My favorite comedy anime of 2011 was Nichijou with its over-the-top face reactions and quirky gag humor. I found myself liking the school segments more often than the Hakase/Nano segments. One of those school moments happened in episode 6 when Mio and Yuuko start playing picture shiritori during class by passing notes to each other.
Mio offers parasite based on Yuuko’s kappa and then Yuuko draws a tengu but writes “TENGO!!”, causing Mio to jump out of her chair in silent surprise. Mio decides to go with it and responds with gokuu (not sure what this means). Yuuko tries to draw a cow and writes “usi” instead of ushi. Mio uses shita (tongue) and Yuuko makes taxi with “taxy” next to it.
Mio continues by taking shi and making shisu (slang for sushi). Yuuko comes up with Superman but realizes she would lose since her word ends in “n” so she draws a few more to make it Supermans. Mio returns the paper with the zu/s crossed out, effectively telling Yuuko that she lost.
The duo later had a more aggressive battle over words in episode 14 when Yuuko misheard Mio’s lunch request and bought her yakisaba (grilled mackerel) instead of yakisoba.
P.S.: Episode 6 also had one of the better nerd jokes of the year.
