Mikagura Gakuen Kumikyoku (TV)

This is no ordinary school. It looks normal at first but Mikagura Private Academy is far from normal when you get supernatural battles on everyday basis. Why? Because it’s for representation and show which club reigns supreme on campus. In essence, this series isn’t just some slice of life school life story but also one that blends in supernatural shounen-like features with school shenanigans. Based on the light novel and Vocaloid songs, Mikagura Gakuen Kumikyou is an adaptation that I’d like to describe more as a school battle comedy. It runs on a story with characters that possesses special abilities belonging to each of hisor her own club. The series stars protagonist Eruna Ichinomiya as she enters the doors of the academy. In a nutshell, she is portrayed as an otaku with a special taste in cute girls. Essentially, it’s what led her to come to Mikagura Private Academy because she saw a picture of the elegant Seisa Mikagura, the granddaughter of Mikagura Academy's principal. So there she is experiencing this rather bizarre change in her life. For what’s worth, this show is a bit corny although it does settle down with style once the pace goes going. For starters, the academy is divided by many cultural clubs that specializes in different skills. These expand to a large variety including culinary, art, craft, drama, calligraphy, astronomy, manga research, flower arranging, and even going home. It’s a mixture of almost everything you may find at your local school with their extracurricular activities. For Eruna, this becomes a source of problem because she doesn’t belong to any club. By the school rules and mechanics of the series, anyone not in a club gets poor treatment including a lack of sleeping arrangements; the first episodes shows Eruna sleeping with a sleeping bag at school. Can you imagine that? But as the series progresses, we can see a bit of Eruna’s potentials. As the school focuses on school battles, it’s up to the students to improve their skills and make their own club proud. Because the series features a wide range of characters, it takes time to explore the most prominent ones. This is a plus as the series allows us to see some insight scoop on what the cultural clubs are about. No more just telling but also showing becomes evident as we see what some of the club members do behind the scenes. For Eruna, I suppose it means that she can understand how the school works while trying to get Seisa’s attention. And that’s really a focus on and off for Eruna. At first, she really wants to hook up with her but as the story develops, we can see that Eruna genuinely cares for Seisa. A problem is that the two are not compatible. Seisa has a lone wolf-like status and isn’t the type to open herself to others. This is explained in one of the later episodes as we learn more about her past. However, the series shows that Eruna can brighten up just about anyone’s day. Relationship is important especially for youth and character growth so Eruna’s experiences with other characters really brings out herself too. One of the more prominent relationship she has is with a young girl named Otone. While they started off with a lot of awkward moments, the two becomes close. It brings out Otone’s true character to light rather than the uptight and expressionless person that others see her on the surface. Similarly, Eruna also shows her kindness to others based on a lot of events that she gets herself involved in. As a series that has a lot of diversity, there’s also a good amount of comedy. However, this is a bit of a hit or miss. Eruna is character that some people will like or others will feel dislike towards. In retrospect, she is a very energetic girl but sometimes, she can be a bit naïve and too straightforward. Her personality when first introduced in the series also mirrors those of a kid in an ice cream shop. She goes around looking for “cute girls” and has her delusional imaginations. This is where the comedy comes in full force as she imagines being in “intimate moments” with them. The yuri vibes will also be a bit evident although it’s nothing sensitive and played more out as a comedy. But for a show like this, I feel like comedy is important as the series crafts a lighthearted atmosphere. The competitiveness is still there with the club battles and even tournaments. However, it also gives the series a breather when you see how much some of the students have fun in their daily lives. Just be aware that some of the dialogues can feel a bit cheesy as the story drags on. While it doesn’t obliterate the series’ enjoyment, it may feel blend after seeing many varieties of it. Then, there’s the action. Like I mentioned before, this is no ordinary academy. As a school that features club battles with special abilities, expect a bit of colorful explosiveness. The mechanics of the battles and rules are explained that can be easily understood. The battles themselves usually don’t last long but does capture the point. I would say that the action itself is only slightly above average. Most of them showcases a characters’ special ability that corresponds with their club origin. So in many ways, it’s predictable at what some of them can do. The battles has a lot of energy but sometimes doesn’t match its momentum. Some of them are also rather short so expectations coming into them aren’t high. In retrospect, there’s nothing too special about them besides being a colorful gimmick to progress the story elements. After all, school battles with supernatural elements isn’t something new we see these days. In terms of artwork and visual, this series explodes in color. Literally everywhere is color whether it’s the characters, the setting (school), or the battles. The school itself doesn’t look too special but the characters are decorated in flamboyant style. From the diverse range of colored hair to some of the battle outfits, we see a good amount focus on the visuals. Unfortunately, not every episode can live up to its hype on the technical aspects as there are times when the colors feels out of focus. The backgrounds are also lazily animated while some body movements are limited. Fan service is very minimal except for some of Eruna’s personal delusions. And even so, that’s played for laughter. Soundtrack is a more or less moderate. It’s nothing to write home about especially if it’s almost always cherry. The OST all sounds similar except for cases when the characters do battle. That’s when the full throttle orchestra kicks in. Otherwise, it’s generally underwhelming. The OP and ED theme songs does have a bit of colorful style though especially with the characters in frame. On the other hand, character voice mannerisms isn’t very impressive. Eruna sounds almost like a brat at times while Seisa is borderline emotionless. The only character that brings a lot of personality into the series with its voice is perhaps the mysterious creature name as Bimii. While his voice isn’t anything impressive, he attracts considerable amount of attention on-screen just by the way he speaks. Don’t expect something that will blow your mind in the end though. This show is probably a good choice for anyone interested in some comedy fun. Otherwise, it adapts spoofy gimmicks and settles for a family-friendly atmosphere. There are hardly any mature themes or something that is shocking. The story is very straightforward with its colorful cast of characters. But while it is generic and not very memorable together, it does pull off some clever tactics. It has this good natured fun to categorize school as a playground rather than a military academy. In the end, you’ll have to ask yourself if this type of fun is effective because why not?

I picked up the show for the turbolesbian MC and I never regretted that for a second. If you're wondering whether you should watch it, try the first episode. If you're enjoying Eruna, watch it. Otherwise, drop it. The show was really bad in several aspects - animation, rushed storytelling, Eruna's power not being perverted in any way, pretty weak writing in several places, using the cousin to associate MC with some het vibes, no matter how weak they are - but it's still one of the shows I have enjoyed watching the most. In general, not just this season. That's why enjoyment 10/10 andsince enjoyment is what truly matters, overall 10/10

All my reviews are spoiler free aimed towards people who haven't seen the show. Mikagura School Suite Initial summary and review, if you're not interested in the summary skip the story section. *note my reviews are always spoiler free. Any part of the story that's revealed in the summary is only for the first three episode or less in an attempt to intrigue you to give it a view. MSS is an anime adaptation of a novel that was first inspired by a series of popular NND songs created by Last Note and performed by the Vocaloid GUMI. The words that describe this show as a whole arefun, energetic, even charming at times. But I think the word that best describes with show from an objective standpoint. Is lazy. Story: The show starts off rather ominous, with a girl running from a pursuer through the dark Academy halls in the middle of the night. Ending with an incredible attack from said pursuer with the outcome unknown to the viewer. By the end of the episode, we learn the girl that was being chased at the beginning of the show, is the granddaughter of Mikagura Academy, the girl who prompted Eruna's attendance, Seisa Mikagura. Seisa is a austere individual who usually secludes herself from the rest of the academy even as far as not attending classes. She catches sight of Eruna when she arrives and offers her to join her club, assuming this has something to do with her family name, and ask her to represent the club in the upcoming battle demonstration. Eruna happily accepts with drool running down her face from gawking at her sweetheart senpai. But she doesn't even know how to battle..... It seems as if it's a start to a good mystery. What happened that night? Why is Seisa so withdrawn from everybody else? And why does she have an interest in Eruna the moment they meet? As Eruna enters her first battle, she quickly learns how much of a disadvantage she's at and flees from the fight in an attempt to catch her opponent off guard during the pursuit. She stumbles upon a closed off section of the building and enters a room with a shrine where a very ... familiar looking girl, grants Eruna with her ability to manifest absolute energy from her spirit. Just like that huh? In a fluke, Eruna is able to pull a victory against the Calligraphy club member. At this point the show is still looking good, despite the animation which I'll get into shortly. Eruna then goes back to Seisa bragging about her victory in her first battle. Seisa tells her the only reason she won, was cause her opponent wasn't taking her seriously to begin with. Refusing to believe that, she challenges Seisa to a mock battle to show Seisa her strength. Seisa accepts, but tells Eruna if she is unable to break one of her crystals (a battle is won when you break all three the crystals that float around the combatant) she will revoke her membership to the club. Eruna is defeated with little effort from Seisa. No longer a part of any clubs, Eruna goes from club to club meeting the members, making friends, causing some mischief, trying to find her place, and trying understand why Seisa acts the way she does. Sounds interesting right? Well unfortunately it kinda loses this focus halfway through the show, but manages to end on a decent note. Story Execution: The narrative begins with a bang and some intrigue. There's some mystery to be resolved, an MC who has been brought to an understanding of what she needs to do, and the battles to be had...... well, not so much the battles. When you read the synopsis and watch the first few episodes you'd think that would be a good focus. But instead they focus more on character action outside of battle and lots comedy skits. They go as far as to hype up a battle, cut to the eye-catch when a commercial would air, and when you return, Eruna would be talking to someone like, "*sigh* I can't believe I lost". And this happens multiple times. For a school based on club battles, you rarely see any of them fight. The show would have been much better off with Action rather than Slice of Life Comedy, but the budget wouldn't allow it I guess. The story gets cut up into little arcs as she goes from club to club meeting it's members. With bits of interaction from Seisa drive the main narrative subtly. This was fine for half of the show. Then you meet Otone Fujishiro, who takes up a third of the season with nothing to gain from it by the end, besides a bunch of yuri jokes and a lesson in friendship. Which becomes really boring to be honest. It does manage to end with an interesting conclusion to the narrative but it wasn't very exciting and a kinda cliche ass pull. It could have been fleshed out more without the... basically comedy filler. If the writer took this a little more serious than he did, he could have had a compelling narrative, but it's washed out with all the random comedy and cliche friendship morals. Characters: Lots of fun characters. Each one is given it's own little arc and melancholic back story. Eruna is very energetic and has a lust for anything cute, specifically girls. Although she seems rather naive see isn't exactly dumb, in fact you tend to see that she has a more level head the more you watch behind her constant antics and care free attitude. You find a heartwarming development as to why Akama, the Drama Club Prez, is initially so harsh to the new freshman during their training. The tragic story of the deeply misunderstood Art Prez Kyouma. The inspiring reason for the freshman Asuhi to push forward bettering himself. Then there are the "antagonists" I guess you could say. Like the Music Club member who instead of battling fair, plays with her opponents and unnecessarily humiliates and belittles them. Or the broadcast member who tries to to shut down Eruna's little scheme she comes up with. I will say the drama club members were annoying and took up more time than they needed to. And you can't forget then man that brought Eruna to the Academy her cousin Shigure, who is completely in love and obsessed with Eruna, it's pretty funny. But sadly none of these stories become a focused theme, and reverts back to Eruna and her cheesy friendships for the remainder of the show. Art and Animation: ....... This is my biggest problem with the show, as I believe it is the cause of all the other problem I see with it. The Art looks great. The designs for the characters are good, the colors are beautiful, etc. The animation is very lack luster. Only main characters are detailed, anyone extra are merely white silhouettes. Not that big of a deal itself, but just the tip of the ice berg among shortcuts. When action arises, characters look rather inconsistent and vague. It's also obvious why you don't see many battles, because it was too much of a hassle to draw them. The battles you do see are talks with an attack here, more talks and a face close up, then an attack there, more talks, commercial break, next scene after the battle skipping the conclusion. And the obvious errors are littered throughout the entire show. The crystals that hover above the characters, are sometimes absent during scenes or even switched places for a brief moment then returned to their original position. I even recall a scene where Eruna was just forgotten to be drawn, and was absent for almost 20 frames. Sound: The BGM is alright but nothing memorable, the tracks that were the best are seldom used. The OP and ED switches during certain episodes were good to watch and listen too. The Eruna version of Houkago Stride is awesome. Enjoyment: I did enjoy the show. Even though all the battles I wanted to see weren't shown, I still enjoyed the characters, some of the comedy, and the main story between Eruna and Seisa. I wish the show would have taken it's story concept more seriously and had a staff that wanted to animate some wild action. Instead it was just SoL comedy while Eruna helped other students be honest with themselves through her constant 100% smiles, energy, and cliche view on friendship. Overall it was alright but pretty underwhelming. I'll give it a 5/10. Not really something I'd recommend watching to someone. Unless I know the person can look past it's flaws and enjoy the random fun and yuri jokes. Sry Eruna-chan, but you weren't that great. I still love your songs

Merchandise

Links may contain affiliate references

Студия

Продюсеры

Темы