Nichijou Episode 1

"Nichijou Episode 1" (日常の第一話) is the first episode of the Nichijou anime. The episode was written by Jukki Hanada and directed by Tatsuya Ishihara, who is also the series director. It aired on April 3, 2011.

Episode summary
While chasing after a cat that stole her breakfast, Nano Shinonome runs into a student and blows up, resulting in Nano being stranded upon a roof with a missing hand. Yuuko Aioi goes through desperate means to keep her octopus sausage from being sullied, while Koujirou Sasahara makes a scene at the school's opening ceremony over bringing his goat to school only to be shot and reprimanded by Misato Tachibana and Yuuko tricks Mio Naganohara into pressing the fire alarm. Later, Nano begs her creator, the Professor (aka Hakase), to remove the noticeable wind-up key on her back, but she refuses because she thinks it is cute.

Parts
Yuuko and Mio are at school, and Yuuko tells Mio that she doesn't have any motivation. Mio tells Yuuko that they're high school students at the beginning of a new semester and that if she just gets going, the motivation will come to her. Yuuko wonders how one can get motivated to get oneself motivated since they don't have any motivation in the first place. Mio tells Yuuko that she just has to get started anyway. Yuuko then gets inspired to do so.

[Untitled] Short Thoughts
Hitokotowadokotoba (ヒトコトワドコトバ) Mio and Yuuko are sitting outside on a rug. A yellow bird lands on Yuuko's head and then explodes. Text appears as a female narrator reads it: "I wish I could be a simpleton."

Nano is cooking fish out in the yard and calls for Hakase to wake up. Hakase comes out--still groggy from waking up--and complains that she wants omelette rice for breakfast, not fish. Nano then turns around and has a discussion with Hakase about the benefits of fish and tells her not to be picky. When Nano turns her attention back to the fish after the brief interruption, Nano sees an empty grill. Looking up, a cat has stolen the fish; the key on Nano's back turns, and Nano quickly denies being a robot to the confused feline. The cat, still holding the fish, runs away and Nano chases after it. While chasing, Nano drifts off, thinking that maybe the cat only stole the fish as part of its plight to feed her kittens. She shakes that thought out of her head and turns her focus back into the chase, but she sees a male student listening to music while walking to school and panics that she'll crash into him. There is a slow-motion sequence of her just as she crashes into the student. The view then jumps to the city skyline as Nano's crash causes a huge explosion. As the shock waves of the explosion ripple through the city, it cuts to the introductory credits and theme song.

Part 1 (continued)
The effects of Nano's sonic boom rush through the city, sending objects flying through the sky; it's even strong enough to lift a van. As various items fly through the sky, the action briefly slows to show and label first a kokeshi, then an akabeko , and finally a piece of salmon. Far away from the explosion, Yuuko greets Mio in Malay and Indonesian, "Selamat Pagi" (meaning "Good Morning") expecting a reaction from Mio but is disappointed when Mio just talks about having forgotten her student ID and makes no mention of Yuuko's greeting. Mio suddenly stops and asks if what she just heard was thunder. Yuuko jokes that maybe they'll be having heavy showers, with rain and hail. She is then suddenly hit on the head by the kokeshi from earlier. Mio picks it up off the ground and understandably wonders where it could have come from. At first upset, Yuuko decides that maybe she is lucky, as nobody ever has a kokeshi fall on them from out of nowhere. She's then immediately hit on the head by the akabeko and bitterly declares that she is not lucky. Again upset, Yuuko cheers herself up by trying to look on the bright side: at least she wasn't hit by anything gross or perishable. The piece of salmon then plops down on her head and Yuuko loses all color. Mio is so stunned she drops the kokeshi and the akabeko she was carrying. Still shocked, Yuuko grabs the thing that fell on her head, looks at it, and then cries out, "It's salmon!"

'Brief transition of truck driving by corner store. (I need to figure out what to do with it.)'

Everyone is streaming into Tokisadame Prefectural High School, including Sasahara riding his goat, which is being led by his butler. Tsuyoshi Nakanojou greets a female student as they enter room 1-Q. Inside the classroom, Mai Minakami is reading a real estate magazine. Mio and Yuuko enter and greet Mai (Mio normally, Yuuko with "Selamat Pagi"). As they sit down, Yuuko thinks to herself and is disappointed that Mai had no reaction to being greeted with "Selamat Pagi." She decides that she'll just stop saying it, but Mai suddenly turns to Yuuko and tells her "Selamat Malam" (meaning "Good Night" in Malay and Indonesian). Yuuko is overjoyed by this, though she asks if Mai doesn't mean "Selamat Pagi." Mio is befuddled with their exchange and wonders what language they're speaking.

Sakurai-sensei enters the class and announces that homeroom is starting.

Brief transition with the same store.

Sakurai-sensei sits in front of the class and tells them she found a strange statue in her locker that morning and questions the class to see if any of them know who did it. She thinks it's a prank and she would like to know who the culprit is, but no one responds. Mai appears to be interested in it, though. Yuuko asks Mio who would do such a thing, and then wonders if a student with feelings for Sakurai-sensei did it. Mio says that she knows what it feels like to have hopeless feelings for someone. Yuuko asks if she means like herself and Sasahara, and an embarrassed Mio calls her an idiot.

'Brief transition with the store. The cat who stole Nano's fish runs in front of the store.' A distraught Nano wonders where she is. She remembers the explosion and then opens her eyes to find she's on a roof. She walks around the roof trying to find a way down, but can't. She realizes that she can't get down! Behind her, the boy she ran into flies by. Nano then notices that she's lost her chopsticks, and a slipper. She gets down on her knees and wonders what she's going to, when she realizes she's also lost her left hand! She starts crying that now people will know she's a robot while the camera zooms in on the key on her back, which is turning.

Mai and her dog Oguri Cap are in the park, and Mai throws a Frisbee. Oguri Cap chases it and jumps in the air. Just moments before he catches it, the Frisbee gets blasted apart by a bullet. Mai is holding a double-barreled shotgun. In retrospect, Mai may have actually thrown a clay pigeon as used in skeet shooting, which are generally disk-shaped, of a dull clay color, and shatter when hit.



Mio, Yuuko, and Mai are eating lunch in class. Mai has just finished; Mio tells Yuuko that if she doesn't finish her lunch soon, they'll be late for 5th period. Yuuko chuckles and says she's been saving her favorite part for last so she can wrap up her lunch by saying, "Delicious!" As she holds a wiener in her chopsticks above her head, it slips out and begins to fall in slow motion. Yuuko keeps almost catching it, but it always slips away. It then heads toward Mai, who's sitting ready with a catcher's mitt. Nakanojou then enters and, seeing a coin on the floor, bends down between the sausage and Mai's glove. The wiener slips through Nakanojou's mohawk and Mai catches it, but it slips out again as Mai closes her glove. It hits the lockers and Mio declares that it's over, but Yuuko doesn't give up. She runs over while counting to three and is able to securely grab the wiener after it bounces off the ground.

She says she's safe, but an astonished Mio declares that she's definitely out. Yuuko reminds Mio of the Three-Second Rule, eats it, then triumphantly declares, "Umai!" (Delicious)

The trio of Yuuko, Mio, and Mai are at school assembly, listening to the Principal's bad jokes. Yuuko asks Mio if she thinks the Principal knows how flat his jokes are falling. Yuuko then gets paranoid, thinking that the Principal knows how old his jokes are, but is telling them anyway in an attempt to show today's corrupt youth what hard work means. Mai reaches out and puts her hand on Yuuko's shoulder, who is shocked when Mai turns and starts giggling really hard. Mio notices it, too, and neither can believe Mai seriously thinks the Principal is funny. Feeling inspired, Yuuko decides she'll make Mai laugh, too, but when she opens her mouth, nothing comes out. She turns back around tearfully asking herself why it feels that if she were to say anything right now she would lose everything. We then see Mai's perspective and the real reason Mai is laughing. On the back of Yuuko's head is a piece of squid leg. Mai decides she'll wait to see if Yuuko notices it.

'Brief transition with store. The light changes.' The Vice-principal stands at the microphone and introduces Sakurai-sensei. Still holding the statue, Sakurai-sensei introduces herself as the student adviser. She thinks to herself that she gets nervous in front of so many people, but then tells herself that in order to become the kind of teacher she wants to be, she must do this. She then mentions that she's seen a lot of goats around the school, and tells the student body not to bring goats to school. Sasahara is offended by this notion and angrily shouts that riding to school on goat does not violate any rules. Yuuko tells Mio that it must have been Sasahara's goat they'd seen by the bicycle racks, but Mio pretends not to care. Surprised by the retaliation, Sakurai-sensei reverses her position immediately. Misato suddenly shoots Sasahara point-blank in the forehead and tells him that she's certainly not going to allow him to ride goats to school. Sasahara's butler lifts him off the ground. While cleaning his glasses, Sasahara asks why he must use his own two legs. He states that he is the Sasahara family's eldest son, but Misato interrupts him and asks who cares? They are still just farmers. Fe-chan is surprised that Sasahara is just a farmer, and Weboshii feels deceived. Mio thinks to herself that not only did Sasahara ride to school on a goat, he rode on a white goat to come for her. (As opposed to the traditional white horse that heroes ride.) She then imagines a romantic scene where she is wearing a bridal veil in a field of flowers, watching Sasahara as he rides towards her on his white goat. After some nonsensical English dialogue, Mio breaks from her daydream and falls backward as blood gushes from her nose; Yuuko catches her. Mai is surprised when the squid leg falls off the back of Yuuko's head.

'Brief transition with store. Nano runs across the street.'

Sakurai-sensei finishes her speech by telling the students that talking on your cell phone while riding your bike is dangerous and they shouldn't do it. Finally, she holds up her statue and tells the students she found it in her shoe locker this morning. Yuuko and Mai are carrying Mio's unconscious body through the crowd, but Mai suddenly stops to look at the statue. She then looks down and sees the squid leg on Mio's forehead and wonders if this is déjà vu. Sakurai-sensei asks the students who put the statue in her locker, claiming that she won't be mad, but they will stay there all day if need be. The Principal sheepishly raises his hand and tells everyone that he'd heard it was Sakurai-sensei's birthday. Takasaki-sensei reacts very strongly to this. The Principal thinks that Sakurai must not like Buddha statues, and offers a brief poem of apology. An awkward silence follows. The Vice-Principal announces that this concludes the morning announcements, and then thanks the Principal for his work up to this point. The Principal reacts in shock.



Mio feels compelled to press the giant button that sets off the fire alarm. Yuuko gets a wicked idea and tells Mio she should push it, lying and saying that when she pushed it earlier, nothing happened. Mio pushes the button, setting off the fire alarm and school panic. As the students rush out of the school in confusion and panic, Mio and Yuuko are frozen in place with shock.

Helvetica Standard
An oblivious reaper goes around asking terrified people what K.Y. means. He then asks his superior reaper what it means and he responds, "Someone clueless. Like You."

Koujirou Sasahara is called to see Tomioka-sensei in the faculty office. Tomioka-sensei asks Sasahara why he has to ride a goat to school. While it doesn't violate any actual rules, it's still a goat; can't he ride a bicycle or something? Sasahara interrupts and asks if Tomioka-sensei could please refer to his goat as Kojiro, rather than "goat." Tomioka-sensei takes a sip of tea and then tells him that for now, he's just a goat.

Narrating, Nano Shinonome introduces herself. While washing dishes, she continues by telling us how she is a robot made by the professor she lives with. She says that the professor stays home and does experiments all day, but a shot of Hakase reading a picture book about sharks suggests otherwise. Nano explains that because the professor is so "busy", Nano stays at home to help her. As Nano brings Hakase some milk she's warmed up, badly stubs her pinkie toe on the wall. Narrator Nano comments that she has no special features, but she can feel pain. Hakase asks her what's wrong, and Nano, in intense pain, tells Hakase she stubbed her toe. Hakase pops Nano's pinkie toe off to relieve the pain, revealing a mechanical interior, and narrator Nano comments that while she doesn't have any special features, her toe does come off.

'Brief transition with store. Sasahara rides his goat, led by his butler.'

Nano and Hakase are sitting at the table. Hakase is enjoying her warmed milk when Nano asks what the giant screw on her back is for. Hakase can't believe she's never turned it before and gets up to do so. After Hakase turns the key a few times, Nano's big toe jets off and slams into the wall, with what looks like a USB port inside. Narrator Nano excuses herself and comments that she does have special features. In disbelief, Nano asks Hakase if that is really all that the key does. Hakase cheerfully replies, "Of course!" Nano begs Hakase to remove it, and she (just as cheerfully) tells her no. Hakase thinks it's cute. Nano tells the professor that she wants to be more normal, to be able to sit in chairs and roll over normally. She cuts to a flashback showing Nano in the yard, yearnfully looking at other teenage girls as they head to school. Nano says that she can't go to school like this, and wishes she weren't an android, but takes it all back when she sees how sad the statement makes Hakase. Hakase continues to pout, Nano continues to try to get her to stop being sad, and narrator Nano comments that this is her life.

Part 1 (Conclusion)
The boy Nano ran into is sitting on top of a smokestack and wonders where the heck he is. He pushes play on his iPod and the ending credits begin.

Nano's big toe (voiced by guest narrator Reiko Katsura), still stuck in the wall, introduces itself. It says it is quite small, it storage is 1 gigabyte and wishes it were a little bigger. The next episode of Nichijou is Episode 2. Don't miss it!

Credits

 * -|Opening=


 * -|Ending=

Image Gallery

 * See: Nichijou Episode 1 Gallery