Girl's High and beyond?

Visual Novel Community Anime/Otaku Discussions
#1

Hey all, recently I have been looking for some anime in the vein of Girl’s High; a lovable, comedic, slice of life drama about a group of friends in high school. It wasn’t overly silly like poponi doshi, or over sexed like … well, a laundry list of anime … but somewhere in between.

If you’ve seen this series, or can recommend something based on what I’ve described, I’d appreciate some input. If you haven’t seen Girl’s High and have access to Netflix, you can watch the fist four episodes online through their ‘watch instantly’ option. (note: the first four episodes really have the highest degree of fan service in the entire series … the show seems to come into its own more after that)

Thanks.

#2

Well, I haven’t seen Girl’s High, so my recommendations may be way off base, but here goes anyway.

Two very pleasant slice-of-high-school-life shows I’ve seen are Kanon (the 2006 version) and Clannad, both from Kyoto Animation.

I’ve also heard good things about His and Her Circumstances (Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou), but I haven’t watched it because I’ve heard that it implodes on itself in the final few episodes of the first (and only) season.

#3

Kanon was one of the best anime series ever, though I prefered the fan-subbed version to the dubbed version … the voice actors sounded all wrong.

Been meaning to see Clannad, guess I shall have to make a point of it now. Thanks.

#4

KareKano … the criticisms are essentially true. The show follows the manga very closely, and therefore, it spends the last third or so building up to an event that never happens. Because the manga hadn’t gotten there yet. Then the creator of the manga, and Gainax, had a falling out, so no more was or will be made.

Anno quit as the director partway thru, as well.

That said, the beginning is still awesome.

The manga itself undergoes a change in tone as it progresses. It ends up becoming something different, and I’m not entirely sure it works as well as it did in the beginning.

That said, the beginning is still awesome :slight_smile:

#5

No probs. I hope you enjoy it.

I’ve found myself vastly preferring the original Japanese voices in anime too, for the most part. When I first started getting into anime (maybe early this decade?), there wasn’t a huge range available in English, and what dubs there were tended to be okay, with semi-decent actors (though I quickly started noticing some of them recurring in practically every anime I watched).

However, I think the anime boom means that the quality of dubs has come down. The talent is spread more thinly. So I generally prefer the original Japanese audio these days - though the problem with that is that the subtitles on most DVD releases tend to be a bit stiff and literal. Can’t win either way, I guess, since I’m not planning on learning Japanese any time soon…

#6

Slice of life anime, eh? While I haven’t seen Girl’s High and thus have no idea what it’s like, I have seen an anime that definitely falls under “slice of life”. It’s called Piano (or alternatively Piano: The Melody of a Young Girl’s Heart) and is ten episodes. It is so slice of life that I’m sure many find it boring. However, when I watched it last fall, I found it to be quite a refreshing change from the usual anime that shows on my cable’s On Demand service (and to some extent, what is shown on [adult swim]).

#7

I’m surprised to not see an Azumanga Daioh recommendation here, let’s see:

yup, we got it all covered :slight_smile: to describe azumanga in one word is easy, awesome.

Even with its budget issues Karekano is one of my favorite anime to date and the soundtrack is perfect, I found myself actually caring about what happened to the characters, not something I can say about many anime.

Oh and you should look into School rumble as well.