Non Non Biyori

Hotaru Ichijou's lifestyle completely changes when she leaves Tokyo and moves with her family to the isolated Asahigaoka village. Her new school has only five students including herself, all sharing a single classroom regardless of grade level. There are no convenience stores in the area, and it can take up to two hours for a bus to arrive.

Nevertheless, Hotaru finds herself captivated by the countryside's charm thanks to her four unique schoolmates with whom she quickly forms a genuine bond. The most colorful of them is Renge Miyauchi, a first-grader who is often perceptive despite her age. However, no less intriguing are the three Koshigaya siblings: the quiet oldest brother Suguru, the petite older sister Komari, and the prankish youngest sister Natsumi.

Having someone from the city join their cheerful little group enlivens the ordinary days in Asahigaoka. Not only does Hotaru bring firsthand knowledge from the alluring outside world, but her fresh outlook on life welcomes a blossom of change to their usual routine.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Miyauchi, Renge Main

Koiwai, Kotori Japanese

Koshigaya, Komari Main

Asumi, Kana Japanese

Ichijou, Hotaru Main

Murakawa, Rie Japanese

Koshigaya, Natsumi Main

Sakura, Ayane Japanese

Kagayama, Kaede Supporting

Satou, Rina Japanese

Koshigaya, Suguru Supporting

Miyauchi, Hikage Supporting

Fukuen, Misato Japanese

Miyauchi, Kazuho Supporting

Nazuka, Kaori Japanese

Fujimiya, Konomi Supporting

Shintani, Ryouko Japanese

Ishikawa, Honoka Supporting

Takagaki, Ayahi Japanese

Gou, Fumiyuki Producer

Beniya, Yoshikazu Producer

Kisara, Youhei Producer

Ishizuka, Masatoshi Producer

Reviews

Nov 23, 2013

kuuderes_shadow

Recommended

This anime is a panacea of the heart and mind.

Life too stressful? Worried or anxious about something? Just sit down in front of the screen and put this anime on, and all your concerns will dissolve away - probably within seconds. Everything - setting, plot, sound, music, art, humour - all of it is perfectly crafted at maximising this effect. And what an effect it is.

The story itself is a simple one. It follows the daily lives of four girls of various ages who all live in the same rural village and are in the same class at school. Almost everything that happens is following ... their daily lives, with events that are both realistic and completely believable. As far as overarching story goes, that's about it - this isn't an anime you should be watching if you only care for a tense plot full of twists and turns. It is predominantly episodic in nature, although characters and settings are gradually built up over time so there's no lack of progress. Each episode contains one or two stories, every single one of which is a joy to watch and will melt your heart. The humour is lighthearted in tone, and is aimed at adding to this heart-melting effect, rather than at making you laugh out loud, although there are a few moments that could do this as well. There are also a few moments that will invoke other emotions, all very effectively and very naturally.

The cast is focused mainly on the four girls. Komari is the eldest of the four, although you wouldn't know it by looking. She is very self conscious of the fact that she is unusually small for her age and tries to make up for this by attempting (and largely failing) to act grown up. Hotaru, on the other hand, is unusually mature, at least on a physical level, for a fifth grader. She also quickly develops a crush on her cute chibi senpai, although none of the others ever seem to realise it. Natsumi is Komari's younger sister, and is a bit of a layabout. She's too lazy to work hard at anything and is always getting in trouble for one thing or another. And then there's Renge, called "Ren-chon" by Natsumi. I could honestly wax lyrical about Ren-chon all day, but I don't want to bore you any more than I already am, so I'll just say that she's the youngest of the cast, who knows a lot about things that you wouldn't expect a first grade student to know, but otherwise acts fairly normally for her age. Oh, she also has some brilliant facial expressions, and Koiwai Kotori's voice acting of her character is a definite candidate for being the best I've ever come across.
Every member of the supporting cast, just like the main characters, each have their own distinctive but realistic and believable personalities, and are every bit as likeable as the central four cast members.

The humour and characters may be brilliant, but what makes this series really stand out is the music and images. As someone who tends to focus very heavily on the characters of a series, I don't usually care much for these things - as long as they add to the immersement, enjoyment and feel of a series, just about anything's fine by me. But here even I can't help but be overwhelmed. The series starts with nothing but pictures, sound effects and music building up the scene and setting with pure imagery. It's almost 2.5 minutes before anything is actually said, yet by that time you will likely have already entered into a state of total bliss from the gorgeous artwork, more reminiscent of a high budget film or even something you might see in an art gallery than a TV series, and soothing background music and sound effects of what is being shown. And, while the effect may not be as intense in later scenes, the quality does not drop. Just about every background in this entire series is a work of art both literally and figuratively.

I've watched the first episode over and over again and every time the effect is the same. The entire anime is thoroughly rewatchable, and every episode provides the perfect relaxation whether on your first watch or your tenth. Even brilliantly written series that depend on plot twists and reveals often grow dull when watching through for the third time, but that is of no concern for an anime like this.

A lot of slower paced anime, however, require you to be in the right mood before watching them, but again that is of no concern here, as Non Non Biyori will put you in that right mood, no matter what your previous state of mind.

All in all, this is a series to be watched, loved and enjoyed over and over again. Everything is perfectly toned to add to this viewing pleasure as much as possible, and it is indeed a pure pleasure to watch.

If you want to know what nirvana feels like, watch this anime.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Jun 3, 2016

saltedbutter

Mixed Feelings

I honestly feel quite bad that I'm giving this such a low rating compared to everyone else. But oh man... I had to finish this anime on double speed just so I can finish it...
I am not a huge fan of slice of life, but I don't hate it either. And since Renge is such a meme on the interwebs, I decided to watch it... But oh my goodness. Definitely not MY cup of tea.

(Since this is a slice of life and there practically is no plot, I'll just decide to give 5/10.) I thought the art was quite nice. The scenery was ... peaceful, the characters were quite cute, no doubt about that. The sound was... Alright. There was nothing memorable, in my opinion anyway. But oh, the characters... The characters. The only thing that's stopping me from giving it a 1/10 is Hotarun and Suguru, and I'll explain why.

This is just my personal opinion, but I personally detest characters who act/are way stupider than their age. And I know anime is never realistic, but this was just WAY too much. Maybe it's because the characters grew up on the countryside without proper education, but honestly... Really? The idiocy of the characters weren't cute to me at all, it just pissed me off. (It makes sense that my favorite loli character is Shiro from NGNL, who I believe is around the same age as Komari.) I really should have just dropped it at the first couple of episodes, but the reason I stuck with it was the older brother. He was literally my favorite character even though he didn't speak a word. And at least, Hotarun was bearable... Although she was also way too mature for her age (physically and psychologically), it was better than having such stupid characters trying to go through their daily life. I felt my brain cells dying one by one as I was trying to watch this normally, and soon I was watching it at 4 times the original speed.

Although the characters' designs were cute, I felt like I was watching a kids' show. Renge is still a good meme, but this anime personally didn't fit my taste. However feel free to watch it if you're a huge slice of life fan.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Apr 21, 2016

Angry_Anime_Nerd

Not Recommended

The story is sort of about some country kids who have moved from Tokyo and are experiencing culture shock with their new environment as most people will, especially at a very young age like these girls are. It's a feel-good series that will brighten your days even if your sad with rare touching moments in it. Not a very original plot with cliched characters.

I don't know why people are so into these characters, they're pretty much your typical whiny kid. The only one I like out of the bunch and is my favorite character is Natsumi, now she was fun to watch but not great ... because she does get explosive. But the other characters are mediocre, Hotaru is a crybaby, Komari is a know-it-all who hates being called and treated like a little girl. And the youngest girl (I forgot her name but I think it's Rin), rather acts more like an adult than a kid.

I'm one who doesn't think this needs a sequel because I'm not fond of Non Non Biyori, it was a childish and silly comedy series with some weird elements to it, not surprising for a series aimed at kids but even they might find some of the series' music too babyish. Though, the series is not very very weird but it's still weird. Though, some parts did make me laugh but some jokes fell flat.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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