Jdrama Recommendation about School clubs

 

Reading the above title, what do you think what it is about? If you have watched a bunch of Jdramas or Jmovies, you might be familiar with the topic, that is, school club. Japanese schools mostly have school clubs, that sometimes, a few of them are created by the students. The clubs might be related to music, sports, role play, or traditional culture. One thing that attracts me when talking about the school club is the one promoted in the drama is the least interesting one for the students. And, that is why the drama is created.

And here is the list of drama/ movies that take the school club topic. They have something in common, though, that is the club doen't have enough members that the school is about to disband the club.

1. Chihayafuru

First I read the manga written by Yuki Suetsugu which was published in Kodansha magazine starting in December 2007, I haven't finished reading it yet, then I watched the anime, and it was said that the anime is still waiting to end when I heard that this manga would become a live action movie with my idol stars playing. The story is about Chihaya, a tomboyish girl who as a child was introduced to the karuta card game by her friend, Arata. This karuta game is closely related to the anthology of ancient Japanese poetry. The players usually sit face to face with their opponent facing a row of cards with pieces of poetry. While other pieces of poetry were read by the singer of the poem in a competition. This player, who already knew the continuation of the poem, quickly removed the poetry card in front of him. The score will be determined by the number of times he got rid of the card because that means he memorized a lot of poetry that was read.

What do you think? Isn't hard? I imagine it would be impossible for me to memorize so many lines of poetry. Not to mention the sitting position of those who kneel down. If those players win and go into the next preliminaries, they could be in the same position for hours to come. No wonder when Chihaya finished one competition she passed out from energy. What she needed was sweet food to replace her depleted energy. The practice? It's no different from sports club. They do stretches, run kilometers, because their physique is really tested when they are in a competition.

Is there any romance included in this drama? Fat chance! There was something between Chihaya and Arata, but I did ship Chihaya and Taichi, his best friends, who has been there to find members for their karuta club at school in the hope that the school will not disband them. Taichi was there, too, for Chihaya when she needed someone the most.

2. Haruta and Chika

 

I can’t tell you much about this movie as Chihayafuru earlier. Haruta and Chika is from a mystery novel entitled Haruchika written by Sei Hatsuno. There are 5 series of books published by Kadokawa Shoten in October 2008. This novel received a manga adaptation published by Kadokawa Shoten as well. Serialization of the manga began in December 2015. After the manga was released, an anime adaptation appeared in 2016, and the film adaptation was released in 2017.

Which adaptation did I read or watch? Well, to be honest, I prefer watching the live action to reading the books or the manga since the book and the manga are not released in my country. I might find the scanlation manga online, but I didn’t read it.

The story is that Chika is a member of the wind instrument club, a kind of wind instrument at her school. The number of members doesn't reach 5, and of course this club is in danger of being dissolved if they can't recruit new members. Haruta was Chika's friend when they were kids. They met again after so many years at the school. Chika asked Haruta to join the club and looked for new members.

In the live action movie that I watched, I felt that there were no mysteries to solve, unlike the novel. I don't know, I only watched it once and it doesn't really make a lasting impression on my heart. One thing I remember is Kanna Hashimoto is the female lead here. :D

 3. Omukae Desu

 

The topic with a club with no enthusiasts is also in this drama, but that is not the main topic. Dorama, which was adapted from the manga, released a manga version from 1999 to 2002 in Hakushensha magazine. The manga by Meca Tanaka received a drama adaptation in 2016 with 9 episodes. This means that this manga was not adapted into anime version.

The club discussed in the manga is a rocket making club. Huh, what? rocket maker? Yup, the only members of this club are 2 otaku who are maniacs with astrology. They dreamed of flying their rockets while they were at the club. Unfortunately, the members didn't reach the minimum. That means this club is going to disbanded. Well, the club finally survived with the arrival of some new members who were no less weirdos than the original members hahaha.

I said earlier that the main topic of this manga is not about clubs, but about two people who accidentally become assistants to shinigami, aka angels of death. These Shinigamis help those with wandering spirits in the world to continue their journey to the realm of the eternity. The problem is that some of these spirits are stubborn and some still have worldly affairs. If they don’t finish their affairs, they wouldn’t feel relieved, therefore, they can't return to the eternal realm. Tsutsumi Madoka and Aguma Sachi, who happened to be given the ability to see spirits help this shinigami. The live action is exciting, funny and a little touching when discussing the worldly affairs of the spirits. It's not scary at all. Seriously!

 

4. Hyouka

 

Hyouka is a book I've been wanting to read, unfortunately I don’t have it yet. Putting the mystery genre as a tag, this novel has 6 series. The books have been translated into Bahasa Indonesia. Meanwhile, the novel by Honobu Yonezawa also received a serialization of the manga in 2012. Likewise, the anime adaptation was released in the same year with 22 episodes. The live action was released with the title Hyouka, the forbidden secret in 2017.

The initial story of this novel is Houtarou Oreki joining a classic club that was initiated by his older brother when she was still in school. This club almost dissolves if he doesn't meet Chitanda Eru, a girl who has a huge amount of curiosity energy. Together with other members, this classic club managed to solve several mysteries related to the mystery buried for 45 years around the classic club room.

The mystery here doesn't seem to have anything to do with a criminal mystery or the like, but rather a mystery solved by combining the pieces of words created decades ago, buried under a pile of dust in the room. I haven't read the novel or the manga, or watched the anime, so I don't think the mystery here is very interesting. In the live action movie, you can feel how less interesting this mystery is. I'm just confused, how come there are people who are so bothered to unravel the mystery of words that have been buried for so long. LOL. I don't know if later I get the book. Well, even though it's starring idol actors Kento Yamazaki and Alice Hirose, the film is still less attractive. What do you think?

 
5. Kono Oto tomare Sounds of Life

I stumbled across this anime accidentally while scrolling through the anime selection on Netflix. Something related to music, always interests me, especially classical music.

Kono oto tomare is a manga that tells the story of a traditional koto music club which only has one member after the seniors graduate from school. What was left behind was Kurata Takezo. With a character who is not that enthusiastic, it seems that this senpai is resigned if this club will dissolve. Fortunately, there appeared one child from grade 1, Kudo Chika, judging from his appearance, it seemed unlikely that he would join this club. Why? Because Kudo is known as a violent kid who likes fighting. Then how could someone with such a character be interested in the Koto club?

Apparently, as a deep regret over the death of his grandfather, Kudo is determined to master this koto intrument. The grandfather turned out to be a quite famous koto instrument craftsman. After Kudo joins, another girl appears, Hozuki Satowa, who has a natural talent for playing the koto. 3 members are not enough to make this koto club last. It takes at least 2 more members to fulfill the number. This furious Kudo turns out to have an unexpected friend who is willing to serve him, even joining the Koto music club. How does this club survive with its members completely new to the world of koto instruments?

I really enjoyed this anime from season 1 to season 2. The season 2 ending was quite satisfying, but there were things that that need to be continued. I was also curious about the unclear relationship between Kudo and Satowa. The city music performance was also quite interesting because actually I was not satisfied with the background of people talking behind when the music was playing. Minna, shut up for a while, let me enjoy the music. ha ha ha. I suddennly remember watching Nodame Cantabile performance that Chiaki senpai always had something behind the performance.

Oh yeah, this anime was written and illustrated by Amyu sensei and published in Shuesha's Jump Square magazine in August 2012. The anime series itself was released in April 2019. I watched it in 2021. I heard that season 3 has been echoed by fans but who knows when would be released.

 
So, how many of the mentioned movies/ drama/ anime have you watched? Can you put some more drama/ movies which have similar topic, that is, the almost disbanded school club? I just started reading Jujutsu Kaisen that I found there’s the least interesting school club, Occult club—another word for paranormal activity. Many people are discussing about it. I might watch the anime instead.

 
Well, that’s all the recommendation. Wait for more ones.

Jja, mattane…

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