Part 4: Wildcat Tomo-chan!
Carrying two buckets of water while standing, Tomo guarantees that she may deserve a highlight in high school by her strength and endurance. After five minutes, her arms shake slightly by buckets' weight. Another five minutes pass, she gets more tension due to weakening muscles, but doesn't care about it. Five more minutes pass, she is even more tired by constant carriage, and still cannot give up. And final five minutes, accumulating over twenty minutes, she becomes too exhausted as if she is tortured. She gets distracted by unseen passing students, and she slips and falls, soaking herself by a flood. She yells for help and a towel, while her noisiness annoys Yukari.
The scene again cuts to Tomo's demonstration: challenging child prodigy Mihama Chiyo Chan in academics. As Yukari requests an answer from Chiyo, the latter doubts. Tomo raises her hands for an answer, but her answer is "I don't know either," and she ends up that both are tied. During the lunch break, Tomo calls out to buy food from cafeteria. Yomi and a classmate replies for their food, and Tomo zooms away. As she returns with a pack of lunch meal, she asks Yomi what was her running time. Yomi didn't time her.
On Tomo's second demonstration: challenging Sakaki in athletics. She faces her to run 100 meters in one lap. Bystanders are the starter Chiyo, cheerer Kaorin and skeptic Yomi. Kaorin doubts how could Tomo challenge Sakaki in the race, and asks Yomi if she had some tricks or traps. Yomi declines it. As Chiyo prepares the race, Tomo pauses her, requesting Sakaki to move back 8 centimeters because Sakaki's breast is 8 centimeters long. It causes Kaorin to advocate Tomo's cheapskate. As the race starts, Tomo dashes behind Sakaki. However, Sakaki takes her position, and Tomo pushes herself to run faster, in which ultimately fails. Sakaki wins, and Kaorin treats her with a face towel. Tomo collapses on the ground at the finish line, defeated and worn out. She then exclaims in Pyrrhic victory, claiming she is the runner-up although she has technically lost the challenge. Yomi tells everyone to go home, but Tomo shouts again, irritating her.
Part 5: An Osakan Gal
On the next day, Miss Yukari announces her class that there is another newcomer on town. She adds that the transfer student is an Osakan girl. Tomo hears this, having thoughts of cultural icons. She tells Yomi of a new rival, the Tsuskomi (in a common comedic act in Japan, a comedian [boke] does stupid things, and a partner [tsukkomi] corrects them by beating him) and commands her to beat her slightly. Yomi does so and said "Why the hell?!", and Tomo intentionally crashes throughout the room, messing up everything with scattered desks and chairs.
After the classroom is tidied up, Yukari enters in Ayumu Kasuga. Kasuga recites herself in front of the class in standard Japanese dialect, but Yukari suggests her to use Kansai dialect instead. Questions from her new classmates about Osakan stereotype (such as crossing the road in red light) bewilders her.
During the class, Kasuga wonders about being in the class in confusion when trying to blend in with Tokyo students, so she motivates herself to "get yourself together", in which Yukari prompts her to do it when she is not listening to her lecture. After the class, Tomo calls her "Osaka," a new nickname, and everyone, even Chiyo, agrees, even though it is an ethnic stereotype for Kasuga. She is thus officially nicknamed "Osaka-san."
Adapted From[]
Referbacks[]
None, since this is the first episode.
Trivia[]
Characters[]
- Chiyo Chan
- Osaka
- Tomo
- Yomi
- Sakaki
- Kaorin
- Chihiro
- Yukari
- Mr. Kimura (Cameo)
- Ohyama (Cameo)
- Kamineko (Cameo)
Cultural References[]
- Chiyo's stuffed animal making.
- Chiyo's classmates are amazed at the fact that she makes her own lunch not only because she is young, but because most students in Japan have their parents do it for them.
- Chiyo creates the double bridge formation in a Japanese version of cat's cradle. This is the bridge before the entrance to the imperial palace.
- Chiyo is the "daily helper" here, a reference to the fact that Japanese students in will take turns on day duty. For that day, the person on day duty will be in charge of various miscellaneous chores, such as passing things out, collecting papers, and erasing the chalkboard at the end of the day.
- Sakaki considers becoming a stuffed animal boutique owner.
- Tomo decides to stand in the hallway holding full buckets of water because she was late to class. This is a reference to old-time punishment in Japanese schools, which is becoming more rare.
- When Tomo says she's having bread for lunch, she doesn't mean it literally. Meals in Japan are generally categorized into meals based on rice or bread. It could mean sandwiches, pastries, buns or something else.
- Tomo's imagination shows her impression of Osakans: The Tsutenkaku tower, a famous landmark of Osaka, and octupus balls (or takoyaki). The octopus balls are dough stuffed with a piece of octupus and served with a savory sauce. They are a favorite festival food, but Osaka is especially known for them and for its good food in general.
- Tomo asks Ayumu Kasuga about Japanese pizza. Also known as okonomiyaki, it is another food associated with Osaka. It is like an omelet in that usually contains various kinds of meats and vegetables, but instead of egg, a doughy flour and egg mixture encases the ingredients. The batter and toppings are fried together on a flat surface and served with some kind of sauce. Like Tomo says, it is strange to eat okonomiyaki with rice because okonomiyaki is a meal by itself.
- Kansai people, as mentioned by Tomo, are people from the Kansai region of Japan southwest of Tokyo. Part of this area are the cities Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe. The Kansai accent refers to many different dialects from the Kansai region. Ayumu Kasuga speaks one of these, which is associated with Osaka specifically, although it is softer than Yukari initially would like it to be.
Unanswered Questions[]
- Why Chiyo-chan makes plush toys and calls it "cooking" while singing.
- What Chihiro needed help from Chiyo with.
- What kind of homework it was that the male teacher appearing in this episode scolded his students for forgetting about.
- When Tomo had time to challenge Sakaki to a race at school.
Memorable Moments[]
- The show's logo is hit right out of the sky by either a baseball or a clay pigeon as the main cast is saying "It's Azumanga!", thus kicking off the show; while baseballs/clay pigeons are being fired into the air, Chiyo walks through a crowd of students, but only her flopping pigtails are visible; later, the logo shows up on the back of Kimura's head (Kimura goes unnamed in this episode).
- Yukari gets late on her first day of school and steals the bike of a male student who is also late. She then walks into the wrong classroom.
- Tomo, Yomi, Sakaki, Kaori, and Chihiro are formally introduced.
- Chiyo, the ten-year-old prodigy, is introduced to the rest of her class.
- Two small interludes showing Chiyo cooking while singing. The first interlude sees her produce a Neco Coneco and Chiyo-chichi plush, while the other has her produce a cake and a platter of cookies, both of which Tomo and Yomi proceed to eat amidst Chiyo's protests. Both interludes come out of left field, have no bearing on the plot, and are considerend "Big-Lipped Alligator Moments".
- Yukari comes to a table where Chiyo and Chihiro are sitting, and automatically assumes Chiyo is getting help. As it turns out, it's the other way around, and Chihiro breaks down in tears, believing that because she's getting help from a child prodigy, it makes her stupid. Later, Chihiro can be seen being comforted by a nameless female student with pigtails (rather insensitively, Kaorin is sitting at a table across the way, rather than supporting her best friend).
- While disciplining students for not doing their homework (Chiyo, Tomo, and Chihiro among them), the teacher is taken aback by Chiyo's youth and cuteness (not to mention her show of fear), and only lightly taps her with the book rather than swatting her like the other students.
- Sakaki, who comes across as cool, scary or mysterious, is revealed to have a softer centre than expected which confuses her classmates.
- Sakaki encounters Kamineko, the cute but evil cat, for the first time.
- While preparing for a race in PE, Tomo tells Sakaki to move back 8 centimeters due to her breasts being 8 cm bigger than Tomos.
- Ayumu Kasuga, who unexpectedly behaves in a way that doesn't match the cultural stereotypes (causing Tomo to suspect that she is an impostor), joins the class and is nicknamed "Osaka" immediately because of where she came from.
Quotes[]
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