LogFAQs > #968646771

88. Chios School Road
https://myanimelist.net/anime/35821/Chio-chan_no_Tsuugakuro
Summer 2018 (12 episodes)
My Score: 7/10, MAL Score: 7.45/10
Best Character: Miyamo Chio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEpozlGgg2M

Premise: Miyamo Chio often struggles to get to school on time. Whether its delays due to construction, encounters with thugs, or desperately needing a toilet, her daily commute is always an adventure.

The Good: Chio's School Road is a comedy about the titular Chio and her daily struggles to get to school. She's a fun character, as I'll cover that in her write-up below. She's a video game addict who often plays late into the night, usually leaving her rushing in the morning. Her games of choice are specifically Western video games like an Assassin's Creed knockoff. Sometimes, her imagination and video game logic gets the better of her and she winds up scaling walls and traveling across rooftops. Her misadventures usually aren't Chio's fault, however. Absurdity seems to stalk her, forcing encounters with strange characters like a motorcycle thug or a kabaddi-obsessed older student. She also interacts with her best friend Manana, and their friendship is one of the most realistic ones I've ever seen because a lot of it is them playfully messing with each other. It's always fun seeing what happens to Chio next on her daily walk to school.

The Bad: This is essentially a gag anime, and not all of the recurring ones are winners. There's a little girl who plays a Japanese schoolyard game where she shoves her fingers up peoples butts, which is uncomfortable and strange. The kabaddi club girl is also usually a bit too much of a perverted lesbian for my tastes. I'd have preferred it if the pacing were a bit faster overall in order to fit in more gag situations, and to get through the occasional dud faster.

Overall: Chio's School Road is usually a lot of fun in the absurdity of what Chio faces every day. Not all of the situations are great, but in my opinion the winners vastly outweigh the losers. A lot of them involve Manana, after all, and her friendship with Chio is one of the highlights of the anime.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/1/1/AAcDcBAADxHb.jpg

CHARACTER: Miyamo Chio (Chios School Road)
https://myanimelist.net/character/149765/Chio_Miyamo
Voiced by: Oozora Naomi
TOP 100 RANK: 85th

SPOILERS FOR CHIOS SCHOOL ROAD

VIDEO LINK (not huge spoilers but still): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx3ifdIWHh8

Chio often gets into crazy misadventures, but at her core she's actually a pretty normal high school student. It's taken to an absurdist extreme, obviously, but I still related to her in a lot of ways. Staying up late playing video games while trying not to get caught by her parents, I've been there. Desperately trying not to stand out at school, man, I've been there. Seeing two alley walls close together and thinking about climbing up them like a video game... well, I've been there, but Chio actually does it! She also has the athleticism to pull it off, which is where wish fulfillment comes in. A lot of my enjoyment in this anime came from the fact that a lot of the situations are relatable, but Chio takes them to the next level one way or another.

Still, my favorite part of this by far was her friendship with Manana. If a typical person saw them at the wrong times, they might think the two were enemies. However, their friendship reminded me of how it was with some of my closest friends (though, again, it's taken to a comedic extreme). They talk shit about each other, prank each other, and leave each other out to dry in order to save themselves. Despite all of that, it's obvious how close they are. In one of my favorite bits, a school disciplinary member observes them on the way to school, and she's stunned by what she sees as hatred and bullying. When she confronts them, though, Manana and Chio are confused. They ask the disciplinary girl the same question I would have: does she have any friends? Because that's just how it is sometimes, or at least it was for me at that age. True friendship is being able to insult and mess with each other while still being friends at the end of the day.

The disciplinary girl has trouble wrapping her head around it. She demands proof in a way she can understand. What follows is the video I linked to above. Manana and Chio are forced to do an old dance routine they put together in grade school, a hilarious (and hilariously awful) simple routine filled with nyas and mistakes. I don't know about anyone else, but it certainly reminded me of some of the dumb bullshit they made me do in gym class as a kid. It was always embarrassing, and I tried to forget it. Manana and Chio still remember theirs, though, and they move the disciplinary girl to tears. I agreed with her, I could see the friendship. Chio's School Road was absurd and zany, but a lot of things from Chio still resonated with me, and her friendship with Manana was what struck me most of all.