MY LITTLE PONY Fans Will Love AZUMANGA DAIOH

It's pretty rare to have a show depict
fully fleshed out female characters these days. It's one of the
reasons I enjoy MY LITTLE PONY: FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC—the main
characters have strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, and have a full range of problems instead of just "who
is going to ask me to the ball/prom?" (Again, I am not counting
EQUESTRIA GIRLS.) While you can classify them in broad archetypes
(the shy one, the bookworm, the tomboy, etc.) they also have more
depth than just those basic roles.

Except
Applejack. Poor girl needs some good character episodes.

With
that in mind, I recommend my fellow bronies check out AZUMANGA
DAIOH—a slice of life series featuring a female cast in high
school. The stakes are low and the situations SIENFELD-ian, but the
characters might remind you of of a few technicolored equines you
know. And again, there's more to these girls than what I say here,
but there,
but there are interesting parallels nonetheless.

== TEASER ==

There's
the adorable Chiyo, a child prodigy who jumped ahead several grades.
She's the braniac of the group, but her naiveté is very similar to
Twilight Sparkle's when she first arrived in Ponyville.

Tomo
is a tomboy, simultaneously being super genki and super lazy—much
like perennial favorite pony Rainbow Dash. And like Pinkie Pie,
Tomo's usually the source of her own problems and throws the group
into chaos with her shenanigans.

It's
interesting how accents are portrayed in anime sometimes, isn't it?
Traditionally in English dubs, of anime people from the Osaka
prefecture of Japan are given American Southern accents. As such,
Ayumu—a transfer student from Osaka (hence her nickname "Osaka")—is
given an Applejack-like drawl. While aside from that she's rather
unlike AJ, but is still very close to the heart of the group and the
show.

This pretty accurately encapsulates the series.

Sakaki
is the quiet one with many skills. She's much beloved by her
classmates and receives a lot of attention, but is too shy to act on
any of it. Add the fact that she is obsessed with cute things,
whether they are animals or Chiyo, and you have a great Fluttershy
parallel.

Yomi
is actually most like Rarity. She's prim and proper, and puts as much
effort as she can into her appearance. Her relationship to the other
characters is also similar to Rarity's, as she's often trying to
reign in the crazier impulses of her friends.

And
then there's Kaori. Poor thing has a massive crush on Sakaki, who is
absolutely blind to her affection. So, naturally, she is the Spike of
the group.

While
none of these comparisons are one to one, they shouldn't be! If
AZUMANGA DAIOH was just MY LITTLE PONY in high school, it would just
be EQUESTRIA GIRLS: JAPAN EDITION. And who wants that, really? But if
you're looking for something a bit more reflective but with an
appropriate amount of silly, it's a great watch for bronies.

Matt Murphy is a freelance nerd who has contributed to many nerd websites. You can reach him by going to where the light meets the shadow, by sending out zeta-brainwaves or by following him on Twitter@Murphix.