I said on Junjou I’d explain how it fell to my second most anticipated show of the season. While I was looking for the season preview, I came upon Gakkou Gurashi and my first impression of it was “That sounds ridiculous, SO ridiculous, that it will be fun.” then while waiting for the season to start I got concerned that I may not like it. So I figured I’d read the manga.
Everything I knew was a lie. Happiness is a lie, the colorful images in the promo’s are a lie. What I found waiting in that manga was possibly some of the most messed up things I could of imagined.
I never intended to read for so long that I’d end up caught up to where the manga left off but it’s honestly that kind of story. I have no doubt the anime will be the same.
That being said, if you’re here for a copy of the manga. You’re looking in the wrong place. There are many differences just in the first episode, which means. ANIME ORIGINAL ROUTE, which means nobody is safe. Any one of these girls could die and it would mean nothing since it’s already derailed from the manga’s story.
The major differences come with the fact that Miki is there from the beginning and the dog, the dog is alive. Don’t read the manga if you’re here for the dog. Speaking of the dog, he was a large focus of our first episode. A majority of the episode was Yuki and Miki chasing him around the school, disrupting ‘classes.’
What I really liked about the episode is the subtle hints throughout the episode of the true nature of what’s going on. At one point in the earlier episode, as Yuki walks by some windows you can see some broken glass. If you look on the field while they’re on the roof top, you can see the zombies shambling along below. Miki is reading a non-copyright infringing copy of “The Stand” by Stephen King. Which is a book about mankind being wiped out by a super virus. Did you take lessons from Urobuchi on how to torture your fan base through literature? There’s also a certain cross on the school’s roof top that signifies that a certain event in the manga already happened.
That’s only what I noticed in one viewing of the episode, I’m sure there is a lot more to be found in a re-watch of it. I have to say, with the Mangaka doing the writing for the anime, I’m concerned about the safety of these girls. Nothing has gone well for them in the last couple chapters of the manga and I’m not expecting the anime to turn out any better for them.
What I want to know is if the anime will answer any of the manga’s questions. None of which I can ask here without spoiling everything.
The animation is perfect, it pulls off the moe of Yuki’s school delusions but HOLY HOT DAMN THAT ZOMBIE ANIMATION. I am NOT okay with how well these things are done! Early in the manga, they’re very vague on what the zombies look like and make them mostly blacked out blobs until they get a little more daring with the designs in the later chapters. NOPE, the anime doesn’t feel like holding back on us.
Which will be VERY disturbing if they cover a certain part of the manga, which once again we know has gone by with the addition of the cross on the school roof.
I am just, i fell in love with this manga after just picking up the anime on a whim. I am SUPER hype for this show and I can’t wait to see where the rest of it will go.
Am I covering Gakkou Gurashi: YES, HELL YES!
~Midnight
Oki’s Impression
So basically when I read the description of this show I thought: Wow, this might be the dumbest premise I’ve ever seen. Well, it’s not quite that simple when you find out that it’s not just a bland moe story. No, it’s a fucking hallucination of a desperate girl who wants life to be what it was before. Once Midnight and I learned this we basically ate the manga and eventually we both watched this.
There are some differences in the content and this terrifies me. The only real problem this means is now I have no idea how they’re going to destroy these poor girl’s lives. Did you see that fucking dog? That dog’s days are numbered. Watch that dog die in order to break her hallucinations. Honestly I’m more scared of this than I am the manga. Everything could happen to absolutely destroy this story.
I will probably cover this with Midnight now solely because it’s like a trainwreck? I can’t look away. How can anyone look away. These girl’s hearts will break in front of us and we’ll love it. We’ll sob and love it.
I’m in.
Oki
Well, I’m holding hope this is not gonna be different from the manga. There are still ways to follow it even with the changes this episode (the events with Mii-kun can be added in a flashback). But given how they only have one cour and most anime don’t get a second season…yeah.
My favourite hint was the writing on the blackboard as Yuki left for “the nurse’s office”.
But really, that dog chase was way too long!! I get it – it shows parts of the school instead of simply having Yuki narate a few things about each place, but still, they could have cut some of that. And no water fight on the rooftop – they even showed the water bucket but no fight 🙁
The VA did their best at sounding cute – in fact they did so well I’m a little worried if they can actually voice the more serious stuff. I wanna hear the “I’m hungry” monologue voiced so badly.
And hearing the ost in the beginning of the episode – I had a hard time holding back my laughter. And then the opening started and I was laughing out loud :))