Azumanga Daioh/Headscratchers

• Where the hell did the juice Sakaki bought go in the first Culture Festival episode? Seems like between the time she gave it to Chiyo-chan and the time she finished patting Tadakichi-san, it vanished into thin air. When we saw Chiyo-chan riding off on Tadakichi-san, she didn't have it. The dog wasn't carrying it. Sakaki didn't have it. So where did it go?
  • An animation error opened up and swallowed it.
  • Alternatively, Chiyo-chan actually drank it all that fast, all by herself. Maybe she was just really thirsty all of a sudden?
  • This troper sees more time pass than just the few seconds that they were focusing on them. Se probably drank it during the time-lapse.
  • And if you don't like the meta explanation or the silly explanation, then the juice is still there, but you can't see it past Mister Tadakichi.
    • Seriously, that dog is huge. It's amazing he doesn't get in the way more often.
  • This editor blames the Wizards
  • This editor can vouch for drinking something extremely fast, even when not particularly thirsty; he does it all the time.
  • This Troper believes that you can see the bag between Chiyo-chan's hands on Mr. Tadakichi's back as she rides him away.
  • This troper works at a place where people always misplace their drinks, whether thay are employees or customers. This is not so far fetched as people think...
• Why does Chiyo look exactly the same at the beginning and end of the series? She's three years older; why hasn't she at least started puberty?
  • Probably because she's a late bloomer. Remember early in the series, she mentions that she was short for her age, even when she was ten. She did get a little taller over the series, though.
    • Changed her hairstyle too. In their senior year, she ties off her twintails up at the back of her head instead of down and out to the side.
      • None of the kids look like they aged much in that time, besides it's not like real life people go from little kids to Asuka Langley in three years time either.
        • Sakaki probably did, though.
          • Oh, please. Asuka's got nothing on Miss Sakaki and you know it.
            • Eight centimetres, anyone?
  • Actually, at the end of the manga there's a picture of all of them together and its pretty clear that Chiyo has grown quite a lot.
    • In the same picture, it could just be the stripes on her shirt or an oddity of the drawing (Sakaki and to a lesser extent Yomi are quite oddly proportioned in that image), but she does seem less... "cylindrical" than earlier in the series.
      • Either that or she's a timelord, and thats why she hasn't... don't hit me!
• Come to think of it, why is it that Chiyo is so puzzled by Nyamo's drunken "lecture"? Even if Nyamo used slang terms unfamiliar to Chiyo, she should have sufficient knowledge of biology (assuming it is on the curriculum in Japanese high school) and her intellect should afford her sufficient deduction skills to be able to figure out what is being talked about. Seems that she was carrying, if not the Idiot Ball in that scene, then at least the Innocence Ball.
  • Most likely Kurosawa was talking about kinky stuff. Even if Chiyo-chan has some idea of where babies come from, she probably hasn't encountered anal BDSM or Rule 34.
    • And don't forget the Canada's History! They don't teach crazy shit like that in school!
    • Really any non-reproductive sex act would do. Fellatio, Cunnilingus, Hand-jobs, etc. Those things are probably not covered in the text books and discussion of those could easily fill the Relax-O-Vision time
  • More prosaically, she could have been telling them how she goes about getting a guy to sleep with her. Now that's an education.
  • She told them about her relationship with Yukari. They respect her deeply the next morning, because they cannot imagine someone being not only in love, but intimate with a Jerkass like Yukari.
    • Since she rants about men before doing the quasi-censored speech: Maybe it really was about lesbianism? Would explain why none of the girls ever had a boyfriend in the series.
    • This is why the scene as a whole bugged me. Perhaps I'm just strange, but the thought of the girls (Osaka in particular and excepting Kaorin) canonically being lesbians unnerves me. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, as I do have a tendency to do.
    • Maybe Chiyo just doesn't understand that Nyamo possibly likes Yukari in that way.
      • Or why Nyamo would... XD
  • Maybe she's just pretending not to know. Or maybe the producers told her she had to pretend not to know.
  • She didn't really cotton on to the discussion on breast size that the other girls had in the changeroom either.
• Speaking of the Yukarimobile, if it's been three years, just how did it get through shaken? Japan's car inspection is notoriously strict and fussy - it's well known that the real purpose is to get you to buy a new car after only three years - and Yukari had already had some time to get it beat-up before the series started.
  • For that matter, given that and her age, why would her parents keep letting her borrow their car? She's basically reduced a million-and-a-half-yen car to worthless scrap metal- and has possibly done it twice before. At what point do they say "You're a grown woman, get your own car to wreck? Nyamo did, except she hasn't wrecked it!"
    • It's likely her parents are pushovers or enablers, or something along those lines. After all, their fully grown daughter refuses to get anything done during the summer when she gets a break from her job, and doesn't even really seem to take her job all that seriously.
    • Or there's always the possibility that Yukari's parents are just as bad as she is behind the wheel. She learned from somewhere, right? Maybe her entire family treats cars like that, and they all view cars as practically disposable. Why worry about your daughter treating a car the same way you do?
  • That IS the new car! The Yukarimobile Mark 2 has already been broken in by Yukari.
    • I'd bet $1000 this is the correct explanation, haha.
  • Alternately, would you really want to be the one to tell Yukari that her car didn't pass. Whoever inspected the car was probably threatened into letting her off.
  • For those of us who aren't Japanese, what is shaken? I checked Japanese Culture, but I can't seem to find it.
    • 車検 Official "Vehicle Inspection" at 3 years, then every 2 years. Like UK MOT; don't know US equivalent, sorry.
      • US equivalent is called "inspection", like everything else in Eagle Land it varies from state to state- California's focuses in emissions, Vermont's on underbody integrity (rust) and so on- but is almost never as strict as in Europe (usually no dyno or road test). Unless you really piss off the mechanic. In fact, most states don't even have inspections.
  • Speaking of that, why does everyone insist on "Yukarimobile" instead of "Yukaricar"? Yukaricar is much better, doubles up on a sound, flows better.
• I may just not know enough about Japanese culture, but how is Sakaki going to afford a place right out of high school that allows pets? Chiyo-chan can't just keep taking care of Maya while she gets the money, she has to go to America.
  • Presumably the way most people do it; parents, roommates, etc.
    • Her parents are allergic, they can't do it.
    • Sakaki lives in the same neighborhood as Chiyo, so her parents must have some money. They couldn't keep Maya, but they could help her pay for a nice apartment.
    • I go with the getting a roommate thing.....I think Kaorin would gladly help pay...aww hell forget help, she's pay for it on her own just to live with Sakaki.
  • In Japan it is common for parents to pay the rent for small one person apartments that are located near colleges. This is why Sakaki says "it's too far to commute" (by public transit). Japanese people would have picked up on the implication.
    • • Where's Kaorin going to get the money?
        • Kaorin lives in a Western-style home, which means there's probably money in her family.
  • Or you know, Sakaki could do the obvious thing and get a day job while she also focuses on her education to get to her main career.
• In the middle of the series, Yukari discovers a cat and asks her students to take it home. Chiyo mentions that she can't because she has a dog, so what happened between then and the arrival of Maya that allowed her to not even consider that an issue (at least until she learns of the yamamaya's diet in that pamphlet Kagura reads)?
  • May be she was scared for the cat: Tadakichi would pretty much just step on a cat. However, she wasn't scared for a wild cat, which would protect itself.
  • Well, Maya does get along pretty well with Tadakichi. But who knows about how that kitten would react.
  • Nothing. For Chiyo to have accepted the stray then she would gain full ownership and responsibility for the cat, however in the case of Maya, Chiyo is only housing her. Sakaki is the one with the ownership and responsibility of raising her (Chiyo steping in only if Sakaki can't).
• Osaka impresses Tomo and Chiyo by quickly answering riddles near the end of the series. Has it not occurred to them that she may have heard them before?
  • You say it like Osaka has some semblance of a long-term memory.
    • She remembers everyone's names and how to get to school every morning, so...
      • Well yeah, that's because she has to do it every day, so it eventually got imprinted. Unless she heard the same riddles over and over its unlikely that she'd remember them.
      • I always assumed that that scene was a way to show that Osaka isn't as stupid as everyone thinks
      • I don't think they ever thought of her as outright stupid. They see Tomo as stupid, but they think of Osaka the same way we do; Her brain just works on a bizarre wavelength that happens to favor puns, getting easily distracted and being a little too literal.
        • I've always thought the explanation was that Osaka's absentmindedness works like an analog number gauge; after it hits its top number, it rolls back over to zero.
      • Huh?
        • That sounds... like something Osaka might say, ironically enough.
        • Well, she does know about us.
• Okay, why didn't anybody see to it that Kimura-sensei is fired from teaching? Everybody in the school knows that he's a known pervert, and on several occasions, he's even touched the students while saying intimate things. This being said, he still works with high-school kids on a daily basis and nobody thinks that he might be dangerous or a threat to the students (and teachers)?
  • I think they see him as just a weirdo instead of an actual menace. The girls and the teachers occasionally see him donating a lot of money for charity, and once he prayed for world peace in front of Yomi (who was praying for herself).
    • It's a Japanese cultural pitfall. Japan is only very recently beginning to take a less tolerant stance on chikan; even now, outright anti-pervert measures are more or less limited to preventative measures on subway trains and camera phones. To the Japanese mindset, the admission of being ogled, fondled, or verbally harassed is embarrassing and shameful, and coming forth to admit it shames the victim, shames the victim's family, and is seen as a social blight. This attitude is changing, but not nearly rapidly enough, so Japanese society unfortunately allows for the likes of Kimura.
    • Yes, soon they'll have a perfectly normal society like ours.
      • To the creators' credit, though, Kimura's predilections are at least treated as a bad thing by the other characters.
  • He didn't touch anyone in the anime, except for the folk dance, which seems open to teachers as well as students, and that was only holding hands.
  • Speaking of Kimura....what's gonna happen when his daughter enters High School?
    • ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
    • Heehee, nothing.
    • Twenty bucks says that Kimura is actually a very good father.
    • This troper always thought that when his daughter got to High School, Kimura would be an Overprotective Dad who at the same time constantly asks if his daughter's female friends will come over for a sleepover.
      • Or he could be like Izumi-san, making creepy remarks even about her, sometimes hugging a little too much as he does so... but never actually doing much. At least we're not aware of a hobby of photography on his part... right?
    • He'll hit on her friends every once in a while and she'll just laugh at how silly her dad is?
    • Or being sinister for a moment. Maybe his daughter likes high school girls too!
  • Man, if you think the teacher's unions in America have made it nearly impossible for a teacher to get fired, you should hear some of the stuff Japanese teachers can do and not even get reprimanded. There have been several cases where Japanese teachers actively facilitated and participated in the bullying of students to the point of it resulting in suicide, and they weren't even suspended. As with an American teacher who's in good with the union, a Japanese teacher is only likely to be fired if he actually has sex with a student. Making them a tad uncomfortable and expounding on their sexiness probably isn't a blip on the radar.
• How does Sakaki manage to get away with carrying a critically endangered Iriomote wildcat all over Iriomote during the class trip without anyone trying to stop her? It's not like she could use the "mixed breed" excuse she used on Tadakichi's vet; for one, Iriomote natives would know the truth, and for another, it's hinted the vet was just playing along anyway.
  • So an iriomote kitten happened to be wandering around at the same time as the kids were. The only time she was actually holding Maya on a part of the tour that had to have been guided (instead of just walking to a landmark) was the boat, where even if the guide was a local they would most likely have been standing at the back of the boat, where it would be difficult to see what Sakaki was holding even if you were looking.
  • Why would anyone try to stop her while she is still in Iriomote? If she had tried to smuggle it out of the region, it would be a different story.
• This is an issue with the English dubs (which this troper considers to be pretty good for the most part): Why do they have Chiyo addressed as "Chiyo-chan" but go for "Miss ____" in all cases where "-san" was originally used? (example: Sakaki-san vs. Miss Sakaki) Isn't it a little weird that a dub that kept so many other cultural references would leave out this one?
  • Chiyo-chan sounds cuter then anything they could substitute for it. That allows it to be an introduction to allowing honorifics to be used in dubbed anime
  • -san has a plausible equivalent in English (when used with family names anyway), while -chan does not.
    • But American teenagers don't address each other with titles like Miss. I'd've thought they would've only used the names.
      • Indeed, but they're not American. I always just figured that it was because the -chan is such a part of Chiyo-chan's identity that people just call her that reflexively. It helps that you've got the alliteration going on with the "ch" in both parts. Notice that, with rare exceptions, everyone calls her Chiyo-Chan; in fact, come to think of it, I think Chiyo-Chichi is the only one who doesn't.
  • Here's my answer: Since there is a good translation available for -san, the translator used that translation. Since -chan isn't as easily translated (though in this case "Little Chiyo" might work), they leave -chan which has Alliteration going for it. The translator followed a principle I love very much: Translate all Japanese expressions and suffixes unless it's just not possible. Sure, American teenagers don't address each other with Miss, but they don't say -san or -chan either (unless they LOVE manga and anime). And if they'd wanted to be very polite, they would say "Miss Sakaki" and so on.
    • The dub does have some of the others calling her "Miss Sakaki", but really it still works because it calls attention to the fact that Sakaki seems so much more adult than the rest of them (at least to their perception).
• Why doesn't Nyamo just throw out the sake? Or dump it out somewhere, or something? Furthermore, how does she not get alcohol poisoning? That was an awful lot of sake, and her physique is pretty small. Rule of Funny, I know, but still.
  • 'sha gym teccher. Good body, lossa muscle. Ken drink moren shtupi' Yukkuri... Annish weak shake, shtupi' cheap Yukkuri...^[1]
  • That still doesn't explain why she drank it the first place. Rule of Funny, obviously.
    • She thought it'd be worse if Yukari did. Whether or not it would have actually been worse is anyone's guess, but at least Nyamo got a chance to recover before they left, I assume.
  • Have you ever drank sake? It's not a liquor, contrary to what some people say. There are beers that have higher alcohol content than some sake. A person who drinks on a regular basis (read: hangs out with Yukari) could probably handle two whole bottles of the stuff before they'd be in danger of alcohol poisoning.
  • Perhaps Nyamo just did not think of it and Yukari's comments about sports teachers are not that far off the truth...
  • Possible Sunk Cost Fallacy? Maybe she just thought it would be a waste to throw it away.
    • It's almost certainly some variety of that. Remember, Nyamo lives on her own, utilizing her rather small salary, and has the perfect personality to be a penny-pincher who never wastes anything. If a carton of milk expired on Nov.10, she'd wake in the night and drink the whole thing down at 11:59 Nov.9. Actually throwing out a perfectly good consumable (even if it was something she wanted to get rid of) probably never crossed her mind.
• How in the hell has Osaka not been held back? She's never shown making above a 50% on any of her tests, and (at least in the anime) honestly comes off less as a Cloud Cukoolander and more... well, stupid.
  • Rule of Funny? Also, you really don't like Osaka, do you?
  • We only ever see **one** of her tests. She might've be an avarange (or maybe even a good) student in the other subjects.
  • Also, with her extensive knowledge of kanji and the likes, she might be good in Japanese classes for a change. I do not know about the Japanese system, but most educational systems allow for a student to equalise bad grades with sufficient ones, so...
  • Why are you only saying this about Osaka, whose grades are possibly average at most, but not about Tomo and Kagura, whose grades are even worse?
  • It's also implied that this is a difficult school to get into. Tomo only managed it with a massive studying binge that no one thought her capable of. Osaka must get at least decent grades overall, or she wouldn't be here to begin with.
  • In addition to the above points, Osaka passed her university exams on her first try (unlike Yomi) and attends the same school for three years--meaning she at least got competitive marks above a C.
• Why is Sakaki allowed to keep Mayaa? I don't know about Japan, but the US has some pretty strict laws about trying to keep endangered animals as pets--as in, criminal laws.
  • Nullo actore, nullus iudex
    • English please?
    • If no one presses charges, no one will enforce these laws. As far as we know there are only a few persons who know about Mayaa and the truth about her - the doctor seemed to be fooled by the "crossbreed" excuse - which are the characters themselves and Chiyo's parents (if they are exist or care, see WMG for that) and none of them seem to be likely to go to the police because of that, although Tomo might just for shits and giggles, and no police force in the world goes around and check random houses for illegally held animals.
    • The vet wasn't "fooled". He didn't actually believe Sakaki, but he took Chiyo at her word, because he knows her well and assumed she would tell the truth.
      • That, or he realized Chiyo-chan was lying to side with her friend - which means a lot in Japan.
• How did Kagura manage to get into the High School if she gets lower grades than Tomo?
  • Maybe she got in on an athletic scholarship. I think Japan does that...
  • Kagura possibly did what Tomo did - actually studied for the entrance exam, but quit caring after that, as the school doesn't seem to be kicking anyone out. Or perhaps all of her grades that we hear about are from the same few classes, and she has some other classes that she's doing well (or at least better) in.
• Why was there no third year culture festival?
  • There was one but it was not featured, perhaps because all jokes that could have been made with one have been done for.
  • It's published in a shonen magazine. That's all it takes.
  • Third year is when the students are preparing for the exams to get into the next level of schooling. They don't have time for culture fests. There probably was a Culture Fest, but they weren't expected to take part in it.
• Don't these guys ever hang out with their family? Or don't they have a curfew or something? It's especially odd with Chiyo, since she's so young.
  • They probably do, and it's just not mentioned. It does focus on them at school, after all.
• When Chiyo meets her old classmates in Episode 12, Miruchi says that it's the first time she's seen the summer uniform. But how? The path she and Yuka take to school pretty clearly intersects the path that some high schoolers -- including Chiyo herself -- take to Chiyo's school. Surely they would have seen both uniforms before, even if they didn't know the people wearing them.
  • She probably meant it was the first time she'd seen Chiyo wearing the summer uniform.
• Maybe this is just me, but from the looks of it, Kimura isn't attracted much to Osaka, while on the other end, Osaka doesn't seem afraid or unnerved by Kimura. What's up with that?
  • Maybe it's because Osaka's...flat, and Osaka, being the Cloud Cuckoolander, doesn't understand the issue on him.
  • Osaka is implied to be pretty plain looking, (which is hard to believe considering how damn adorable she is.) so that might have something to do with it. Whats worse is that he avoids Osaka for that and the other obvious reason, but show's incredibly blatant intrest in Chiyo-Chan.
  • Maybe Osaka and Kimura just recognize each other as kindred strange souls, even if their strangeness takes very different forms. It's a kind of "Ah, this is one of my own kind."

1. ↑ She is a gym teacher. With her well-toned musculature, increased metabolism, and lower body fat than Yukari, who is lazy and tends to eat a lot when she can afford to do so, Nyamo's muscles absorb alcohol far more readily. This leaves less alcohol circulating in the bloodstream for her liver and brain to absorb, and likely helps to alleviate the effect (if my recollection is correct, which it probably isn't, Minamo also had a history of heavy alcohol use and can likely weather a hangover more easily than a less experienced person with a similar hangover). In addition to the previous points about Minamo's metabolism, Yukari is not particularly refined when it comes to her tastes in... well, anything, and is quite frugal (some might say miserly, when it comes to things aside from korean barbecue). The gourmand that she is, Yukari likely purchased inexpensive, low-quality sake with an alcohol content lower than a more finely distilled rice wine.