Kyou no 5 no 2

Hold your breath...

STORY
7 / 10
For an anime so distinctly rooted in wrongness, I was surprised how subtle these attributes came across in Kyou no Go no Ni. Indeed, much of the humor carries many sexual undertones, but none of it came across in an offensive or intrusive manner; it was all played on the innocence and naïveté of the characters. Thus, when deciding whether or not to watch Kyou no Go no Ni, it's important to note that it's not really ecchi or overly perverted - it merely plays on embarrassing childhood situations and runs with the gags for a bit.

For an ... OVA involving exclusively children, these are some of the most unrealistic fifth graders I've come across; while they have childlike reactions to most events, their personalities tend to be much more mature than their age would suggest. Hell, back when I was that age boys and girls were just starting to mingle with one another and get beyond the "cootie" phase. Still, regardless of this, it's entertaining just to watch all eight kids interact with one another. Like Azumanga Daioh, the OVA is chopped up into twenty-four five minute clips and manages to pass surprisingly quick because of this - by the time I got through an hour I had thought fifteen minutes or so had passed. Every single clip has an astoundingly simple premise - such as the boys fighting over whose bouncy ball will fly higher - and there's really no drag whatsoever.

Ultimately, though, I think the overall innocent and harmless atmosphere of the story is what makes it so endearing. While, as an adult, I found many of scenes disturbingly hilarious, the characters themselves never act out in such a fashion to make any of the situations (such as the sexual ones) seem either awkward or uncomfortable; were the case I don't think I could have stomached it. While it might seem like I'm overkilling this point, prior to watching it myself I was under the impression its content was raunchy and likely offensive; for me, at least, this turned out to not be the case.

ANIMATION
7 / 10
For those familiar with the more well known Minami-ke, Kyou no Go no Ni is easily recognizable as its predecessor if for nothing more than the similarities in animation. Though neither particularly flashy or detailed, the simplicity works positively, as it provides for a nice backdrop for the slice-of-life comedy. Though there are occasional ecchi shots (much moreso in the first two episodes) I found myself putting a hand on my forehead, shaking my head, and laughing instead of being put off by them. Keep in mind that in general I make a point never to touch any fanservice oriented shows (and especially OVAs since that's all they tend to have period), so when I downplay the panty shots as being vastly abundant or even important to the OVA on any serious level, take it to heart.

SOUND
7 / 10
Now, given my vast experience with the audible murder most children voice actors flaunt, let me say up front that every single kid in Kyou no Go no Ni is voiced splendidly; there's no whining, grating, or anything else that reminisces the grinding of nails on a chalkboard. The music also fits the OVA nicely, as the tracks were constantly being mixed up shifted due to the non-stop change of story content. As with just about every slice-of-life comedy, there's really nothing else remarkable to say - the musical score is effective at what it does and nothing more.

CHARACTERS
8 / 10
First and foremost, I hate kids. Period. Absolutamente. No questions asked.

Thus, when I say I liked Kyou no Go no Ni's characters it should not be taken lightly. Though I can't quite put my finger on what exactly charmed me so much about them, come the end of the fourth episode I was a little disappointed to see them go. Perhaps it was the fact that the OVA merely snapshots brief scenes that take place throughout their everyday lives, but all of the children are instantly likeable. As with real life, each of the kids has his or her own little quirks that define the classroom, and this prevents the need for the characters to be stereotypical and bland; from a girl hitting puberty before the others to the boys competing in a three-legged race to prove their masculinity, their antics are all surprisingly nostalgic.

Again, too, despite there being a fair amount of sexual humor the kids all happen to be completely oblivious even to the prospect of sex. They're all almost uncannily innocent in their approach to the world; perhaps that's what ultimately made them so appealing.

OVERALL
8 / 10
For fans of random, simple humor or slice-of-life series, Kyou no Go no Ni is worth consideration. Though not for everyone, I think its "questionable" subject material can be easily overlooked if approached in the proper context. Overall it actually exceeded my expectations; I think all the negative feedback I acquainted myself with prior to watching had lowered my quality bar substantially. In fact, had I not got so annoyed by this title somehow popping up every time I tried to use the AniRec, I likely never would have given it a chance.

Kyoh no go no ni (today in class 5-2) is not a very long anime. Its only a 4 episode OVA. Every episode is told in "1 day increments" meaning that every short skit consists of 1 period of classtime. Its a really unique idea that i found really cool but some of the stories i found to be inconsistant to the corresponding class period, probably because it was trying to tell a drama in the show somewhere.

The storyline i didnt care much about, but the joke execution i found to be really funny. I dont know but it has to be something ... about adolecant kids telling adult jokes is slightly funny to me, it kind of reminds me of me and my grade school years i guess. But when you hear it from the cute lil voice actors of this show, it just makes it that much funnier. The voice actors are your typical "cute kid voices" with all the moe points covered but i did like Maria Yamamoto simply because i remembered her from Elfen Lied as Kohta's sister. Their voices do get run through the test tho displaying a wide variatey of emotions, which enhances the jokes even further....Mmmmm, Collarbones.

But as i said about the characters having so much range, the other side characters and crowd noises are done fairly well. You'll get the feeling of a classroom enviroment with all the ruckus. They even have some "looney tunes" -esque sound effects. All display the great audio effects associated with a "kids style anime." I did like the opening credits song AND the closing credit song. The op was just surpisingly good in my opinion, i liked the rock and roll style they tried to pull off... I would listen to the op in my car ^_^ but the ED was just a cute dreamy song not my thing but it was good (not as good as the OP).

At first pass most of you will notice how well the detail in the artwork and animation was well done. I definitely didnt think the art was going to be this good. I was ready for a lucky star or an azumanga style of artwork since its a school comedy. But it looks like they actually took the time to put detail in the classroom and tiny things like the background and cups of noodles. On second thought when you usually think of ecchi anime, you'll immediately think of how good the artstyle is. Putting ecchi into effect you'll really notice how much detail they put in the show. The detail in the collarbones, stitching in their jeans, and even the flaps of their backpacks will really show that they were doing their best in making a visually appealing show. And thats where i think the show shines the most and you can tell...

Overall the show is a mixed bag. I'm sure you'll be shocked at what the creators have made for the first episode. But im sure most of you can relate to most of the situations/jokes the kids are in... sans the drama story. Personally i can. I liked the jokes and the and artwork but the drama kinda brings down the points for me. Even the music i found to be very well executed even the drama theme in the show was heart rippingly sad. But with all that they ARE still 5th graders and the artists put them in alot of ecchi situations, which really isnt my bag. Also, its only 5 episodes long, it would have been better if it was a full season, maybe.

Synopsis:
Today in Class 5-2 is about a 5th grader, Sato Ryouta on elementary school. An active and playful young lad who gets into ecchi-based situations with he fellow classmates.

Story:
The story is pretty much told already, namely in my synopsis, there are a total of 20 different (dull) story's where the above happens. There isn't a real story in this OVA. It's just fun, games, library visits, classes and lunchbreaks, daily things elementary kids do 'are' the story, while the girls want to find out things what don't really matter.

Characters:
De main character, is probably, the only character that I like.. a bit. It's just ... this normal shounen boy, the standard. And all the other characters are those "standards" too, you got the stupid girls wondering about cupsizes and love, while the other guys really dont matter and are only used to fill up some space. None of them are intresting, no one really had any "depth", etc.

Art & Animation:
I really like the art, but.. it's just regular good art, nothing special, but it doesn't suck either. But once the situations change into; either serious or ecchi one's, the art style changes. When it's the turn to Ecchi, it's this beautiful, highlighted, "blank" style, but when it gets serious, the style suddenly changes to really mature shounen/seinen style, which is rather hilarious.. but not in this OVA.

One thing that bugged me about the normal style here, is the fact that their ears look like shit.

Don't got much to say about the animation, it's really the mediocre type of animation.

Sound & Extra’s:
Great voices, this is probably the best thing of this OVA series. I really don't got any complaints about this, every voice matched their character. The opening and ending were ... fair enough. Both are good, but it's not something you want to hear every episode, the clips they made for the opening en endings are good, but too cliché.

Nothing to say about the background music, since it's nothing special.

Enjoyment & Score:
Enjoyment? Hmm, maybe I missed it. But I didn't enjoy this OVA at all.
There was just 1 scene, where there was 1 expression which I had to laugh about, but it made me feel in different ways, I didn't know if I should've felt happy, sad, distinguished or what.. But, that was maybe 20 seconds, in total the 4 episodes took about 2 hours.. 20 second/20 hours, hmm, doesn't look like I enjoyed it, huh?

Story: 20 different dull story's without an actual story? - 3/10 (Poor)
Art/Animation: Fair art, using different style's? - 7/10 (Good)
Extra’s/Sound: Nothing to complain, good voices, nice BGM - 8/10 (Very Good)
Characters: Unintresting, too cliché - 4/10 (Decent)
Enjoyment: What enjoyment? - 2/10 (Dreadful)

Overall: 3.9/10 (Decent)
Which makes it a - 4/10 (Decent)

Kyou no Go no Ni Overall:
For people who enjoy Ecchi and lousy Slice of Life series, this is it!
But all-in-all, it's not that intresting, good voices, decent animation, nice stijl, cliché characters, no story, boring events...