Kimura Sensei

On another blog I found mister Kimura - Kimura Sensei (木村先生) in Japanese. Mister Kimura is the teacher in an anime about seven girls going to a highschool in Japan. The anime is called Azumanga Daioh (あずまんが大王), meaning Azumanga 'great king'. Dai oh (大王) is the name of the magazine in which the manga on which the anime is based first showed up.
So the name of the anime is wrong, it should be Azu-anime Daioh (あずま アニメ 大王).

Also, Azumanga is a combination of the author's surname and the word manga (or anime). The author is Azuma (あずま or in Kanji: 東 but could also be written 吾妻) Kiyohiko (きよひこ or 清彦). He also drew Hentai manga and anime. Hentai means sexy or perverted. I have not seen any of those.
Azumanga Daioh is not about sex, and there is nothing depraved anywhere in it. Except for mister Kimura. Who isn't really depraved, being really rather innocent. And sweet. In an innocently sweet and totally pervy fashion.

The objects of his peculiar affections are the girl-students Kaori (かおり), also known as Kaorin, Ayumu Kasuga (春日 歩, Kasuga Ayumu), who is nicknamed Osaka (大阪), Chiyo-chan (美浜 ちよ, Mihama Chiyo), Tomo Takino (滝野 智, Takino Tomo), Koyomi Mizuhara (水原 暦, Mizuhara Koyomi), miss Sakaki (榊) , and Kagura (神楽) .
Mister Kimura is married. And myopic. His glasses make him seem a worse pervert than he probably is.

Kaori is sweet, short, and shy, and has a crush on Sakaki which is unrequited. Mister Kimura has a crush on Kaorin which is also unrequited. Thank god.

There are two other teachers, both female. Yukari-sensei (谷崎 ゆかり, Tanizaki Yukari), the English teacher; Kurosawa-sensei (黒沢 みなも, Kurosawa Minamo?), also known as Nyamo (にゃも) who teaches phys ed.
Yukari Sensei is not soundly based in the real world, or entirely emotionally stable. Nyamo is pleasant and po-faced.

The series is very amusing. Much of it is available on youtube, and Wikipedia has a lot to say about it too. That's where I found all the Kanji and stuff.


周小燕