glakin - 2015-11-04 00:20:14

Kitakubu Katsudou Kiroku is a great example of a show that you can play in the background while doing work and still enjoy

fmetz - 2015-08-06 19:22:03

If a studio is going to make an anime that has no central plot and relies on episodic gags to entertain the audience, they better make sure their viewers are on the floor laughing. Chronicles of the Going Home Club did not make me laugh out loud nor did it even really entertain me for a lot of its twelve-episode length. What was entertaining was the crisp animation, moments of fourth-wall breaking craziness, and genuinely interesting backstory.

The animation is colorful, bright, and buttery smooth. Not much is notable, but what is here is quality and slightly above average for a slice-of-life show. Musically, besides the unholy catchiness of the opening and endings, there really isn’t a soundtrack to speak of. It’s standard background songs that compliment more than being stand-alone listens. Neither of these things stood out greatly as the gags were what the show mainly focused on.

While I never found many of the ‘jokes’ to be all that funny, as many of them were reused and got tiresome after only a few episodes, there were moments of fourth-wall breaks that were entertaining. The characters would know that they are in an anime and make jokes about anime tropes like how they have to have fan service shots to get a bigger audience or how they need to change the ending song. These scenes were funny, however they too wear out their welcome as their novelty wears off. What was really good was a single episode of backstory near the end of the show. This episode shows how the club got together, the motivations for each character, and how the original members met. After a whole lot of nothing happening in the show, honest plot was heavenly and made me interested more than anything else in the show combined.

While during many episodes I was not entertained and wanted the episode to be over, Chronicles of the Going Home Club does a few good things. The animation is colorful, the fourth wall breaks are funny, and the single episode of backstory was a godsend in a show that is the anime equivalent of Seinfeld. Except many anime do these things a lot better. Unless you REALLY love slice-of-life shows, there is almost no reason to watch this.

bayer.blake - 2014-03-12 18:48:08

Story: A girl gets roped into joining a club which has the other members do absolutely nothing but talk and they are all abnormal. Gee, where have I heard that one before?

Pros: ...Well even though the story is moot it still could have been pretty funny. One of the members named Karin is pretty cute and likable I guess only cause she wasn't annoying but even then she isn't special or anything. And one joke (which involves a 4th wall joke about them losing budget for animation) made me snicker a bit.

Cons: This show... is just not funny, at all. Aside from that one small joke in episode one, I did not crack a smile ONCE while watching this. Why? Because it was so boring, nothing the girls were doing in show was interesting or funny and some have been done better in other shows. They even use running gags that go on for way too long (like the seal, what is up with that seal?) and it just pisses me off how they use lame references and don't even attempt to hide it (you mention the scouter quote and power level but don't say 'It's over 9000!'? Whatiswrongwithyou!?).

The designs are appalling, the characters, especially the main girl Natsuki all have pretty bleak designs (what is up with that antennae on her head? It's so big and distracing!). But the biggest problem that I think ruined this for me was the god awful voices. Everyone sounds terrible, there is no emotion or thought put into anything, and it makes some jokes that could have worked fall flat. Sometimes it doesn't even match up! Like for example, there is a prim and proper girly girl named Claire who makes food for the girls (yay, now there ripping off K-on!...do these people have any shame?) and her VA sounds more like a tomboy. WHAT? Also the main lead sounds like an old grouchy lady instead of a teenager... I would rather have the squeaky voices than hear that.

Oh and the characters are not even worth mentioning, they're just knock offs and watered down versions of other characters from better shows. I already mentioned Claire but there is also Botan who fights animals and wants to be the strongest (Kotone from Softenni), Sakura the 'sane' club president, (Kurumu from Student Council Discretion), and Natsuki is basically an unfunny version of Kyon from The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya.

Also, music is pretty forgettable.

Overall: Although I saw only 2 episode of this, I cannot simply stand to see anymore of this because it was that bad. I had to force myself to watch the second episode to see if it would get any better or not... spoilers: it didn't. Any other student council anime is better than this; I don't recommend it at all.

Thanks for checking out my third review~