Talk:Nichijou Manga Volume 10/@comment-12360859-20170928042931/@comment-12360859-20171003070632

Yeah, I guess Nichijou would have to be a love it or hate it series. Love it because it's so clever, or hate it because you either don't understand the jokes or miss the point. It's hard to imagine someone disliking Nichijou if they understand it, but it's easy to see someone disregarding it because it seems simplistic or pointless. Of course, there are simple slapstick and pun scenes that people could dislike, but I find it hard to believe someone could dislike the more unique scenes and clever satire unless they don't get it.

Now that I think of it, there's also the art style. It's easy to forget this when you've been  familiar with Arawi's style for so long, but all the promotional art for Nichijou, including half of the manga covers, is of the main characters. If you were to show someone some of the promo art, let's say the Shinonome Lab crew, they would probably assume it was a generic moe series, which a lot of people avoid. When I first discovered Nichijou, I actually had no experience with anime or manga whatsoever outside of Ghibli movies. (I didn't have any particular opinion of manga/anime, I just never heard of anything interesting at that point.)  I certainly would've assumed it was "another one of those cute girl animes" if I had only seen promotional art. Luckily, my first encounter with Nichijou was the anime's first scene, and I got to see the complete art style and Arawi's humor at it's best.

Anyways, I'm not trying to rationalize Nichijou's small fandom, we're definitely the nichest of the niche, but I hadn't given too much thought to the specific reasons before. Interesting stuff.