Gakkô-gurashi!

Yuki Takeya and her three friends -- Miki, Yuuri, and Kurumi were at school when the zombie apocalypse struck. They adopted their dog, Taroumaru, later. They never left school. Instead, they founded the School Live (or Living) Club. They're the ones who remained alive, and they intend to stay that way.

SL is a 2015 release that is rated 7.62 on MAL. It is 1 season consisting of 12 24-minute English dubbed episodes without CC available. While the dubbing is top tier, we get no interpretation of any written communications. They should just have a voice actor read them. Offshoot production: Tokyogurashi! Tokyo-Live! A 1-minute ONA. I've read that the anime covered 32 of 50 volumes of the manga, but I've also read that the anime only covers a "small part" of the manga. There's a sequel to the manga now, so the story goes on.

SL isn't for dummies. It demonstrates a respectable IQ and is a good watch. We are introduced to the series through Takeya Yuki's eyes. To say that she wears rose colored glasses would be understating it. It's more like an old fashioned view master with the slide wheels. She sees what she chooses to see.

Kurumi is strong. Within moments of the chaos hitting homeroom, she was hit with an excruciatingly painful choice. Zombie features invariably will portray a former loved one that becomes afflicted. When that loved-one becomes a threat, protags face that excruciatingly painful choice: They must annihilate their love. It's a classic collision of head vs heart. The loved-one is gone and survival depends on eliminating the threat. When one breaks it down logically, it's an easy choice. But logic almost never wins when it comes up against emotion. We need to be aware of that so that when a crucial moment comes we are resolved and strong enough to do what must be done. Other's lives could depend on us. "If that happens to me, do what needs to be done!" Kurumi is tough. She's absolutely right, too.

Megumi Sakura is their teacher and the creator of / advisor to the School Living Club. She had felt a sense of foreboding for some time. On the ill-fated day her mother kept trying to call her. There were odd news reports. She muses about how her mother declared her not suitable for teaching... She happens to be quite suitable, and her bravery saved lives.

Yuki Takeya breaks out crying when the horrors first surface. The performance was so convincing I looked up the voice actress, and no surprise, it's Brittney Marie Karbowski. She's a powerhouse with over 450 credits to her name on IMDB. She played Selim Bradley in FMA-10, Shiro in No Game No Life-7.5, Nanachi in Made in Abyss-9, Miki in Parasyte The Maxim-8.9, Chaika in Chaika The Coffin Princess-8.5 (don't miss any of the above)... I counted 57 things I've seen her in - I had no idea - and I haven't been watching anime for more than 3 years, so she's been in around 75% of what I've seen! I would refuse to watch dubbed live entertainment under most circumstances, but these talented English voice actors are the reason I'm watching dubbed anime - that and the fact that I'm watching oodles of live action foreign language stuff, so it's nice to get a break from all the reading. (I'm slowly gravitating to the Japanese language shows now). English voice actors are spectacular, and she's one of the very best. It isn't just her. All the acting in SL really is marvelous. They must on several occasions and they do it well. These guys are pros. I'm jealous. They seem to have one of the best jobs on the planet.

Yuki is the fulcrum of the show. She handles drama by retreating and blocking it out. She has chosen to see her life at school as normal times and refuses to face the zombie threat. Yuki, as an unreliable narrator, is one of the devices used to bring us this school club story. Isn't that more true-to-life? We only talk to narrators that are less than 99% accurate, as none of us are right 100% of the time. The general population is very much a zombie horde, at times (don't get caught up in the frenzy). Our small circle of family - either by way of genetics or the family we choose - is supposed to be our team that equips us to survive the people-eating world. Most of us think big. We want big houses, big jobs, and big-ticket items when the secret to a fulfilling life is to stay small, be content, be grateful, be giving, forgiving, and kind. Kurumi explains that without Yuki, they would just be surviving. Yuki dreams, loves, and appreciates beauty. Since Yuki is around, they remember to LIVE.

Nicholas Sparks made that the theme of his novel, The Locket. Toward the closing pages an embittered character points out that 'everyone dies. The question is: Have you LIVED?' Because of covid, I had months to plan my husband's memorial. For months I contemplated his life and what it meant, and what our 32 year marriage meant. He was a hard worker and a provider, but what lives on is the impact he had by investing care, time, sustenance (he was a culinary wizard) and most of all good humor (he was hilarious) in others. We have one biological child and many other "kids" that are family by choice. A life well-lived never completely leaves us.

BUT, is it right to let Yuki exist in lies, however? Quandary. "You shouldn't always try to hold back all the sad things. Sometimes the sad things are important too."

They reflexively mislead the audience in many ways. The art is fresh and at antipodes with the subject matter. People are drawn with fantastical but simple features, a wild pastel color palette, and big, innocent eyes. Backgrounds are simple with minimized and stylized realism. They use old time grainy black film with streaky white lines and specks, like an old projector, to create an off-kilter feeling. It opens prevalent in pink, pastels, and puppies - it's SO sugar-plum-fairies. Eyes are starry and the mood is bright. The art is carefully designed to create contrasts and assault the brain. It's obviously a metaphor for real-life and how we dress up our existence and put blinders on to block out the horrors of the world. To a certain degree, this is necessary in order to live. Apparently, highly intelligent children struggle with depressive disorders because they cannot as easily do that. When we step back and look at how effective the blinders are, things become bizarre. Sports, fashion, entertainment, gossip... we're consumed with frivolous things, and we literally step over homeless people without a glance. We think we are poor or have money troubles, while starvation is rampant around the world. {It is hard to know where to start, but most of us could volunteer once a month (don't expect to be worshipped for it) and most of us could forgo a latte and give $5.00 a week to a charity that is on the ground meeting needs. Don't pick a charity at random - there's no reason to give to an organization unless at least 90% of the funds reach the needy. There are several that are separately funded so that 100% of donations goes straight to the poor. The USA is almost 248 years old now. Human civilization is over 6k years running. One who thinks the government can fix this is more delusional than Yuki.}

There are some really cool jazz songs that Shazam did not recognize after a handful of attempts. One can find the music by searching on 'Gakkou Gurashi'.

In all, on the surface, this is a good story that is well written, directed, and executed. Below the surface are mid to high level thoughts and concepts. They manage some surprises and it becomes apparent that the government knew the outbreak was likely. SL is well worth the time and it would be fabulous if someone continued the anime, though that's unlikely.

QUOTES📢

The river's waters flow without end. Yet the water is never the same. In still pools foam floats dissolving and coming forth never remaining for long, just as man and his dwellings in this world.

Living is a wonderful thing.

〰🖍 IMHO

📣7.6 📝7 🎭8.3 💓🦋 🌞6 🎨7.5 ⚡6.7 🎵/🔊7.7 😅2 😭6.6 😱5 😯4.5 😖4.9 🤔6 💤0 🔚? The mange goes on...

Age 12+ The language is tame and there's no sexual content. There's gore, violence, death and difficult emotional things that are too much for tweens. The way the girls stick together and take care of the weak is a good trade off for allowing a young teen to watch. There's nothing to warrant a rating beyond PG-13 but it is officially Rated R-17+

Re-📺? Down the road wouldn't fight it.

There's content after the initial credits rolls on the last episode - a teaser. Watch to the b&w credits.

From lite&trite to heavy&serious, here's some recs ~

Watership Down-8.5, Up From Poppy Hill, Forest of Piano-8, Girls' Last Tour-8.5, To your Eternity-7.6, YOUR LIE IN APRIL-9, Vinland Saga-10,

I loved this anime, there were alot of unexpected moments that shocked me and made the anime so much better. I was scared the anime would be boring at first while watching the first episode, it started out slow but near the end it got really creepy and crazy. The anime isn't too scary though I wouldn't recommend it to kids. The description on this anime made it seem boring, IT IS NOT BORING. To be exact life isn't as it seems. Fr tho y'all should watch it, such great character development and storyline, I was never bored. I even bought the manga.

There is a reveal at the end of episode one that make it hard to talk about this series without going into spoilers and ruining that incredible reveal. Yes, the show is a bit slow before that reveal, but trust me its worth it. I will be trying to avoid spoilers during my review, but I'd still recommend just going and watching the show before you continue reading. Its absolutely fantastic. Its so good that even I, someone who rarely cries over fictional characters, cried.

Story - Though episode one starts off somewhat bland by anime standards, it quickly redeems itself with a shocking and well-executed reveal. This reveal comes into play for the entire show, and the balance between what is shown at the beginning and what is reality is handled brilliantly. Every story beat is told nearly flawlessly and even the scenes that clearly only exist to be fan-service are pulled off well.

Animation - The art is jut wonderful with great direction and character designs. Everything down to the editing is done incredibly well. A few elements could be considered a bit generic, but overall the look of this show is stylized and aesthetically appealing. My only complaint is that no-one really looks their age. The teacher looks like a teenager, and the high schoolers look like 10-year-olds. The female characters only have boobs when the fan-service demands it. There are only a few scenes where the "teenagers" look like teenagers. Overall, this isn't so much of a bad thing, I just found it a bit inconsistent.

Audio - I watched this with the Japanese dub, and for the most part the voice actors are pretty good. The overall sound design and music is as well.

Characters - There's not much to really say other than everyone is fleshed out, interesting, and entertaining.

Theme Song - I just want to say that the theme is great. As the show goes on there are subtle changes to the visuals being shown, but the upbeat and catchy song stays the same. This is a song that I went out of my way to put on a YouTube playlist. I also want to point out that the animation for the opener is creative and fluid with a lot of imagery and I just want to acknowledge all the effort that was clearly put into it.

The characters construction and the way that the main character's create her defense mechanisms are very well constructed, but the predictability of the characters' next steps takes the shine off. In the end, an attempt to create a bigger world with the possibility of other seasons was not well built and does not generate anxiety, but it is a great anime to have fun and understand a little more about the human being.