Daily Lives of High School Boys Review

High School Boys Are Cringe

Daily Lives of High School Boys (Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou / 男子高校生の日常) is a comedy anime series from 2012. Chances are, you’ve come across something from this series before. I know I had. But, I didn’t know it was this series until I watched it.

That said, Daily Lives of High School Boys isn’t on the same level of cultural relevance as some similar anime. Everyone has come across Nichijou and Azumanga Daioh content. Azumanga, in particular, is all over the internet. This series isn’t on that level.

Okay, but why not? Is it worse than those series? It might be worse than Nichijou — I haven’t actually watched that one yet. But, I’d say it’s about on par with Azumanga. The big difference between this series and those series is the cast. The main cast is male.

There are a lot of female characters, whom I’ll get to. But, the main characters are male. And, that’s probably one reason why this series isn’t as popular online. After all, the scene I’d seen of this show before watching it had to do with the female characters.

So, who are the main characters? There’s Tadakuni, the boring guy. There’s Hidenori Tabata, the brains (imagination) of the trio. And there’s Yoshitake Tanaka, the wildcard. For the most part, Hidenori and Yoshitake are the ones creating scenarios. Then, Tadakuni is the one who gets caught up in those scenarios.

My big issue with these characters, though, is that high school boys are cringe. Not all of the male characters are cringe. But, the main trio are. Personally, I much prefer the male characters who make up the student council. They have more interesting personalities and associated gags.

High School Girls Are Funky

The female characters in Daily Lives of High School Boys are the funnier characters. I like them way more than any of the boys. Specifically, I like Tadakuni’s little sister, Ringo, Yassan, and Habara. Those are the best four characters.

Now, to be fair, some of these girls are funny because of their interactions with the boys. Tadakuni’s little sister’s whole character relies on her relationship to Tadakuni. I mean, she doesn’t even have a name. But, I liked seeing her reactions to the things the main male trio got up to.

Ringo is the student council president of another, nearby school. The majority of her content involves her interacting with the student council of Sanada North. And, what makes her funny is how she’s the opposite of those boys. They all look like troublemakers but are very serious. She looks serious but is a troublemaker (and she’s dumb).

Yassan’s another girl who almost exclusively interacts with the boys. However, she’s different than Tadakuni’s little sister and Ringo. She doesn’t rely on the boys to be funny. She’s funny on her own because of the embarrassing situations she gets herself into. It just so happens to often involve the boys, usually Hidenori.

Habara might be the best of the girls. At the end of most episodes, after the credits, there’s a special segment called High School Girls Are Funky. Habara is one of the three main girls from this segment. Though, these girls also show up at other points.

What makes Habara good is how everyone else is afraid of her. When they were younger, Habara was wild and would often get into fights. So now, everyone has their guard up around her. But, Habara doesn’t really understand that and thinks she’s unpopular for other reasons.

This Series Grew On Me

At the start of the series, I didn’t think Daily Lives of High School Boys was very good. After the first two or three episodes, I had it rated as a 4/10. But, it got better as the series progressed.

There are a few reasons why I think this happened. First, I probably got used to the comedy of the series. It wasn’t for me at the start. But, I liked it by the end, which could mean I started to “get it” more as time went on.

Second, more characters were introduced as the series went on. So, that meant there was less content featuring the characters I didn’t like and more content featuring those I did. You know, like more of the female characters.

And third, it could be that the content later in the series really was better. I’m not going to discount that as an option.

I’m going to go with the second reason as being the most likely reason why this series grew on me. There was more female character content in the second half of the season. And, as I mentioned, the female characters were the best characters.

At this point, it’s pretty clear that Daily Lives of High School Boys isn’t getting another season. I assume there’s more source material to cover. But, it’s been 12 years. With that said, I would definitely be interested in a reboot that focused on the girls.

The end of the final episode teases a movie about the High School Girls Are Funky trio (as a gag). but, I wish that was real. It was a Godzilla vs. King Kong-style movie about Habara and her arch nemesis, whose name I forget. That would have been awesome to see.

Final Thoughts

In the end, I bumped my score of Daily Lives of High School Boys up to a 6/10. It’s a fine anime that’s pretty funny at times. But, there are definitely slow points and gags that were just too cringe for me. It doesn’t reach the peak of comedy anime, KonoSuba.

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