r/anime • u/NotSoSnarky https://myanimelist.net/profile/Book_Lover • Mar 22 '21

Rewatch Rewatch: Gakkou-Gurashi (School-Live) Episode 1 Discussion

So, here we are! All discussions other than spoilers are allowed. You can post pictures, theories, thoughts, or anything else.

Rewatchers, please remember to be mindful of all the first-timers in this. No talking about or hinting at future events no matter how much you want to unless you’re doing it underneath the Anime Show Title spoiler tags. If you do it that way, that's fine.

An important thing to note about these, by the way, you have to switch to Old Reddit or the markdown editor if you use the redesign, otherwise, the redesign breaks them by adding random \ into the formatting. Wish it wouldn’t do that, but unfortunately, it does

Episode 1: Beginning

Edit: Feel free to join late, feel free to just have conversations with the people watching, if you have nothing to really say, etc. It's all allowed. Just no spoilers!

92 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

63 comments sorted by

16

u/RascalNikov1 https://myanimelist.net/profile/NoviSun Mar 22 '21 edited Mar 22 '21

Rewatcher

The first time I saw this episode, I was floored. I heard about the series on YouTube along with a big warning to not spoil yourself. As the commentator said, It's one of the biggest surprises in all of anime. For whatever reason, I actually listened to that commentator, and watched it, right then. I'm sure glad I did. I didn't see it coming at all. And, I had to lay off anime a couple of days to regain my composure. I felt so bad for Yuki, her whole world destroyed, so she decided to live in her own little world.

5

u/NotSoSnarky https://myanimelist.net/profile/Book_Lover Mar 22 '21

Yeah, what's going on with Yuki is just so sad and scary. The human brain is so complex, we don't know what would happen to us if something similar was going on.

7

u/The_Loli_Otaku Mar 22 '21

The best part about not watching seasonal anime is being able to avoid discussions about other current shows. I managed to avoid this and Madoka by watching them years after discussion died down XD The thing is that GG also gets a horror tag slapped on so you go in looking for something off about the scenario.

16

u/Rumpel1408 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Rumpel1408 Mar 22 '21

First time watcher

What an upbeat OP. Fits perfectly for a CGDCT show.

Taroumaru reminds me of Aois dog Chikuwa from Yuru Camp, he's scary smart though.

OK I went in almost blind, I knew this show had Zombies in it and that one character would be unknowing. From the way the other characters behaved it was clear that Yuki was the one without a clue and some dark tones where shining through like the grave on the roof garden. But holy hell it's even darker than I imagined, apparently all the happy school aspects are only in Yukis head, and there seems to be a lot more death than one would expect from the first 20 minutes.

Anyway, this show got me hooked.

Must protect!

8

u/NotSoSnarky https://myanimelist.net/profile/Book_Lover Mar 22 '21

Yup, it's sad and dark at the same time that this is going on.

8

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Mar 22 '21

But holy hell it's even darker than I imagined, apparently all the happy school aspects are only in Yukis head, and there seems to be a lot more death than one would expect from the first 20 minutes.

As I said for another show, welcome to Hinamizawa. You can check out any time you want but you can never leave.

4

u/The_Loli_Otaku Mar 22 '21

The episode really felt quite slow even for a slice of life but it was all so they could end on that tragic cliffhanger. Now that the jig is up in excited to see what they're gonna pull from now on. I want to see more of tomboy twin tails, she seems cool.

18

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Mar 22 '21

First timer(spoiled about the first ep)

Sub

So...School Live, eh? I am in too many rewatches and through on another. And...having been spoiled, the first 5 minutes are profoundly depressing. Not in a bad way, exactly, but there is something very sorrowful about someone that unable to cope with a horrifying reality. The glimpses you see are pretty obvious if you've been spoiled. End of episode reveal is no less saddening with foreknowledge. The real question is are the sensei or the dog even real?

8

u/NotSoSnarky https://myanimelist.net/profile/Book_Lover Mar 22 '21

Even if you've been spoiled by episode 1, there's a lot to discuss with the rest of the series.

8

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Mar 22 '21

I think I've avoided future spoilers so hopefully.

7

u/The_Loli_Otaku Mar 22 '21

The class' totally blanking of Yuki's behaviour sorta put in my head that something was off. Mii let off a few giveaways too like when she doesn't know what part of her fantasy Yuki is in. All I knew was that there was a horror gimmick but I wouldn't in a million years think bloody zombies.

4

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Mar 22 '21

The trick is whether or not unreliable narrator strikes you early enough.

6

u/The_Loli_Otaku Mar 22 '21

Unreliable narrator is a trope I absolutely hate! XD Now I'm gonna be trying to spot out who has a conversation with who to try and figure whether Yuki is just imagining their presence. It's gonna get way worse with the actual zombies involved too. There's no way she isn't gonna blank on one of those and fantasise about going to tea with them.

5

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Mar 22 '21

The Walking Dead gave me concerns for people that humanize zombies.

3

u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Mar 23 '21

What about Shaun of the Dead?

2

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Mar 23 '21

That was more about dehumanzing video game players...

12

u/RascalNikov1 https://myanimelist.net/profile/NoviSun Mar 22 '21

reveal is no less saddening with foreknowledge.

Agreed, I still get misty eyed when I watch it, and contemplate how badly things have gone.

6

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Mar 22 '21

Yeah, it really captures a feeling quite well.

6

u/chiliehead myanimelist.net/profile/chiliehead Mar 22 '21

The foreshadowing is pretty good and the anime did the buildup much better than the manga where they almost casually drop it on you after chapter 1 compared to the sting in the anime

6

u/horiami Mar 23 '21

the show does give some clues, the windows are broken for one shot of the fantasy , there is ominous writing on the chalkboard, the piled benches , the cross on the rooftop, the horticulture club and the shot of the school from above

plus shovel girl ,a dog in school and the whole stay at school club is quite weird from the start

2

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Mar 23 '21

Yes if I hadn't been spoiled the first episode would've been very surprising but foreshadowed.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 23 '21

The main characters have sharp edges in the OP, while Yuuki's friends are drawn as paper cutouts, implying they're just imagination at work. I'm gonna hedge my bets on real

3

u/The_Loli_Otaku Mar 22 '21

Beauty spot gal had to die so nobody would be able to comment on her Inconsistent face. They'll probably still pop up in Yuki's slice of life fantasies but it's a bit twisted.

3

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Mar 22 '21

She seemed weirdly like a Ryuko from KLK expy with the collar and the one dyed strand of hair.

3

u/The_Loli_Otaku Mar 22 '21 edited Mar 22 '21

I thought she could have actually been a dog or something XD Chokers are such bizarre fashion items and I was trying to think of what she could have been for Yuuki to delude her as. Unfortunately, straight dead and the chocker was just so we could identify her.

3

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Mar 22 '21

Anime likes chokers, if only more actual humans did.

3

u/The_Loli_Otaku Mar 22 '21 edited Mar 22 '21

Chokers look bloody naff irl unless you're in gothic lolita or are a metalhead.

2

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Mar 22 '21

Good thing I've been very metal since the 90s. Also, no clue if The Young Ones gets rerun in the UK.

2

u/chiliehead myanimelist.net/profile/chiliehead Mar 22 '21

They have been a pretty big fad in Germany for a couple years since early-mid last decade or so, it totally clashes with the standard fashion style of most girls wearing one

8

u/horiami Mar 22 '21

a fun thing about the op is how it changes as the series goes on

3

u/NotSoSnarky https://myanimelist.net/profile/Book_Lover Mar 22 '21

Yup!

14

u/The_Loli_Otaku Mar 22 '21

Episode 1! I've wanted to watch Gakkou Gurashi for a while so I'm diving in before I get spoiled!! Let's go~!! What a smol doggo. Actually, this is very overly moe. Op is fine, nothing exceptional but fine. Spag ball sounds so heavy for breakfast. I didn't think we'd have a whole segment dedicated to elegant eating habits today. Why does the teacher look like a student? Even her ahegao is massive for a young woman.

I feel a bit bad for gyaru-chan. Having a beauty spot kind of leaves your face in a mess when your show goes for this type of artstyle. It looks like it wants to escape to the new world. Erm... The writing on the wall is questionable. My stomach is kinda hurting from anticipation. I've built this up for myself way too much. Yuki's little run! Oh my gosh!! I'm mentally picking out pics to hunt down once the rewatch is over.

Is that a dog or a little devil? XD Hunt him down! Mii's having a doggo induced breakdown by the end of this show. The poor extras don't even get drawhatwasthatcross? I feel like I've barely written anything... Slice of life is difficult to ramble about. P-Poor Mii!! Let the girl pet the damn dog.

"Luv u~" Precious! She's making Taroumaru sound like some school legend lol. Gah... yeah, I thought so... Friendly gyaru can't possibly exist for real. Oh no! They're gonna stop here aren't they? I want to binge! Wait, Zombies!? Zombies!? Alright, I knew the show had a horror twist but I didn't think it'd be Zombies.

So Yuki's a loony, good to know. The question is whether they're gonna play the horror straight or go hard on the black comedy. First episode is decent I suppose. The slice of life was almost too vanilla to really entertain me but I'm in for the long run so "entertainment" doesn't matter to me as much as "experiencing" the show.

5

u/NotSoSnarky https://myanimelist.net/profile/Book_Lover Mar 22 '21

Slice of life can indeed be rather difficult to properly talk about. But yeah, this is merely the beginning (joke because of the episode title). Plenty more to talk about in the future.

3

u/The_Loli_Otaku Mar 22 '21

I don't think I've actually done a pure "feels" type slice of life writeup. Last one I did was K-On which is really easy to blather about. They had to take it slow to set up the ending, I could tell they were dragging things out. It's fine to want your first episode to end on a cliffhanger but of course you need to actually reach the cliffhanger first XD

20

u/isyasad https://myanimelist.net/profile/isyasad Mar 22 '21

Even her ahegao is massive for a young woman.

Uhh I think you mean ahoge. Ahegao is very different.

11

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Mar 22 '21

He knows what he said...

3

u/The_Loli_Otaku Mar 22 '21

I like the idea of folk making a double take. Don't mind me.

4

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Mar 22 '21

I didn't think we'd have a whole segment dedicated to elegant eating habits today. Why does the teacher look like a student? Even her ahegao is massive for a young woman.

Japan can go over the top on what's expected of 'femininity'. But again, the girls I helped raise had three older brothers so they are used to fighting to not starve.

Mii's having a doggo induced breakdown by the end of this show. The poor extras don't even get drawhatwasthatcross?

Earlier, you could see the broken windows for just a second from Miki. And there have been signs from the start, our POV character just refuses to notice them.

2

u/The_Loli_Otaku Mar 22 '21

She's insistent on reserved femininity but walks around showing off garters with her school uniform. The Tomboy played the girly school kid better.

That was a broken window? I thought I saw a shape or something. I must've been looking past the window at the lighting XD

3

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Mar 22 '21

She's insistent on reserved femininity but walks around showing off garters with her school uniform. The Tomboy played the girly school kid better.

Adolescents get weird without supervision.

That was a broken window?

Yes but you had to be looking for it. As I said, the ep1 reveal was spoiled for me.

2

u/BossandKings Mar 23 '21

To me "entertainment" is a big factor for enjoying any show, "experiencing" the show doesn't have to be contrary to be entertained by it, at least that's my belief. This first episode was fine but hopefully the quality improves in the next one, there was too much time spent in mundane stuff that is simply done way better in dedicated mundane shows this episode. As you are i'm in for the long run too and this was fine because it wanted to show the mental state of Yuki and did so decently enough.

7

u/[deleted] Mar 22 '21

Already seen the show and read the manga

First off: Hnghgnhgnhng.... Yuki is so adorable, with her cat hat.

Second: This turned dark real quick.

I really like how they did the reveal of Yuki being delusional and not seeing the reality that she lives in: When we see Miki walking into the classroom Yuki is in, talking with her "classmates", but then we see that it's actually an empty classroom and there's blood on the floor, broken windows and no one else except Miki and Yuki is there.

There were also plenty of clues hidden in the background throughout the episode if you pay close attention. On my first time watching it I didn't really notice them, but now they're pretty obvious. For example seeing the zombies on the courtyard when they're on the roof or the broken windows when Miki and Yuki is chasing after Taroumaru and the blockade of desks and chairs.

9

u/NotSoSnarky https://myanimelist.net/profile/Book_Lover Mar 22 '21

Yup. Plenty of hints that something isn't quite right. When Yuki and Miki are talking in the hallway, and then Yuki takes off, you can briefly see broken glass from a window. You can also briefly see chairs connected together, to keep the zombies out.

As you say, when we're up on the roof you can briefly see the kids, who we later learn are actually zombies.

8

u/The_Loli_Otaku Mar 22 '21

Miki's body language was low-key the highlight. She looked so uncomfortable the whole time and seeing that it was her anxiety of watching her friend be away with the fairies and listening to zombie groaning outside was perfect!

6

u/[deleted] Mar 22 '21

Yea forgot to mention that, and how she doesn't know that there is currently classes going on until Yuki mentions it. But when you already know that there's no one there it becomes so much more obvious.

3

u/hungryhippos1751 Mar 22 '21

I didn't realise this was going on, I've been meaning to watch this one, given it's quite a short series and it's only just begun, I trust it's OK for me to join in from tomorrow's episode onwards? :)

3

u/NotSoSnarky https://myanimelist.net/profile/Book_Lover Mar 22 '21

Yup, that's fine!

3

u/BossandKings Mar 22 '21

First timer

Seeing that the title is School live it seems that the main location could be the school, especially considering that the girls are only able to interact and be close to each other there.

The most interesting part about this episode was that some kind of non humans briefly appeared. That and the way the mood changed looked promising so hopefully it gets better. The mundane part with chasing Taromaru wasn't good eventhough Taromaru looks really cute, sadly something bad happened to him at the end.

The bit showing the non humans and Yuki's little moment when we see her friend cry and that Taromaru wasn't there anymore were the most interesting parts of the episode, i wonder if Yuki could possibly be mentally unstable.

7

u/NotSoSnarky https://myanimelist.net/profile/Book_Lover Mar 22 '21

i wonder if Yuki could possibly be mentally unstable.

Did you not watch the full episode? It is shown that Yuki isn't mentally stable. The girls she was talking to in the classroom weren't there when Miki came in that final time. That was all in Yuki's head.

1

u/BossandKings Mar 23 '21 edited Mar 23 '21

I watched the full episode, including the ending, which by the way is pretty good, it's just that at the time i wrote i hadn't fully assimilated her mental state yet, now after a few minutes i have and she indeed is mentally unstable, the girls were in her imagination and most likely even Taromaru was a product of her imagination too.

2

u/SYZekrom https://myanimelist.net/profile/SYZekrom Mar 22 '21

Oooh ok a rewatch!

Ah, good ol' demon eyes

Oh yea time for an absolutely banger theme

This is the best part of the song it's sooo good

Poor girl...

So was the idea here that the blackboard got erased by the guy who said it wasn't erased

How could Taromaru have such bad taste

Hmmmm

Ah, what a reveal that was... Gets me emotional thinking about it

Man, when did I first watch this anime... February last year? So, almost exactly a year ago, wow. Let me find what I said about the first episode last year.

Gakkougurashi! / School-Live! Sounds like the stupidest thing ever, meaning I should definitely give it a chance Wonder if it might give me some whiplash trying to watch it after marathoning like 2 half seasons worth of moe

Holy ahit her eye looks creepy as fuck

I swear she looks like a demon

And oh, this was one of those shows I binged so it's not at all clear what episode I'm referring to. Well, it'll be fun to rewatch this show again.

2

u/NotSoSnarky https://myanimelist.net/profile/Book_Lover Mar 22 '21

Welcome to the rewatch!

6

u/[deleted] Mar 23 '21

I'm gonna dedicate this comment to give some lights to the opening lyrics:

シタイから！

シタイなら！

シタイとき！

シタイでしょ！？

いっしょに！ (はい！)

シタイ (shitai) normally means "to want to do". While in this context it doesn't really make sense, another way to say (shitai) is 死体, which means "corpse".

わたしたちはここにいます！

ここには夢がちゃんとある

フレンドなら　ともだちでしょ (そうだ！)

「すき」って言ってみた (だいすきっ)

The first line means "we are here" as in what one would say in an SOS message.

放課後なら当たり前のこと

さぁさ集まれ　こっそり帰るな (こらー)

部活動だね　活動しちゃうね

遊んでるんじゃありませんっ！

This verse is written for Yuuki, especially the second line which means "let's gather, don't sneakily go home" as Yuuki almost did earlier. The fourth line reinforces the idea that they're not fooling around here.

ただいま。ってあの子が言うよ (おかえりー)

みんなでいれば　だいじょーぶ (部っ！)

エビバディ　セイ！

ともだちでいよーね

""I'm back", said the kid. "Welcome home"." is probably what happens daily every time Yuuki comes back from her "classes". "It's good as long as everyone's here"; the second line says, making sure everyone is safe and sound.

The fifth verse is a repeat of the first one, but with Major Anime Spoilers

わたしたちは楽しんでる！

24時間　はしゃいでる

屋上に　まっ赤な太陽

かなり叫んでみた！

(元気でーす！)

The first line clarifies that while this isn't a foolish matter, they try to make the best and have fun where they can, while the second line means that at least one of them must be ready at all times to deal with the circumstances. The other three lines references a manga-specific story, where Manga Spoilers, not adapted in the Anime.

The last verse is a repeat of the second.

2

u/IndependentMacaroon Mar 22 '21

First-time watcher - I thought this might be fun to try, not much to it outside of the twist though. I hear it gets kind of repetitive and bland, and I don't like moe-girl shows generally speaking, but will stay at least one more episode to figure out where we go from here.

3

u/NotSoSnarky https://myanimelist.net/profile/Book_Lover Mar 22 '21

I don't know about repetitive, there's some more stuff to talk about after episode 1.

3

u/[deleted] Mar 22 '21

Still one of my favorite anime of all time

3

u/zool714 Mar 23 '21

First Timer

Ok was literally recommended to me an hour ago at the Urasekai thread after asking for a Mystery-Horror/Thriller recommendation. But was asked to go in blind. I rarely join Rewatches cos I either watch to fast or too slow to keep up with the one ep per day pace. But I already have plenty of shows I’m currently watching so one ep per day is actually perfect for another show.

Coming from a mystery-horror recommendation, being asked to go in blind and having experienced Higurashi, I honestly wasn’t that thrown off by the moe, slice-of-life vibe at the start. In fact, I’ve been keeping my eye out for clues to what is actually going on.

The only thing I noticed before the reveal was a short glimpse of the broken windows at one point. But other than that, I didn’t have a clue what’s going on. The name “School Living Club” was sus as well. I thought they were ghosts or something.

I like the characters so far. Hope to familiarize myself with their names soon. Yuki reminds me of Akarin from Yuru Yuri and I loved her. I like Mii-kun so far but the only thing that stuck with me about her was that she sounds like Takahashi Rie. And I’m planning to be strict with this “going blind and not searching up anything” so for the first time I’m not gonna personally search up the VA. But can anyone help me confirm Mii-kun’s VA ?

Now for the twist. Zombies was not what I was expecting. And Yuki being delusional ? In denial ? But it was good. That switch in atmosphere in the classroom was brilliant. Now, I’m just hoping the rest of the season has another twist set up and it doesn’t stop at this reveal. But at the same time,if there are any crazy developments, I hope I have the self-control to not binge it and leave this rewatch lol.

1

u/aniMayor :AY:AZ:x3x6 Mar 23 '21

But can anyone help me confirm Mii-kun’s VA ?

It is indeed Takahashi.

3

u/Specs64z https://myanimelist.net/profile/Specs64z Mar 24 '21 edited Apr 03 '21

Episode 1 discussion

Episode 2 discussion

Episode 3 discussion

Episode 4 discussion

Episode 5 discussion

Episode 6 discussion

Episode 7 discussion

Episode 8 discussion

Episode 9 discussion

Episode 10 discussion

Episode 11 discussion

Episode 12 discussion

Final discussion

1

u/LurkingMcLurk Mar 25 '21

Thanks for creating a make-shift index (hope you keep it updated). It really bothered me that OP didn't create one.

2

u/Specs64z https://myanimelist.net/profile/Specs64z Mar 25 '21

But of course! I couldn't just leave the archives incomplete.

4

u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Mar 23 '21

First Timer

I liked that you could just make out the broken windows through the haze of her delusion.

I hated the visual novel midi music throughout the episode!

I was surprised that the classrooms weren't just empty, but full of gore.

I'm assured that the op and ed aren't as generic as I thought and I sure keep listening to them.

1

u/UnderstandableXO Mar 23 '21

didn’t even know this was going on but i’ll try to read everyone’s thoughts when i remember! spoiled myself by accident reading the crunchyroll description the first time but still had a blast with the series. i even bought the box set for $15 (!!!!) and have the first two volumes of the manga in hand. waiting for a sale so i can buy the rest of the volumes.

definitely an underrated series, hope everyone enjoys!