Nichijou

In this just-surreal enough take on the "school genre" of manga, a group of friends grapple with all sorts of unexpected situations in their daily lives as high schoolers.

The gags, jokes, puns, and haiku keep this series off-kilter even as the cast grow and change. Check it out and meet the new ordinary.

Keiichi Arawi (1977-) is a professional comic artist and illustrator. Originally from Gunma, Japan, he was raised in the city of Maebashi. By the time he was 19 he entered the world of comics drawing short stories for Media Factory's Comic Flapper (My Neighbor Seki, 7 Billion Needles). While his first series KazeMachi was short-lived it caught the attention of one of the bigger publishers in Japan, Kadokawa Publishing.

His short "Nichijou" won Kadokawa's 22nd ACE Award for New Artists and by November 2006 Nichijou was regularly serialized in Kadokawa's flagship magazine Shonen Ace. Nichijou has since then sold more than a million copies and has seen cartoon and video game adaptations.

It was also selected by Guillermo del Toro as one of the top comics out of Japan today for Asahi News' SUGOI Japan project.