Gakkou Gurashi! Episode 1 Discussion

LoveChild said:
I had the good intention to read all 5 pages of comments, but there's barely anything discussion worthy in 85% of them, so I am sorry, just skipping ahead and giving my 5 cents on episode 1:

The reveal is what saved it. I LOVE the source material and the art style is great, but the episode was absolutely SHIT!!!!!!! It even failed in pretending to be a moe SoI. The choice to chase the dog for an entire episode is a very poor one, when we're talking episode one - the very first that should hook people up. If they wanted to go mask it as slice of life - good. But I am sure there could have been plenty of other scenarios they could have gone with that would mislead the viewers and still not bore them to death. Because I ended up only waiting for the big reveal, that's how disappointed and uninterested I was. And mind you, I like slice of life, it's just that Gakkou Gurashi did really poorly at it and the "well it isn't actually moe slice of life, it's horror" is not an excuse in my book.
As for the reveal - it was executed perfectly I have no complains about it and the scene with Yuki in the classroom actually shook me. The manga did a great job with it, but aside from a surprise and a gasp, it didn't really strike me as much as seeing it in animated form.

About Taromaru(?) and Miki: eh. I can see why they're there. But I don't think "otherwise she would need to appear around episode 8" is a valid excuse. I think there could've been plenty of things that could have been done differently, present some things in a more organized fashion and have Miki by episode 5 or something. It looks like many of the manga readers forget Megu-nee is not a minor character in the whole story, so having her pretty much removes a good amount of story that they will actually bring back later as a flashback. At least this is how I think will happen. And that is something absolutely unneeded. Why just not play things out normally like in the manga and add Miki later on? I know a lot of you love her, but I love Megu-nee too and having this weird twist is pretty much pointless to me. Why rush things, if you'll explain them with flashbacks later on?!
Also, I am curious if there is a possibility that the dog

Thai777 said:

It probably gonna work since it's the author who is in charge with the script but maybe they will skip some stuff since its 12 episode only.

Xenocrisi said:
in 12 episodes they can adapt 30 chapters without skipping nothing

LoveChild said:

Yes, exactly my thought!
The more i think about these changes, the more my curiosity rises as to how they will play this out. But also the more I worry. I was honestly a tiny bit disappointed with episode 1, maybe my expectations are way too high.

Riotstarter said:
I'm gonna need a list of all the subtle hints that were in this episode so I can talk about it with friends after I make them watch it

Xenocrisi said:


Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBywVePj1Ig


EDIT: i don't know if they did it intentionally but the dog looks really similar there... (spoiler panel from chapter 17)

Riotstarter said:


Those are all ones I'm aware of, as well as Megu's comments about various things but someone earlier said there's like 20 different foreshadowing points

samesdday said:
idk, it was so obnoxious until the last couple minutes

if they don't get straight to the point in the next episode, this will be a trainwreck.

well played tho

Mich666 said:
WTF ending? I actually rewatched some of those scenes just to see them in different light.
Garden on the roof, shovel, Miki screaming during class, them sleeping in the school - everything now makes sense.

But sadly... the slice-of-life was pretty average and uninspired, even to the point I got bored really soon.
There was no single point where I would laugh.

So now the question is - is this series going to be like this until the very end or will they face their harsh reality a lot sooner.
Because if former is true, I'm going to drop this with next episode as there is really not much that would make this series stand out.
But if latter is true, I'm willing to give this anime its second chance.

Xenocrisi said:


in 12 episodes they can adapt 30 chapters without skipping nothing

Xenocrisi said:


The first chapter is the only chapter where there is a lot of SoL, with the time this "kind" of SoL will not be anymore. Oh well, in the next episode there will be a bit of action, don't worry.

Thai777 said:

I'm not so sure honestly, most chapter are 30pages +. Also episode 1 cover chapter 1 so you stil have 29 chapters for 11 episode which makes a little less than 3 chapter/episode which is quite big for 30pages + per chapter. Or I was just slow when I read it because I swear it took me as long as a 80 chapter of weekly manga.

Thai777 said:
No I'm pretty sure there was quite a lot of them in other chapter, some are full of SoL. Like chapter 14. There was also chapter 25 which almost made me sleep.

Xenocrisi said:


3 chapter full of SoL out of 35. Not bad. the rest of SoL scenes are most likely fake SoL that makes you depressed and are really short ones.

Thai777 said:

I can't remember but I do know that it happened more often than 3 chapter and they aren't all that short. Of course the SoL is not the dominant one but it is not a small portion either from what I remember so it's better if you tell them that it's happens sometimes but maybe the author will change that since she is in charge of the anime.

And yeah I know that for episode 1 they purposely slowed it down to just have the twist but even taking that on account I still don't think it can adapt 30, I do think it can do 20 but 30 is far fetched in my opinion.

Ga_Laxy said:

Nice of them to also throw in the debut of >Steppen King.

MaxXZoe said:
perfect execution... what i felt on the 1st chapter months back was the same as the 1st episode today, bored then get hook...

that stephen king reference though...

Xenocrisi said:


Oh well, 30 pages aren't a lot, if you put into them SoL, Horror, Psychological panels you'll immediately understand that the panels with SoL aren't a lot (5-10 maybe?)

They can do it, if they skip useless fillers (there aren't fillers in the manga as far as i remember), fillers= chapter full of SoL and SoL scenes they can do it i think. it is obvious that they will change the story a little for the first 3-4 episodes (because there's Miki too) and maybe for later episodes too, if they do their best, they can do it.
There's always the idea of Original Ending, if they make an original ending i'll be more than angry, the manga is perfect.