Murenase! Seton Gakuen

Seton Academy is a place attended by a plethora of interesting and diverse animal species. Jin Mazama is one of the few humans there, who also happens to vehemently hate animals from the bottom of his heart! One day, he stumbles upon the rowdy and assertive girl Ranka Ookami, a small "lone wolf" without a pack, who has not a single friend.

The desperate Ranka tries to invite Jin into joining her pack; Jin, who hates animals, naturally refuses. Amid this situation, Jin meets Hitomi Hino, a fellow human, and promptly becomes infatuated with her. After getting to know each other, the two decide to create a cooking club, and after a few bad-blooded misunderstandings, Ranka soon joins the club as well.

Thus begins the howl-some and howl-arious story of two normal humans; an adorable wolf; a cheerful koala; a sluggish, blonde sloth; and a feline with cattitude in their newfound club—in a story that teaches that friendship can be forged by creatures of different kinds.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Ookami, Ranka Main

Kino, Hina Japanese

Mazama, Jin Main

Ishiya, Haruki Japanese

Hino, Hitomi Main

Miyamoto, Yume Japanese

Shishio, Miyubi Supporting

Kohara, Konomi Japanese

Meimei Supporting

Serizawa, Yuu Japanese

Nekomai, Kurumi Supporting

Tokui, Sora Japanese

Mashima, Kuroe Supporting

Aoyama, Yoshino Japanese

Ookami, Ferrill Supporting

Tano, Asami Japanese

Komori, Yukari Supporting

Kuno, Misaki Japanese

Madaraba, Iena Supporting

Tsuda, Minami Japanese

Kitazawa, Shiryuu Producer

Akita, Minoru Producer

Kaneiwa, Motoko Producer

Aoki, Takao Producer

Reviews

Mar 23, 2020

Walpurgies

Recommended

----SPOILER FREE REVIEW----

A T-rex professor, a homo girafe, an exhibitionist mole-rat, a hermaphrodite hyena, an unbreakable badger, a star panda, an ever-dying sloth and a pero-pero obsessed cute loli wolf. That’s just a little part of the mess that you can find in this hilarious and smooth anime.

Murenase! Seton Gakuen or Seton Academy: Join the pack! has finally finished airing and damn, it was a blast all along.

If you think that’s an uninteresting furry anime, you are missing something big time. Throughout my review I hope you will see this anime in a clearer light which is absolutely well-deserved.


First a quick resume: Seton ... Gakuen is a slice of life, comedy, school anime. Classic. Except there are only 2 humans in the entire school. Yes, all the other students are animals in the true sense of the word.

The story follows Jin Mazama, our lonely human, as he enrolls into Seton Gakuen as a sophomore. Jin despite all animals (quite the height if you ask me), so what is his surprise when he encounters Hitomi Hino the beautiful second human-girl in the school. As his desires and dreams keep getting wilder, he stumbled across the path of a little pink ball of furry. That’s Ookami Ranka, our cute loli wolf whose dream is to build her own pack…starting with Jin!

Now, let’s break out the different aspects:

Story:
The story itself is quite simple as most of the comedy/school anime. While the story is simple, the show stays quite entertaining because once in a while, when a new animal is introduced or do their “specific animal things”, the narrator explains the “Did you know…?” in a funny way with instructive chibby drawings. Still good to take that general knowledge while laughing and be like “Wtf…?” ^^’ You will have some good anecdote to tell your friends who wouldn’t have known that their friend is an animal expert.
Not much left to say about the story but you do have quite some surprises along the anime that you wouldn’t have think of. – 8/10

Characters:

The characters design is quite simple for the animals, but they hit right on the spot. If you have followed your biology courses in school and watched 1 or 2 animal documentary you should be able to recognize most of the species shown (“And what if I watched Interspecies reviewers?” -Keep your mouth shut, pervert)
Frequently it’s just the head and the body design in the uniform that are representative of the animal. From time to time it’s a human figure but with an animal part (ears or tail for example) and occasionally the whole body is shown.
All the cast is well written, they are faithful to their specific and respective animals’ characteristics, so it brings many elements of humor throughout the show. – 8/10

Animation:

Now that’s the point I want to bring up. Seton Gakuen’s animation is clean af. The backgrounds are okay but what strikes the most is the details and the diversity of the animations of the cast. Just go take a glimpse at the opening to give you an idea. Did you ever see a more animated opening? Just be careful if you are epileptic. At first look, it seems like a giant mess (which is quite right to depict the f big zoo that is Seton’s school) but once you look closer you can see all the little things that proves that some work had been put into it. A lot of work.

The movements are fluid and it’s simply great. The faces of the member of the casts are very expressive and can display a wide range of emotions. Studio Gokami which has done anime such as Tsurezure Children and Kiniro Mosaic did a great job for this anime.

One thing I also want to point out is the fan-service. Maaaan there is little fan-service in this anime, but it’s done damn good. Trust me when I say that soon enough there will be Hitomi doujinshis popping out faster than the coronavirus cases.
– 9/10

Sound:

The opening song is very catchy, that’s what you expect for this type of show and it’s done good! Meanwhile the ending song is a little troll (ever wondered what a crying wolf sound like?).

The VA are on-point, they really fit their character. Sometimes they try to make their own animal noises which is really funny to listen. (Watch the previews!) – 9/10

Enjoyment:

Overall, I loved Seton Gakuen. Watching it with my friends got us bursts of laughter and we just simply had a really great time. – 10/10

Conclusion:


To conclude, Seton Gakuen is breath of fresh air in the comedy type of anime. If you wanna have a fun time watching a short (but educational!) comedy filled with joy, love and drool from Ranka-Chan, why not grab your confinement kit and simply Join the Pack!!

Thanks for reading!

~ Walpurgies

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Apr 1, 2020

Ryhzik

Mixed Feelings

I don't typically watch or enjoy this type of show. I find episodic comedies too often end up being monotonous and formulaic. However, Seton Academy did a good job with the episodic architecture of the show. Rather than being formulaic, each episode tends to do something new as compared to previous ones. New, significant characters are introduced, a recurring story line might be advanced, or a different character steps into the limelight. While I did think some of the episodes were boring, I generally thought the show did a good job keeping things fresh and interesting.

The animal theme was well done, and I enjoyed the ... character design. It wasn’t just an aesthetic, but a core component of the story and characters. I'm unable to vouch for their voracity, but I also enjoyed how various factual details (some of which are clearly embellished) of animal characteristics and behavior was used to model the cast. For example, Ranka's (wolf) iconic greeting, Miyubi's (sloth) frequent "deaths" due to overexertion, Yukari's (koala) interesting dietary choices, and Kurumi's (cat) aloof, independent nature, to name just a few. Even beyond that, this theme is used flavor the characters relationships with each other, such as the romance between King (lion) and Shiho (impala). The level of detail afforded to this component is commendable.

Jin and Ranka's interactions were the highlight of the show for me. Ranka's indomitable optimism, belief in her friends, and affection for Jin provides a humorous contrast against Jin's tsundere nature (spawned from his marked, yet ever-diminishing hatred of all animals). There obviously isn't much story given the nature of the show, but Jin and Ranka's relationship along with other elements, such as the King/Shiho romance and Yena's protracted character development, provide a small amount of continuity.

I thought the production quality was solid other than the intro/outro music which I did not like at all. The voice acting (Japanese) was pleasant. I especially liked the vocal rendition of Jin and Ranka. The art and animation were good: on par with most shows produced during the same time period.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Mar 23, 2020

Stark700

Not Recommended

Murenase Shiiton Gakuen (Seton Academy) is amazing, amazing in the fact that within a span of 12 episodes, it managed to make me dislike animals.

On the surface, this show doesn’t raise too many red flags. Besides, we’ve had other anime about the animal society in recent years such as Beastars. The problem about Seton Academy lies in its story execution and character cast. People may see this just another genre cliché milked by school academy tropes. When you combine that with an academy of animals, there’s hardly anything original about the storytelling. And you’d be right. When the audience first meets animal hater, Mazama Jin, ... he’s nothing more special than an average teenager with a teenage crush on Hino Hitomi, who happens to also be a human. The story tries to adapt and evolve from its initial premise but never chooses an opportunity for development. That’s because his life is now gotten more chaotic than ever after being involved with an animal pack, led by the overenergetic wolf, Ranka.

I really wish this anime had an auto-mute whenever Ranka opens her mouth. Being a wolf and fiercely protective of her territory, Ranka explifies just about everything I hate about children: loud, annoying, impulsive, and always tries to have her way. Watching her character behavior equates to watching a 5-year old fighting over food with their sibling. Unfortunately for Jin, he has to deal with her behavior on a daily basis. And that doesn’t even count the fact that she is a living object getting in the way of Jin professing his feelings to Hino. Speaking of which, Hino is thrown into the show as a nice type of girl; think of the ‘girl next door type’. It doesn’t take long for Hino to somehow also get entangled into the Ranka’s daily misadventures. To add fuel to the fire, the show somehow manages to throw her into embarrassing situations without batting an eye. The show doesn’t take time to truly develop either character or their relationship. It instead recycles the endless clichés over and over until it milks it dry.

Honestly, I’m not particularly sure what type of audience this anime is aimed at. With minimal story direction, you’d think this appeals to slice of life fans looking for an extra dose of popcorn entertainment. But no, that’s not where the appeals lies. The show lacks the realism of a human storyteller. It puts overemphasis on the animal society that there’s no time to find life quality. Watching the series feels like the author wanted us to believe in this animal society, taking place in an academy. The animals takes on human roles such as the students and staff. But in reality, these character roles are deconstructed that results in an insufferable character cast. It challenged me to name one character that truly felt worth investing time into and in the end, I came up none.

Then, there’s the problem with character relationships. Let’s start with the most normal, being the pair of Jin and Hitomi. This is nothing more than a fantasy daydream saturated with character delusions and idiotic fantasies. While many anime of similar genre follows the trend, this show somehow manages to add them without a shred of shame at any chance it gets. The more this show aired, the more these delusions became more like a way of adding extra TV time for each episode. On the animal front, delusions sometimes gets raunchy and suggestive as we have to remember that they behave just like animals. The anime also takes pleasure to show as much as fan service as possible when given the chance, such as with Ranka’s impulsive licking or Miki’s near naked outfits. The character relationship between Jin and Ranka is like compared to a babysitter and a baby. Jin literally has to hold her back sometimes to avoid public problems. Why? That’s because Ranka seems to have the mentality of a kindergartener. Oh and I’m afraid the rest of the cast isn’t any better. For instance, the female koala Shisho has the animal behavior of a sloth and you likely won’t remember a single dialogue in the episodes she’s in. Others such as Komori or Mei Mei fails to capitalize on their own character personalities to be something unique. When I watch either of them interact with others, it reminds me of elementary school, the days where children behave like annoying children. Even some of the more fierce and masculine characters such as the lions aren’t what I pictured them to be. It’s too bad really because this could have been a somewhat entertaining educational exploration of an animal society. But instead, the creators made this look like a horrible meme with unfunny gags and endless amount of idiocy.

Somehow, I made it through this anime without smashing my TV screen. This show looked like one written by a zoo fanatic but completely fails to mesmerize the audience with their ideas. With little to no story direction and an absolutely insufferable character cast, it truly deserves the score it gets. Hopefully after reading this review and if someone recommends you to watch Murenase Shiiton Gakuen, you turn your head away and say “no”.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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