Whether you call it “Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou,” the English “Daily Lives of High School Boys” or the simple, punny “Nichibros,” I think we can all agree that this show slipped through the cracks. I’ll never understand why shows like YuruYuri get legally streamed while this one gets turned down.

I picked up Nichibros hoping for a spiritual successor to Nichijou, and I wasn’t disappointed. In both comedies, characters react to quirky and absurd situations without skipping a beat. The main difference I can find is that the Nichibros guys are much more meta, willing to break the fourth wall at the slightest inclination.

There’s one aspect to Nichibros that confused me at first—have you noticed how most of the female characters don’t have faces? Except for one or two notable exceptions, the eyes of the protagonists’ sisters, teacher, and female strangers are concealed in shadow. Even when we first meet Literary Girl, the most interesting female character in the series, her eyes are also covered up. (By the way, for a fascinating take on Literary Girl, check out AJTheFourth’s analysis.)

At first I thought this meant that we’re supposed to see the girls as antagonists. Perhaps that’s a holdover from an earlier period—when I used to try drawing manga in middle school, I always drew villains like this. Now, however, I’ve developed a theory.

It’s not we, the viewers, who can’t see the girls’ faces. It’s the teenage, male protagonists themselves. I can’t speak from experience, but I’d guess that to high school boys, women are a mystery. They can’t read their faces, or tell how they’ll react. For example, when Hidenori agonizes over pointing out a hairy mole on a female stranger’s neck. Or when Motoharu can’t gauge whether his sister will pick on him or make him curry for dinner.

This would also explain why Ringo, the socially inept female class president, never has her face concealed. Her awkward mannerisms are no mystery. And it’d explain why we always see the faces of the three female protagonist in “High School Girls are Funky,” the clip after the credits which mirrors the events of the main episode, but with women.

One thing my theory doesn’t explain—Toshiyuki’s baseball cap. But at least with him, his eyes are always visible.