First Impressions: Kyou no Go no Ni

Oct 27 2008 • Anime

I had some free time the other day and decided to watch the first episode of Kyou no Go no ni, or Today in Class 5-2. In the pre-airing hype, I thought that this series might give me something to laugh about after a day at work. Unfortunately, I didn’t find the first episode to be funny at all.

No plot, little comedy, decent animation.

The premise of Kyou no Go no Ni is fairly simple - daily snapshots of the antics of a slightly perverted elementary school class. This type of scenario had the promise of being a mixture of being cuteness and comedy - I had anticipated that any pervertedness would be gesture- or discussion-based, as so many of my students are fond of. Instead, I got finger sucking (and biting), carefully drawn Marilyn Monroe-type skirt shots, and on a more traditional note, umbrella sharing.¹ In other words, typical anime fare usually reserved for adults or at least, high school students.

I’m not alone in voicing my confusion - Gia @ a geek by any other name also had mixed feelings about the first episode, especially in comparison to the OVA. Normally, I don’t take into account these types of comparisons but because 3 out or 4 skits were taken straight from the OVA, it’s more difficult to ignore. The gist of what Gia thought was that this first episode simply wasn’t as memorable and I have to agree. But in my case, this may be because the real life version of events² is much more hilarious than anything in this first episode.

The thing that caught my interest the most was the accuracy of the classroom. I don’t watch a lot of school-based anime, so maybe I’m just being naive, but they captured the details perfectly.

The blackboard area is almost the same at every single one of my schools.

The storage boxes in the back of the room are nicer than at most of my schools but the layout is exactly the same.

Will I keep watching? To be honest, I’m not quite sure. I hate to stop and drop a show after just 1 episode but I feel like I actually watched 4 short ones. Maybe what I should do in lieu of a mid-series review and a final review is plunder the episodes for useful screencaps that could illustrate school life. Any thoughts on this? Or should it just be dropped?

1. I heard that it used to be considered romantic for a man and woman to share the same umbrella…how times have changed. [↩]
2. Being bitten on the butt comes to mind. [↩]

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Comments

Ryan A

Added on Oct 27 2008 at 09:41

I can’t believe you were bitten D: I don’t know much about this series, but I think a few bloggers didn’t like the designs.

Blowfish

Added on Oct 27 2008 at 23:20

I really liked the OVAs but the first 3 episodes were a total waste of time for me.Basically Recaps of the OVA and what was most fun for me,the ecchi things,were left out.

Meh…:/

Sasa

Added on Oct 28 2008 at 01:13

Oh goodness, preschool kids. I’m sorry but somehow this is quite funny! This reminds me of the movie I watched recently, “A King in New York”.

Concerning Kyou no 5 no 2 - what can I say, I used to love the manga and have read it over and over again back then. I’m trying to stick with the anime for that reason, but find it somewhat difficult to do so, because I kind of agree with everyone that this anime is… somewhat un-funny?

Caitlin

Added on Oct 28 2008 at 18:31

@Ryan A: Neither could I. Well, I’ve been bitten before but never on the butt.

@Blowfish & Sasa: Thanks - I think that I will just drop this series and not pursue any other episodes. I also have a lot on my plate to get through, IRL. ^_^

blissmo

Added on Oct 28 2008 at 19:24

I agree, I didn’t really find this episode hilarious, but there were a few parts that got me smiling. Still, I did expect more, but I suppose even shows like Lucky Star had me so confused that I didn’t find any of it funny either. In this case, it was just plain weird but from far away, the kids are extremely adorable :D

Shin

Added on Oct 31 2008 at 12:25

I like anime featuring little boys and girls but the TV series just peeved me to no end as it can barely compare to the otherwise great OVA.

mellow_bunny

Added on Nov 16 2008 at 19:13

Yeah this show looked like it had promise but the execution was very dull. Totali summed it up when he said something about putting fingers in her mouse.. didn’t really make sense to me. Anyway onwards to the rest of the season!

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