Survival Game Club! / Sabagebu!

Review By: John Fragglepuss Evans

Genre: Action, Comedy, Military, School, Shoujo, War Games

First Aired: Summer 2014, 12 episodes

Summary: Momoka Sonokawa is a seemingly normal high school girl until one day when her life is turned upside-down on the train. She encounters a pervert that is quickly put in his place by a mysterious girl with dual pistols. Momoka sees the same mystery girl at school later that day, following her to a run-down building that turns out to be the Survival Game Club. The club has few members, but what it lacks in size it makes up in passion. The group convinces Momoka to join, changing her life forever.

Survival Game Club follows the group as they combat not only one another, but also random classmates and students from other schools. The club is not allowed to use real guns but that doesn’t stop them from imagining the most elaborate fight-to-the-death battles. The narrator does a fantastic job of reminding the viewer that the battles are all being imagined in the girl’s minds, meaning the blood and carnage is simply their inner interpretation of each violent encounter.

The series uses basic forms of animation at times, see the ending credits for an example. The characters switch back and forth between chibi and normal forms in order to show exaggerated emotion, which I approve of in an anime comedy. The ridiculous circumstances that cause each battle and how they unfold is hilarious. The club members are memorable as are the bizarre situations they get into.

You might enjoy this if: You want an easy watch that can be consumed in sessions as short as 10 minutes. While each episode is the standard half hour, they are split into three separate segments that are usually unrelated. It’s almost like watching a short-form anime at times.

You might not like it if: You demand drama in your survival series. Survival Game Club is many things, but serious it is not.

Similar Series: D-Frag!, Nichijou: My Ordinary Life, Military!, Himouto! Umaru-chan, Plastic Nee San

Note to the Viewer: Even if you’re not going to watch the series, you should at least watch the third part of episode 10, titled “Survival VP”. I won’t give away too much detail, but I’ll tell you it references several movies in a true anime fashion.

AMV – A Day in the Life of the Survival Game Club! By Nagareboshi Studio

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