Anime Hajime Review: Gakkou Gurashi

***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Gakkou Gurashi. Reader discretion is advised.***

Series Synopsis

Yuki Takeya (voiced by Inori Minase) loves her school. She loves her classes. She loves her classmates. She loves her teachers. Yet the thing she loves the most is her friends in the School Living Club.

Together with Kurumi Ebisuzawa (voiced by Ari Ozawa), Yuri Wakasa (voiced by Mao Ichimichi), and Miki Naoki (voiced by Rie Takahashi) they do as the club implies. They live at their school. In fact, as per club activities, members aren’t allowed to leave the premises. This doesn’t bother Yuki in the slightest. With her club mates and teacher, Megumi Sakura (voiced by Ai Kayano), at her side, there's never a sad moment.

And Yuki’s friends will do what's necessary to keep it that way. Even if it means playing along with Yuki's delusions.

For you see, Yuki’s perfect school life exists only in her mind. The truth is too much for her psyche to handle. Her ideal world died the moment the outbreak started. In seconds, Yuki and her friends became the school’s sole survivors of the zombie apocalypse.

While trying to survive, the School Living Club attempts a normal life. If not for Yuki’s sake, for their own. How long can they last before reality catches up?

Series Positives

How do I say this?

Yuki

The idea behind Gakkou Gurashi had me intrigued. Here was a cute looking slice-of-life anime with a neat twist. Set during the zombie apocalypse, a main character's denial of that caught my interest. Then having the rest of the cast do their best at keeping that illusion fueled my curiosity. That left me with two thoughts. At worst, this would be a wasted idea. At best, it would lead to something fun.

Miki, Kurumi, Yuri

This show didn’t deliver either. It delivered something different. Something I didn’t expect.  I’m not talking about some “third route” or happy middle ground. I’m talking about something much more.

Gakkou Gurashi delivered. Period.

Megumi

What’s a word that’s stronger than outstanding? What’s a word that’s better than fantastic? What’s a word that means more than magnificent, brilliant, or amazing? Exceptional, extraordinary, phenomenal, these terms come to mind. But even still, those don’t quite capture what I want to get across.

Let me put it into perspective. Two of my absolute, all-time favorite anime are Anohana and Another. Gakkou Gurashi is their new companion.

This series was so good, you could stop reading here. Go watch it.

There’s a lot I want to talk about. And most of it I’m not going to talk about. As a heads up, this review will be a mix of me gushing and vagueness. Leaning more towards the vagueness. You really need to see this one for yourself. Then you can understand where I’m coming from.

Let’s get into this.

The First Episode

You could not ask for a better opening episode. It did everything right.

At the start, the world of Gakkou Gurashi was as normal as you’d expect any slice-of-anime would be. We were greeted by our happy-go-lucky main, Yuki. She attended class. She bantered with her classmates. She seemed as average as they come.

That was red flag number one.

You know what this series is about. Yet you see something else. Something that’s not the image in your head. You could take a guess where the episode’s going from there. This would be fine on its own.

Except everything came down to the execution.

Gakkou Gurashi did this in a way that is now the gold standard for me. It painted a picture that started standard enough. With only tiny hints of oddness. Hints so tiny you won’t be sure if they were real or not. These were contradictions that came off more as mistakes than anything. It was clever and amusing…at first.

As the episode progressed, these contradictions became less and less fun. They turned dire and unnerving. You began to see what you were getting into. You began to see what this show would be.

Behind the cuteness. Behind the silliness. Behind every overused slice-of-life troupe this series used, there was something dark.

When Gakkou Gurashi, at last, revealed the magnitude of its reality, it was terrifying. Make no mistake, this is a horror anime.

This may sound like an exaggeration, but I could not help myself. At the end of the episode, I started clapping. There’s a difference between an obligatory applause and the genuine urge to praise. Gakkou Gurashi triggered the latter.

And can you believe this wasn’t the high point of the series?

Execution

I used this word to describe the first episode. But it applies to the whole thing.

I’ve said how many anime have trouble balancing comedy and drama. When a series is predominate in one, the inclusion of the other isn’t bad.

Yet time and time again, stories have added jokes or seriousness in places where they don’t belong. If done wrong, these instances are distracting and uncalled for. It’s not easy to get right. Although it can be done.

A great example of this is Noragami. It knew how to have intense scenes alongside lighthearted ones. What makes Gakkou Gurashi stand out is its ability to do this throughout the whole of its story.

This series is a slice-of-life, horror anime. An unlikely combination. It's made even more unlikely when you consider the slice-of-life half could’ve been decent on its own.

A club that lives at a school. I guarantee there’s a show out there that has done that. If there isn’t one, it’s going to happen sooner rather than later.

Hell, if this aspect of Gakkou Gurashi got ripped off in its entirety, boom new anime.

Were the slice-of-life elements of this series groundbreaking? Not at all. They were run of the mill. Everything you’d expect this type of show to do happened. Club activities, high school high jinx, shopping montages. There was even a swimsuit episode. The ingredients were here.

Gakkou Gurashi played with these elements without ever making fun of them. This wasn’t a parody of the genre. Or at least not a parody in the funny sense. It took the steps needed to be comparable to the countless other slice-of-life anime out there.

And that was what made this show even more frightening.

It was real, but it was also fake. It was an illusion created to protect Yuki. She couldn’t accept what had happened. Her mind blocked it out. Yet it wasn’t as simple as blissful ignorance. The depths to which Yuki’s delusions went was heartbreaking.

The truth was always at the forefront. The dangers of living in the zombie apocalypse were always present. As well as the difficulties of doing the things that were sometimes necessary. Even if that meant getting your hands dirty. And especially if it meant needing to accept a harsh reality.

Whenever the girls joked. Whenever they laughed. Whenever they were having a good time. It hurt to watch. Making it worse, these moments were cute. They were funny. This series was often quite sweet. You'll be laughing while covering your eyes at the same time.

A lot of this pain had to do with Yuki. But it was a pain shared by everyone.

You could see it in Yuki’s friend’s eyes. They didn’t want to lie to her. It killed them inside to have to do that. Would it have been easier to snap Yuki out of it? In the long run, sure. Except the lie let Yuki be happy. It allowed her to smile even in this dire situation. That smile gave the rest of the group the strength to move forward.

Yes, it was a lie. Yes, keeping the lie going may have been the wrong thing to do. Yet not for a second do I not understand why they chose to keep it up. Yuki’s friends did everything in their power to protect her.

Sometimes, though, Yuki’s veil cracked. Something this big doesn’t stay quiet. Whenever the truth tried to force its way through, it was scary. Particularly when everyone was having fun mere seconds prior. Without warning, everything would change. So, while the slice-of-life elements could’ve worked on their own, the horror would’ve lost its power.

Together, these two opposite forces worked to create a story that meant something. They created characters you don’t want to see get hurt. They created situations that started off cute but turned harrowing. Plus, I lost track how many times this series had me in tears. This show is gut-wrenching. Be prepared for that.

Like Another, or even Anohana for that matter, Gakkou Gurashi isn’t an easy watch. But the intensity of emotions produced made it well worth it. This is the goal of storytelling. When it’s done right, and it was done right here, there’s nothing quite like it.

Also, I'm leaving out a lot of other things I liked about this show. I'm not risking spoilers. Let me assure you, there are more reasons why this series was good. For instance the characters themselves. The back stories. The twists. The turns. So, many things. So, so many things. 

Series Negatives

Gakkou Gurashi was relentless.

That’s not a negative. This section is pointless. I said it in my Another review and it applies here. Any issues with this series are meaningless. They're irrelevant when compared to how great this show is.

For due diligence sake, though, let me list off a few.

There were conveniences. Conveniences explained with out of nowhere plot twists. But plot twists that did serve a role.

The CGI on the zombies was there. They stood out. Although it added to their unnaturalness.

The girls were a tad more rational than you’d expect. They figured things out quick. On occasion, that meant taking a leap.

It’s hard to say how long the outbreak had been going on. It was difficult, not impossible, to place certain points in the story.

And done. The phrase “nitpick” carries too much annoyance. These are different because I don’t care they exist.

I'll end with this. From what I can tell, the manga does go past where the series ended. Would I watch a second season? You better believe I would. Do I want a second season? Actually, no I don’t. This series ended on a solid note. Though a continuation was left possible, it’s not necessary. If a second season ever does come, it has one hell of a challenge in front of it.

Final Thoughts

Where did this show come from?

So, I don’t know if you noticed, I kind of liked this one.

In all seriousness, this series was outstanding. The story, the characters, the premise, everything. It did it all. It knew how to be funny when it could. It knew how to be terrifying throughout. And it has so much more to offer than what I allowed myself to say. You're doing yourself a huge disservice if you never give it a look.

If you were to ask me what some of my favorite anime are, Gakkou Gurashi is among the very top.

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