School-Live! is a cute and bright school-centered slice-of-life anime from 2015. Following four cute high school girls and their little dog, most of the first episode would lead viewers to believe that the show is as wholesome as it sounds. However, in reality, School-Live! is much more than that, tackling a variety of dark themes in a series that deserves a lot more attention and analysis. The show not only fakes out the viewer in the first episode but also features weighty subject matter, an unreliable narrator and some good re-watch factors.
The beginning of School-Live! lulls the viewer into a false sense of security that the show is just another run-of-the-mill moe blob series. The series appears bright and colorful, complete with an upbeat adorable opening song. The plot follows the main character Yuki Takeya and her three friends — Miki, Yuuri and Kurumi — as well as their dog Taroumaru, all of whom are part of the “school living club.” They explain that this is a club where the main goal is to be completely self-sustaining and live full-time on the school grounds.
The show starts ordinarily enough, following Yuki as she heads to class, but as the episode continues and the viewer starts to meet Miki, things seem a bit odder. Miki is confused at Yuki and not respectful of the classes, which confuses Yuki. Then, at the end of the first episode, it’s finally revealed that there are no other classmates — at least, not living ones. It turns out the four girls are living in a zombie apocalypse and that Yuki, the main point-of-view character, has no idea this is happening.
This zombie apocalypse setting creates a lot of dark themes that the show gets to dive into. In a zombie apocalypse, both mortality and morality are often called into question, and School-Live! is no stranger to these types of themes. Kurumi’s character in particular often deals with these kinds of issues, as she is the one who protects the group with her trusty “shovel-kun” and is the only one in the group who fights and “kills” the zombies. She then bears the brunt of the psychological damage of surviving in a zombie apocalypse.
The show has a very interesting take on what zombies are. Although they just walk around aimlessly, there is a pattern to their wanderings: they stay in the places they would be going when they were alive. So, the students come to the schoolyard but then generally leave the grounds when school would have been over. This makes the zombies a bit more human, so much so that if Kurumi sees these zombies’ true faces — those of real students she may have known — she can’t bear to kill them and blocks out the faces in her mind, as shown to the viewer.
Kurumi is not the only one with issues. Yuki, the unreliable narrator herself, continues thinking that nothing bad is happening throughout the series; she believes she is going to school like normal, and she’s constantly guided by her favorite teacher Megu-nee. Megu-nee is always with Yuki as the teacher running the school living club, but she only interacts with Yuki. The new girl, Miki, is the voice of reason in the series, showing the viewer what’s really happening.
Miki is the only one in the group to question whether lying to keep Yuki happy is the best idea, as well as the person to give the biggest reveal in the series: Megu-nee is not real and is just in Yuki’s head, as the real Megu-nee is dead. This brings a whole other layer to the show — both Kurumi and Yuuri have been suffering from the knowledge of their beloved teacher’s death while having to keep up the ruse that she is alive for their friend’s mental wellbeing.
This revelation gives the series some rewatchability, as the viewer can see the show in a new light, watching it again after finding out that Megu-nee is dead. The viewer can understand Yuki better and how her psyche works — how her brain is protecting her from psychological trauma. Megu-nee is used as a guardian-like figure for Yuki who encourages and protects her, but since this is all in her head, it’s Yuki who is protecting herself.
There is a tense scene in Episode 2 where the girls go on a “test of courage” to get more supplies at night and encounter a zombie. Yuki is accidentally separated from the group, and Megu-nee comforts her and tells her not to look — help is coming. Rewatching this scene, viewers can see that this act of Megu-nee comforting Yuki is an act of Yuki’s brain calming herself down. This is only one of the many scenes that can be interpreted differently upon rewatching the series.
Not only do the girls grow throughout the anime, but it’s also almost as if the viewer grows with them. School-Live! is a complex series with deep characters, and it only gets better the more audiences consider the implications of what’s occurring. With its preliminary fake-out, complex characters and unreliable narrator, the show creates a fun rewatchability and is a top-tier one to look back on — a cute-looking anime that should stand the test of time.
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