Daily Lives of High School Boys Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Daily Lives of High School Boys Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 17, 2013

If you’re a fan of shows like Saturday Night Live, you no doubt already know what “sketch comedy” is, but to find something akin to that idea popping up in a slice of life anime may strike some as at least a little odd. But perhaps quite surprisingly, Daily Lives of High School Boys manages to take that short form idea and weave a generally quite enjoyable, and often even decently funny, enterprise out of it. Less lethargic than many slice of life outings, Daily Lives of High School Boys is actually a generally fairly boisterous enterprise, full of often predictable but nonetheless enjoyable enough antics.

While there’s a large and kind of ungainly supporting cast filling up the edges of Daily Lives of High School Boys, the focus is on a “three stooges” sort of trio of kids who regularly get involved in fairly dunderheaded adventures. There are passing attempts to give these characters little snippets of back stories, but really Daily Lives of High School Boys is typically about short form comedy escapades that require little more than stupid kids doing stupid things. Luckily for the show, there seem to be plenty of ideas to populate the series.

Daily Lives of High School Boys Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Daily Lives of High School Boys is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of NIS America with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is a nicely sharp and often very colorful looking series that is perhaps slightly hobbled by a less than overly ambitious design aesthetic. Frequently backgrounds seem to be an afterthought, though characters are reasonably well differentiated. Line detail is very sharp and well defined and the high definition presentation does not suffer from any overt compression artifacts.

Daily Lives of High School Boys Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Daily Lives of High School Boys features a perfectly workmanlike uncompressed LPCM 2.0 Japanese track that more than adequately offers the show's dialogue, sound effects and kind of forgettable score. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range gets an occasional boost from the boys' exaggerated responses to various predicaments.

Daily Lives of High School Boys Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This is another NIS America Premium Edition which comes housed in an oversized sturdy slipcase which includes a hardcover illustrated book and two slimline cases each holding a Blu-ray disc. The on disc supplements are:

• Clean Openings (1080p; 1:53)


• Clean Ending (1080p; 1:25)


• Japanese Commercials (1080p; 00:32)

Daily Lives of High School Boys Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Slice of life is often a kind of gentle, sometimes even lachrymose, subgenre in anime, and so it's kind of fun to see things shaken up a bit in Daily Lives of High School Boys. The short form approach here works quite well, generally speaking, for the show tends not to overstay its welcome, since there's always a new "stupid adventure" in the offing. This is another very handsomely packaged NIS America release, and for those who are in the mood for a little brainless entertainment (literally, considering the addlepated adventures of the heroes), Daily Lives of High School Boys comes Recommended.