what's the age suitablility on this.....?

[fallenangel]

i was just wondering, what is the intended audience of Azumanga Daioh? or anime in general? i know that there is a huuuuuuuuge range of audiences, just compare the two series we are watching at the moment. there is quite clearly a content difference, but who is it aimed at?

i was watching this evening, and i actually thought "we are a bunch of early 20-somethings, watching cartoons about school girls playing with skipping ropes, cat emphatuations, and the new girl-gang, the knuckleheads (if there isn't already a spin-off, there should be)". i laugh along with everyone else; i even laugh when no-one else does, 'cos i have a seriously wierd sense of humour. are there two levels of humour and storyline, for the older and younger viewers, like the simpsons?

and as for the storyline, i am not seeing an underlying plot at all, just lots of 'isolated' episodes ('isolated' because there is obviously continuation with respect to developing characters and them getting older). take 'Chiyo-chan's day' for example: it is just so obscurely simple, even having disjunct chapters within the episode ('lunch', 'jump-rope'). it's so childlike.

please, please, please don't think i'm having a go; quite the opposite. I love this series, and i have no idea why. that's why i was asking who it was aimed at, whether we are enjoying some anime that is aimed at older or younger audiences, or even both. by the name, i'm guessing that this originated as manga (maybe?), so is that much different?

just wondering, s'all.

[marshall_banana]

azumanga started life as a 4-section manga bit in a newspaper, much like peanuts was to charles m schultlz it's just good old fashioned fun

[fallenangel]

fair enough

[phanax]

I do occasionally get mixed messages from anime like this, on a base level it's about some high-school girls, which almost innevitably implies this is who it's aimed at. However the teachers are wonderfully disfunctional and the perverted classical litterature teacher adds tremendous humour content for those who are older.

I guess it depends on what you find you like in something

[marshall_banana]

just cause it's got schoolgirls in it doesn't mean that's the target audience. i think the reason azumanga is so good is that it's not targeted at anyone in particular, and is one of those few that actually succeeds in pleasing pretty much everyone

[phanax]

true, I can remember watching the rugrats till well into secondary school, because it doesn't date itself to a certain age-group. That said, it got really pants after a certain point (shortly before they thought making a film was a good idea)