An Inside look at the Daily Lives of High School Boys

• Genre : Comedy, Slice of life, school
• Episodes: 12
• Studio: Sunrise

 

High school boys are fascinating creatures. From the outside, their behaviour can be difficult to understand. But their complex colonies display a wealth of intricate social conventions and rituals that make up their daily lives. Join Tadakuni, Tanaka and Tabata, three perfectly ordinary high school boys, as they go about their ordinary business and get a first hand look at this completely mesmerizing world. See these isolated and mysterious civilizations like never before as we finally get the story from an insider’s perspective. You will laugh, cry and even be a little scared….ok you’ll just laugh. High school boys are huge hilarious dorks in the best possible way!

I debated for some time whether I should review the Daily Lives of High School Boys. Purely comedic slice of high school life anime is a little hard to comment on. It’s not like there’s that much new to add. Most of you know the deal with these types of shows. What am I just gonna write for the sake of writing?

For example, what could I say about production values. Not much. Square Enix was involved so their was a bit of money poured into this. Surise did a decent job putting it to good use. The designs are pretty but just a little squat and stilted to mark the show as a comedy. The visuals are rather good when compared to most titles in the genre. Not amazing though. I guess not really worth going on about.

The voice acting now that was amazing! Comedy hinges a lot on timing and delivery. The casting of Daily Lives of High School Boys obviously made sure that the actors were skilled at telling jokes. They all nail their individual parts and work even better as a group. The standout for me was Tabata voiced by Tomokazu Sugita. I can’t believe I forgot him when making my voice actor post. Let me remedy that now:

Sugita is a veteran voice actor you probably already love. Here’s his twitter and here are just a few of his roles:

See how many comedic roles! The fact that this man can really deliver in a comedy should come as no surprise to anyone. Not sure why I even mentioned it.

So yeah it’s a funny slice of life…. About high school boys… Uhm… I guess I could let you know that it’s in fact a short program in structure. Each episode being made up of 5 or 6 short skits. Also don’t forget to watch all the way to then end as the after credit sequence is usually another completely independent little story seen from the perspective of high school girls. Those things would have been obvious. I probably didn’t need to tell you.

Despite being a slice of life, the stories do build upon one another, allowing for some character growth. There are also a number of running gags that get regularly repeated to great effect. My personal favourite by far was the girl on the riverbank. It’s one of the most commonly recurring bits and every time it’s hilarious. For the record, it’s my header gif.

Oh I know, you probably want to find out whether we actually learn anything useful about the daily lives of high school boys. Well that probably depends on you. Gahh I’m being no help at all! I figure if you’re already a high school boy you won’t learn that much. The rest of us find out that high school boys think about girls a lot. Also they can be a bit dorky, while sweet and always hilarious. It’s not exactly big news I guess. I did find out that high school girls are very violent. I was relieved to know it’s not just me!

Let’s face it. This is one of those shows you have to see for yourself… Ok I’m going to gather up all my reviewing powers here and try to say something useful. The Daily Lives of High School Boys is a classic comedy. It’s not a CBDCT show or a pretty boy show. There are no romance or drama elements at all. Despite having an occasional boys vs girls feel, it doesn’t pick sides and represents both genders a lovable dorks with varied personalities. I would strongly recommend watching the series in order but you can easily watch it a few skits at the time whenever you feel the need for a chuckle.

Yeah that probably didn’t help much at all. It’s almost like I didn’t take anything away from this series. As if the daily lives of high school boys is the type of show you can just take in and enjoy in the moment without having to think about it too much or analyze every scene. From this review, on could be tempted to think that you could simply  watch an episode, laugh at the impeccable comedic timing, then go on with your day in a slightly better mood….

Oh wait I do have one concrete bit of information for you dear readers. Man I hope there are at least some of you left after this… The ED is one of the best karaoke songs you will ever find. For reals, get a couple of mates together and convince them to go to karaoke. Get a little buzz on, they were probably not all that sober if you convinced them in the first place, and belt this little tune out. You will be friends for life! In fact invite them over watch an episode, play the drinking game (with juice of course) and perform the ending credits yourself. Man that sounds awesome. Can I come?

Random though: I adore that Tabata’s dad calls him four eyes. Also, I have the same Madoka figurine he wins from the claw machine! Oh and I think this might be my favourite sketch:

Favorite character: Motoharu

What this anime taught me: The Power of Skirts!

“Everybody’s got to believe in something. I believe I’ll have another beer.”

Suggested drink: Rosé all Day (I love how girly this drink is!)

• Every time there’s a 4th wall break – take a sip
• Every time the boys get very “passionate” – take a sip
• Every time the boys play pretend – clap
• Every time anyone asks about getting a girlfriend – take notes
• Every time something gets bleeped out – take a sip
• Every time we see Motoharu’s sister – be afraid
• Every time we see the girl on the reverbank – cheer!
• Every time we see the main character – take a sip (yup)
• Every time girls get violent – take a sip