Nichijou - Episode 2

From a hit-and-miss opening that produced enough laughs to just about "work", Nichijou continues down its randomly merry path courtesy of its second instalment.

While I can pick out a few laugh out loud moments from episode one, doing the same from episode two is a far tougher proposition - sure, I smiled at a few jokes and maybe even sniggered once or twice, but this week's instalment singularly failed to get a full-on belly laugh out of me, and the closest it came was with its most throw-away joke (Yuuko's attempt at skipping, in case you're wondering, although Nano's music store incident was pretty good as well).

Aside from that, this episode is pretty much a lesson on why throwing random stuff at the screen doesn't necessarily make for side-splitting comedy.  Every sketch here was wonderfully polished and executed (and I almost get the feeling KyoAni are using this show as their Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt in terms of playing with animation techniques, tricks and styles) to a truly commendable degree, but the only phrase that springs to mind here is that of polishing a turd - if the source material isn't funny, no amount of care and attention to its presentation is going to make it work.

So, after feeling buoyed by episode one, I'm now summarily hugely disappointed in Nichijou again.  I haven't given up on it just yet as it still feels very much like a series that hasn't found its groove, but it needs to work a whole lot harder at its actual content (assuming the manga has enough funny stuff within it) to match its execution and delivery.  Until then, this is looking like a decidedly average comedy anime judging by the weaknesses of this episode.