Mikagura School Suite – Review

Today I reviewed the hyperactive but generally endearing Mikagura School Suite! Outside of the likable protagonist Eruna, there really wasn’t that much to this one – its storytelling was pretty half-baked, and its aesthetics were nothing to write home about. The one exception was the handful of excellent fight scenes, but with less than half a dozen such scenes scattered across a full dozen episodes, that didn’t really save the show. Still, “mediocre but generally pleasant” makes for a perfectly acceptable viewing experience.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my episode notes below!

Episode 1

Opening with a classic action cold open

Some nice loose animation here. A focus more on energy than consistent character art, which is good

Opening with the MC’s confession fantasy. Eruna is gay and horny and proud, and it’s great

Christ, this dub is abrasive though. Really overselling everything

Both the dub and original VA cast are super shrill, though. It’s just that kind of show

And Eruna’s VA is certainly enthusiastic

Eruna decides on her school because the girl in the brochure is hot. Reasonable enough

Her VA’s performance basically involves constantly cracking her voice. Eesh

“So what’s the dealio?” Pretty much covers the tone they’re going for

Lots of pretty basic jokes, lots of overreactions. Eh

That said, Eruna herself has a solid personality. Her rambling is pretty great

Everyone has to join a club, the clubs battle using crazy powers, these battles decide their rank and school perks

“Oh. I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Eruna’s VA really does sell her dopiness and enthusiasm

The cat’s vocal tic is a lot more awkward in English

You don’t even get a room if you’re not in a club

Some of the side characters are much less convincingly acted, like this art club guy

Christ, this cousin character who’s lusting after her sure is a thing

Episode 2

Yeah, the Japanese VA cast is less… hyperactive and loud

Explaining how special powers and fights work

Eruna remains as pleasantly thirsty as ever

It’s pretty awesome to get a lesbian character who’s neither chaste nor meaningfully predatory

They basically have Stands

Their abilities reflect dedication to a specific passion

Eruna’s “special ability practice” is some solid comedy. She just hits people with seemingly relevant objects

“Do people think I’m an idiot?” lol

Eruna runs away to a sealed room

“You are a descendant of the chosen line.” Welp

This is all pretty abrupt

Eruna gets crazy mobility powers

This episode has some awesome animation. Rough on the inbetweens, but very dynamic

“Ability: Toy Gun”

She gets an energy beam

Episode 3

I like how everyone here are friends, battles aside

Eruna’s gotten way too confident. Which is also nice – her headstrong personality isn’t just used for comedy, it’s also a legitimate dramatic flaw

A lot of the show’s jokes are very basic. A whole bunch of yelling and slapstick

The fight animation is still very loose and satisfying

Eruna loses her match

Mascot suggests she form her own club, but she needs three members

This scene of Eruna and Seisa at the end is really nice

Episode 4

Jeez, opening with self-hatred and divorce

“I’m acting like a Yuto Akama that anyone would like”

Eruna starts practicing with the drama club. They put on a pretty funny play

The episode’s second half opens with the rookie brackets announcement. Things are moving fast!

Akama’s feelings are pretty solidly expressed

I like that the resolution here is very simple, and based on ordinary kindness

Another fight scene, again favoring extremely loose drawings. Great stuff

Whoa, these loose ink-blot horses are wonderful

Hah, the Gunbuster pose

This fight’s so awesome. This show really has some hidden strengths

Episode 5

Minatogawa, the flower arranging club member, seems to be this episode’s focus character

Seisa is getting some solid material this time

The featureless white background characters are an odd style choice

Yep, Seisa’s getting plenty of material

And the cast overall are interacting well. Lots of good friends

Plus the silliness emerges naturally from the dramatic variables – fighting over this Miracle Man model

Seisa: “this is why I hate club battles”

Episode 6

Looks like we’re getting art boy’s backstory now

Kuzuryu’s his name

Mikagura has a sister school based all around sports, with a strict win-or-lose philosophy

This over-the-top sneeze. I really love how Eruna isn’t glamourized at all

Kuzuryu was resented and talked about behind his back at the old school

A much less exciting fight this time. We really haven’t gotten any highlights since those first three fights

Eruna wins a close battle and inspires Kuzuryu… and then promptly loses in the quarterfinals

Otone Fujishiro appears

Episode 7

The show’s music is generally pretty mundane electronic noises, but there are some nice instrumental bits for the battles

Otone wins the rookie competition. She’s not in any clubs, and seems unhappy

She’s shy, gets nervous, and says mean stuff

This show really doesn’t have many backgrounds, and a lot of them are pretty underwhelming

This episode is super tedious. This show needs matches to be moving towards

I do like how the characters continue to grow, even aside from Eruna

Whoa, Seisa just superpowered the rain away

This show’s production is reaaally threadbare now

Episode 8

The annual “treasure hunt” is coming

Now we’ve got an RPG parody, complete with solid 16-bit visual tricks

Mecha Bimii appears. Sure

Time for… a quiz show?

This sure is a barely-constructed conflict

Basically just giving Otone, the pink-haired girl, more character

Another pretty tedious episode. Otone is just too simple and unreal of a character for any of this to feel interesting

Suddenly Mecha Bimii is a giant monster

Otone agrees to join Eruna’s club

Episode 9

Otone and Eruna already make a pretty reasonable pair

At last, Eruna in the director’s chair

They’re creating fake scandals to get their advertisements in the background when the newspaper club reports on them

God, some of this show’s humor sure is abrasive

Otone’s been scaring off other potential members

An embarrassing scoop-based battle against the newspaper representative

Episode 10

Bimii’s humanifying ritual is fucked up

A ghost hunt episode. Pretty standard fare

More interesting is Otone feeling jealousy towards Seisa

They get in a fairly pointless fight. Not particularly visually interesting, either

Episode 11

Seisa’s isolating herself, and seems possessed by some demonic power

Cracks are appearing all around the school

It’s nice that Eruna and Otone get to be such equal friends

Also settling some Kuzuryu-Shizure drama

Seisa was betrayed by an upperclassmen, and sealed away the photography club room

I wish this Shizure/Kuzuryu conflict had enough time to feel like a real conflict, but it’s still nice to see them make up

Also a decent fight

Episode 12

They got a lot of legwork out of the I’ll Figure It Out Later club name