Snapshot: Kyou no 5 no 2 - 01 October 7
OP Sequence:
 |
 |
 |
OP: “Nisemono” 「ニセモノ」 by Friends: Kobayashi Yuu (小林 ゆう), Shimoda Asami (下田 麻美), MAKO, Akesaka Satomi (明坂 聡美),
Honda Youko (本多 陽子), Asumi Kana (阿澄 佳奈)
Watch the OP!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Show Streaming ▼
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
ED Sequence:
 |
 |
 |
ED: “secret base ~Kimi ga Kureta Mono~” 「secret base ～君がくれたもの～」 by Friends: Kobayashi Yuu (小林 ゆう), Shimoda Asami (下田 麻美), MAKO,
Akesaka Satomi (明坂 聡美), Honda Youko (本多 陽子), Asumi Kana (阿澄 佳奈)
Watch the ED!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Show Streaming ▼
「グラグラ、スーパーボール、ノリノリ、アメフリ」 (Guruguru, Suupaa Booru, Norinori, Ame Furi)
“Loose, Super Ball, In High Spirits, Rainy Weather”
First Glance:
If you’ve been looking for a chapter-based slice of life comedy to fill the void Azumanga Daioh left a long time ago, Kyou no 5 no 2 (Today in Class 5-2) might just fit the bill. Being a huge fan of the Azumanga, I really like the seemingly irrelevant short skits in this series whether they be about pulling loose teeth, having a “super ball” bouncing contest, slacking off during cleaning duty to play air (broom) guitar, or sharing umbrellas in the rain. The whole idea of super laid-back slice of life comedy is prevalent throughout, which I absolutely love, except this time it focuses on a bunch of fifth graders instead. This actually puts a pretty interesting perspective on things, as even the most trivial stuff in a fifth grader’s life can turn out to be really amusing when they put the right spin on it.
Despite some earlier concerns about production quality compared to the OVA that came before it, I have to say that Xebec’s done a pretty good job, so I don’t have any major complaints there. While the characters look relatively plain in accordance to their designs, the animation is clean and sharp overall, which is more than enough for a series of this genre. Under a new director as well, it’ll be interesting to see where Nagasawa Tsuyoshi takes this series, but it’s reassuring to see Kouno Takamitsu onboard in charge of screenplay. With Takamitsu having worked on Comic Party Revolution and Minami-ke season one (which I felt was funnier), I’m hoping he’ll have a bunch of laughs in store of us here. Judging from the first episode though, things seem to be well on their track for an enjoyable season.
For this television series remake, a completely new cast has been used, which on initial inspection seemed like a drastic downgrade from the OVA’s. Having lost the likes of Kuwashima Houko, Kadowaki Mai, Takahashi Mikako, Noto Mamiko, Ueda Kana, Asakawa Yuu, and Chihara Minori, I was left screaming, “Why oh why!?”, since it’s not everyday you see seven of your favorite seiyuus dropped from a series. As they aren’t easy names to replace, I was even more shocked to find out that they’ve opted to do so with a relatively “green” cast. Leading the way as Satou Ryouta is a more experienced seiyuu though, Kobayashi Yuu, whose roles as male characters I’m not a big fan of, but actually does an awesome job here much to my surprise. Aside from the addition of Asumi Kana (Yuno in Hidamari no Sketch), Takagaki Ayahi (Isurugi Noe in true tears), and Hadzuki Erino (Mizunashi Akari in ARIA), the rest of the new cast is out of my usual “seiyuu radar”. Seeing as Erino has been barely cast in anything outside of ARIA, I was actually quite happy to see her use her Akari voice here. Kana on the other hand is another good addition, since she has the kind of voice that just fits a fifth grader. As for the rest of the newcomers, I actually don’t have any complaints, but I’d really like to hear how the original cast sounded, so I’ll probably be watching the OVA soon just to get a taste.
Long seiyuu rant short, the series shows a lot of promise under the new studio and cast, so I’m quite looking forward to this series. It’s not something that requires a lot of attention to enjoy, so I’d recommend it if you need soemthing to sit back and enjoy opposite of your Gundam 00 on Sundays, or if you’re simply a fan of Azumanga Daioh, in which case it’d be hard to ignore this one. These slice of life series are never something I wait eagerly for every week, but when I’m watching them, time just seems to fly by really quickly. Music-wise, the opening and ending theme are performed by six of the female cast members, both of which actually sound really good for seiyuu songs. As such, I’m finding it hard to decide which I like better out of the two, but I think the ending theme “secret base ~Kimi ga Kureta Mono~” comes out on top, being one of the few good slow-paced songs I’ve heard this season.
Chapter-based slice of life comedy with a bunch cute, loud, silly fifth-graders. What more can you ask for?
Notable Cast:
- Satou Ryouta (佐藤 リョータ) : Kobayashi Yuu (小林 ゆう)
- Koizumi Chika (小泉 チカ) : Shimoda Asami (下田 麻美)
- Asano Yuuki (浅野 ユウキ) : Akesaka Satomi (明坂 聡美)
- Aihara Kazumi (相原 カズミ) : MAKO
- Hirakawa Natsumi (平川 ナツミ) : Asumi Kana (阿澄 佳奈)
- Hidaka Megumi (日高 メグミ) : Honda Youko (本多 陽子)
- Imai Kouji (今井 コウジ) : Yamato Megumi (山戸 恵)
- Kawai Tsubasa (河合 ツバサ) : Takagaki Ayahi (高垣 彩陽)
- Tanaka Haruka (田中 ハルカ) : Hadzuki Erino (葉月 絵理乃)
- Tamura-sensei (田村先生) : Hiyama Nobuyuki (檜山 修之)
Chimasternmay at 1:02 am on October 7th, 2008
The art style changed from the OVA but its cool, more episode more fun.
Kyaa + at 1:06 am on October 7th, 2008
I wanted the original art work back, it brought out the funniest in the characters -_-
Plus it looked nicer with all the ecchi stuff ^_^
Luiz at 1:07 am on October 7th, 2008
http://randomc.animeblogger.net:8000/image/Snapshots/Kyou%20no%205%20no%202%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2026.jpg
Uhh.. I don’t like the character designs..
The OVA is WAY better
Rea at 1:08 am on October 7th, 2008
You’re comparing this to Azumanga Daioh? Are you high?
AznCoffee at 1:12 am on October 7th, 2008
…this characters…..
look like they’re from Kanokon… >__>;;
XEBEC you’ve done it again!!
you bastards… >.>
Hirai San Hachi Go at 1:18 am on October 7th, 2008
Waa, this is really-really different from the OVAs, the OVAs were made in 2006, but the quality is way better than this one. Wahh, I really missed Ryota doing his ugly oldman’s face, but it will not look that good compared to the ova. But I’ll watch this anyways, since I, myself is a fan of this series.
lol_matt at 1:20 am on October 7th, 2008
Wait…they gave it a full anime away from the OVA? I don’t like how this is looking -_-…
PoinPoinPoinggg at 1:26 am on October 7th, 2008
@AznCoffee
no, I don’t think so! Kanokon’s character is wayy cuter than this, and the art is soo differnt. (kanokon’s quality is great)
the quality of this one is more like “Crayon Shin-Chan” to me, o well a little bit better.
Whim at 1:44 am on October 7th, 2008
Wow, I actually have read this manga. It was pretty short. I’m assuming this is a only a 12-13 episode run? I probably won’t watch it, but it was reasonably funny in manga form. It’s the kind of thing that you can easily devote 2 hours to reading the whole manga, but 4 hours over several months to watch it seems like it might be a waste of time. I don’t mean to discourage people or anything. If I hadn’t read the manga, I think it’d be on my “maybe” list.
Eleutheria at 1:51 am on October 7th, 2008
I can only say
http://randomc.animeblogger.net:8000/image/Snapshots/Kyou%20no%205%20no%202%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2026.jpg
Character design is fugly compared to manga or the OVA.
frubam at 1:56 am on October 7th, 2008
Do you seriously believe this is sharp and clean? Even if I don’t compare it to the OVA, there’s just not enough substance to keep this going. I had high hopes for this anime, and it failed on every level, its animation, the voices(except Ryouta) esp Aihara, and its new story. Not only that, 3 of the 4 sub-eps were bad rehashes of the OVA >:[
divine at 3:29 am on October 7th, 2008
frubam:
Well, that particular shot is just sharp and jaggedly, but still clean image quality-wise. For a comedy though, I don’t see why people are so focused on the art on every single shot (with that being one of the bad ones) as I have absolutely no qualms with this, but to each his/her own.
outcast at 6:02 am on October 7th, 2008
i think this is a bit more echi/loli compared to azumanga. Also it has a certain degree of romance to it
yomax at 6:40 am on October 7th, 2008
I know that a lot of people already said this but the animation/character design really sux. The OVA was awesome. Plus they changed the seiyus to. The perfect example for this kind of quick change is Minami-ke/Okawari. Minami-ke was okay. Nice animation,cool char design,but they screwed that to with Okawari. I know that Kyou no Go no Ni and Minami-ke are two different anime,but still. Why they have to change something that was awesome and the peoples liked it? After i watched the 1st ep i decided that i ain’t gonna watch this.
Tan-Tan at 7:21 am on October 7th, 2008
OOOH no wonder the first screenshots were familiar (the scene xD)! This was an anime I sort of watched xD Haha, so there’s a season 2 xD Gonna check this out
A Anime Loving Republican at 9:09 am on October 7th, 2008
The character designs are horrible! If they wanted to do a remake that should at least improve the artwork. The OVA was more better than this.
Dragonite88 at 2:39 pm on October 7th, 2008
Yes been a long wait and it is here. I hope it has the same class or humor has before.
Willie at 5:27 pm on October 7th, 2008
more episodes usually equals more fun but . . ..
WHY OH WHY DID THE ANIMATION DOWNGRADE FROM THE OVA?! T__________T
Amyable at 6:07 pm on October 7th, 2008
This is a major step down from the OVA on every conceivable level. Too bad, I was looking forward to this.
Mechwarrior at 7:48 pm on October 7th, 2008
The “normal” character artwork looks really spotty. I dunno, the animation quality doesnt really look that good. Its like a mix of computer cell animation and hand-drawn cells, but not really done too well.