The Great Anime Marathon of 2020! #76 – #80: 4koma manga turned anime!

We’re almost there, to the end of 2020, time to post up a few more of these anime marathon posts before then… though, I still have a lot of them to go! This time, it’s all about those 4 panel short manga’s turned into anime.

The following is a spoiler-free list of anime I’ve seen this year in no particular order:

#76: Lucky Star

• Season 1 including OVA: Complete series to date (dub, OVA: sub)

I don’t even know what to really think of Lucky Star aside from the fact that it’s one of the weird anime where the characters are all much older than they’re portrayed. But, the whole “moe” thing was in full swing at the time that this became popular, so there’s that.

I’m definitely the outlier in this since most people seemed to really like this series back when it first aired, but I found it pretty meh. Just your average pop-culture commentary anime with moe characters. That doesn’t mean it still wasn’t funny in parts though, I just don’t know what all the hype was about. Was it the whole Haruhi thing?

#77: I Can’t Understand What My Husband is Saying

• Seasons 1 and 2: Complete series to date (sub)

This one is as short and sweet as you’d expect from a 4 panel manga strip, but it’s pretty funny. It’s a series of shorts that has some pretty odd humour that, I have to admit, got me quite a few times.

#78: New Game!

• Seasons 1 and 2 including OVA: Complete series to date (dub, OVA: sub)

For a series about a bunch of video game developers working on a game, you’d think you’d get a whole lot more laughs out of it, but this series ends up being mostly boring than anything else.

I think the balance of “wholesomeness” to comedy was all wrong because, as with a lot of anime with “cute girls who look younger than they actually are” it tries to leverage that to no real effect.

Of course, I’m not really the audience since I don’t care about moe or any of that kind of stuff. I dunno, I just wish there was more to this one.

#79: Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun

• Season 1: Complete series to date (dub)

Yup, this one’s a shōjō. How can you tell? All the male characters are absurdly tall, thin and have pointy noses and chines with that same look in their eyes, that’s how.

But damn is it pretty good. Lots of strange humour and antics by all the characters… but most importantly, it doesn’t devolve into sloppy romantic antics despite the way you’d think.

I don’t know what it was about this one, but I had a lot of fun with it.

#80: Azumanga Daioh

• Season 1 including OVAs: Complete series to date (dub, OVAs: sub)

Ah, the classics. Out of all of the four panel short manga turned anime examples we’ve seen so far, this one is the most oddball of them all and remains so after all these years.

You can’t help but laugh at the stupid antics of these girls and it holds up after all these years.