Review of AHO-GIRL

Believe it or not, I originally looked down on Aho Girl. I read its premise, watched some clips of it on YouTube, and told myself: "Yeah, this seems like a very dumb comedy with very little tought put into it and, worse still, an infuriatingly stupid protagonist who will make this whole experience insufferable and unfulfilling to watch". And proceeded to avoid this anime like the plague for a few years afterwards. That was until one day where, for one reason or another, I found myself bored in my room with nothing to do. When suddently, across my mind, the mental image of what I thenbelieved to be that "dumb, stupid" anime appeared for no reason in particular, and I said: "Hey, why don't I give it a chance. After all, it can't be as bad as I originally said it to be, right? And I don't really have anything better to do anyways, so I might aswell do". So I went out of my way, checked the MAL entry for this anime, saw each episode only lasted 12 minutes each and decided to go for a watch.

And well, what did I saw?

Surprisingly enough a show who, despite its overall simplicity, manages to play right in such a masterfull way that it might even get a chuckle or two out of even some the more stern-faced anime fans that lie out there. Sure, Aho Girl might be a "dumb and stupid" anime in the eyes of many, but honestly, after finishing its 12 episodes I wouldn't say there was "no tought put behind it" is exactly the fairest of statements; otherwise, how would the creators of this gem know how to engineer it in such a way it becomes possible one of the best gag humor anime there might be out there? Hiroyuki (the author of the manga who later down the line would be adapted into Aho Girl) very clearly knowns what is good when it comes to comedy in anime, and it shows.

For starters, the fact that each episode of this series last so little and, as if that weren't enough already, is divided exactly in half between two sections who present two different stories completely unrelated to one another, allows Aho Girl to cram itself with joke after joke after joke after joke for the simple fact it has as many of them it can adapt so many from the manga as it could want and so little time to do so, that it can allow itself the privilege of not having any uninteresting "dead screentime" where nothing interesting happens, be it for lack of base material to adapt or any other issue in production it might arise regarding such.

To put it simple, there's always something going on in Aho Girl and those such ocurrences that plague this anime are simply hilarious; punches, blows, fights, braws and constant disagreements throwed around pretty much everywhere, which a healty dose of panty-shots and other fanservice sprinkled here and there also to complement the whole ecuation, also. Oh, and let's not forget about Yoshiko beign thrown into the air by the sheer power of A-kun's punches for trying to do something stupid with him; more than less often involving her trying to sexually harass him in one way or another. Yoshiko simply will never learn to keep her hands to herself and stop bothering A-kun, wouldn't she?

The fact that the anime puts together a wide array of diverse and dare I say it: eccentric, personalities is what allows those gags to exist in the first place and for Aho Girl to be as funny as it is. Because if there's something that Aho girls does, and it does it well, are its characters: Sure, sure, they might be same old and rehersed anime tropes we have seen one million times until this point walking on two legs; the cold, distant, main character with a passion for studies. The energetic albeit clumsy (altough saying that would be wildly an understatement considering this particular case, lol) female character who serves as a sort of co-protagonist. The absolute angel of a school classmate that's always sweet and nice with everybody (Sayaka best girl, by the way). The stalker, and the imouto (younger sister), sure, but honestly? This are so funny on this anime you end-up completely ignoring the fact you already saw these characters on other IPs and simply relax, shut down your brain, and enjoy the chaos that's unfolding before you on the screen.

In other words, so you all can understand better what I am going for: Aho girl easily is one of those series one can confidently say you could spend its entire duration, from beginning to end, laughing non-stop, and don't be exagerating or making things-up. I can attest to this personally since that was pretty much my experience watching it.

Yes, Aho Girl is just that good, what can I say about it?

Another nice aspect about this series I would light to highligt, who I haven't really seen people talk about for more than a couple sentences, sadly, it's it animation. When one thinks about studio Diomedéa (the ones in charge of this anime), the words "good animation" don't exactly come to mind (nor do anything, really, Diomedéa is somewhat obscure studio, considering what it is worth, lol). But I believe that bad fame (or lack of thereof) is undeserved; Aho Girl looked pretty nice. It artstyle was pretty cute, overall. The characters were nice to look at, and their movements are fluid and natural. The backrounds also are well-drawed and make its world feel more "alive" and "homely" as well as apporting to the overall enjoyment of the series as a whole. Aho Girl is a very well made and put-together anime and the fact that almost no-one is speaking about it is honestly such a tragedy.

Its intros were also pretty good: They had a very fun gimmick were the characters would do something different each episode depending on what would happen on that chapter or what had already occured on past segments that made them honestly very fun to watch and never did the tought of skipping them cross my mind.

The song that accompanied them was also very nice: one of the few examples of a modern Pop song who I didn't actually dislike; a very catchy melody that didn't feel either too robotic, bland, generic, manufactured or sanitized who also managed to included some more traditional Enka elements who, contrary to beign out of place, added to it and felt almost natural on their inclusion. I don't know who the Angela girl who made it is, but she for sure has talent on the craft she professes.

Well, by this point of the review I have already said what I had to say and am more than sure that you, the reader, must also be familiar with the concept of this anime aswell from the general themes surrounding it, be it from reading its summary, the review of other people, and maybe even mine itself. You must be more than aware that Aho Girl is not an "intelligent" show about "profound themes" of our modern society, nonetheless. Its a dumb comedy to enjoy when you are feeling down or simply bored, and its a very good one at that. Proceed forward expecting from Aho Girl exactly what it promised to deliver and not anything else. You will enjoy the show more that way, I can guarantee you that.

Come on, go ahead, you will enjoy it, and I would be surprised if you didn't, lol.