Let’s discuss the Azumanga Daioh OST1! Oh, wait, I have a track for that…
That is “Let’s Begin”, and amazingly captures, or perhaps sets, the tone for the show.
The OST is 38 tracks, so for the next month I will comment on a track with a corresponding image. And if you haven’t seen the show before, here is the one of the warlords, Chiyo, known for eir intellectual prowess and ability to communicate future events to others through their dreams, riding upon eir mighty stead Tadakichi:
While being used throughout the show, it features a twangy guitar bit, reminding me of the beach scenes. The beach scenes are memorable, of course, for the epic animal summon battles they have, and of course of Sakaki’s amazing victory using the power of Dolphin!
It features a “recorder” playing, which is nostalgic to a surprising amount of children, myself included. It is also just so relaxing. Ahhhh…
Rather than an image from Azumanga Daioh, I was inspired to share an image from another relaxing show called “Laid Back Camp”, a show known for combining the relaxed pacing and slice of life antics of Azumanga Daioh, while dropping the whole “magic war of the three kingdoms set in modern Japan” vibe, instead embracing the “magical Santa Sentai” via Kon’s “Tokyo Godfathers”, the spirit of which is shown in the image itself:
The next track is titled, “You Mean, During the Break? 1”, which indicates two things:
The narrative allows for some kind of break, and
There will be more than one
And it makes sense they’d need to take breaks, the battles are sometimes brutal. Chiyo-chan, with all eir abilities and charisma, or Sakaki with eir cult-followers and ability to instill bloodlust in common streetcats, neither are able to stand against the horror known as the “Yukarimobile”, a mecha capable of being piloted in such a way as to cause nightmares in others.
Sometimes one just needs a break from all that trauma…
The Yukarimobile is of course piloted by Yukari, a mechanical genius of nightmare and destruction. And eir powers aren’t only limited to large mecha, e has been known to wreck damage on others’ academic careers utilizing mere bicycles!
It’s a muted little riff on the recurring theme. Much like Ayumu “Osaka” Kasuga, known to employ alternative logic to overcome difficulties, but of course is not above wielding knives, generally to great effect!
It is a bit more than half a minute, leading with a brass horn kinda farting along, which makes sense given it’s title, which translates to something like “knuckleheads” or “blockheads”.
“Lazy Crazy Bonukraza” is the title of a song on a “character album”, which is outside the media that maiki consumes (at some point we’re reaching inception levels of meta-media…).
It’s a minute long and features blocks, bells, guitar strumming, and then what I imagine as four musicians who just jump in blowing their horns, all at once!
Of course the title refers to characters “somehow” overcoming their warring gang affiliations, exemplified in this image from the “peace summit” they attended, with their respective “colors” on display:
