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Review:
Animation:
The simple character designs allowed Kyoani to animate some of the most fluid, crisp and dynamic movements to grace TV animation without having to worry about shadows and lighting effects unlike in say, Haruhi's action sequences. Rarely does a pure comedy get animation quite like this.
Direction:
I thought at times the staff of Nichijou were overly obsessed with being stylish, that they forget to pace the episode properly. The segments that show the same background over the course of a day was thoughtful, but also a real tempo killer. Nichijou doesn't have a plot to mull over during the quieter moments, so sometimes I would be thinking, "just get to the next skit already". I say this, but I really liked Kotoba-Oneesan's "short thoughts" section. I thought her psuedo-profound ramblings were genius.
Otherwise this series really was a Kyoani wonderland, they experiment with various peculiar shots, and really messes with the color palette and the camera size and angles. They also went to town with the different animation styles, with the more angular character designs during action scenes, superflat, along with psychedelic coloring and lineart, especially in that Hellvetica Standard skit. Almost everything was interesting to watch, from the eye-catches to the cute little segments with the animals or the Nano Hakase dancing. All the little stuff come together and really made this series full of life and joy.
Music:
Yuuji Nomi's orchestra was most of the time light and fluffy with the strings and flute. A wonderful contrast with the dramatic tracks that are piano-influenced. The disney-esque music gave it a sense of professionalism and really took this show to a level higher than others. Music direction was most of the times great, and while little problems did occur, it did not impede my enjoyment of the skits.
Content:
Hipster.
Characters:
A memorable ensemble cast defined mostly by their quirks rather than any sort of actual personality, which reminds me of the Simpsons. Among my favorites were Sakurai-sensei, Fe-chan, Mihoshi, the principal, Ogi, Gentleman(seriously, that's his name), and the two dogs. The main cast however, got a lot more development than I expected them to. For me, Yukko and Nano was the star. Both take a lot crap from life, but still remains absolutely adorable.
Overall:
In an age were anime comedies are written around a gimmick, Nichijou stands out for having no gimmicks. Just a spectacular observation and delivery of the "ordinary life" in the most chaotic manner possible, making this show for me so far the comedy of the year. 9/10
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