The characters in Saikoro Club are generally well developed and showcase a good example growth that is tied in well to the subject matter that is being focused on. In the case of Miki we see a girl who is not only an introvert but is very shy from being bullied frequently in her youth. Her mental state reminds me of my own back in the day. She is hesitant to join with others and makes a beeline to and from school not stopping along the way. She is unable to bond with others, and has this feeling of loneliness rooted in her. But then she meets a friend. And along that she is introduced to the world of board games. The usage of board games both is nice as a tool to get her to open up and to be able to interact with friends, as well as use an activity that is able to provide group interaction while also allowing Miki to be her introverted self. The growth that we see from her is real and the games provide a good mirror as we see her grow in the action of the games. It's not as if she's not an introvert, she always is. But her timidness shrinks and the moves she plays in the games become grow bolder, showcasing her growth.
In the case of Midori, we see someone who already enjoys board games a lot and already is more put together from the start. However she does have a dream, one that she has been working on for a while, but that was pushed more to the back-burner. I really enjoyed the development of her dream as she was pushed to continue it and go outside of her comfort level. It's nice to see her missteps guided through and the development that her dream goes through, as she tries to push it towards reality. There are choices that she makes that make sense in thought but actually negatively effect her dream and keep it in its infant stages without growth. I like how the show was able to call out these patterns and give better advice to fuel the dream and push for the best result the dream could have. Not only did the advice and path make perfect sense to me, as the information given was all correct, but it was nice to see this growth and showcase the common failings that can happen in the path of making a dream a reality. While this dream is specific to the focus of the show I think there are good parallels that can be made with many dreams, and provides general good advice for dreams. I liked how the show didn't just make the dream happen but managed to have realistic set backs that I think are common for many people to go through even outside of the medium that Midori was focused on. It's a nice change to shows that focus more on overly dramatic roadblocks rather than the more real roadblocks we push ourselves into.
As a fan of board games myself it's fun to see the board games played out. I think the explanation of the games is excellent. Especially with how well they're able to explain the base rules, have it still be entertaining, and not have it take too much time. I have been introduced to a lot of new games and have had to bare through a lot of awful explanations. So to see good explanations for these games and to not be bored is quite a boon in my opinion considering how boring (at best) they can be in real life. The games themselves were fun to watch. It was cool seeing games that I had played before being played in an anime. Some of the games looked quite interesting too and made me want to play them myself. While how well the show was able to showcase the game being focused on varied from episode to episode the bulk of the games were fun to watch and had nice interactions between the characters. In particular the game in episode 2 was fun to watch as you could see the character's naivete and lack of skill very prominently which led to very funny results. These moments in playing board games are highlights of them and can be quite fun to watch and see.
The graphics and sound quality of the show is a much more mixed bag. The show isn't wowing it with its production, although it doesn't have any quality issues either. It's very average to the point of being exceedingly average, if that's even possible. It looks fine. Never great but never awful.
Overall Houkago Saikoro Club is a great anime that is able to use it's subject matter and give good development and growth based off of it. It has the heartwarming interactions and fun that is needed of a CGDCT, and never fails to be a fun little ride. It's a modest show but it fits together really well.
