Murenase! Seton Gakuen

Murenase Shiiton Gakuen (Seton Academy) is amazing, amazing in the fact that within a span of 12 episodes, it managed to make me dislike animals. On the surface, this show doesn’t raise too many red flags. Besides, we’ve had other anime about the animal society in recent years such as Beastars. The problem about Seton Academy lies in its story execution and character cast. People may see this just another genre cliché milked by school academy tropes. When you combine that with an academy of animals, there’s hardly anything original about the storytelling. And you’d be right. When the audience first meets animal hater, Mazama Jin,he’s nothing more special than an average teenager with a teenage crush on Hino Hitomi, who happens to also be a human. The story tries to adapt and evolve from its initial premise but never chooses an opportunity for development. That’s because his life is now gotten more chaotic than ever after being involved with an animal pack, led by the overenergetic wolf, Ranka. I really wish this anime had an auto-mute whenever Ranka opens her mouth. Being a wolf and fiercely protective of her territory, Ranka explifies just about everything I hate about children: loud, annoying, impulsive, and always tries to have her way. Watching her character behavior equates to watching a 5-year old fighting over food with their sibling. Unfortunately for Jin, he has to deal with her behavior on a daily basis. And that doesn’t even count the fact that she is a living object getting in the way of Jin professing his feelings to Hino. Speaking of which, Hino is thrown into the show as a nice type of girl; think of the ‘girl next door type’. It doesn’t take long for Hino to somehow also get entangled into the Ranka’s daily misadventures. To add fuel to the fire, the show somehow manages to throw her into embarrassing situations without batting an eye. The show doesn’t take time to truly develop either character or their relationship. It instead recycles the endless clichés over and over until it milks it dry. Honestly, I’m not particularly sure what type of audience this anime is aimed at. With minimal story direction, you’d think this appeals to slice of life fans looking for an extra dose of popcorn entertainment. But no, that’s not where the appeals lies. The show lacks the realism of a human storyteller. It puts overemphasis on the animal society that there’s no time to find life quality. Watching the series feels like the author wanted us to believe in this animal society, taking place in an academy. The animals takes on human roles such as the students and staff. But in reality, these character roles are deconstructed that results in an insufferable character cast. It challenged me to name one character that truly felt worth investing time into and in the end, I came up none. Then, there’s the problem with character relationships. Let’s start with the most normal, being the pair of Jin and Hitomi. This is nothing more than a fantasy daydream saturated with character delusions and idiotic fantasies. While many anime of similar genre follows the trend, this show somehow manages to add them without a shred of shame at any chance it gets. The more this show aired, the more these delusions became more like a way of adding extra TV time for each episode. On the animal front, delusions sometimes gets raunchy and suggestive as we have to remember that they behave just like animals. The anime also takes pleasure to show as much as fan service as possible when given the chance, such as with Ranka’s impulsive licking or Miki’s near naked outfits. The character relationship between Jin and Ranka is like compared to a babysitter and a baby. Jin literally has to hold her back sometimes to avoid public problems. Why? That’s because Ranka seems to have the mentality of a kindergartener. Oh and I’m afraid the rest of the cast isn’t any better. For instance, the female koala Shisho has the animal behavior of a sloth and you likely won’t remember a single dialogue in the episodes she’s in. Others such as Komori or Mei Mei fails to capitalize on their own character personalities to be something unique. When I watch either of them interact with others, it reminds me of elementary school, the days where children behave like annoying children. Even some of the more fierce and masculine characters such as the lions aren’t what I pictured them to be. It’s too bad really because this could have been a somewhat entertaining educational exploration of an animal society. But instead, the creators made this look like a horrible meme with unfunny gags and endless amount of idiocy. Somehow, I made it through this anime without smashing my TV screen. This show looked like one written by a zoo fanatic but completely fails to mesmerize the audience with their ideas. With little to no story direction and an absolutely insufferable character cast, it truly deserves the score it gets. Hopefully after reading this review and if someone recommends you to watch Murenase Shiiton Gakuen, you turn your head away and say “no”.

It’s an animal trivia-based absurdist comedy. It’s good. If I had to describe it in one word, I’d call it “dumb fun for smart people with refined taste and appreciation for wit.” Here’s what a comedy series should do to be a 10: - Out of all the animal-factoids-applied-to-a-humanoid-society shows of the last few years this one is easily the most ingenious in the way, well, in the way the animal trivia is applied to the humanoid societal circumstances and situations (taking into account that the end-goal here is making gags). - The comedy is consistently funny, again, because the gags are artfully built on the triviafoundation. I repeat the same thing multiple times because it really deserves to be emphasized: THIS SHOW IS VERY, VERY CLEVER IN TURNING THE NATURE DOCUMENTARY MATERIAL INTO HUMAN SOCIAL INTERACTIONS. On top of that, it does not concern itself in the slightest with the pedantical adhering to reality (have I mentioned the comedy here is “absurdist”? Because the comedy here is absurdist). Instead, it liberally mixes scientific facts and urban legends based on whichever will be funnier in a given moment, and this unfettered approach works wonders. Yet, the show never fails to point out when a piece of trivia it uses is not real, which is also important for keeping it dapper. - The characters are likeable and their relationships are “investment-worthy” (believable and interesting to follow). Same deal as in the paragraph above, the characters’ personalities are based on either the real or the folklore traits of their corresponding animal base, and the exact degree of their “animalness” changes arbitrarily based on the necessities of a good joke. While the story’s format and the sheer number of the cast members doesn’t exactly allow for the super complex character arcs, everyone has a clearly defined personality, interacts with the other cast members in a logical way based on how their personalities match, and has some goals and aspirations that steadily progress as the plot progresses. - High-effort anime adaptation. The easy place to point this out is the OP/ED. The OP manages to convey every major character’s role in the story in just a few short seconds, while playing thematically fitting jungle music. The ED is simply a work of art. Things like these are your flags - whether you are familiar with the source material or not, they let you know that the anime adaptation’s creative team have put some actual effort and passion into their work. The source material here isn’t mindlessly copy-pasted or mindlessly abridged - things are reshuffled, rewritten and repurposed in order to work better in a different medium that has different strengths and limitations, while preserving the soul of the work. There is more than one case of an episode being stitched together from the parts of five different non-consecutive manga chapters (and I mean “different story arcs” kind of non-consecutive) and it looks completely seamless to a naked eye. 9.5/10 for a consistently funny, thought-provoking, and high production values comedy series.

Murenase! Seton Gakuen is a lighthearted school comedy, but in order to set it apart from the countless others of its genre, it needed a twist. So...the entire academy with the exception of the protagonist and his love interest are animals! Therefore I'm obligated to use awful animal puns. The show is simplistic but actually really howlarious, I'm not lion! It's a solid easygoing show and I ended up wolfing down each episode's classy comedy content. I had initially thought that this anime would lack depth and that it would slowly trudge on like a sloth, but it's littered with cute episodic stories that highlight eachof the characters. There's also some deeper meaty substance when it comes to the portrayal of the relationship between the animal hater Jin and the energetic wolf girl Ranka. I was surprised at how much I had fun with each episode and how they would even occasionally bring some depth to some of the characters. The show gets bonus points for actually bringing up some fun facts about animals from time to time. I have no idea if they're always valid, but I respect shows that can incorporate a bit of educational knowledge into their story without it being a hindrance to the actual narrative. And the way that the anime included some of the more humorous animal characteristics such as female hyenas having...*ahem*...BOTH privates really elevated the anime further. There's just a lot of koalaty to be found in Seton Academy! The cast of characters are a colorful bunch that really breath life into the show. Now there are a lot of them for a single cour anime, and it's true that most of them fall to the background after getting their own dedicated episode. But don't worry, this isn't a cat-tastrophe by any means. This isn't a narrative driven story but a comedy based one, and I believe that keeping each episode fresh by shining the spotlight on different animals each week kept the show engaging and fun. Whether it was Miyubi's constant deaths or Meimei's masochistic tendencies, there was always something enjoyable to watch. This exotic group causes a lot of pandamonium for Jin, who just wants to spend some time with Hitomi, the epidomy of femininity. Of course we can't forget the ever present wolf girl Ranka, who's sheer positivity and energetic nature were incredibly endearing. And you gotta love her licking and barking. Despite Jin's tsundere nature and claims that he doesn't like her, Ranka almost never loses her upbeat nature, which I appreciate. Though I guess that means she's not much of an aware wolf. This is a comedy anime first and foremost, and I believe that the success of such a show hinges on the quality of the cast. And while these aren't the most developed characters or anything, I'm pleased to say that I was thoroughly entertained by their antics. Now I know that I'm not a koalafied art critic or anything, but I found the animation to be the weakest part of the anime. In the beginning, it just looks low budget, which is unfortunate, because the visuals probably turned a lot of people away from the show who probably would have enjoyed the actual content of the anime. But this anime did something incredibly rare, which is improve vissually as it went on. Maybe it's just me, but I thought that later episodes featured much more detailed art and pretty aesthetics. We get an assortment of cute character designs and many of the characters are pretty expressive. I just feel like the animation lacked consistency. On the flip side, I absolutely loved the voice acting since the beginning. The high pitched animal noises that the seyiuu were making were both hilarious and adorable. Especially Ranka, whose loud, high pitched voice ALMOST ventured into the realm of annoying, but it was just too cute to not like. And the way that she sang the ending theme song, voice cracks and all, was just so howlsome and precious! I'll conclude by addressing the elephant in the room, which is do I recommend Murenase! Seton Gakuen? I would say that it's quite the entertaining anime, and if you just want to watch something fun and don't mind some weird animal shenanigans, then I'd say go ahead and give this a shot. It's not purrfect by any means, but if you like a good school life comedy, animals, or a crazy combination of the two, then you should totally watch this anime and join the pack! Thanks for bearing with me to the end!

You know what the Ancients always say: "Birds of a feather flock together." And in the world of the anthropomorphized animal kingdom such as this, whether there's some form or (valiant) escape or not, this animal academy has it all, nooks and crannies that's enjoyable to the same degree. This is what this show encapsulates them all into one school comedic package that anyone can pick up and enjoy from start to finish. And for once, both the manga original source and anime are on par with each other. The story of humans being in the animal kingdom is relatively unheard of (unless when it comesto prey and predator), but that's what happened to male MC Jin Mazama. Being someone whose abhorrence with animals has carried his senses from young, an animal school like Seton Academy wouldn't be his best shot (but decides to make the best anyway by finding human girls like love-interest Hitomi Hino) and make it out alive, all in one piece. ALAS, meeting someone coincidentally like Ranka Ookami the wolf just begs his sanity, and you'd know when wolves like to mark people as part of their pack, is when Jin always marks Ranka as the "irritable flea" of the group (despite her calling Jin the "boss"), but doesn't want her (licking) love shoved in his face. All in all, these animals which arrive by proceeding episodes all shoved into Jin and Hitomi's cooking club, as stupid and questionable as it sounds, makes for some fun comedy pertaining to each and every animal species' quirks. Character-wise, it's easily a 50-50 combined win for this series. In the cooking club, from adorable Ranka to strong koala Komori and sloth Miyubi (who ALWAYS "Die!" out of comedic laziness) to cat-centric Kurumi, if it's taking the animal kingdom into the human context, it succeeds somewhat. Remember, ANY and EVERY animal is shown to great detail of how they resemble in real-life, bar none from some differences that are made to characterize (e.g. hyena-girl Yena who acts like a tomboy despite being female). To make the experience turn up a notch, the "scientific" narrations provide a great depth of knowledge based on the highlights of the animals shown and given time to mold their characterization (it was a good time learning from the humans' standpoint as well). And of course, the lion-impala running gag moments of King Shishino and Shiho Ihara (by which if you've watched the show, you'd know what I mean). In all sense of the word, if animals are your thing, then this show can satisfy your eyes. The character category is why this show truly excels in its own right. With Studio Gokumi helming the production and Cygames being the overall producer, having that "Uma Musume" effect from 2 years ago still rings a lot in my head as far as memories of unique stand-out horse girls go, and this show is no exception. Clearly the Cygames effect just can't be outclassed when it comes to the specials of standouts from Seton Academy's footing to all of the character cast (plus the background notables). The same can be said on Studio Gokumi's side with good artwork and decent animation that overall, I'll give it a pass for not trying too hard, but having just enough to suffice for the inevitable that the series has offered, much more than actually showcasing the low budgets (which are STILL a sacrificial point, needless to say). The musical side though, it was decent overall while the only notable was the OP however. Trying to cram a lot of the key settings and the eccentricity of the characters in a song that's as unique as idol-centric music was a nice treat to listen to every week, and it did not get old. What got old was Ranka's ED, but really, a good effort for trying on VA Hina Kino's part to act on Ranka and her "Ookami Blues" putting a spin on being alternating between cheerfully happy and sad moments. All I can say is, it was fun while it lasted. School comedy in the animal kingdom sense is somewhat of a subgenre twist according to the settings here, but while there are hits and misses, generally this is a good show to relax to (while it's not on the Iyashikei side of things). Not great, but no slouch either. Animal lovers of all ages, resound at the beauty of this show, and you'll never be disappointed. If your answer is a resounding "Yes", come along to Join the Pack at Seton Academy!

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