School-Live!

Spoiler Free Review :3 First of all, if you have not watched Gakkougurashi or read the manga, don't read any reviews don't read a synopsis, none of that. Going in blind is not something I personally did, but I would recommend that to be the most exciting way to read this. I came from the anime of Gakkougurashi wanting to see if it was as good as it's anime adaptation, as I had not read much manga in the past. And what I got did not disappoint in any way, it was even better than I had expected. I found it to be a very good seriesto read, and I would personally recommend it to basically anyone. STORY - 9/10 The story is done quite well, and although not the strongest thing about the manga, it is still quite exceptional. I think a few things could definitely have been expanded upon and more explained, though. ART - 10/10 The art in Gakkougurashi is done very well. I have found near to zero obvious flaws with it. I think the art style goes well with the series, even if it isn't the most unique. CHARACTER - 10/10 In Gakkougurashi, I think the characters are one of the best parts of the series. Every single main character is given their own development and issues. No character in the series is made out to be perfect in anyway or with no good things about them. Gakkougurashi tries its best to give every character personality, and I would consider it to be done very well. Just like most categories, of course a few things could at least be a small bit improved on. ENJOYMENT - 10/10 I found Gakkougurashi to be very enjoyable over all. Personally the enjoyment was the best part for me, and this manga series never failed to have me ready to read more. OVERALL - 10/10 Overall I rate the series a 10/10 with no doubt in my mind. If you would like, I would think you should go and read this manga as soon as you can! :)

I must say, starting off this manga I didn't have high hopes for it. Zombies aren't really something that catch my attention. Even so, I fell in love with Gakkougurashi. There's something about bonding with the characters as they struggle to have a normal life, with each of the characters being quite unique in their own way. We see them are their highest highs, and especially their lowest lows. Rarely is there the chance that I disliked a character in this manga (two instances really, I feel as if they weren't fully fledged out), and the friendship among everyone is lively and heartwarming. Surely there areareas in the manga where things get tough. There are many instances where characters begin to question their own sanity, after all they're in an apocalyptic situation, but its always wonderful to see how the characters' build strength to pull through. I loved watching every character slowly grow, it felt as if I were with them every step of the way. And for that, Gakkougurashi now holds a special place inside my heart. I feel as if I'm quite biased in writing this review, but I must say, it's certainly worth the read.

So I finally got to reading this thing. I probably chose the worst time, since during depression season, the last thing you need is even more sadness. A great series exploring themes of "growing up" and "moving on". Has inconsistent pacing and tonality, from juggling between slice of life and horror. This means I often realized a conflict existed when the conflict was already over, but also made every jump-scare or reaction shot that much more effective, since you never knew when something horrible will happen, when another friend will die. That was the first half. The second half is much weaker, first losing the themes, thenlosing all risks and fears on 66% of the story. I also hated the pseudo-science sections, they just didn't fit with the series. A horrible translation may be one of the reasons I had a hard time following the story. I'd still recommend it with a 7.5/10 score. The first half being so strong, it carries the second half on the shoulders of lingering feelings alone. TL;DR Great read, terrible timing

I've got beef with School Live. On one hand, I really do commend it, any series that can convince me to read 78 chapters of material has some sort of merit to it. But in the case of School Live, much of that merit is purely hypothetical. I think this was a concept that had a lot of potential on several fronts, but A) didn't understand the themes it initially presented enough to follow up convincingly, and B) didn't understand the draw of the concept in the first place. But I should back up and define that concept in the first place. School Live, asbecomes immediately apparent after the very first chapter, is a subversive and psychological take on a zombie apocalypse story. Which makes it a bit difficult to talk about, because it becomes one of those things where the initial draw is really valuable to experience and helps draw in the reader. But I digress. The story follows the aptly named "School Life Club", a school club which focuses on, well, living in the school, a psychological framework created by the other surviving girls for the poorly adjusted protagonist Yuki, as they attempt to survive the zombie apocalypse. I think the real appeal of the concept lies within its scale, and its psychological themes, which at the start, it embraces heartily. But as the series goes on, these roots grow weaker and weaker, until School Live is little more of a zombie story than any other, with the caveat of eternally static characters and frustratingly unnecessary tonal shifts. Art: 7 School Live's art style is generally pretty inoffensive, and the characters are well designed. Kurumi and Yuki in particular I think have very striking designs, and the attire of the school live club embodies their aesthetic nicely. One big complaint I have in the art though, lies in Yuki specifically. For much of the beginning of the series, by design, Yuki is our lens in the world. Of course that's not to say reality isn't shown through the other characters at this stage, but Yuki's frame of reference, her uncorrupted fantasy provides a consistently interesting contrast to the stark and grim reality. But there comes a point where that isn't really a part of the series anymore, which can really be seen in how the zombies are portrayed. For much of the beginning of the series, whenever Yuki is with the group, the zombies have less form, less definition, because Yuki has no real concept of what a zombie is. It doesn't fit into her bubbly world view, so as she she refuses to interact with it. At the end of the first arc, this ceases to be the case, and the zombies at large become zombies, shambling decomposing dead. Granted, I will say that these zombies are largely better detailed and defined than the traditional zombies we see near the beginning, but it nonetheless undercuts its psychological angle. It could certainly be argued that this art change coincidences with a change in Yuki's character, but that is a WHOLE other can of worms. To keep this simply in the real of the artstyle, its good. Story: 5 This story has problems. There's a point where I feel pretty clearly that the aims of the series and the author change from a short scale, self contained piece, where I would presume its popularity necessitated a development to a much wider scale narrative. This really is almost two different stories, a psychological look at mental stress in extremely hostile, and even futile circumstances, and then knockoff Walking Dead but with a psychological tilt. The main problem here is that this could work, it could be fine if it was always leading to this, but the way the story pivots makes me think that it wasn't really planned from the start. Furthermore, it widens the stakes ridiculously. I am of the opinion, however cynical, that the school life club should have ended in the school. Because once they leave the school, this is no longer school live. The themes it originally wanted to present become dry and hollow in all but very few avenues, and the story warps into something that has no business being as large as it is. Indeed as it goes on, I find much of the conclusions and circumstances leading to, of all things, a happy ending, extremely contrived and silly. Granted, the story tends to remain entertaining, if nothing else, and it plays with ideas throughout that could be of some real intrigue if developed. But it fails to really do so in a meaningful way, in my opinion. Character: 3 This is the big one, the one thing you want to hinge your psychological story on. If you bill your story as a psychological journey and examination, there must be an understanding of the characters and their development. But. School Live does not contain this. Yuki is nothing but a dead end. And if you like Yuki, like, a lot, you might find solace in this. But it really becomes a problem. Just to expound on this a bit, Yuki is, of course, the impetus for the school life club to even exist. Her fragile psyche and refusal to accept the grimness of reality requires the existence of this veil over the apocalypse, just to keep her alive. The reader can question if this is healthy or not, or if this actively detriments from their survival, but lucky for everyone involved, it becomes a completely moot point. Despite being shown explicitly to struggle between recognization of reality and psychological commitment to delusion, the introduction of Miki marks the end of any psychological intrigue, because through her it becomes clear that these characters have no capability to develop. Miki explicits tries to break Yuki's delusion, and in doing so does not reveal any subconscious or interesting character underneath Yuki's facade. It does nothing but demonstrate that Yuki is.... simply mentally deficient. She comes off as nothing more than stunted and childish, not really creating a veil but almost too undeveloped to even begin to understand her circumstances. And that's the end of it. Although this supposedly "solves" her delusion, she remains the same character, just somehow now without the need to paper over reality, even though nothing in her life or her understanding has changed. Which, as the story progresses, just makes her dead weight. SHE was who needed the framework, once the framework is gone and she continues to treat life like a game, she actively works against the health of the group. It truly boggles my mind how this character was not allowed to develop whatsoever over the entirely of the series. Past that, Kurumi is a fine character, and invariably has the most interesting stuff happen to her, but little is done to expand the really interesting things she experiences. Yuuri is largely static and not terribly interesting, but she does have the best psychological arc with Ruu, probably the strongest aspect of the series past the school. And Miki.... I'm sorry she's just bad. She's cynical and doesn't mesh well with the group, and she has a single, 1 dimensional, character trait: She really feels bad about Kei. She never manages to move past Kei, never has any other development and frankly by the end I was really praying she would bite the dust, because she really just is not interesting. I'll be honest with you I cannot even remember what she does in the university arc, but it was probably wallowing in self pity about Kei. She is the weakest member of the group, she cannot kill zombies because she thinks they might be Kei, and frankly its insulting that she lives through more like like 10 chapters, let along 60. Past that I'm not going to go into any of the secondary university characters, as they do very little except the biologist, but I will say Megumi embodies another problem in the series, namely the inconsistent zombie rules. But while she's alive she's fine. Its been a whole year since I finished this, and really just thinking about how wasted this concept is still makes me as angry as when I first read it. Almost all the main cast either develop backwards or get written out of the story, the stakes and scale get blown up insanely and without warrant, and all in all the story ends so far removed from what it could (and should have) been. Its really bad news when a zombie series has you actively rooting for the zombies by its climax, and nearing the end of my own reading of this almost everyone but Kurumi was on the hit list. If you're looking to read this, I would recommend never leaving the school, just imagine they get holed up and killed valiantly protecting Yuki's innocence, or accepting the futility of their mission but having enjoyed protecting the remaining vestiges of humanity in the face of the apocalypse. Because frankly I don't think the series understands much of any of why its concept had promise past like chapter 15. If you wanna go past that, you better REALLY like Yuki's attitude, because she never stops. On the whole, School Live, Gakkougurashi, is deeply flawed, and incredibly static past a promising beginning. If you enjoy the characters at the start, there's a chance you could enjoy the same characters by the end. But if you're looking for dynamic and interesting characters, in a well structured and planned apocalypse narrative, I would recommend you look most anywhere else, unless you absolutely must have the School Live aesthetic.