Nichijou - Episode 26 (Completed)

It's occasionally felt like it's going to drag on forever, but finally here we are at the last episode of Nichijou.  Is it wrong to feel more than a little relieved that it's all over?

Despite being the final episode, there's nothing particularly out of the ordinary (or rather, this being Nichijou, there's nothing particularly ordinary) here, with Yuuko, Mai and Mio planning a surprise birthday party for Nano, Nakamura looking for her missing cat who happens to be rather a familiar face, and Nano seemingly on the brink of finally losing that pesky key in her back - but does she really want to get rid of it after all this time?  These larger sketches and plot points are offset with smaller affairs, the higlight of which is perhaps Mio and Yuuko's attempts to smash a pumpkin; another outing that gives KyoAni the chance to have some fun with the show's animation again.

It's perhaps this experimental bent that the studio have taken with animating and presenting parts of Nichijou that will live longest in the memory - in these terms, this is very much Kyoto Animation's Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, giving them the opportunity to try a few different things.  Certainly, it has to be said that Nichijou is a real triumph in terms of its animation, standing out as one of the good-looking shows of the year without too much trouble.  If only its humour could have matched up to that, with the show's comedy content producing a handful of stand-out moments which threaten to be lost in a sea of unfunny mediocrity.  Had this been a twelve or thirteen episode series we might have been left with a concentrated and memorable series full of laughs, but as it is Nichijou will go down in my book as a rare mis-step for its production studio that simply went on far, far too long, which in turn diluted some genuinely great moments.  Here's hoping that the autumn season will have more promising fare to fill my proverbial comedy boots.