About as deep as high school girls get...note
"Hey, guys! Do you want to hear something amazing?"
—Baka (moments before saying something not amazing on the anime episode teasers)
On the first day of school, high school girl Nozomu Tanaka gives nicknames to all of her classmates. For example, her two closest friends geek Akane Kikuchi and stoic Shiori Saginomiya respectively become Ota (as in Otaku) and Robo (as in Robot). When Nozomu demands a nickname for herself, she gets stuck with "Baka" (Moron). This is just the first of many such youthful misadventurous moments to be had in Wasteful Days of High School Girls (Joshikousei no Mudazukai), a comedy / slice-of-life manga by Bino involving several high school girls in a girl's school. It was first published in 2014 in Nico Nico Douga's Nico Nico Seiga section, but started commercial distribution by Kadokawa in the year after.
It received an animated adaptation in July 2019. Sentai Filmworks holds ex-Asia rights to the anime and will stream it in HiDive, its own streaming service. A live-action adaptation by TV Asahi is in the works, and is slated for airing starting in January 2020.
Compare with Daily Lives of High School Boys, a manga with similar comedy and tone, but with boys.
Wasteful Days of High School Girls provides examples of:
- AB Negative: Discussed by Tanaka when she thinks about ways to get a boyfriend. Akane is quick to tell her that it won't work out because Tanaka's O-positive.
- Adaptation Expansion:
- The anime adaptation either added new elements, or expanded upon those that were briefly glossed over in the manga.
- The "Nudist Family" part was greatly extended in the anime. The manga counterpart of the scene has Ota and Robo nailing down "Baka" as her official moniker almost immediately.
- The Pool Scene of Episode 8 and the fifteen minutes leading up to it are entirely original.
- Basically, about two-thirds of Episode 12 are an original plot not adapted from the manga, most notably the pig farm segment.
- The live-action adaptation contains 12 one-hour episodes, or twice the length of the anime adaptation. As a result, there are more expansions, the most visible one being Robokko, a Robo-centric mini-drama every episode, set some 100 years before this series aired.
- The anime adaptation either added new elements, or expanded upon those that were briefly glossed over in the manga.
- Adapted Out: Due to the anime's twelve-episode format and mix of out-of-order adaptation and original content, many of the manga's chapters and characters are not included in the show.
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Mitsu gives this to Loli every night.
- Alma Mater Song: Sainotama's is practically a spoof of this; only the first line in both verse are ones one would expect from this.The school building stands in the golden morning sun
Blessed by great sunshine, its summers are hot
Having the construction plans delayed
by a dispute over the right to sunlight
Oh! It's better than big than be small
Sainotama, tama, tama, tama.
We face into the silvery setting sun
Heaters on max, its winters are also hot
Don't bother finding the culprit for that smell
<Don't worry, be happy>
Oh! If we all smell, then nobody would mind
Sainotama, tama, tama, tama. - Anthropomorphized Anatomy: An Otome Game Ota plays runs of this, by turning different organs into Bishōnen.
- Art Shift: Discussed. In Episode 2, Ota is so yaoi-obsessed that she looks completely unrecognizable to Loli. When asked who that girl is, Tanaka explains:Tanaka: That's Ota. Although her face has been distorted by QUALITY.
- Bilingual Bonus: The "Moon! dass! cry!" all over the OP's refrain looks like Word Salad, but it's intended to emulate the "Mudazukai" in the title.
- Bland-Name Product:
- In episode 4, Loli wanted to share some Bocky with the main trio, but Baka eats them all in one go.
- In episode 7, Kohaku recommends Majo using Mericar
to sell unwanted stuff. - The JUSCO shopping mall◊ Baka, Ota, and Robo usually goes to is totally not an Expy of AEON Japan.note
- Lily recommends Waseda to go to Tokyo Hands (Tokyu Hands) to buy cat-themed accessories.
- A manga chapter shows Akane's computer desktop. Apparently she has iTunas, Mozilla Firedogs, Googre Chrome, Clap Studio, and Skypa installed.
- In the live-action series, people go to a video site called WeBroad.
- Blue with Shock:
- The entire Class 1-2 goes this after their class teacher Waseda—on the first day of school—effective admits he secretly likes high school girls, but he can't make it public without ruining his career.
- During the stinger of the second episode, Yamai develops this after overhearing mechanical noises coming out from the toilet stall Robo is using.
- Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: Usually begins with Baka spouting her Catchphrase and Ota retorting in annoyance, disbelief, or something else.
- Chafing Against the Dress Code: In the second episode, the homeroom teacher, dubbed "Waseda" by the girls, asks Minami "Yamai"note Yamamoto why she has blonde hair, questioning if she was trying to look like a foreigner. She tells him she's half Dragonian and half Altamian. He tells her to bring a birth certificate later. Then he asks Akane "Wota"note Kikuchi why her hair is a bit lighter and her skirt a bit shorter than the day before. She strikes a demure pose and suggests it's because she's half-Chochiki and half-Hokkaido (areas known for wearing short skirts and for coloring their hair respectively). "Waseda" shrugs it off by saying, "Well, that settles that." Wota angrily retorts, "No, that doesn't settle that! How about a witty comeback or something?!"
- Childhood Friends: Akane, Shiori and Tanaka were buddies in elementary school.
- Corrective Lecture: Mastaka "Waseda" Sawatari is a Tormented Teacher who frequently tries to warn Nozomu "Baka" Tanaka and Minami "Yamai" Yamamoto about the poor levels of their grades, as well as frequently trying to check on "Yamai" to see if she's engaging in Self-Harm or if she's being abused (It's neither, but she does give people cause to worry). At one point during a school assembly the two of them start acting out, and so he has to take it beyond lecturing, dragging them up to the front of the hall with the rest of the faculty and holding them by their wrists so that they're on display for the whole school. But his preferred method of discipline is to lecture at length.
- Cringe Comedy: The characters are almost all some variation of oddball or idiot and much of the humor involves their weird personalities placing them in the most uncomfortable situations possible. This even extends to Bino herself as the volume omake are often times her relating stories of awkward and embarassing situations she's gotten herself into in real life claiming that because such occurences are frequent she never runs out of material.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Both "U~wa! Moon! Das! Cry!" and "Seishun no Reverb" are sung by Chinatsu Akasaki, Haruka Tomatsu, and Aki Toyosaki. Notably, Aki Toyosaki doesn't sound nearly as deadpan as Robo does in the show, her singing voice being much closer to how she actually speaks.
- Dustbin School: Sainotama Girls' is academically rather mediocre; Majime once noted "its standard score ranking is only as high as the intelligence level of a four-year old is", while Tanaka still gets in while sleeping through its admission exams. Robo and Majime are actually too good for this school and are known to be here under rather unusual circumstances—in Robo's case, defying Intelligence Equals Isolation as her Childhood Friends are there, and in Majime's case, falling violently ill during high school admission exams.
- Evil Desires Innocence: Downplayed. Lily Somiya is an out-and-proud lesbian who, while not inherently evil, has what she herself refers to as a "predator mode", which is her basest sexual desires. Those desires always seem to focus on Saku "Loli" Momoi, a high school girl who doesn't even know "where babies come from". While helping "Loli" fix her eyebrows after a shaving debacle, Lily has to sharply pinch her own cheek to avoid kissing the girl, which Lily describes as "keeping inner demons at bay", and when helping her with a bra fitting at a department store, she gives in to her "predator mode" and begins actively fondling "Loli"'s modest chest.
- Family Theme Naming: The Kujyo siblings are named after gemstones: Hisui means "emerald", while Kohaku means "amber".
- Fan Convention: Episode 11 mainly involves a fan convention of Vocaloid producers.
- Food as Bribe: In episode 6, Waseda uses a manju to get Yamai to speak with him (over her Pointless Band-Aid).
- Foregone Conclusion: Seeing as Ota is Bino's Author Avatar, and Waseda is based on her husband, it's pretty much a given that they will get together eventually.
- Funny Background Event :
- In episode 5, after Yamai commented about Lily's allergic reaction after contact with Baka, it is shown in the background that she is being rescued from the height of the tree by the rescue team.
- Just look up for every Robo's appearance in the background.
- Hair Memento: Hisui 'Majo' Kujou makes bracelets of her own hair for her friends to show appreciation for their kindness and friendship.
- Holding in Laughter: Episode 9, after "Loli" has butchered her own eyebrows trying to be fashionable, "Baka" and "Wota" are both trying their hardest not to burst out laughing. Lily calls them out on their insensitivity, only for "Baka" to point out that Lily is barely holding it in herself. Lily, shaking badly with suppressed laughter, states that she's holding nothing in.
- Homoerotic Subtext: Majime comes within hair's length at kissing Lily, the token lesbian, twice: once in the latter's debut appearance, and once in Episode 10. In addition, Lily seems to be the only girl of her age that Majime doesn't (internally) feel awkward speaking to.
- Inappropriate Pride: Nozumu "Baka" Tanaka once showed Kanade "Majime" Ninomae a set of her exams with scores that were 10, 11, 12, 13,and a 1, or as Majime noted with astonishment, a numerical representation of a Royal Straight Flush. "Baka" was far more proud of that than she was concerned about the "scorched earth" (as her instructor called them) level of failing grades.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: In Chapter 81 of the manga, Waseda grills Yamai for information on who's the culprit behind the vandalism of the school's bronze maiden statue. Yamai immediately denies tinkering with its arms despite Waseda never mentioning where it was vandalized. Not that it matters anyway, since there are bandages and gauze wrapped on there and there's only one person who uses them to an excess in the entire school.
- In Love with Looks:
- From her conversations with her friends, it seems Nozumo "Baka" Tanaka's sole criteria for finding guys to date is "Hot". It started in elementary school, evidently, as she wrote in her yearbook that she wanted to be an "awesome high school girl who went on lots of dates with hot guys". By the time she reaches high school, that hasn't changed, though she made the mistake of enrolling in an all-girls school.
- Lily Someya is openly lesbian, and freely admits she chose the school based on rumors of "lots of cute girls", and she's not disappointed. Lily does seem to have some higher standards, but it's worth noting that a pretty face, like Saku "Loli" Mamoi or Kanade "Majime" Ninomae, will quickly earn her attention. At one point she's even rendered speechless at the sight of Kanade's mother, and ends up puckering for her to receive a kiss that never comes. And she has to sharply pinch her own cheek on occasion to keep from attempting to kiss Saku, as she values the girl's friendship and doesn't want to put her out.
- In-Series Nickname: Every recurring character has one, mostly given by "Baka" Tanaka. These nicknames were listed next to their names on cast sheets. The sole exception is Lily Someya, probably because her name is meaningful enough.
- Inspirational Insult: Baka unwittingly causes one to Hime's father during a flashback in Chapter 77. She hammered down on his ramen so mercilessly that in anger, he decides to try to improve his product, improving his self-esteem and his culinary capabilities. This ends up cementing his drive as a restaurateur, opting to move away to build his food a better reputation. This touches his daughter so much that she strives to improve herself in any way she can.
- Insult to Rocks: When Baka saw a group of grader schoolers teasing an overweight schoolgirl as a literal pig in Chapter 77, Baka yelled at the boys for a whole hour... because they insulted pigs. Subverted in that Baka did not intend to insult the schoolgirl in question at all, nor did the schoolgirl in question (the future Hime) take Baka's action as insult.
- Little Sister Heroine: Very much invoked in Chapter 76. After Aoyama revealed that he has four new younger sisters from his father's remarriage in addition to his one blood sister, one of which is about his age as well and looks disturbingly similar to Robo, Takahashi seethes with jealousy due to him thinking Aoyama's life will take the turn of a imouto Light Novel. Subverted quickly when Aoyama reveals that all of them have boyfriends already and don't really care about him.
- Medium Awareness: In Chapter 76, Aoyama gets a bit role for an Animated Adaptation of a Light Novel. His role only has one line:"This is a fucking light novel!"
- Next Stall Shenanigans: In chapter 6 / episode 3, Yamai follows Robo to the bathroom and uses the stall next to Robo's. Yamai suddenly starts hearing weird mechanical noises from Robo's stall, causing her to go Blue with Shock and run out of the bathroom, suspecting Robo is literally a robot. It's implied that Robo invoked this just to mess with Yamai.
- No Communities Were Harmed: The live-action series is mostly based on Tokorozawa, north of anime's Higashi-Murayama and across the perfectual boundary. However, the series calls it "Tokoronuma".
- "Not How I'm Dying" Declaration: After Majo makes a Ghost Leg Lottery on ways to die, Baka gets "bludgeoned to death". An eager Wota asks Robo if she has any blunt instruments on her, and Robo suggests that the edge of a desk or chair might do the trick. Baka literally bends over backwards to confront her "friends", saying, "I ain't goin' out like that."
- Obsessed with Food: Peanuts-P, the Vocaloid producer who sat next to Teishotoku-P during a Fan Convention. Everything he says always involves some food metaphor, sometimes inappropriately so, to Teishotoku-P's annoyance (to the points of muting the former's conversations).
- Once per Episode: In the beginning of each episode, Tanaka stops Ota and Robo — in one case, pulling off Ota's earphones — to talk about something she thinks as "Amazing", which is usually pretty lame.
- One-Gender School: Sainotama Metropolitan Girls' High School, as its name implies, is girls-only. Tanaka hates this, as it's more difficult to get a boyfriend. In one of the extra chapters, it's revealed that she enrolled in the school thinking that "Sainotama Girls'" was literally the name of the school, and that it was a coed school.
- Only Six Faces: Bino uses a very simplistic art style for her characters in the manga, and as such frequently results in this. Usually, character faces are only drawn in detail if they're being viewed up close, otherwise they'd be given Black Bead Eyes and simple lines for mouths and brows.
- Polar Opposite Twins: Hisui and her twin sister Kohaku; Hisui is a Shrinking Violet Nightmare Fetishist, while Kohaku is an extroverted romantic.
- Pop-Up Texting: In the "real-life" angle, Episode 8, an anime original, is basically this between Tanaka, Ota and Robo, although a large portion of it dedicates to Tanaka's scary story.
- Real-Place Background:
- The story is set in the Tokyo suburb of Higashi-Murayama. The Yasaka Station is frequently and accurately rendered.
- The Fan Convention in Episode 11 is convened at Ikebukuro's Sunshine City, which is certainly very familiar to Ota—it's across the street from Otome Road, according to our our Useful Notes on Tokyo, is the anime merchandise center catering to female fans.
- The story is set in the Tokyo suburb of Higashi-Murayama
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Combined with rant-inducing slight, Loli absolutely unloads on Yamai on Chapter 62 due to her getting too Chuuni during class:Loli: LOOK HERE! Didn't you learn not to play during class in elementary school!? You're in high school right now, right!? Second year, right!? ACT YOUR AGE! How many times do I have to warn you! Don't bother other people! You pleasure seeker! There are kids out there in the world who want to study but can't! And yet you... Aren't you ashamed!? Look here! I'll tell the teacher if you keep messing around!! You stupid poopy-head!! You get it!? ANSWER ME!!
- Ring-Ring-CRUNCH!: In chapter 27, Waseda purchased a set of cat alarm clocks in central Tokyo, and set them in different places in his bedroom. The next day he destroyed four of them.
- Schoolgirl Series: This series is a Slice of Life series about several schoolgirls.
- Self-Fanservice: In-Universe. When Tanaka made up a scary story that involves a pool scene, she is curvier in that story than she actually is (the flattest of the cast). Robo actually points it out.
- The Shameless:
- Not even being saddled with a nickname like "Baka" (idiot) seems to phase Nozomu. She'll also gleefully display her test scores (which are nothing to be proud of. She once got a grade of 1 on a math test) And she has no qualms with being hopelessly vulgar in her speech, to the point where Akane "Wota" Kikuchi tells her to stop saying "crap" so loudly. She'll also eat foul smelling foods in the middle of class, like natto, or leek and pot sticker flavored chips (something "Wota" calls akin to an act of terrorism).
- "Waseda" starts the school year discussing the follies of attempting to date one of the students in such a way that all of the girls are very worried that he's going to be a problem. He will also unabashedly discuss his fetish, college girls in business attire. And when "Baka" suggests he's interested in her, he goes on a lengthy speech comparing her to a fish too young to use for sushi, saying he cannot like a fish that is too young or too old.
- Shout-Out:
- Chapter 81 of the manga has Yamai following a breadcrumb trail of shiny gems that she dubs "Apologems", complete with a maintenance apology notification next to her. At the end of the chapter, she hands these to Waseda for the exact same purpose.
- Majo's favorite movie is The Human Centipede.
- Wota owns a poster of a very suspiciously similar-looking boy to Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba's Tanjiro.
- "Baka" keeps trying to get "Loli" to climb on her arm while imagining scenes from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. She also has an Imagine Spot of Lady Kushana while talking about her plan to eat bread that was three years expired.
- The twins, Kohaku and Hisui, share their names with another pair of twin sisters.
- Slice of Life: About the school lives of about half a dozen girls.
- Spit Take: When Baka noted the resemblance between Waseda and a love interest in an Otome Game Ota is playing, the latter, eating a hot dog, makes one so epic it launches the sausage directly into Baka's forehead and leaving a bruise, before hastily deflecting the point.
- Take That!: The pair of chapters with the girls visiting an art exhibition and coming up with their own titles for the pieces are clear ones towards pretentious modern art.
- The Talk: A Running Gag in the unadopted parts of the manga involves the awkward form of this. The more even-headed members of the cast (Lily, Majime and Ota) find it absurd that Loli was so innocent that she doesn't even know the biology of reproduction as a high schooler, and wants to give Loli some basic sex education. The problem is most of them don't want to corrupt Loli from that, which means Status Quo is Still God.
- Third-Party Peacekeeper: An unusual case. When Baka and Wota get into a fight, Robo demonstrates to Majime that she can put an end to the fight quickly, and uses a method of overriding Baka's anger by giving her a series of simple tasks that it will be easy for her to accomplish, using the sense of achievement to replace the anger of the moment. Robo tells Hajime that it works because Baka truly is an idiot. note
- This Is Reality: The whole punchline of chapter 76. Takahashi spends most of it getting progressively angrier at Aoyama's family situation (his parents remarried, they go out of the country every two weeks, he's saddled with five little sisters and four of them aren't related to him), screaming that he's living the life of a Stock Light-Novel Everyman. When he accidentally vents this all to Aoyama, the latter agrees with how the situation appears, but then reveals that it's not gonna work that way—all of his sisters are dating and don't care for him.
- Toast of Tardiness: At the first scene Tanaka does this, but with a whole bag of sliced bread. It seems to be a common thing for her, as Shiori gives her a jam-like substance (which is actually some type of marine algae) when they meet.
- Tormented Teacher: Masataka "Waseda" Sawatari is saddled with Nozumu "Baka" Tanaka, who comes by her nickname honestly note , and Minami "Yamai" note Yamamoto, who is hip deep in her Chuunibyou delusions. "Waseda" has tried on numerous occasions to warn "Baka" about her scorched-earth grades and shows concern for "Yamai"'s well-being, such as having her remove her PointlessBandAids to make sure she wasn't self-harming. Usually, the strain of dealing with "Yamai" has his glasses breaking from the strain. He even says he has half a mind to make Yamamoto start paying to replace them.
- Universal Group Reaction:
- In the first episode, the homeroom teacher, "Waseda", gives a speech about how he's not into high school girls and prefers college girls that makes it seem like he's actually a closet-high school girl fetishist. All of the girls in class are Blue with Shock and simultaneously thinking "This is bad! This is very, very bad!"
- When Lily makes her introduction in class, explaining how she loves girls and utterly hates men, all of the girls picture a slot machine hitting the "Weirdo Jackpot".
- Unspoken Retort:
- In the first episode, Tanaka relates a series of vignettes about possible ways for her to meet a guy, all of which conclude with the guy saying "What an interesting girl." When Akane "Wota" Kikuchi asks her what's up with the phrase, Tanaka says that the third rate heroine has to be somewhat interesting to get the guy. "Wota" then thinks to herself, "Well, at least she's aware on some level that she's third-rate." It also leads to Tanaka's well-deserved nickname, "Baka". note
- When "Loli" tells Lily that it was "Baka" who told her babies are made when the mother and father apply to the government, Lily refrains from mocking "Loli", while thinking darkly of "Baka", "BITCH!"
- When Lily is first introduced to the class, she unabashedly tells them she's very into girls, and hates boys. All the girls then picture a slot machine hitting the "Weirdo Jackpot". And then when "Baka" questions Lily about it outright, the rest of the class silently but unanimously agree that only "Baka" would be stupid enough to ask what they were all thinking to themselves.
- "Waseda" frequently has moments like this, usually when dealing with "Baka" or "Yamai". For example, when giving supplemental lessons to "Baka", she proudly proclaims that she's got the solution, to which he is happy, until she states that it was about her guy problems, not her lessons, to which he thinks, "I'd like that one unbridled moment of hope back, please." On one occasion, while trying to get "Yamai" to decide between the humanities or sciences route, he threatens to involve her parents, to which she immediately responds that she'll go with humanities. He silently laments, "That took literally two seconds." And on one occasion, he pulls "Yamai" aside to check on her well-being after she's wearing more bandages than usual, using sweet buns to coax her to come willingly. When it turns out that she was causing herself heat rashes, and hiding pimples, "Waseda" thinks to himself, "You've got to be kidding me. I've got half a mind to make you start paying for these glasses note , Yamamoto. And don't even think of eating that second bun."
- Vader Breath: Anyone who put on Majo's gas mask gets this in the anime, along with muffled voices.
- Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: This happens in Chapter 65 when Loli moves on to what she thought is a Shoujo romance manga suddenly gets... rather hardcorenote .
