Type Episode
Date 2002-04-30

A Fun Profession / Pool, Pool, Pool / Ribbon / Just the Two of Them / A Good Person?

Azumanga Daioh 4

  • Tanoshii Shokugyou / Pool Pool Pool / Ribbon / Futarikkiri / Ii Hito?
  • ζ₯½γ—い職ζ₯­ / プールプールプール / γ‚ŠγΌγ‚“ / γ΅γŸγ‚Šγ£γγ‚Š / いいひと?

This episode heavily features Kimura-sensei, who became a teacher so he could be around high-school girls.

This is the sort of thing that causes a lot of people to dismiss anime. Well, it's not just anime that has characters like this--in Father Ted, we see Father Jack dreaming of escorting a group of schoolgirls to volleyball practice, reminding them that since it is warm, "there will be no need for your tracksuit tops."

In both cases, of course, the characters are to be viewed as absurd, their ephebophilic words and actions literalizing the kind of rumours kids might spread (of course, the rumours could be true, but I don't think that's the thrust of the joke).

I've been watching anime for years enough that I've become inured to such things. I just go "yep, you get stuff like this in anime" and don't think of it any further. But watching this in 2020, it's perhaps a little harder to just ignore than it used to be. Culture has moved on, at least a bit.