Episode 2/Details

"Nichijou Episode 2" (日常の第二話) is the second episode of the Nichijou anime. The episode was written by Jukki Hanada and directed by Taichi Ishidate. It aired on April 11, 2011.

Episode summary
While running late for school, Mio Naganohara ends up being chased by a girl wearing a bear mask, which turns out to be her older sister Yoshino playing a prank on her.

Meanwhile, Nano Shinonome is shocked to find that Hakase has modified her body to produce desserts. Later, Mio lends Yuuko Aioi her notebook only to remember that she drew an erotic sketch of Koujirou Sasahara in there, and attempts to get it back. Meanwhile, Misato Tachibana tries to get Koujirou to cooperate with her on the festival committee seriously.

Glico
Mio, Yuuko, and Mai Minakami play the stair-climbing game, where players have a round of rock-paper-scissors, and the winner climbs a stair per mora of any word. Mio wins first, and goes up the stairs. Yuuko wins the next round, but cheats by stretching her word into a phrase. Mio gets upset but Yuuko thinks it should count. They ask Mai, who responds "Fifty-fifty," amusing neither Yuuko nor Mio. The next winner is Mai, who chants the lengthy Incantation of Resurrection, which gets her all the way to the top in a single turn. As a mystic wind blows, Mai turns and tells an incredulous Mio and Yuuko, "Spell of Resurrection." [Intro]

Part 5
Mio stares at her alarm clock in shock: It's stopped and now she's late for school. Panicked, Mio runs down the stairs and cries to her mom that she was supposed to wake Mio up at seven. However, when she gets downstairs, Mio finds a note from her mother saying that she went to play Sepak Takraw with her friends.

Brief transition with houses near a canal.

Still putting her shoes on, Mio hurries out the door and starts running to school. Mio gathers herself at a crossing, but she suddenly realizes she saw something very weird as she hurried out the door moments ago. As her memory rewinds like an old VHS tape, it pauses just outside her door and Mio is surprised by what we saw earlier: Another student, just standing outside her house, wearing a the head of a bear costume. Getting a bad feeling, Mio turns around and sees that weird thing is now chasing after her. Mio begins running away from it. The masked sprinter eventually passes Mio and suddenly halts in front of her, causing Mio to stop.

Brief transition, a couple in black walks near canal.

In a tense and dramatic standoff, the weird thing slowly walks up to Mio and reaches into its backpack. The unknown student asks if Mio dropped the wooden fish she pulls out of her backpack, and Mio is completely dumbstruck. The bear-headed sprinter puts the wooden fish back and asks if Mio dropped the golden fish she then pulls out. Mio, fearing for her life, presents the weird thing with 2,000 yen. As the weird thing picks up the money, it makes a pun about sometimes being a bear. It then reveals it's true identity by pulling off the bear head... only to be wearing a luchador mask. The masked individual begins laughing uproariously at Mio's reaction, then pulls off the mask to show that (ta-dah!) it's really Yoshino, Mio's older sister. Mio then punches Yoshino for messing with her. A boxing promoter and an associate walk by and marvel at the magnificent corkscrew punch Mio is displaying. Yoshino tells Mio that her prank wasn't easy, and that sneaking into Mio's room in the dark to take the batteries of her clock was especially difficult, but Mio just punches her again. Yoshino tells Mio not to be angry, and that she will make things better by treating Mio to some ramen... using the money Mio just gave her. Mio punches Yoshino a third time.

Spell
Mai enters the Spell of Restoration into her video game, but a message pops up telling her she got it wrong.

Part 6
Hakase is at home, happily drawing sharks. As she looks outside, she notices that the cloud drifting by looks like a shark. At that moment, Nano announces that she's come home from grocery shopping. Nano takes a moment to look at the shark cloud before remembering that she bought the milk Hakase had asked for. She turns and sees that Hakase has fallen asleep.

Brief transition with canal.

Back in the main living room, an excited Hakase asks if Nano bought 4.5% milk. Nano gets the milk out and asks why Hakase requested such rich milk. Hakase pulls out a remote and pushes the button. With a loud, mechanical whirring, Nano's left arm suddenly rises and straightens, and then with a pop her forearm detaches and a roll cake is dispensed. Hakase cheerfully declares that she has a roll cake and proceeds to eat it with delight while Nano just sits there, completely stunned. Nano regains her composure and gets angry at Hakase, demanding to know why she put a roll cake in her arm, but Hakase is too busy enjoying her cake and milk to answer. Nano eventually calms down and, after seeing how much Hakase is enjoying her roll cake, Nano asks if she could have some, too. Instead of sharing her own cake, Hakase tells Nano she can have a sweet bun, pulling out a remote and hitting the button. A panel on Nano's forehead retracts, and a platform with a sweet bun on it slowly and unsteadily juts out of Nano's head. Nano is mortified, and even more so when it suddenly retracts again. Nano asks Hakase why she would add this kind of modification and if Hakase had even thought what would happen if her sweet bun came out in public. Nano then imagines herself in a music store, happily putting on headphones to listen to music. A boy then bumps into her, and her forehead bun pops out. At the same time, the CD slot on the thing that lets customers prelisten to music pops out as well, emphasizing the mechanical nature of Nano's new feature. Nano is mortified, and the other customers are shocked. Back in the real world, Hakase offers to give Nano a music playback function, missing Nano's point. Hakase goes back to eating and drinking, and Nano is upset that Hakase isn't paying any attention to her.

'Brief transition with canal. Some sort of truck is just sitting there.' Hakase finishes her roll cake and lies down. Nano, still somewhat upset, takes a bite of her sweet bun and perks up when she notices how good it is. Hakase then notices how much Nano is enjoying her sweet bun and milk, also remembering she's already eaten her own treat. Hakase makes a move for Nano's sweet bun, but Nano scolds her and tells her she's already eaten a roll cake, and then Nano finishes her sweet bun. Hakase gets quite upset, and then tells Nano, "Fine! I still have a log cake!" Nano panics, wondering where in her body this new baked good will come from, but Hakase just gets up and walks to the fridge, pulling out her log cake. Nano begs Hakase to just put all her snacks in the fridge to begin with, but Hakase stubbornly refuses.

Rock-paper-scissors with Nano's arm producing a roll cake.

Yuuko's jump rope.

Part 7
Yuuko comes up to Mio in class and asks to borrow her math notebook. Mio is a little annoyed. Yuuko promises that it's just this once, and she'll never ask to copy Mio's homework again. Mio reminds Yuuko that she said the same thing last time. Yuuko tells her, "A warrior never goes back on her word!" but Mio points out since she said the same thing last time, she's already gone against her word. Yuuko is embarrassed but Mio lets her borrow her notebook anyway. Yuuko then goes to talk to a fellow classmate.

Mio's memory suddenly starts to jut in. Mio wonders if she forgot something and begins to recall last night. She finished her homework and then... she happened to doodle... a steamy picture of Sasahara and forgot to erase it! Mio bolts out of her seat in panic. Mio rushes over to Yuuko and tries to take her notebook back, telling Yuuko she also forgot to do her homework. However, when Mio grabs her notebook, Yuuko won't let go. Yuuko tells Mio to cut it out, and that she really will do her own homework next time. Mio worries that if Yuuko sees her sketch, she'll think Mio's a weirdo. Not only that, if it's Yuuko who sees it, she'll tell everybody, and the news will spread at the speed of sound!

Mio grabs her other notebook and slams it on Yuuko's desk, telling her that she accidentally gave Yuuko her Japanese textbook and that this is her math textbook. Unfortunately, Yuuko can see that the notebook she has has "math" written on it. Then for some reason, Mio yells at Yuuko telling her that her stomach hurts. Yuuko doesn't really know how to respond to that. Mio then offers to buy her own notebook for ¥1000. Yuuko slowly gets up, goes to the door, and then runs away with Mio's incriminating notebook. Mio chases after her, telling Yuuko the notebook is going to explode! Yuuko just speeds up.

Mio continues chase, but loses hope; Yuuko is just too fast to catch on foot. Against a black backdrop with dramatic organ music playing, Mio thinks that her life is over. The background then cycles through moments of Mio's life: Mio as a baby, with her sister Yoshino wearing her Mexican wrestling mask trying to scare her; Mio standing in front of her primary school, next to Yoshino in full kendo armor. As the background shows a piece of toast sticking out of a tissue box (likely one of Yoshino's pranks), Mio thinks that life wasn't perfect, but she still had a good life. She sobs and thinks that this is the end, her life is over. Her banquet of men is gone. She begins to fall towards the floor. Before hitting the ground, Mio braces herself. She can't let that happen! She powers up because her life is on fire! She begins to run in slow motion with a fiery motivation, going faster until she's a blur. She and Yuuko are running so fast the hallways are white. They turn a corner and Mio runs on the wall before getting back on the floor. She makes one last grasp for her notebook, but misses and gets a devastated look on her face. In a last, desperate attempt, Mio yells at Yuuko not to run in the hallway. Yuuko is confused, but keeps running; Mio suddenly trips and starts rolling, coming to a stop as she slams face down, but she's passed Yuuko. Yuuko stops and asks Mio if she's okay. Mio suddenly gets up, snatches her notebook away from Yuuko, and runs away. Yuuko stands there watching, dumbfounded.

'Brief transition with canal. Two tanukis (?) cross the path.'

Back in class, Mio and the other students pass their notebooks up to the front. Yuuko, defeated, stands in the hallway for forgetting her homework. Mio gives a big sigh of relief; she dodged a huge bullet and can get back to her ordinary life. Suddenly, she panics and stands up. She remembers that she still didn't erase the drawing, and she just turned her notebook in to the teacher! The math teacher asks Mio what's wrong, and she yells out that she forgot her homework.

Cleaning
Nano asks Hakase to help her clean up. Instead, she gets up, tells Nano that's it's too early for her to clean and that she's going outside to play, and then leaves.

Student Adviser
Sakurai-sensei catches up the Haruna Annaka in the hallway, who wears a gigantic red ribbon in her hair. Sakurai-sensei tries to tell Annaka that her ribbon is too big, but Annaka says "Pyon! Just kidding!", joking that she wears it to look like a rabbit. Sakurai-sensei just stands there nervously.

Cake
Mai is walking down the street when she sees Nano and Hakase sitting on a bench eating little cakes. Mai goes to the local convenience store, but they are sold out. Next to where the individual cakes would be, Mai sees a giant "family-size" bag full of little cakes. Whether Mai gets cake is left unresolved.

Part 8
Misato stands on a table with her pistol aimed at Koujirou Sasahara, who for some reason is wearing a bear head just like Mio's sister wore earlier. She sighs, puts her gun down and sits in her chair, asking Sasahara that he knows he's on the festival planning committee, right? Misato asks him if he could please take this more seriously, and Sasahara takes off the bear head. Sasahara then grabs a cup of tea and tells Misato that he is taking this seriously, while stirring his tea with a spoon (pinky raised, of course). He mentions that he is President of the Drama Club, but Misato gets angry and stands up. She tells him that his drama club has nothing to do with this, but Sasahara isn't paying attention, instead noting that they've changed tea brands. Misato bottles up her anger and then gives up, sitting back down and laying her head on the desk. She's got a kendo competition coming up and shouldn't have volunteered for the festival committee in the first place. Misato looks up again and sees that Sasahara is now reading Helvetica Standard. Sasahara suddenly raises his right hand, with his pinky raised, up to his mouth and then giggles. Misato shoots him in the face and asks him why he's reading comics; they can't go home until they submit an idea for an activity. Sasahara apologizes, stating that it is a new volume of Helvetica Standard. Misato asks if Sasahara has any ideas. Sasahara, taking out his handkerchief to tend to his forehead wound, aks if his wine-tasting idea wasn't any good. Misato tells him it wasn't a good idea at all. (It is a school festival, after all.)

'Brief transition with canal. An elderly couple walks up the path. [A young couple walked toward us earlier, and now an elderly couple walks away from us. Hmm.]'

A bored Misato begins to ask Sasahara a question, but she notices that he's playing a video game and blasts him with a bazooka. (In the original, the credits and ending theme start here while the scene with Misato and Sasahara continues.) Sasahara continues to do other activities while Misato blasts him with different weapons. In a cloud of smoke, Sasahara gets up to go to the restroom. On his way there, Sasahara thinks to himself that Misato seems to be in a bit of a foul mood today. In the restroom, his butler changes Sasahara's clothes and washes his face for him. Sasahara wonders if he can lower himself to think on a commoner's level so he can come up with a good idea for the festival. Sasahara's butler impressively changes Sasahara's pants while Sasahara is walking. When Sasahara returns to the classroom, Misato is standing there wearing the bear head Sasahara was wearing earlier. Misato takes it off, and with a face red with embarrassment, tells Sasahara that he doesn't mean anything to her, got it? Sasahara doesn't know what to say.

Short Thoughts
Tsuyoshi Nakanojou's mohawk is shown. The female narrator reads out, "The naivete of Asia".

Don't Miss It!
Nano's sweet bun (voiced by Masako Ikeda), sticking out of her forehead, laments that it is unpopular in Kansai. Many people don't know whether to pronounce it as "amashoku" or as "kanshoku". The next episode of Nichijou is Episode 3. Don't miss it!

Cast

 * Shizuka Furuya as Nano Shinonome
 * Hiromi Konno as Hakase
 * Mariko Honda as Yuuko Aioi
 * Mai Aizawa as Mio Naganohara
 * Misuzu Togashi as Mai Minakami
 * Chika Horikawa as Misato Tachibana
 * Yoshihisa Kawahara as Koujirou Sasahara
 * Motoko Kobayashi as Yoshino Naganohara
 * Kaori Sadohara as Annaka
 * Mami Kosuge as Sakurai-sensei
 * Eiji Miyashita as Akagi-sensei
 * Jin Domon as a gentleman
 * Hiroshi Karasuda as an attendant
 * Kaoru Mizuhara as Azuma
 * Yuko Minaguchi as Sister says
 * Masako Ikeda as Narrator (guest)