Gakkougurashi! Episode 1 – Beginning

Overview:

This show has a ridiculously peppy OP and if it gets stuck in my head, I’m gonna break something.

Moving on.

The first episode starts with the tiny, extremely moe high-schooler(?) Yuki waking up. It’s revealed that she’s sleeping over in the school as part of the School Living Club, a group committed towards living in the school as if it’s their own home, building relationships with various departments and fostering independence to set an example worth following. The show’s words, not mine.

Yuki seems quite overjoyed at her situation, stating that she loves going to school so much. She joins the rest of her club – Kurumi, Mii-kun(Miki), Rii-san and their dog Taroumaru – for breakfast. Yuki says how she almost accidentally went home yesterday but was stopped by Megu-nee, who’s later revealed to be Sakura-sensei, a teacher at the school.

Yuki rushes off to class while the others remain where they are. Her classmates tease her for being late despite living in the school and her teacher gets irked when she falls asleep in class. After a minute, Miki barges in, calling for Yuki, but bows out when she sees that class is ongoing. Yuki makes up an excuse of being sick to join Miki outside. Miki says Taroumaru is missing and the two run off to search for them.

Taroumaru happily jaunts all across the school and Miki and Yuki fail repeatedly at catching him. In the end, they run into Kurumi and Rii-san on the rood where the horticulture club operates. Taroumaru escapes yet again but is caught soon after and leashed since he can now open doors.

The School Living Club all get together again in the evening but Yuki has forgotten her backpack in class and has to go retrieve it. She doubles back to randomly announce her love for the other four – Sakura-sensei is there too – and leaves again, Miki following her soon after.

Yuki returns to her classroom and is happily chatting to other girls about Taroumaru when Miki catches up to her.

And bam, the lively classroom with chattering students disappears and we see Yuki alone in a desolate room with broken furniture and blood stains all over the place. The girl in the choker that Yuki was talking to isn’t there; only the choker remains on her desk.

Yuki introduces Miki to her non-existent classmates while Miki watches in obvious dismay. They return to their club soon afterward but we also see shots of the school grounds, which is full of zombies. The windows are broken and it’s clear that the school is crawling with the undead except for some barricaded space on the upper floor.

Plot twist of the century right here, huh?

 

Thoughts:

Well shit, that was a trip.

To be fair, I knew this was a zombie anime and that Yuki was delusional. That’s the only reason I chose to watch this since ‘girls being cute in a cute club’ is not my kind of show. But mix that with survival horror? Hell yes, I’m in.

And the first episode definitely did not disappoint.

I was on the lookout for oddities from the first minute and there’re plenty of them to foreshadow the eventual reveal. The very idea of the School Living Club is one since there’s no way something like that is practical. And they certainly wouldn’t be allowed to keep a dog in school. But even if we can look past that, there’s the barricade they run into during the dog chase. A barricade with desks in the middle of a corridor is odd. We also get a glimpse of broken windows while Yuki and Miki are running around.

It’s also notable that the random student characters we see are mostly white outlines most of the time except for a select few that Yuki talks to.

But none of this is obvious. It’s all there but they’re easily ignored elements that only add up after the revelation at the end. The student thing in particular can be passed off as an artistic choice like in Durarara. In short, it’s brilliant.

As you can see, I’m very happy with the first episodes of both shows I’ve chosen for this round of reviews.