Mikagura Gakuen Kumikyoku (TV)

This is no ordinary school. It looks normal at first but Mikagura Private Academy is far from normal when you get supernatural battles on everyday basis. Why? Because it’s for representation and show which club reigns supreme on campus. In essence, this series isn’t just some slice of life school life story but also one that blends in supernatural shounen-like features with school shenanigans.

Based on the light novel and Vocaloid songs, Mikagura Gakuen Kumikyou is an adaptation that I’d like to describe more as a school battle comedy. It runs on a story with characters that possesses special abilities belonging to each of his ... or her own club. The series stars protagonist Eruna Ichinomiya as she enters the doors of the academy. In a nutshell, she is portrayed as an otaku with a special taste in cute girls. Essentially, it’s what led her to come to Mikagura Private Academy because she saw a picture of the elegant Seisa Mikagura, the granddaughter of Mikagura Academy's principal. So there she is experiencing this rather bizarre change in her life. For what’s worth, this show is a bit corny although it does settle down with style once the pace goes going.

For starters, the academy is divided by many cultural clubs that specializes in different skills. These expand to a large variety including culinary, art, craft, drama, calligraphy, astronomy, manga research, flower arranging, and even going home. It’s a mixture of almost everything you may find at your local school with their extracurricular activities. For Eruna, this becomes a source of problem because she doesn’t belong to any club. By the school rules and mechanics of the series, anyone not in a club gets poor treatment including a lack of sleeping arrangements; the first episodes shows Eruna sleeping with a sleeping bag at school. Can you imagine that? But as the series progresses, we can see a bit of Eruna’s potentials. As the school focuses on school battles, it’s up to the students to improve their skills and make their own club proud.

Because the series features a wide range of characters, it takes time to explore the most prominent ones. This is a plus as the series allows us to see some insight scoop on what the cultural clubs are about. No more just telling but also showing becomes evident as we see what some of the club members do behind the scenes. For Eruna, I suppose it means that she can understand how the school works while trying to get Seisa’s attention. And that’s really a focus on and off for Eruna. At first, she really wants to hook up with her but as the story develops, we can see that Eruna genuinely cares for Seisa. A problem is that the two are not compatible. Seisa has a lone wolf-like status and isn’t the type to open herself to others. This is explained in one of the later episodes as we learn more about her past. However, the series shows that Eruna can brighten up just about anyone’s day. Relationship is important especially for youth and character growth so Eruna’s experiences with other characters really brings out herself too. One of the more prominent relationship she has is with a young girl named Otone. While they started off with a lot of awkward moments, the two becomes close. It brings out Otone’s true character to light rather than the uptight and expressionless person that others see her on the surface. Similarly, Eruna also shows her kindness to others based on a lot of events that she gets herself involved in.

As a series that has a lot of diversity, there’s also a good amount of comedy. However, this is a bit of a hit or miss. Eruna is character that some people will like or others will feel dislike towards. In retrospect, she is a very energetic girl but sometimes, she can be a bit naïve and too straightforward. Her personality when first introduced in the series also mirrors those of a kid in an ice cream shop. She goes around looking for “cute girls” and has her delusional imaginations. This is where the comedy comes in full force as she imagines being in “intimate moments” with them. The yuri vibes will also be a bit evident although it’s nothing sensitive and played more out as a comedy. But for a show like this, I feel like comedy is important as the series crafts a lighthearted atmosphere. The competitiveness is still there with the club battles and even tournaments. However, it also gives the series a breather when you see how much some of the students have fun in their daily lives. Just be aware that some of the dialogues can feel a bit cheesy as the story drags on. While it doesn’t obliterate the series’ enjoyment, it may feel blend after seeing many varieties of it.

Then, there’s the action. Like I mentioned before, this is no ordinary academy. As a school that features club battles with special abilities, expect a bit of colorful explosiveness. The mechanics of the battles and rules are explained that can be easily understood. The battles themselves usually don’t last long but does capture the point. I would say that the action itself is only slightly above average. Most of them showcases a characters’ special ability that corresponds with their club origin. So in many ways, it’s predictable at what some of them can do. The battles has a lot of energy but sometimes doesn’t match its momentum. Some of them are also rather short so expectations coming into them aren’t high. In retrospect, there’s nothing too special about them besides being a colorful gimmick to progress the story elements. After all, school battles with supernatural elements isn’t something new we see these days.

In terms of artwork and visual, this series explodes in color. Literally everywhere is color whether it’s the characters, the setting (school), or the battles. The school itself doesn’t look too special but the characters are decorated in flamboyant style. From the diverse range of colored hair to some of the battle outfits, we see a good amount focus on the visuals. Unfortunately, not every episode can live up to its hype on the technical aspects as there are times when the colors feels out of focus. The backgrounds are also lazily animated while some body movements are limited. Fan service is very minimal except for some of Eruna’s personal delusions. And even so, that’s played for laughter.

Soundtrack is a more or less moderate. It’s nothing to write home about especially if it’s almost always cherry. The OST all sounds similar except for cases when the characters do battle. That’s when the full throttle orchestra kicks in. Otherwise, it’s generally underwhelming. The OP and ED theme songs does have a bit of colorful style though especially with the characters in frame. On the other hand, character voice mannerisms isn’t very impressive. Eruna sounds almost like a brat at times while Seisa is borderline emotionless. The only character that brings a lot of personality into the series with its voice is perhaps the mysterious creature name as Bimii. While his voice isn’t anything impressive, he attracts considerable amount of attention on-screen just by the way he speaks. Don’t expect something that will blow your mind in the end though.

This show is probably a good choice for anyone interested in some comedy fun. Otherwise, it adapts spoofy gimmicks and settles for a family-friendly atmosphere. There are hardly any mature themes or something that is shocking. The story is very straightforward with its colorful cast of characters. But while it is generic and not very memorable together, it does pull off some clever tactics. It has this good natured fun to categorize school as a playground rather than a military academy. In the end, you’ll have to ask yourself if this type of fun is effective because why not?

All my reviews are spoiler free aimed towards people who haven't seen the show.

Mikagura School Suite
Initial summary and review, if you're not interested in the summary skip the story section. *note my reviews are always spoiler free. Any part of the story that's revealed in the summary is only for the first three episode or less in an attempt to intrigue you to give it a view.

MSS is an anime adaptation of a novel that was first inspired by a series of popular NND songs created by Last Note and performed by the Vocaloid GUMI.

The words that describe this show as a whole are ... fun, energetic, even charming at times. But I think the word that best describes with show from an objective standpoint. Is lazy.

Story: The show starts off rather ominous, with a girl running from a pursuer through the dark Academy halls in the middle of the night. Ending with an incredible attack from said pursuer with the outcome unknown to the viewer. By the end of the episode, we learn the girl that was being chased at the beginning of the show, is the granddaughter of Mikagura Academy, the girl who prompted Eruna's attendance, Seisa Mikagura. Seisa is a austere individual who usually secludes herself from the rest of the academy even as far as not attending classes. She catches sight of Eruna when she arrives and offers her to join her club, assuming this has something to do with her family name, and ask her to represent the club in the upcoming battle demonstration. Eruna happily accepts with drool running down her face from gawking at her sweetheart senpai. But she doesn't even know how to battle..... It seems as if it's a start to a good mystery. What happened that night? Why is Seisa so withdrawn from everybody else? And why does she have an interest in Eruna the moment they meet? As Eruna enters her first battle, she quickly learns how much of a disadvantage she's at and flees from the fight in an attempt to catch her opponent off guard during the pursuit. She stumbles upon a closed off section of the building and enters a room with a shrine where a very ... familiar looking girl, grants Eruna with her ability to manifest absolute energy from her spirit. Just like that huh? In a fluke, Eruna is able to pull a victory against the Calligraphy club member. At this point the show is still looking good, despite the animation which I'll get into shortly. Eruna then goes back to Seisa bragging about her victory in her first battle. Seisa tells her the only reason she won, was cause her opponent wasn't taking her seriously to begin with. Refusing to believe that, she challenges Seisa to a mock battle to show Seisa her strength. Seisa accepts, but tells Eruna if she is unable to break one of her crystals (a battle is won when you break all three the crystals that float around the combatant) she will revoke her membership to the club. Eruna is defeated with little effort from Seisa. No longer a part of any clubs, Eruna goes from club to club meeting the members, making friends, causing some mischief, trying to find her place, and trying understand why Seisa acts the way she does. Sounds interesting right? Well unfortunately it kinda loses this focus halfway through the show, but manages to end on a decent note.

Story Execution: The narrative begins with a bang and some intrigue. There's some mystery to be resolved, an MC who has been brought to an understanding of what she needs to do, and the battles to be had...... well, not so much the battles. When you read the synopsis and watch the first few episodes you'd think that would be a good focus. But instead they focus more on character action outside of battle and lots comedy skits. They go as far as to hype up a battle, cut to the eye-catch when a commercial would air, and when you return, Eruna would be talking to someone like, "*sigh* I can't believe I lost". And this happens multiple times. For a school based on club battles, you rarely see any of them fight. The show would have been much better off with Action rather than Slice of Life Comedy, but the budget wouldn't allow it I guess. The story gets cut up into little arcs as she goes from club to club meeting it's members. With bits of interaction from Seisa drive the main narrative subtly. This was fine for half of the show. Then you meet Otone Fujishiro, who takes up a third of the season with nothing to gain from it by the end, besides a bunch of yuri jokes and a lesson in friendship. Which becomes really boring to be honest. It does manage to end with an interesting conclusion to the narrative but it wasn't very exciting and a kinda cliche ass pull. It could have been fleshed out more without the... basically comedy filler. If the writer took this a little more serious than he did, he could have had a compelling narrative, but it's washed out with all the random comedy and cliche friendship morals.

Characters: Lots of fun characters. Each one is given it's own little arc and melancholic back story. Eruna is very energetic and has a lust for anything cute, specifically girls. Although she seems rather naive see isn't exactly dumb, in fact you tend to see that she has a more level head the more you watch behind her constant antics and care free attitude. You find a heartwarming development as to why Akama, the Drama Club Prez, is initially so harsh to the new freshman during their training. The tragic story of the deeply misunderstood Art Prez Kyouma. The inspiring reason for the freshman Asuhi to push forward bettering himself. Then there are the "antagonists" I guess you could say. Like the Music Club member who instead of battling fair, plays with her opponents and unnecessarily humiliates and belittles them. Or the broadcast member who tries to to shut down Eruna's little scheme she comes up with. I will say the drama club members were annoying and took up more time than they needed to. And you can't forget then man that brought Eruna to the Academy her cousin Shigure, who is completely in love and obsessed with Eruna, it's pretty funny. But sadly none of these stories become a focused theme, and reverts back to Eruna and her cheesy friendships for the remainder of the show.

Art and Animation: ....... This is my biggest problem with the show, as I believe it is the cause of all the other problem I see with it. The Art looks great. The designs for the characters are good, the colors are beautiful, etc. The animation is very lack luster. Only main characters are detailed, anyone extra are merely white silhouettes. Not that big of a deal itself, but just the tip of the ice berg among shortcuts. When action arises, characters look rather inconsistent and vague. It's also obvious why you don't see many battles, because it was too much of a hassle to draw them. The battles you do see are talks with an attack here, more talks and a face close up, then an attack there, more talks, commercial break, next scene after the battle skipping the conclusion. And the obvious errors are littered throughout the entire show. The crystals that hover above the characters, are sometimes absent during scenes or even switched places for a brief moment then returned to their original position. I even recall a scene where Eruna was just forgotten to be drawn, and was absent for almost 20 frames.

Sound: The BGM is alright but nothing memorable, the tracks that were the best are seldom used. The OP and ED switches during certain episodes were good to watch and listen too. The Eruna version of Houkago Stride is awesome.

Enjoyment: I did enjoy the show. Even though all the battles I wanted to see weren't shown, I still enjoyed the characters, some of the comedy, and the main story between Eruna and Seisa. I wish the show would have taken it's story concept more seriously and had a staff that wanted to animate some wild action. Instead it was just SoL comedy while Eruna helped other students be honest with themselves through her constant 100% smiles, energy, and cliche view on friendship.

Overall it was alright but pretty underwhelming. I'll give it a 5/10. Not really something I'd recommend watching to someone. Unless I know the person can look past it's flaws and enjoy the random fun and yuri jokes. Sry Eruna-chan, but you weren't that great. I still love your songs

(This is a spoiler-free review adapted for this site)

[Synopsis]: Ichinomiya Eruna (Kimura, Juri), possessed by fantasies of cute girls and adorable uniforms, decides to attend Mikagura Academy after seeing Mikagura Seisa (Oonishi, Saori) as a model for the school’s pamphlet. Once she arrives however she learns that Mikagura is not like other traditional high schools and features club battles wherein representatives from different cultural clubs at the school duel in order to earn points for their respective clubs. The points can be used as a substitute for money within the school and one’s status along with that of their clubs and their budget are often ... tied to the results of these skirmishes. Awakening various powers and abilities, the students of Mikagura Academy battle to further their clubs and improve their standing in the school.

[Characters]:

To start off with the heroine and protagonist of the show, Eruna was I think the strongest part of the show. While her bubbly enthusiasm and blatant naivete is by no means an innovative trait as a female protagonist, her over-the-top, reactionary style of comedy along with her rampant love fantasies and her drooling over other girls makes her stand out in my mind. On top of that, I felt that Kimura Juri did an outstanding job executing Erun’s eccentric personality and gave her a voice that I think avoided most vocal archetypes and furthered her uniqueness substantially. Eruna’s desire to make friends and interact with others sets the pace for most of the show’s scenes and plot and while she is never far from a comedic moment she has a genuine investment in her friendships beyond that of her romantic fantasies. I think that Eruna is the single strongest appeal of the show and her presence carried a countless number of scenes.

Seisa is a far cry different from Eruna in that she is poised, reserved, and distant from the other students at the school, opting to often stay at home in her mansion instead of attending classes or battles. While she is not entirely cold to other people and sometimes exhibits a more playful side the majority of the show’s infrequent yet central plot is investigating the past circumstances that led to her current demeanor as Eruna struggles to make friends with her. Seisa is likely the strongest student at the school in terms of battling how however her ability ‘Killing Art’ I felt was woefully under-explained and while it worked well enough as an ability within the show, I think some further clarity would have been beneficial to both her and the plot.

I suppose the last character to mention outside of the general cast and Eruna’s other friends would be Bimii. Bimii is a flying cat and a teacher at Mikagura Academy however at no point during the show does he actually teach any of the students and can almost always be found following Eruna around. Like some members of the drama club he has a phrase with which he ends each of his sentences with which can become grating after a time and his overall presence in the show I thought was pretty irreverent as his purpose was to provide context for the school and its battles and be a comedic character – something I believe he failed to become as his gags were bland and not even Matsuoka Yoshitsugu could make me pay any mind to his character.

Mikagura has a fairly concise cast outside of it’s main characters and had enough members to construct a believable enough school setting however, despite their outrageous designs, many of the characters felt generic and forgettable as the show only really focused on a handful of people and made liberal use of fairly uninteresting side characters. A select few characters outside of the main two or three characters occasionally receive some investigation into their backstory or personality insights however these things hardly complicate them in a meaningful way and unfortunately don’t end up mattering a great deal in relation to the show.

[Art/Animation]:

While the show is produced by Doga Kobo, a studio which I always felt did quite well in the animation department, I was surprised by the below-average performance in this category. While the comedic faces were fairly well done throughout, the character designs wavered from scene to scene quite frequently and the action sequences were honestly pretty bad – at first I mistook the minimalistic, low-definition battles to be a stylistic choice however as the show progressed and I gained further examples of how these fights played out I realized that the animation was suffering heavily and the crude artwork was underselling the potential of the scenes. To posit a guess I would say that the show lacked a sufficient budget for what it wanted to do however whatever the actual reason, I feel Mikagura fell short in this area, an area I felt it needed to succeed in because of its character designs and premise of school battles.

To speak to the art itself, the show is just as flamboyant and flashy as it’s characters in that the colors are bright and pop against the generic background. I harbor no great love for vibrant character designs and so I will be straightforward when I say that I didn’t enjoy a majority of the cast on an aesthetic level – the drama club, utilizing traits like cat ears, heterochromia, and outlandish hats I felt was especially guilty of this however almost all of the characters are quite eccentric in design while I feel Eruna and Seisa are slightly more reserved and far more appealing in this category.

[Story]:

After establishing Eruna as a character and the setting of Mikagura Academy the plot of the show falls away somewhat in favor of more trivial scenes and exchanges in which the show introduces different characters and holds various school battles in accordance with its premise. The plot could best be identified as Eruna’s quest to find a club to which she wants to belong as well as her desire to make friends especially in the cases of Seisa and Otone. With these motives at play, the show conducts itself in a fairly simple manner and occasionally offers progression in the form of Eruna’s status at the school or by revealing the context of Seisa’s past.

While the show features a good many school battles it is first and foremost a comedy and the majority of scenes are spent on Eruna’s comical interactions with the rest of the cast. The battles themselves are frequent enough to keep one’s attention if that is their main draw to the show however their poor execution damages this aspect of the show. Despite this I must admit that a handful of the battles were quite enjoyable and that some of the student abilities were fun to watch play out however the battles almost entirely featured student’s butting heads against one another and were more or less devoid of actual strategy. I don’t feel that the show’s lack of plot progression was a negative factor as I thought it did quite alright in the comedy department and so I didn’t think it needed to overly concern itself with something it didn’t need to. None the less, It should be noted that the show is quite shallow as far as the story is concerned.

[Music]: The music in Mikagura was fairly forgettable outside of a few repeated songs that appeared in the battle sequences and even those didn’t impress me substantially. The battle music aside, the rest of the soundtrack was pretty generic background music and the only other thing of note in this category that I think is worth mentioning is that, as the series itself is based off of a light novel series inspired by Vocaloid songs written by Last Note. This being the case, there are a handful of songs outside of the OST that might catch one’s attention such as the varying ED’s which feature character covers of the original songs.

[Final Thoughts and Rating]:

Mikagura was a fun enough show and I don’t ‘regret watching it by any means if only because of Eruna but it’s poor animation, lack of other compelling characters, and moreover – it’s lack of interesting qualities tarnished my enjoyment of the show. Because I feel the show is so incredibly reliant on Eruna as a central force of comedy within the show I would guess that one could determine whether or not they will enjoy it based on the first episode and their impression of the character.

Rating: 5

I gave Mikagura a 5 because it fell short in a number of meaningful places yet still featured a decent level of comedy and a fun protagonist. The negative elements were not enough to ruin the show entirely for me however they weighed heavily on my ultimate perception of it and as such I can’t see any way that I could give the show more than a mediocre score.

[Recommendations]: Mikagura was a pretty decent comedy and anybody that enjoys the character of Eruna will probably find it worthwhile to stick around and watch the show despite its shortcomings. The action sequences are pretty fun and decent overall yet lack even moderately good animation to back them up and so I recommend this show very tentatively in regard to its battles.

Okay, as always I want to preface my review with the three things I’m looking for in an anime: I want a really good story (+5), I want really good dialogue (characters/character development, etc.)(+3), and I want really good “technicals” (style, sound, etc.)(+2). Also, I’ll remind you my reviews generally encompass the whole series of an anime unless otherwise stated (That is to say that no more seasons are coming out). So let’s get to it!

Mikagura Gakuen Kumikyoku… I don’t even really know where to start here. There was no story. I’ll be straight with you here, I felt like this anime was Kaiba saying ... “screw the story, we have fan service!” And, hey, it does work sometimes (ala High School of the Dead). But, most of the time, it sucks (I’m looking at you Infinite Stratos). Honestly, I’m really trying to think right now, was there even an antagonist in this? The whole thing was forgettable. I’m awarding 1 point simply because “stuff happened”. (And it wasn’t the same stuff as I hear happens in the “Endless Eight” arc)

Earning 1 + 1 points
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The dialogue was okay. It might be worth mentioning that I only watch official dubbed versions of anime, so I really pay attention to good localization and fluid conversations when grading dialogue/character development. And, hey, our protagonist went from sleeping in a bag to having her own club! What more can I expect with no story?

Earning 1.5 points
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Technicals are good. Nothing too complain about. Action sequences are fun to watch when they happen. My eyes weren’t bleeding after watching an episode, but they were tearing up a bit from lack of plot.

Earning 2 points
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Bonus points goes to (and god only knows this anime needs some bonus points)… the fact that it’s insinuated that our heroine is into girls?… I would love some girl on girl action, but, we don’t get it here… At least we can dream men.

Earning .5 point.
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Add it all up and we have a score of an even 6! This anime failed basically. Anything I rate below a 7 I would only recommend to my enemies. While I don’t think repeating a premise that’s already been done is necessarily a bad move (firm believer in the idea “if you can’t break any new ground, you can sure break the hell out of old ground”), this anime bombed… Watch Baka and Test instead. Hell, watch Rosario + Vampire again!

This time I don’t need to round down my score because it’s already pretty bad at a 6. Till next time

Okay so most reviews of Mikagura are shit.
There are only two things you need to know about Mikagura.

First, it's complete and utter garbage. I've watched the BD version release and you won't find a single piece of good artwork, fitting voiceovers, honest OP's/ED's or go five minutes without counting so many plotholes you'd think you're reading your cousin's BL homemade doujin.
Second, it takes itself so not-seriously it doesn't just runs with the cringe, it goes on several dates, buys an extremely expensive wedding ring and proceeds to elope to some lost shithole in the Bermuda Triangle where they'll have little cringe-sons and cringe-daughters to populate ... their cringe-dimension. It's nonsensical fun and lovable characters and cliches so stupidly straight you'd meet them for church service.

Hey, you still reading? Why? Want to know a thing or two about the series before wasting your time on it? Have you decided that even though this anime isn't very popular, the reviews aren't that great and the story's quite short you want to watch it?

Might as well give you some ACTUAL information, i guess.

Tags: Yuri, Vocaloid-based, Highschoolers with Abilities, "Mystery", FUN.

Mikagura Gakuen Kumikyoku, as you might know already, shows us the life of Eruna Ichinomiya and the adventures she faces in the Mikagura Academy, a strange highschool where students form clubs and gain special abilities to fight with. The real reason why she's there, though, is because she fell in love at first sight with the school beauty, a girl named Seisa Mikagura. However, Seisa belongs to the Going-Home club and, you guessed it, she's almost never at school! Why might this be? And what can Eruna do about it? She doesn't knows for sure, but she's sure to give it her 100% with the help of her friends, all throughout it discovering the secret behind the school and her own powers.

I do disagree with one thing most others say about Mikagura. It's not forgettable nor seasonal. This is a show that has the potential to become your new reference for nearly anything. "As bad as Mikagura?" Damn. "As crazy as Mikagura?" Wow. "As carefree as Mikagura?" Nice! "As many missed opportunities as Mikagura?" Impossible!

For the technical specs at least you can count out Art and Plot. The art's messy as all hell and at best looks standard. Even in the BD release you won't find much quality. Hell, not even QUALITY for laughs and kicks. It's unremarkable.

The plot, on the other hand... Oh, the plot. I wonder if when Last Note relayed the details there was a storm outside or it was windy, because it sure seems like any semblance of "coherence" flew right out the window and they had to make do with two arcs and character development that is somehow LESS complex than what you'll find at their respective music videos.

The VAs weren't what I'd call fitting but at least they gave you the right idea with most characters. The OP and EDs were all over the place in not that bad of a way. The atmosphere and scenario were on point for what they wanted to do and the way they managed the ensemble deserves its own rant (which i won't give because you'll want to do that yourself when it's over).

Finally, the fun you might gain from this show is either very much or very little. Much like the main character, there's no middle ground to stand on. If you manage to hang on until three or four episodes in (by which point i should mention. If you've come so far expecting the gags and hijinks to stop after the plot's settled in, abandon all hope) then you're good. Just let yourself go and enjoy the trainwreck that is Mikagura. Feel the Eruna and fall in love with the Himi. Cry with Yuuto and get awed at Kyouma. Be hopeful with Asuhi and be smooth like Sadamatsu. Fight like Otone and stay true like Shigure. And above all, break down like Seisa once it's all over, because you wasted 10 hours of your life you'll never get back and now you have feels you didn't asked for and questions you'll get no answer for and a sense of wonder over the sheer mounstrosity of missed chances and open doors and plotholes this show's leaving you with.
It's terrible.
Enjoy it.

Mikagura Gakuen Kumikyoku is a 2015 anime from Doga Kobo based off of a series of light novels which were in turn inspired by Vocaloid songs. Well, this is the studio behind the first two series of Yuru Yuri and New Game, which is somewhat hopeful. But they also did that stupid Dumbbell nan kilo moteru anime so this could go either way.

Story:

Ichinomiya Eruna isn't exactly a normal girl. She's obsessed with cute girls, Galges and she has an idiot cousin with a romantic interest in her who hasn't quite put it together that she's very, very gay. Still, she decides to attend ... her dolt of a cousin's high school because they have cute uniforms and there's a girl in the brochure that she gets immediately hormonal for. At the school she learns that all the students have special super powers and engage in practice battles for club funds and status. Obviously this academy was founded by the Japanese version of Charles Xavier.

The biggest issue with the story is simply that it's kind of all over the place. The club battles and tournaments are a minor part. Eruna trying to get close to her beloved Seisa senpai is another. Eruna trying to form her own club is yet another. Her trying to find her own place amongst the other students and form bonds is yet another. Over the top comedy is yet another. And the issue with them trying to do so much is that a lot of it gets under-developed. The dynamic betwixt Seisa and Eruna can be cute at times but it never feels like it develops into a meaningful relationship. Similarly, the club battles can have some solid action sequences but they're frequently glossed over. In the final tournament we only really get to see three matches and two of them are over in roughly a minute. The comedy can also be fun even endearing but it feels like they miss a lot of opportunities for good gags and never really go all in. It ultimately feels like they needed tighter, more cohesive story-telling where they focus on one or two major elements instead of jumping around from one element to another like a hyperactive hedgehog.

With that said, none of the elements re outright bad. And, like I pointed out, most of them have some positive aspects to them. Which really accentuates the idea that this could have been an excellent anime if they'd either had a strong editor to keep the writing focused or more time to properly flesh things out.

Characters:

Most of the characters in this are fine. They aren't super deep but they have quirky enough personalities to be somewhat endearing. There are a few exceptions in a positive way and one major exception in a negative way.

Let's start with the problem character, Shigure. This dude is basically like Akane from Yuru Yuri but with a creepy obsession towards his cousin and he's open about it. The obvious joke that generally stems from this is that he takes physical damage for being a complete creep but the problem is that he's such a big character in he series and most of his scenes involve him being creepy towards his own cousin in some way. There's just far too much of him, he has no redeeming qualities and even seeing him get punched in the face just starts to get old through repetition.

The best characters in this anime are the trio of Eruna, Seisa and Fujishiro. In spite of their dynamics being under-developed, there are some really good ideas at their core and you see hints throughout the series that add some depth to their relationships with each other. Eruna and Seisa developing a bond that will help Seisa recover from her emotional wounds and enjoy life again could easily have led to a very poignant relationship based off of mutual need. Fujishiro wanting to be close to Eruna and seeing her as the only true friend she's ever had while also being jealous of Eruna's feelings towards Seisa could have also led to a really good conflict and a strong dynamic amongst the three instead of just a decent dynamic with a lot of untapped potential.

Art:

The art is a bit mixed. On one hand, this series has some good character designs, strong backgrounds and mostly nice animation. On the other hand, the action sequences during the club battles are generally pretty weak and there are some awkward moments where facial expressions get wonky for just enough frames that it's noticeable.

Sound:

The actors do a pretty good job. Kimura Juri, Oonishi Saori & Ozawa Ari in particular but the entire cast is, at least, passable. The music is solid as well. The anime actually has a lot of theme tunes given its short length but it kind of makes sense given its origins.

Ho-yay:

There's a lot of les-yay in this anime. Ad it's not limited to Eruna, Seisa and Fujishiro. There's a girl in the drama club who very blatantly has a crush on her female senpai. The calligraphy club girls are also involved in some flirtation.

Areas of Improvement:

1. If you have a very limited amount of time for your series, you can't try to do too much. It's better to do less and do it all really well than to try and do more and have it all be under-developed.

2. Shigure needs to fuck off. All his jokes are basically the same and the purpose he serves in the plot could easily be transferred to a character who isn't incestuous.

3. The character dynamics could really use more development. Now, that might mean having fewer characters but that's fine.

Final Thoughts:

Mikagura Gakuen Kumikyoku is okay. It's not particularly good. It tries to do too much and it results in a lot of under-developed elements but a lot of them do have potential and wind up being more enjoyable than not. So, I'll give it a 6/10. It might be worth watching if the premise sounds good to you or if you'd like a case study of why over-reaching can hamper a stories potential but, otherwise, it wouldn't be a series I'd push.

I really wanted to give this show a higher score, I enjoyed it. It had so much potential. The characters and the plot were a straight line for success. But in the end it just felt like a joke.

Story: 4
The 4 is for the concept, the actual execution and resolve are super weak leaving you unsatisfied by the end.

Art: 3
Half of the anime felt like I was watching YouTube. Characters would morph and look nearly completely different from time to time especially when there's any movement. I understand the budget may have not been high but it seriously seems like a joke. They ended ... up not animating a bunch of fights too, although the fights were subpar anyways with the animation.

Character: 7
Ahh I'm not really sure if I should give it a 7. I really liked the blend of characters and their personalities, they pretty much all seemed interesting. But at the end they're pretty much brick walls. They were probably the best part of the anime although that's not saying much, yet there's barely any character development leaving a lot to be desired.

Overall: 5
I enjoyed the show, I watched all of it within a day. I liked the characters, there just wasn't a lot of screen-time given to which would have benefited the anime. Especially Azumi Sagara, we learn that she's not rotten but then she instantly disappears right after. There's a lot of holes and the story advances in ways that no one wants it to. That is what I'm trying to say.