GJ Club(GJ部,Gujjobu, lit. Good Job Club) is a Japanese light novel series written by Shin Araki and illustrated by Aruya. An anime adaptation of it, produced by Dogakobo, aired between January 10 and March 28, 2013, and a special 46-minute-long special was released in May 2014.
Shinomiya Kyōya is forced to become a new member of the GJ-bu (lit. GJ Club), an unidentified club that dwells in a room of the former building of a certain school. There he meets four girls: Mao, Megumi, Shion and Kirara. Time flies with these unique girls around. The series follows the everyday, though unusual, antics of this band of friends.
GJ Club
Kyouya Shinomiya (四ノ宮 京夜,Shinomiya Kyōya)
Voiced by: Hiro Shimono
Nicknamed "Kyoro", Kyōya is the main protagonist of the series. He is the sole male member of GJ-bu, joining the club after being kidnapped by the others. He is a kind and courteous person who is the usual target of the other girls' teasing, frustration and sometimes, their affection as well. Despite him being completely spineless in comparison to other males, Kyōya seems to have an innate talent in dealing with the opposing sex, like making them skip a beat when he temporarily assumes a more manly and less formal kind of speech or when carefully brushing their hair, a talent he claims he learned upon regularly combing his little sister's hair.He and Mao are almost always seen reading manga and light novels.
Mao Amatsuka (天使 真央,Amatsuka Mao)
Voiced by: Maaya Uchida
Mao is the older sister of Megumi and the club's president. She is a small girl who has orange hair and brown eyes. She has the habit of biting and picking on Kyōya when she is bored or angry. She can't stand kissing, to the point of carefully choosing shows to watch or books to read without kiss scenes at all and can barely tolerate the idea of a forehead or cheek kiss. She and Kyouya is almost always seen reading mangas and light novels.
Megumi Amatsuka (天使 恵,Amatsuka Megumi)
Voiced by: Yume Miyamoto
Nicknamed "Megu", Megumi is the middle sister of the Amatsuka family. She is taller than Mao and has pink hair and eyes. She is a nice girl and is always seen making tea inside the club room. She likes to knit and is the one who knit together the club costumes. She always seems to have a calm demeanor even when everyone else in the club is scared. However, she seems to mind her weight, as whenever it is mentioned, she panics.
Shion Sumeragi (皇 紫音,Sumeragi Shion)
Voiced by: Suzuko Mimori
Nicknamed "Shī", Shion is a recognized genius chess player and has many brothers, all recognized as experts in some kind of activity. She has violet hair and eyes and has a low body temperature. As Shion is the sole daughter in her family, she likes to dote on younger girls acting as an older sister to them. She has feelings for Kyoya.
Kirara Bernstein (綺羅々・バーンシュタイン,Kirara Bānshutain)
Voiced by: Chika Arakawa
Kirara is the tallest and strongest member of the club with blue eyes and blonde hair shaped into cat ears. She is always seen eating meat of some sort and tends to be very possessive of it. The only person she will share her meat with is Kyōya. She can talk to cats and usually behaves like one. She has a huge fear of spiders due to being bitten by a poisonous one when she was younger and has little tolerance to alcohol, as she once got drunk just by eating some whiskey chocolates. She is the older sister of Geraldine, and can speak English well.
Tamaki Kannazuki (神無月 環,Kannazuki Tamaki)
Voiced by: Sumire Uesaka
The newest member of GJ-bu. Just like Kyōya, she is invited to the club after being kidnapped by the others. She has several younger siblings. Tamaki is usually seen carrying a camera, which she can easily hide, and eating snacks, especially potato chips. Also, she is usually angering Megumi, as she always states that she won't get fat no matter how much she eats.
GJ Club Junior High School Division
Kasumi Shinomiya (四ノ宮 霞,Shinomiya Kasumi)
Voiced by: Ibuki Kido
Kasumi is Kyōya's younger sister. She is hinted to have a brother complex, where she hides all his novels, only leaving one because it has a little sister as the heroine. Mao, by making use of the fact that she looks younger than her, is able to hide the fact that she is the actual president of the GJ-bu from Kasumi. Kasumi is good friends with both Seira and Geraldine, and even creates her own GJ-bu, called Chūto-bu.
Seira Amatsuka (天使 聖羅,Amatsuka Seira)
Voiced by: Sumire Morohoshi
The youngest sister in the Amatsuka family. Usually dressed in a Goth-Lolita style, she has long black hair, red eyes and a cat clip on her head which she talks through using unknown means, presumed by Mao to be either ventriloquism or some manner of supernatural ability; with this, she usually states her true feelings to Kyōya. However, she always acts polite and cute when not using her cat clip. She is very fond of her sisters and looks grudgingly toward Kyōya when he gets too close to them.
Voiced by: Wakana Aoi
The younger sister of Kirara Bernstein. She came from Canada to visit her sister and views Kyōya as a Prince Charming since he helped her during their first meeting. She refers Kyōya as "Samurai Master". She has similar strength as her sister Kirara.
Kenta Shibui (渋井 健太,Shibui Kenta)
Unlike Kyōya, he talks in pretty rude manner and nicknamed "Kenken". He usually read manga. He also had a frog he picked somewhere named "Frog Kenta" (カエルの健太,Kaeru no Kenta) who kept in the club room.
Jin Suoh (周防 仁,Suō Jin)
He appears to be cool and had excellent results on class. Nicknamed "Jinjin", his hobby is reading, and he usually read light novel in the club room. Similar to Shion, he is also excellent on playing chess, and called as the second generation of the cute creature (which Shion had mentioned to her image in Episode 10).
Komori (小森)
Her face looks emotionless, and she is also a chamberlain from Amatsuka household. She has a strong relation to Mori, except her size. Like Megumi, she is the one who serve tea to the club members. Kasumi called her "Komorin" and Kenta called her "Tomochan"
Other characters
Mori (森さん,Mori-san)
Voiced by: Ayumi Tsunematsu
The Amatsuka family maid, who likes to ride motorcycles. A running gag is her twirling before Kyōya much to his pleasure and annoyance to the rest of the club members. She claims that the 1st "last boss" that Kyōya defeated with his hair brushing skill was her mother and not her, even though they looked identical with the same name.
Tesshin Yokomizo (横溝 徹心,Yokomizo Tesshin)
Kyōya's classmate, who has been friends with Kyōya since junior high school.
Takuma Shinjō (新城 拓真,Takuma Shinjō)
Kyōya's classmate, he is the childhood friend of the class' most beautiful girl Mina Kanzaki (神崎美奈,Kanzaki Mina). Mao called him as "Ultra Male" (超雄,Chōosu).
Nadeshiko Onigawara (鬼瓦 撫子,Onigawara Nadeshiko)
Kyōya's homeroom teacher, nicknamed "Nacchan".
"World Union Champion" (世界統一王者,Sekai tōitsu ōja)
Shion's chess partner that she considered as the world's best. He had promised a match with Shion since she was eight years old, and finally won by Shion. In volume 9, he came to Japan to a direct match with Shion.
Narumi Shinmeiji (新明路 鳴海,Shinmeiji Narumi)
Mao's classmate, who seat next to Mao. She sometimes seat under GJ Club's kotatsu.
Saeko Kotesashi (小手指 冴子,Kotesashi Saeko)
Kenta and Jun's classmate, known as the most beautiful one in their class. She once passed a love letter to Kenta but rejected, but she still want him.
Ichimonji (一文字先生,Ichimonji-sensei)
Kasumi's homeroom PE teacher.
Hotaru (蛍)
He usually represents the GJ club junior high division's members.
Rio Shinonome (東雲 理央)
Kasumi's classmate and nicknamed "Ricchan".
Light novels
The light novel series GJ-bu is written by Shin Araki and illustrated by Aruya. It is published by Shogakukan. The first volume was published on March 18, 2010 and the final, ninth - on March 16, 2012. On April 18, 2012, the first volume of the spin-off series GJ-bu Chūtō-bu(GJ部中等部, lit. "Good Job Club, Junior High School Division") was published. As of January 17, 2014, there have been eight volumes published A special volume, titled GJ-bu Hanamaru(GJ部◎) was published on March 19, 2013, and another, titled GJ-bu Loss Time(ＧＪ部ロスタイム) was released on April 18, 2014.
Anime
The anime aired between January 10 and March 28, 2013. It has been licensed for streaming by Crunchyroll. The opening theme song is "Mōsō★Kōkan Nikki" (もうそう★こうかんにっき, Delusion★Exchange Diary) by Otome Shintō with Tamaki added in the opening animation on Episode 7 onwards, there are four ending themes including:
"I wish ~Tokimeki no Mahō~" (I wish 〜ときめきの魔法〜,I wish ~The Fluttering Magic~) by Mao Amatsuka and Megumi Amatsuka (Episode 1-2).
"balance unbalance ~Honto no Watashi~" (balance unbalance 〜ホント ノ ワタシ〜,balance unbalance ~The Real Me~) by Shion Sumeragi (Episode 3-4).
"Purely Sky ~Watashi Dake no Sora~" (Purely Sky 〜私だけの空〜,Purely Sky ~Just My Sky~) by Kirara Bernstein (Episode 5-6).
"Hashiri Dasō!" (走りだそう!, I'll Just Run!) by Mao Amatsuka, Megumi Amatsuka, Shion Sumeragi, and Kirara Bernstein (Episode 7-12.
The insert song for Episode 12 is "GRADUATION COLOR" by Mao Amatsuka. The first, second, and third ending are featured in the first OST "G", and Hashiri Dasō! with GRADUATION COLOR are featured in the second OST "J".
A sequel special, titled GJ Club@(GJ部＠,Gujjobu Guruguru), will be released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on May 14, 2014. The special is 46 minutes long and its story is set after graduation, when the GJ club visits New York for their spring vacation.
