Artistically, Azuma-sensei has a very different approach to drawing manga than
other manga artists I've encountered. I don't believe Azuma-sensei is
particularly skilled like Abe-sensei or Tomizawa-sensei; however, it's easy to
see that he does know what he's doing by seeing how he differentiates among
characters. If you're thinking of the hair length and shape, well, that's not
all there's to it. Slight differences in face shape and eye shape are more
important because hair is easy for any half-artists to do. Anyway, art is not
fantastic in any big way. It's very soothing, I guess. Story is not coherent
as a whole. In fact, it's not even all that interesting. Azumanga Daiou is
all about characters. You just gotta love the characters. It takes a while,
but before you get through half of the book, you'll most likely be attached to
at least one of the characters. If not, well, it's not for you.
The closest thing I've seen to this is Calvin and Hobbes, not in terms of the
lessons since there are no lessons in Azumanga Daiou, but in terms of the
general feel. All in all, I can't wait to see the anime. I'm looking forward
to hearing Takaka Rie as Yomi-chan, Asakawa Yuu as Sakaki-san, Hiramatsu Akiko
and Hisakawa Aya as the teachers, and Higuchi Chieko as Tomo, but I feel Ihata
Juri should've played Chiyo-chan. I'm not definite about that one since my
exposure to Kaneda Tomoko's voice is limited. I'm actually not looking
forward to Kuwashima-san as Kagura. I can't see it working well. We'll
see....