GAKKOU GURASHI!

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA HorrorGakkou Gurashi!
ONA MusicTokyogurashi!

REVIEWS

• 

  Gruffle

  30/100
  Gakkou Gurashi had a lot going for it, and even more hype to back it up, but it's blend of moe and horror is too weak

  Gakkou Gurashi is very interesting to say the least. Over the years, there have been countless slice of life anime, and countless horror/thriller anime, but rarely do we get something that tries to combine the two in an attempt to amplify each other. The last time I watched something that relied this heavily on tonal shifts, was with Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, an anime that utilised thriller in-between the slice of life and the horror, as a means of creating suspense. Higurashi, although it visually wasn’t impressive to say the least, delivered in my opinion rather well. Question is, did Gakkou Gurashi the same?

  The story is fairly plain and simple. Post apocalypse, merely weeks after a zombie outbreak, a collective of 4 students and a teacher, has created a shelter at a high school where they go about their daily activities, occasionally heading outside to search for food or survivors. What Gakkou Gurashi does to spice up the setting, is that the main character, Yuki Takeyaka, has entered a sense of delusional denial, in which se perceives the world around her in the way she want to; The show seems to take place during spring break whiles’t our main cast has decided to spend the vacation at school. The rest of the cast has agreed to keep Yuki in the gray, largely because she acts as moral support for the rest in this rather dark and grim setting. The story, although fairly simple, is quite effective at what it tries to do, although it sticks to a rather formulaic apocalypse storyline: The main cast begins as refugees, find a safe shelter that by the end of the story will turn out to be not as safe as we thought it to be. What most people are going to notice at first, is how episodes 1-10 are spendt on the shelter phase, in which the story is reduced to slice of life fluff, like it or hate it...

  What drew me to the story was the concept of tonal shifts. To easier explain, I'm going to reference Higurashi, which I consider a masterpiece within the thriller genre. Higurashi takes it's time, starting each story arc with slice of life comedy which slowly but assuredly turns into a nightmare'esque setting. The sense of thrill one would get from Higurashi comes from the fact that you know shit's about to hit the fan, you just don't know when. Gakkou Gurashi does a far too god job at displaying what the core differences between the thriller and the horror genre is. Gakkou Gurashi, instead of carefully poking at the viewer before striking, decides to strike at random. Unfortunately this backfires sligtly. Horror and Moe are two far too different genres to be able to pull of horror. With two genres this different, the medium has to ease the viewers transition from on genre to the other, instead of rushing it like Gakkou Gurashi does. And yes, I said rushing, because you don't have the time to adjust your brain to the tonal shifts, so you as the viewer are left partially laughing whiles't people are dying. It's more of a schizophrenic experience than anything.

  My major complaint about the story however, is how a lot of the key elements make little to no sense at all. The most obvious one, which the show actually pokes fun at (which does repair a tiny tid bit of the damage done), is how the rooftop of the school in which our main cast lives at, is built with a massive garden, solar cell panels, water heating tanks, a pool and a fucking water collecting system, all enough to sustain a dozen people or so with food, water and electricity. It’s as if the school was built with a zombie outbreak in mind. At least, the school I go to doesn’t have that level of security equipment.

  The way the show goes about characterising it’s characters is quite interesting! The 5 main characters all seem to be moduled after the 5 stages of death or grief, as described by psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross; Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance, similar to how the Espada from Bleach symbolised an aspect of death.

  1. Denial : "In the state of denial, the subject convinces h*mself that the reality he is facing is a mistake, and clings to the false preferable fictiation". As mentioned before, main character Yuki is in a delusional state, denying that the zombie outbreak ever happened. She is the bright and cheerful of the bunch, but also the naive and childish.

  2. Anger : "After having realised that the reality you’re in isn’t a mistake, most people in pain feel angered. That their reality is somewhat unfair. Manny seek to lash out on others, often as a means of protecting themselves" Kurumi is literally walking around with a sharpened shovel on her back, ready to whack whomever comes too close, and you could say this is her way to vent frustration out on others. She is the more aggresive and protective of the bunch, never afraid to be in the frontline of a confrontation.

  3. Bargaining : "After having the reality pushed onto you, many seeks to cheat their way out of it. They look everywhere for an easier way out of the crisis". Miki’s story arc revolves around how she and her friend had sought shelter at a mall, and how the dull waiting drove her friend to leave safety to search for somewhere else to stay. The story constantly jumps back and forth with Miki thinking to herself what she could have done different, and what she can do now, to ease the situation for herself and the others.

  4. Depression : "Many experience depression as a result of not being able to bargain their way out of a crisis". A common outcome of depression is the mental disease melancholy, characterised by apathy and sombreness. Yuuri seems to be the impersonation of melancholy. She is constantly giving of a faint smile as to cheer the others up, but deep inside, she’s truly depressed, on the brink of insanity. Although she tries to act as the metal support for the rest of the group, she is in many ways the weakest and the one in the most dire need.

  5. Acceptance : "After having come to terms with the reality, most experience acceptance, often as a result of not seing any better way out. It is simply the best out of many bad". Megumi, without delving too far into spoilers, seems to be the only character with her head straight. She’s calm and collected (compared to the others), and serves the rolle as the emotionally stable of the bunch, being the one that managed to secure the school building for the others to live in. That coupled with some carefully displayed imagery, namely the cross she wears in a necklace around her neck, symbolising death, and the fact that she is a teacher. Someone more emotionally stable than the students.

  Unfortunately, a good concept does not make for good characters. Similar to how the Espada from Bleach act as mere obstacles (although based on an interesting concept), outside of the Kübler-Ross’ model, the cast from Gakkou Gurashi don’t have too much going for them either. The show does acknowledge the tropes by the usage of imagery, but tends to "forget" this in favour for moe fluff, which I've seen before and done better at that. They lack the charm, flavour and diversity that the cast of say, K-On has. Yes, most of the girls have had to go through tragic events in which they were borderline mentally torn apart, but with the exception of events, there is little to none character-development, characterisation nor fluctuation. Bland characters isn’t necessarily a problem, say the adventure genre, but this show relies heavily on it, because it is a slice of life. Having 5 copy paste characters, although based on interesting tropes/concepts, just simply isn’t good enough, for me at least. I need more depth or substance. A good concept does not make for a good character.

  The art is… Ok… There honestly isn’t much to talk about. Although fairly well done, it doesn’t have any characteristics to separate it from any other anime within it’s genre. Although studio Lerche to me seem to be fairly competent at what they do, creating 3 shows for one season is a little over the top. There are shortcuts quite often, although fairly well disguised by, for example, having characters face away from the camera while talking, etc. Credits given where credits due, the CGI used in the anime, in particular for the hordes of zombies was actually very good! There was actual effort put into having the CGI fit in with the 2D animation, and I think it added to the unsettling nature of the zombies.

  The soundtrack is the shows strongest side. Although most of the music is very bland, with an opening in typical catchy j-pop style and with most of the tracks being run of the mill background tracks, the best parts was during the although short horror pieces. From the sombre melodies, to the erie piano tracks, it was all great means of amplifying the thrill. Another thing I have to compliment it for, is it’s use of complete and utter silence, or in some cases, the usage of as simple sounds as the rain pouring down. Although it is a shame that 95% of the anime is spent at the school in a bright and cheerful soundtrack, one which you could find in any other slice of life moe out there. Bland, uninspired and painfully mediocre are the first words I can come up with to describe it. I’m not going to comment on the voice acting, as I don’t speak japanese, and I won’t be watching the dub (if one’s ever made) because none-asian women are biologically incapable of doing moe.

  Going back to the foreword, Gakkou Gurashi was interesting. Opening the anime up with a main character whose quite obviously delusional. The sense of thill I got from the anime, was waiting to see her world crumble, as she was being forced to accept the way her current reality actually is. Which coincidentally, never happened… The whole cool factor, came from the fact that this was seemingly just a run of the mill slice of life for the first few episodes, until episode 5 or so when the viewer received the whole “oh my…” experience, realising that this anime is actually really fucked up. But after that point, it felt like the show did all it could to avoid what little made it stand out from the oversaturated moe market. I honestly got bored quite often. Although the few horror scenes we got were quite good, with a masterfully erie soundtrack to boot, they were too few, short and far between.

  To conclude, I was quite saddened by the delivery of Gakkou Gurashi. There was so much potential, but most of it got lost in the overuse of moe. Gakkou Gurashi’s major downfall is, and will always be, the fact that it sets itself up as an anime that relies on shifting between two completely different tones, horror and slice of life moe, but after having introduced the horror, avoids it as if it was the plague. As the show goes on, I just get more and more convinced that the story/horror was an afterthought, and that the initial intention was a moe school comedy. It is almost as if they try to overshadow a mediocre slice of life, by using horror. I honestly cannot give you a good reason to watch this over K-On! (as a better moe) or Higurashi (as a better horror experience). Taking the Madoka Magica approach with calling this a Moe deconstruction would be giving it too much credit. I'd say it is a sub-par delivery of an interesting concept. It's not bad, it's just an over-glorified moe. Being a moe isn't in itself bad, but trying to disguise yourself as something else, is bad.

  There is in MY OPINION little to no reason to watch this. It's individual settings and genres has been done elsewhere, and better at that, and the only reason this is worth checking out, is to see the blend of the different elements. There are unfortunately rather few anime that blends horror genre with moe setting, thus this at least has a way to stick out from the crowd. It still has enough unique elements to have a reason to exist. I'd say check out the first episode, as you should be able to figure out the general gist of the show by the end of it. For all I know, you may enjoy it a lot more than I did, hopefully at that.

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• 

  AmishaelAL

  73/100
  Cute girls just trying to survive

  I was much more impressed by this anime than I expected it to be, it was something I picked up on Crunchyroll and didn’t expect much out of. Granted, I had been spoilered for the basic premise so knew what I was getting into on that front, but regardless, thought it would be handled sloppily and immaturely (like some others I could mention).

  I’m glad I was wrong. It’s really hard to say without spoiling, but I’m going to try on the off chance that you’ve read this without actually reading the synopsis on here first.

  The characters were developed well, some more than others. The flashbacks in this case were very well done, they were brought in at exactly at the right time and even though the characters didn’t exactly ‘grow’ through the backstory, it certainly gave them far more depth. I will say I really didn’t like Yuki, the MC, but I could understand her. (It really didn’t feel like she was a high school student though.)

  The other 3 main characters gained more depth simply as more of the surroundings were explored, and you could get a better glimpse of what they were dealing with on a daily basis. It made me appreciate and empathize with them more, and I felt it was actually handled quite realistically (not that I’ve ever experienced anything remotely like what happened in this anime, but it was consistent with other decent literature I’ve read on the subject). Your perspective really changes once you realise that everything they do, all their cute antics, are just to maintain a semblance of normality that will allow them to retain their sanity. (Oops, that was kind of a spoiler, but an unavoidable one.)

  Sound was good and art was good. No complaints on either of those two. Normally I’m not one for the ‘cutsey’ art style, but I can understand why it was needed here.

  All in all, a pretty good attempt at its genre. Why didn’t I rate it higher? Because I didn’t think it was THAT good. It didn’t feel like a masterpiece or anything. The series was enjoyable, but it did get repetitive about halfway through. There wasn’t much to the show apart from the premise (though, in its defence, I don’t think there was meant to be). And whilst I liked the characters and thought their stories were done well, the show didn’t make me that emotionally invested in them. Yes, I could appreciate them, and empathize with them to an extent, but nothing similar to what I felt in Shinsekai Yori or Zankyou no Terror.

  Still, let me reiterate, it did impress me for what it was, and I’d recommend you give it a go. XD

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• 

  PlatinuMan

  60/100
  School-Live's contrasting images of cute and creepy give the show its strengths and weaknesses.

  In almost any form of art, the use of contrast can be a very powerful tool to enhance the appeal of your work. By taking two different items and setting them against each other, it can multiply the overall value and effect of the product versus those two items being standalone. It can make paintings have a captivating appearance, give food a memorable flavor, and, in the case of movies and television, give a unique experience that makes it stick to the minds of the audiences watching. There is, however, a catch to this: the right amount of each item must be balanced against each other lest one overpower the other or it turn away potential customers/viewers/etc. So how does the use of contrast affect the anime School-Live? The answer is important - after all, it's what the entire show hinges on.

  School-Live is an anime that wishes to contrast two different atmospheres, cute and creepy, in its 12 episode runtime. It combines a cute high-school slice of life show with that of a zombie apocalypse. The reveal that there's horror in something charming is sometimes hidden from the viewer to make the turn of events more shocking, but in the case of School-Live, it's its worst kept secret. The show's synopsis, poster, and tags all give away what's happening. Even before the big reveal, it's pretty clear that something's wrong inside the show's world. That said, the show's use of zombies isn't really where the main focus lies. Instead, it uses this as a tool to test the survival, and psychological skills, of our main protagonists.

  Each character is given a slight role to the group. Kurumi is the twin-tailed fighter of the group and uses her trusty shovel to fight off the occasional zombie rush. Yuuri serves as an organization leader of the group and is shown keeping down a list of supplies as well as "approve" of certain events. Miki is the newcomer and though she is the youngest of the group of girls, she is the smartest and most practical of the group. Finally, there's Yuki, the chipper voice of morale and mascot of the show. A black hat with cat ears is worn over her head filled with ideas of what to do during the group's downtime. Together they make the "School-Life" club, a club dedicated to doing what they can to "help" other groups and make school the best place to be. The price for this dedication is to stay on school grounds at all times, but considering what's going on outside, it can hardly be considered a downside.

  Of course, the club the 4 girls form isn't really an official club - rather, it's the way that they help keep their sanity in check. The supernatural fear outside combined with the claustrophobic environment inside can get to a person, so pretending to have ever-popular school events such as a sports day and field trips can break the monotony of survival. This is where the show wishes to use its contrast. It shows a typical school life setting against the fear of a horrific death. Every event is limited not by a school budget or time, but rather what the girls have on hand. Throw in the chance of something horrific happening during each day in their fortress and you've got a show that certainly finds a place for itself.

  Those looking for a chance to see some intense girl-on-zombie fighting will be sorely disappointed. Sure, Kurumi swings a shovel a few times but it never focuses on the action. Instead, it offers two alternatives: goofing off and twisted tales. The former is to deliver the "cute" half of the show's contrast (as well as attract the audience who enjoy idle, silly fun). The latter is the core strength of the show, as we get to see how these girls truly feel about the events that have occurred and the fears of what the future may bring. Yuki is the obvious choice for this category, as she simply pretends nothing went wrong and thinks every day is another fun and fantastic day at school. I do find her to be a bit immature, though. She's a senior in high school, and yet I feel like I'm watching a kids show when she performs her antics. Miki is for my money the best of the cast. Her story is a personal one, much like the others, but the emotions feel amplified as a result of the lack of interactions she gets as well as the isolation she has from the rest of the world. The main cast get a school and make up fun activities - during Miki's origins, we get none of that and instead get a greater fear of the unknown. It's arguably the greatest moment of the show.

  With these details in mind, does School-Live find a balance between its two genres? For some viewers it does, but I can't say it did for me. The show has a habit of pointing out a few flaws in their own show but ultimately struggle to answer them. The biggest example of this include part of the field trip episode. There's danger looming all around and, especially later in the show, a fear of supply management as resources start to dwindle down. Yet there's enough time for swimsuits to be tried on. The excuse "We are girls, after all" doesn't really work here and suggests that the show is also trying to attract an audience via alternative means. A better strategy would be to stock up on more of the zombie's weaknesses (sound and light based items, such as glowsticks and child alarms). Another example stems from how coincidental everything is. With the school's vast amount of natural resources, it definitely feels apt for survival. This seems to be hinted at something greater, but not enough detail is given. A good question to answer would be how long do the zombies live for? Right now, I am to believe they are immortal unless they are explicitly killed. In the end, it's a supernatural story so anything the author wants can be put into place. This latter point is only minor, since this is the first part of the story. However, a little enticement for the future can go a long way with keeping people interested - it comes off as more credible than trying on swimsuits.

  The ultimate issue will lie with the audience. I enjoy some slice-of-life but it's not a genre I can say is my favorite. Sure, it's cute watching the girls run around and make stupid jokes, but I really don't gain too much from it. I'd much rather see a form of progress across the city or more of what's happened with the world rather than be confined in the halls of the school. Considering that's half of the show's appeal, it's quite clear that I'm not meant for the show's audience. That said, it'd be foolish for me not to admit it's a necessary evil. Had the show entirely be focused on the mystery and horror, it probably would've received more criticisms of shock value and wouldn't have found as large a fanbase. That's really the takeaway of using the contrast strategy - the balance in the creator's eye may be imbalanced in the eye's of the viewer. That's why we all have different likes and dislikes, after all.

  The animation studio behind School-Live is Lerche. There are a few shortcuts here and there (the CG zombies in one scene being the #1 shortcut) but they do a fairly good job. Bright, cutesy colors for when everything's fine and shades of purple, black and dull gray for when zombies are involved. Arguably the scariest thing about this show may be the character's eyes - their irises are a bright ring that contains a dark colored pupil. They're sort of unsettling to look at. The music for the show consists of goofy, lighthearted pieces and some dramatic tones - mood music, mainly. It sports a catchy OP "Friend Shitai" and a relaxed ED "Harmonize Clover" to end episodes on a lighter note (with the tongue-in-cheek "Good Night" displayed after the end of early episodes). The real grab would be the moody piano piece "We took each other's hand", used perfectly for Miki's scenes and again amplifying her backstory. The voice acting is also good. The seiyuus know how to deliver a dramatic scene or a scream when needed. Yuki's is a bit too "bubbly" for me, but it's appropriate for her character.

  Overall, I give School-Live a 6/10. It's a show that's not for everyone - again, this is a show for people who want a slice-of-life AND a bit of psychological horror. If you're more in the former camp and don't mind a darker show, this will probably be the anime for you. If you're more in the latter camp, I'd advise to pass on this one unless you need something a bit lighter, as strange as that sounds. School-Live is a short and interesting watch that shows that even a strange contrast can give a show staying power.

  Do you like or dislike this anime? If you haven't watched it, are you encouraged to watch it or not? Leave a comment on my profile telling me what you think of the anime and/or my review.

  Thanks for reading and have a blessed day!

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