Gakkougurashi!

Gakkougurashi! (School-Live!) was a surprise for many viewers of the 2015 summer season lineup. With a 1st episode that threw all convention out the window, it didn't take long for it to garner buzz within the anime community. While I entered with some second-hand knowledge of the involvement of zombies in the show's plot—due to the inescapable whispers coming down the grapevine—I assumed that the subject matter would have merely been treated as a backdrop for cute girls to get involved in silly, tension-less slapstick; with the overbearingly cutesy aesthetic that it was sporting on its cover photo being used as my basis for assessment. ... I was expecting something along the lines of 2015's Re-Kan, where the supernatural elements were just treated as a mere comedic gag, rather than anything integral to the narrative.
And while the deceptive(troll) opening theme and most of the show's 1st episode run-time had me duped into believing my assumption, that premature assessment was quickly shattered with the show's ominous reveal towards the latter end of the episode. Of course, there were a few foretelling signs with the way some characters were acting and visual cues scattered throughout the episode, but I was still fooled nonetheless. With that being said, to get the most out of this title, I highly suggest you refrain from doing any research on it beforehand and just watch it blind. So unless you've already watched the show or simply don't care, I advise you to stop reading this review any further. And with that warning in place, for everyone else, on with the show.

The juxtaposition of "cute girls doing cute things" to zombie apocalypse was certainly an odd departure not often seen in anime. In fact, I don't recall anything going down that specific route at all. The closest point of comparison is magical girl shows that take a darker turn as it progresses (Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica), or shows that use sickeningly cute characters and slice-of-life moments before venturing into a bone-chilling bloodbath (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni). But as far as anything that follows directly in Gakkou's footsteps, I'm drawing blanks. At the very least, I can say it's a unique experience.

While the "cute girls doing cute things" formula is omnipresent throughout the show, it's the moments that it skews into a more unnerving, sinister tone that really makes it stand out. Like the hunting technique practiced by the Angela fish, Gurashi baits the viewer in with a warm, radiant glow surrounding its material, helping lower any defensive walls that might have been set in place. And in this brief instance that you're lulled into a carefree disposition, Gurashi proceeds to pull the rug from under you, as the illusion of comfort fizzles away into something more visceral and disturbing. Gurashi's ability to toy with the viewer's response goes beyond a simple bait-and-switch, it's a sleight-of-hand trick that not many storytellers are capable of executing well. While some of the tonal shifts throughout the show doesn't always transition to the best of its ability (due to improper cohesion between the polar opposite genres being played with), it still manages to keep you on your toes when "shit hits the fan."

And perhaps the best illustration of this technique in motion can be seen when discussing the characters themselves.

Yuki Takeya, our main lead, is a person only tethered to sanity thanks to the willingness of her friends to walk on eggshells in her presence. With such a fragile PTSD mindset that's standing at the edge of rational thought—the likes of which could be toppled with the slightest nudge; a great deal of the show's appeal comes from essentially watching a human ticking time-bomb that could be sent spiraling into madness at any given second. She's Gurashi's central focus and rightfully so, as she not only stands as a psychologically disturbed individual but more importantly, an embodiment of this very delicate duality between escapism and the harsh reality that this anime will come to be to known for. This topsy-turvy mental state was brought to life with visual cues that demanded the viewer's attention. Brightly lit hallways and classrooms teaming with jovial faces are singed away for dilapidated structures and bloodstained walls. We're forced to commandeer Yuki's point of view, watching the murky line between the happy past-life she chooses to embrace as her reality, while the actual truth she rejects—the bloody aftermath of what was once a loving school environment—be the reason that her mind is slowly being torn apart. The subconscious of a girl where only two options exist: either carry on living in denial or be permanently broken if made to face the truth of this post-apocalyptic zombie-infested world—the ultimate catch-22.

And while Yuki's involvement brought the necessary intrigue needed to hook audiences in for more, I can't say the rest of the characters boasted the same ability. They were given episodes dedicated to fleshing out their backstory, but their personalities, from beginning to end, were rather one-note. At best, they had the basic requirements covered to carry the narrative but nothing noteworthy beyond that.

But for everything that Gakkougurashi had going for it, there was a clear misunderstanding of the essentials needed to craft its content into a great show; more specifically, where to further its concept from being more than simply a novelty act. Today, we'll discuss the two major issues that prevented Gurashi from reaching the inner-circles of universal critical acclaim that it so desperately desires.

The 1st major issue that quickly became apparent with each passing episode was the way the show handled Yuki's mental state. When dealing with a mentally disturbed individual, proper psychoanalysis and character exploration is needed to make the broken person's psyche believable. Without it, we're simply given a gimmick that's only viable on superficial terms. With Gurashi, we see the events that trigger the mental breakdown of the character, but it's never explored beyond face value. There's no actual introspection given to justify the way the character is presented. And sadly, because of this, it's reduced to only being used as a ploy for shock value and generating easy-to-consume entertainment. It may have been intended to be more than just that, but it just wasn't detailed enough to get that point across. Since all of the characters were already cookie-cutter stereotypes and no visible effort was shown to develop or add dimension to them, the show, as a result, often felt shallow.
It didn't have the finesse of something like Perfect Blue, where we get a 1st person perspective into the mind of our protagonist as we experience her gradual breakdown between what's real and imaginary, playing out through the narrative and in her mannerisms. Nor was it like Abenobashi, where the internal strife of the main character was externalized into a visual metaphor for further inspection, while also dedicating time to flesh him out as a grief-stricken teen going through a phase of denial.

"Show, don't tell" and "shock and awe" were something Gurashi seem to struggle to distinguish between, which was ultimately the reason it was kept off the pedestal with those that did do this kind of character breakdown right. Simply put, it was a case of style over substance that became painfully obvious when the gimmick of the character's mental state was recycled every episode for entertainment value instead of thematic relevance.

The 2nd major issue was the story progression itself, or should I stay, the lack thereof. If viewed as a character-driven narrative, it fell short of the mark (noted by the aforementioned problems I discussed), and if viewed as a plot-driven narrative, it was a monotonous dribble that repeated the same shtick every episode. It was "moe" antics followed by dark, demented slice-of-life on constant repeat. The reason this worked for shows like Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni was because of the commitment made after the plot twist. Once it revealed the major tonal shift to its viewers, it gradually leaned and stayed in the "darker" territory. There was no flip-flopping back and forth between cutesy and dark, which in turn added poignancy to the central conflict at hand. It kept moving forward to its inevitable destination and was never back-peddling. This was Gurashi's fatal flaw and ultimately what placed the final nail in its coffin. It simply spun its wheels in the mud, thinking it can depend on the same trick to carry it from beginning to end. And because of this, the show was always stuck in a state of stagnation. The only episodes that tried to break this cycle were the final ones, but by then, the damage was already done.

Had Gurashi dedicated the effort necessary to make Yuki more than just a circus act for our amusement, or placed more effort in its narrative to avoid meandering in circles, it could have been one of the best highlights from 2015. But like many shows with an exciting premise, Gurashi just didn't know how to deliver in the end.

While the plot twists and shock factor moments made the show a fun spectacle, I couldn't help but feel a lack of engagement. The moe aesthetic and sensationalized depiction of Yuki's damaged state stopped all chances of the severe moments of Gurashi from really having a firm grip on me. This was also the problem I had with Higurashi and Madoka Magica, despite their more successful rendition of this kind of storytelling. They too succumbed to this trigger-happy depiction of cuteness meet sinister. It's just something I can't see beyond an entertaining party trick. And since Gurashi kept jumping back and forth between lighthearted moe and demented slice-of-life, after a while, the novelty that had won it so much attention had quickly faded away; something that's made all the more self-evident from the lack of staying-power it's had among anime enthusiasts. It was enjoyable at times but only on a surface level, and in the end, left me more underwhelmed than satisfied.

Gakkougurashi had the potential to make something that subverted the typical formula associated with the "cute girls doing cute things" setup but ultimately did nothing to capitalize off of it. Sadly, it's yet another case of a good premise underutilized and poorly handled. The right ingredients were there but at the end of the day, what was served up was a lukewarm dud.

If you have no idea what this show is about, you’re one of the lucky few that can still dive into this quirky ‘slice of life at school’ show blind. It’s mostly centred on antics and club events thought up by Yuki, guided by the athletic Kurumi and motherly Yuuri. You’ll either love Yuki, (she’s so crazy~) or empathise with Miki’s level-headed reactions to her; Miki acts as a foil to Yuki, providing some gravitas to the show. After one episode you will likely either want to drop it or watch the rest. If you don’t know anything about it, watch an episode before you ... read the rest of the review.

If you’re reading on past this paragraph I’m assuming that you’ve either finished the first episode or at least know what happens in it. It’s pretty much impossible to describe the show without giving away things that happen in the first episode, but I’ll avoid spoiling anything beyond that.

If someone had come up with the idea of ‘moe horror’ I would have regarded it with the same suspicion that I would regard a ‘death-game harem’, or a ‘mecha romance’. It’s all well and good in theory, but if you try to keep a consistent tone while staying true to the concept you’re inevitably going to wind up with too much ‘harem’ and not enough ‘death-game’, or too much ‘moe’ and not enough ‘horror’ (or, to continue with the analogy, some really inorganic character development). To balance out the conflicting themes in this instance you really need some sort of excuse to violently flip between a light-hearted slice of life show and a dark post-apocalyptic horror without breaking the audience’s immersion. Fortunately, one method to making this strange transition between completely different tones work resides under Yuki’s cat-ear beanie. With what comes across as either complete insanity or a pathological determination to keep things happy and light-hearted, Yuki manages to get the other characters to forget about their situation, which in turn lulls the audience into that same sense of security. With such a setup, flipping the show back into a horror is as simple as cutting away from the mood Yuki has created.

We soon discover that the show’s title is a clever pun in more ways than one. ‘Gakkougurashi’ follows the daily lives of a cast of mostly schoolgirls that are quite literally living at a school, flipping between their attempts to have fun and enjoy their lives on a day-to-day basis, on the one hand, and showing how each of them found themselves in such a situation, on the other.

A significant portion of ‘School-Live!’ is spent on flashbacks, showing events that led up to their current situation. This approach takes away from the tangible sense of threat, but has the advantage of bringing the oh-so-rational Miki into the first episode (which is an amazing thing for people that aren’t a huge fan of Yuki). It’s a trade-off and a departure from the source material, which unfortunately leads to a few minor plot holes being ripped open from the fabric of the narrative. Given the context of the narrative presented, I was happy for them to spend plenty of time showing how the situation had come to be the way it was. That’s where most of the excitement of this setting should reasonably come from given the nature of the show. Once our protagonists have managed to find safety, the plot as it is generally needs to rely on their desperation or stupidity to inject any new threat into the narrative without the audience losing immersion, so focusing on the lead-up to their situation was a good idea overall.

The characters vary widely in personality traits and outlook, and you’ll likely find that at least one of them has a mentality you can gel with. The power dynamic and relationships between the girls are multifaceted and interesting mainly because of what they represent. Yuuri holds an unspoken and uncontested authority over the group as a pre-designated maternal leader, Kurumi is a hot-headed badass that quickly resorts to violence, Yuki is a psychotic and emotionally manipulative idealist, Miki is a stoic and cold-shouldered pessimist, and Megu-nee is very similar to that clumsy yet lovable substitute teacher you likely once had: she panics, falls over, and drops things, and is ignored far too often by her students when they don’t need her help. From that melting pot of conflicting ideals and character archetypes comes a series of friendships built from necessity; built upon the cornerstone that is the hardship of their desperate situation.

There’s a sense of self-awareness maintained in the writing throughout, whether it’s (quite literally) pointing to other works that it has drawn inspiration from (such as the movie ‘I am Legend’ and the novels of Stephen King), or lampshading apparent plot contrivances by having the characters ask questions the audience were themselves wondering about (viz. why is this school so oddly well prepared for what happened?). This is one of the biggest strengths of the show and a huge part of why I’m comfortable giving it a high score. The writers clearly knew the artistic context of what they were doing and had a reasonable sense of how the audience would react to what they were seeing.

The art of ‘28 Moes Later’, however, was an unfortunate stumbling block that marred the show in some respects. I’m not against the ‘moe’ art design and see nothing intrinsically wrong with it (except that it’s being used so often in modern anime that any departure from it feels like a breath of fresh air). The problem is moments of laziness and inconsistency that were obvious enough to be distracting: the characters are occasionally drawn out of proportion or with slightly misplaced features. It’s not something I would normally bring up, but it’s an obvious bad sign when such mistakes are even apparent to people that aren’t looking for them.

I briefly mentioned before that this show had departed from the source material in several respects. Some of these changes were worse than others. The inclusion of Miki in the first episode was a reasonably appropriate change from the manga; however, cutting out most of Miki’s character development by simplifying her backstory was a strange decision. If only they hadn’t included multiple episodes worth of drawn out sequences of events that did nothing to further the plot (viz. filler), we could have at the very least blamed the restrictions in episode length and number for biting the source material in the backstory! Speaking of backsides, that’s about how abruptly (and awkwardly) this show segues into fanservice. The artistic direction panders to its audience in this regard to the point where it gets in the way of the plot; the writers of the show seemed to hold contempt for the idea that there are only so many appropriate times and places for panty shots or getting changed into bikinis. Fortunately these moments don’t tend to occur in conjunction with the more ‘dark’ scenes, a plot contrivance that I’m more than happy to forgive when faced with the alternative (a brutal deconstruction in more ways than one). Suffice to say, if you’re put off by unnecessary fanservice you may find a few scenes cringeworthy. Most of it is well within the bounds of plausible deniability though, so it’s fair to bet that you won’t find it worth dropping the show over.

Back to the positives, the OP of this series is a blast! Each episode the opening video is slightly (or dramatically) altered so that it’s full of Easter eggs and little pieces of foreshadowing. One of the fun things about following along with the show week by week as it aired was seeing the community pore over all the minor details and changes, most of which I wouldn’t have noticed otherwise! The ending songs ranged from ‘boring enough to skip’ to ‘delivering emotional crits’, depending on how well you’ve connected with the characters.

‘Night of the Living Lolis’ is in some respects what you make of it, which is fitting given that one deeper theme brought up in the show is about the extent to which one can construct their own reality, and to what extent this functions as a tool for overcoming adversity. It’s a theme that’s there, but the onus is on the viewer to engage with that theme if they want to. No direct questions and answers about these things are thrust in the audience’s face, but how you engage with the aforementioned ideas will be made clear from what you think of the characters that espouse respective opinions on those same ideas through their conduct.

After a middle arc easily described as wading through treacle, the final arc of ‘GG’ regains focus and the plot starts to lunge forward to an exciting conclusion, quelling any fears that the setting had been forgotten about. How much of an impact this show will have on you will come down in part to how willing you are to forgive plot contrivances due to being invested in the characters, although in your judgement of such things you’ll often be less disappointed if you give the writers the benefit of the doubt. For what it’s worth, rape alarms are that loud, rusty metal is that weak, generators do make noise, and shovels are heavy.

If ‘not judging a book by its cover’ has equivalents in anime, one could be ‘not judging a show by its genre’. And while it certainly wasn’t many of the animators, at least someone from Lerche genuinely tried to make this work. At a first glance, Gakkougurashi! looks like the result of moe creeping into ever more unfitting genres and settings, but thanks to the great writing it truly showed signs of life even when it should have by all rights been dead on its feet.

Out of most of the anime of summer 2015, the one that keeps popping up time to time is the one and only "Gakkou Gurashi". I don't usually watch anime that is currently airing and most of the time I would watch it in English Dub, the reason why is because I would like to see the animation instead of the subtitles (however, some anime series, I do watch in English Sub such as this particular one). However, one of my friends recommended me this anime "without any research" (which I usually do) and after watching the first episode, I was completely glued to the ... series.

Now 12 episodes later I can now officially do a review of this particular series, the series that everyone was pretty much talking about. So I'll mention my personal opinions about it, what the company "Lerche" did great on and also mention what they need to work on, without further ado, let's review "Gakkou Gurashi".

Story:

The series talks about a club called "The School Living Club", a group of four girls and their young dog living in the school, however there's a reason why they are living in the school, which is explained in the anime (I'll give hints but no major spoilers ;))

I have to admit that I was one of those people that liked the storyline ever since the first episode, there were some great things but at the same time there's flaws. So I'll mention them here.

Pros:
• Mainly focuses on the main characters, you get to know more about their backstory, how the club was developed and how the characters get along.

• Each episode had a cliffhanger and makes the viewers want to know more about what will happen next in the series.

• From the beginning to the end, it made you question about what will happen to the characters and so on until you watch the end and find out that most of the questions have been answered.

Cons:

• The Moe / comedy and dark themes do NOT mix. This is the one of those problems that people had when they were watching the series. It makes the viewers think if they're supposed to consider the series as a serious one or a comedy especially due to the situation.

• There is a lot of filler moments in this series, moments that were very unnecessary, such as the comedy moments. They're supposed to deal with a serious situation, not moments where they're supposed to have fun and forget about what's happening around them, which happens often in the series.

• Not going to say everything wasn't predictable, but there's certain things that were predictable, one of them being the school environment later on in the series. They did an excellent job making things unpredictable in the first episode but as the series goes on, you realize certain things that have been pointed out in the series.


Art:

Pros:

• The series is unique and has its own art style.

• The characters were well designed, the expressions for each of the characters shows the emotions for any situation and the creators developed great outfits for each character making them unique in certain ways.

• The environments were done well as each environment expresses a certain mood, depending on the situation, if it's happy and cheerful, they make it like nothing happened, if its dark, they make it dark and gloomy.

• If you compare the art between the manga and the anime, it is quite similar so they did manage to get the same type of art style as the manga.

Con:

• Like the story, Moe and dark themes don't work too well together. It would have been better if they stuck to one of them instead of both.


Sound:

Pro:

• Each OST was done well, it expresses the moods of the situation, if the situation is a Moe moment, they have cheerful music playing, if it's a sad moment, they make the music sound very sad and so on and so forth.

• The ending themes were okay too but the one theme that I've enjoyed the most out of this series was the Opening. If all you heard was the Opening without seeing the intro, you would imagine this as a cheerful and catchy opening theme, you would never expect it to be dark anime series. If you watch the intro from the first episode, it looks like another "slice of life" anime, but as the series goes on, the intro changes but the song stays the same, I know there may be other anime that did the same thing but this is an amazing idea that I don't often see which makes the Opening even more enjoyable to watch. I always get excited whenever the intro came on because I always wanted to know what they're going to change next and what they'll change it into. It's a very enjoyable intro to watch and a very catchy song to listen to.

Cons:

I seriously have no cons for this anime when it comes to sound as personally the music was fine the way it was.


Characters:

Pros:

• Each character has her own unique personality which makes each of the characters stand out from one another. (Examples: Yuki being the energetic and positive one, Miki being the serious one, Yuuri being the leader type and Kurumi being the cheerful type and the one with the shovel).

• The minor characters are mentioned time to time, we get an understanding of what the minor characters were like, both appearance and personality.

Cons:

• Like the soundtrack, I can't really complain about the characters.

Enjoyment:

Personally, I thought the show was pretty entertaining, sure it had some slow and mostly comedic moments but it had moments were it actually made you wonder about what will happen in the next episode. You hope for the best for each character as well as have concerns about the things around them. Characters and the soundtrack were awesome, the art is enjoyable to see however, the story should have been worked on a bit more.

Overall, a very enjoyable series and I highly recommend people to watch Gakkou Gurashi. The series is only 12 episodes so you can completely watch it within a couple of days. It was enjoyable to watch and a possibly a great anime to watch over again.

Overall: 8 / 10