Review of Mikagura School Suite

Y’know, school is fun. You have friends to talk to, activities to take part with and other stuff that seem ‘fun’ to enjoy. But having watched Mikagura Gakuen Kumikyoku (Mikagura School Suite), their definition of ‘fun’ has gone a lot wackier. By entering the school, you would probably go nuts with whatever activities they have. This Vocaloid project is based on a light novel. Eruna spends her life at home playing games, and has yet to decide on which high school to attend. Her decision finally came about when her cousin Shigure gave her a pamphlet for Mikagura Academy, where she catches her attention on aphoto of Seisa in it. When she attends to the academy, she finds out that it only has cultural clubs, and a battle system which club members with special powers fight one another as representatives.

The story pretty much goes how the characters take action, in that case it revolves around Eruna more. There is no clear goal of what she wants to do in the academy, since she is more of a character who goes with the flow. Nevertheless, the story is quite easy to follow as she gets to know more about the academy, and meet and interact with other students. Hence, there is no need to understand the story at a much deeper context, such as the battle system or the super powers. What is so great about the story is the comedy. Each episode never fail to make me giggle like an idiot at some scenes, so it did a good job of making me enjoy the anime. There is also this sub-plot about Seisa’s past which is a bit more emotional, and it tends to show more in the latter part of the anime. I do not have any problem with the sub-plot, although I wish that it can be explained better. I also hoped that there is something much more exciting than just battle on every episode, and aside from character interactions and mysterious to unfold, I still wish for more. In summary, an easy-to-follow comedic piece of work that needs a bit more surprise.

The cast has a variety of club members and each of them has a typical anime personality on their own. Having Eruna as the main focal character of this anime, it spills lots of fun to everyone, whether to the other characters or even the viewers. Do not worry, she is not 100% that way. Sometimes she shows her concern or thoughts to whoever she gives them to, and unless she is having thoughts of yuri fantasies to Seisa, or being dumb, she goes on what she wants to do with lots of determination. For the other cast, some of the characters have a backstory which appears in the anime once in a while. It depends on how it is being told or how the characters related to them is going to follow up, and neither of them is boring to hear. Especially for Seisa, her backstory forms as the context of the sub-plot I mentioned earlier. Character development is minimal, but it still works out fine for all the characters.

For me, the artworks, such as the sceneries and the character designs, are simple. I do not think the staff has ever crossed over the line which they lazily draw out the whole episode. Sometimes there are drawings of background characters that are not even coloured, but I am not annoyed by them still. However, it is cool that the palette gives off a nice bright colourful feel. In battle scenes, the animation is decent enough - not very spectacular. It is nice that there are different types of super powers these students can use them to fight off with one another, giving a variety of battle fights. I wonder if that is a budget problem, or maybe Dogakobo used more money for their other anime. Either way, it does not really matter.

This anime definitely shines bright on the opening and ending songs, which are sung by respective voice actresses. Houkago Kakumei is something I can grove for hours on loop, as its energetic pump-up music get the excitement going every time an episode airs. The individual ending songs are covered from its Vocaloid songs, and in comparison to both the anime and Vocaloid versions, I say that the quality pushed up way higher in the anime version, although the Vocaloid version is still good to hear. Overall, the three have different genres that fit the style of the characters, and they are great. My favourite is definitely Esoragoto Spiral. Finally, the main ending song is less catchy but still nice to listen to when you are feeling happy. Sadly, the soundtrack is not that memorable. If I can recall on my head, I probably think that the battle music is good and fitting. The voice acting is absolutely well-done. I give my appreciation to Eruna’s voice actress, Kimura Juri, who also voiced Miyamori Aoi from Shirobako, for giving her best efforts in voicing the wonderful Eruna-chan the viewers adore. I also appreciate the others for giving their best efforts too.

I did not really expect that a lot of people would enjoy this anime. But again, Mikagura Gakuen Kumikyoku is another anime which fell under the radar from other popular anime this season. I cannot blame the other audience, but I must say that they should give this anime a watch too. Personally, it is enjoyable because of the comedy and the characters that make the story good to watch. Maybe it is one of the few unique anime this year, since the story and Eruna are somewhat original to me.