Anime Review: Chio-chan no Tsuugakuro (Chio’s School Road) - Mananacchio Dance Nya Nya Nya

Everyone loves to have a good laugh once in a while, and it's good to release those endorphins once in a while to make you FeelsGoodMan. There were a lot of good anime series during Summer 2018 and this was definitely one of the series that went under the radar since there were so many exceptional series during that season. Nevertheless, Chio's School Road is a decent comedy that involves a bunch of schoolgirls messing about and their mischievous endeavors while traveling to school.

It's hard to describe comedy anime in detail unless you experience it yourself since everyone has different types of humour. I'm a person that can be easily entertained by the worst of jokes (unless it's really bad), but Chio's School Road offers funny yet unique situations. Also, I also learnt that Kabaddi is an actual sport, a professional sport even, and I never heard of it until I watched this anime. Despite being a comedic series, there are some weird-ass characters. You got an exhibitionist/voyeur?, a lesbian pervert, yakuza, it's about as ridiculous as it can get but that would definitely make traveling to school an enjoyable experience. And who can forget the iconic dance - the Mananacchio dance, oh goddamn - I expected it to be cringy but it's wasn't so (it would definitely to have performed that irl though :'))

There's just something about this anime that makes me reminiscence about my high school life where I had about a 10 min walk with a bunch of friends from the train station to my school. Everyday we are joking around, having fun, poking fun with each other - it's the essence of being a teenager - young, wild and free. This may not apply to everyone since not everyone has similar experiences, but I could really relate to the travel to school with friends who will joke around. It was definitely one of the enjoyable aspects of high school - having friends that will be with you 5 days a week, and almost every week of the year. It's a stark contrast to university where everyone travels according to their timetables, so watching this anime at this time was somewhat nostalgic.

Since scanlations are not up to date (pretty far behind), and the English publication has only recently started (only Volume 1 released zzzz), it's hard to tell how much of the manga has been adapted into the manga, but I would assume it's definitely beyond what has been scanlated/published so far.

Mananacchio Dance - Nya Nya Nya

Overall, I recommend watching this anime that went undetected by many others. Whilst it may not be as good as the classics, or the comedy series during that season - e.g. Asobi Asobase, it's still decent, and may even invoke some teenage memories from the past or the present, and that's what comedy series should do - make you laugh, make you feel good, and allow you to experience a different life other than the monotonous nature of real life.


Overall Score: 8/10

Story: 8/10

Characters: 7/10

Art: 7/10

Sound: 8/10

Enjoyment: 8/10