ちおちゃんの通学路

CHIO-CHAN NO TSUUGAKURO

ANIME

STATUS
COMPLETE
EPISODES
12
RELEASE
September 21, 2018
LENGTH
24 min

DESCRIPTION

Miyamo Chio, a first-year at the completely ordinary high school Samejima Academy. Chio just wants to get through her school life without standing out too much, but for some reason, all kinds of obstacles await her along the path she takes to school. Her long-time friend Nonomura Manana, who's trying to quit being an otaku; the flawless Hosokawa Yuki, who occupies the top caste in the school; and lots of nameless people about town find themselves in Chio's path as she employs the (useless) techniques she's acquired from her Western video games in her daily efforts to get to school.

(Source: Crunchyroll)

CAST

Chio Miyamo
Naomi Oozora
Manana Nonomura
Chiaki Omigawa
Yuki Hosokawa
Kaede Hondo
Mayuta Andou
Rikiya Koyama
Madoka Kushitori
You Taichi
Chiharu Andou
Saya Aizawa
Gotou-sensei
Hiroki Takahashi
Momo Shinozuka
Minori Suzuki

EPISODES

Dubbed

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RELATED TO CHIO-CHAN NO TSUUGAKURO

MANGA ComedyChio-chan no Tsuugakuro

REVIEWS

70ny
80/100
A chuunibyou schoolgirl's hilarious and unpredictable daily journey to school.
If you've watched Asobi Asobase or Daily Lives of High School Boys, then Chio's School Road is a similar deal. It's episodic, each episode consists of multiple short gags, and the main cast is great. Where Chio's School Road diverges a bit from the two would be:
1. Its setting — from the perspective of Chio (the protagonist) on her way to school.
2. The original creator, Kawasaki Tadataka's other works were all hentai doujins.
3. There's a lot of lewd elements (which is expected given the author).
Now, depending on the person, the fact that the author is more known for their hentai might be a deal-breaker. Even if that does bother you, I still implore you to check this out. I've watched some pretty raunchy ecchi and the lewd parts in this weren't close to as bad (this isn't even an ecchi).

All that said, what makes comedy tough is the fact that it's subjective. What someone (like myself) finds to be funny others might not and vice-versa. That's just how it is. For me, all that matters is enjoyment. And I can definitely say I got a whole lot of that from this show.

Was this a good adaptation?

When one watches an anime adaptation, how faithful it is to the source material is a fair question to ask. Now for me, it doesn't necessarily have to be an exact 1:1 translation. However, the original spirit and intention should be intact. In the case of a comedy such as this, that would be preserving the humor.

I actually didn't read the manga prior to watching this. However, upon finishing this, I did check it out. As far as I could tell, the anime adapted 30 or so chapters of the manga (it looks like some weren't in the exact order). Given that there are 53 chapters, that does leave a bit more content for people to read if one takes a liking to this.

But was this adaptation faithful? Yes, I'd say so. In fact, I think it was so good that whether you watch this or read the manga boils down to personal preference. From what I can see, you won't be missing out on anything by choosing one over the other. I really liked Kawasaki Tadataka's art style (~~I may or may not check out his other works to compare~~). The style used in the anime obviously isn't the same, but I do think that diomedéa still did a great job.

If I were to choose between the two, I honestly think I'd have to go with this anime. No disrespect to Kawasaki Tadataka, I did really like the original manga. Between his art style and the comedy, he really did have a great idea. However, I think that this anime took the novel idea he had and really elevated it for me. To have sound (the VA and the effects/OST) accompany the illustrations and to see it in an animated format really did make a big difference for me. I liked the OP and ED and thought they were a good fit. I'm also pretty sure the seiyuu for the main cast sung in them (trio for the OP, Chio and Manana for the ED).

How are the main characters?

What I really like about this type of show is how the focus is on the characters. There's no complex, overarching plot or some villain to defeat. Just regular people and crazy shit happening to them. And I thought that the main cast was phenomenal. Chio would be the 2nd anime schoolgirl that I've related to a lot (after Bocchi). I really liked that she was a chuunibyou that instead of fantasy, was obsessed with western PC gaming. A lot of the gags played off this too and it was just fun to watch. Also, the fact that Naomi Oozora did the voice for her was perfect. I loved her as Jahy, so I quickly recognized that voice. Manana's VA I wasn't familiar with, but I also think she did an excellent job.

Speaking of Chio and Manana, I loved their relationship. They were both adorable assholes, but still clearly best friends. Every time they were both on screen, I was excited to see what shenanigans I'd witness. I don't recall being disappointed either. There is a 3rd girl, Yuki, who I also liked. I definitely didn't like her as much as the other two, but she was weird and goofy. She's one of those brutally honest types, so as you can imagine, she says stuff that is hilariously savage.

And the side characters?

Note: I will only be talking about some of them.

Mayuta Andou

Mayuta is a biker gang leader that Chio ends up running into. I actually thought that he was fine for the most part. I enjoyed most of his gags. However, I wasn't overly fond of his relationship with Chio. They clearly got closer with each time they interacted. But given their age gap, it felt really weird and at times made me uncomfortable.

I read somewhere that there's only a 4-year gap. Even so, I personally just wasn't a fan (especially with how drastically different they appeared in age). It would be one thing for this to appear in a hentai doujin, but in this context, it just felt plain odd. Despite this though, I was able to just overlook it and still enjoy the show for what it was.

Madoka Kushitori

Then there's Madoka, an older girl at Chio's school. She's captain of the Kabaddi Club who and has a desire to grope other girls. Because why not. When she first appeared, I thought it was sort of funny. But then the gag continues with her grabbing Yuki's ass. Who repeatedly tells her to stop. And she doesn't.

A character like this might've been something that would've made sense in a hentai or ecchi, but here, it just felt out of place and forced. I guess the mangaka really wanted to include a character like this here. If you don't mind more lewd humor and aren't sensitive to this sort of stuff then it might not be that big of a deal for you. For me, I've seen far worse, so I wasn't fazed all that much. But everyone is different, so make of this what you will.

Unnamed Homeless Man

Lastly, there was this random homeless dude. It gets suggested that he got to where he was because he groped a schoolgirl. I just felt uncomfortable whenever he was on screen. I didn't find him funny at all nor did I think he added much. Thankfully, he didn't have many appearances in the anime. But unfortunately, he still exists.

How much fan-service is there?

From everything I've said up to now, you can probably gather that this anime has fan-service. It's definitely there, but it's not to the point where it's constantly in your face. It is definitely present and comes up enough where it's worth pointing out to anyone thinking of watching this.

Aside from the lewd stuff I've already mentioned, I only recall unsolicited panty shots. I know with anime and/or manga this can happen. I wasn't a huge fan of it here. I simply found it weird and would often try to look past it. But it happens multiple times throughout the show (sometimes more than once in a single episode). Just another treat from the mangaka, I suppose.

Whether or not one wants to watch/read this depends on how much they care for lewd stuff. Again, I didn't think it was terrible, but it is undeniably there and is baked into some of the comedy.

How would I rate this anime?

To close this all off, I will acknowledge that this anime is flawed. There might've been a few things I wasn't fond of in this anime. Maybe not all of the comedy worked for me either. The issues I had might have been relatively minor-mild for me, but for others, they could be a bigger deal. Despite all that, I would still say that I got a fair amount of enjoyment out of this. If you enjoyed Asobi Asobase or Daily Lives of High School Boys, I'd recommend this one too.

As for how I'd rank them all personally, I'd probably go:

Asobi Asobase = Daily Lives of High School Boys > Chio's School Road

There was no ignoring all the flaws and I just couldn't give it a 9/10 like what I gave the other two. Even so, I'd still rank it well above a lot of other comedy anime I've seen up to now.

For that reason, I give Chio's School Road an 8/10.
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