Is the Order a Rabbit?, Non Non Biyori, Himouto! Umaru‑chan, Anne Happy, Prison School
School-Live!(Japanese: がっこうぐらし!, Hepburn: Gakkō Gurashi!, lit. "Living at School!") is a Japanese manga series written by Nitroplus' Norimitsu Kaihō and illustrated by Sadoru Chiba. The series began serialization in the July 2012 issue of Houbunsha's Manga Time Kirara Forward magazine and is licensed in English by Yen Press. An anime adaptation by Lerche aired between July and September 2015.
Yuki Takeya is a cheerful school girl who, along with her friends Kurumi Ebisuzawa, Yūri Wakasa, and Miki Naoki, is a member of the Megurigaoka Private High School's School Living Club (巡ヶ丘学院高等学校 学園生活部,Megurigaoka Gakuin Kōtō Gakkō Gakuen Seikatsu-bu). As Yuki seeks out fun school activities every day while living at school, the other girls work to keep her safe, because in reality, they are the sole survivors of their school after a zombie outbreak overruns the city.
School Living Club
The main characters of the series who are a small club of girls who prioritize being able to live while inside the school.
Yuki Takeya (丈槍 由紀,Takeya Yuki)
Voiced by: Inori Minase
A bright and cheerful girl who is always excited to try new and exciting club activities. As result of a mental breakdown due to the zombie outbreak, Yuki has created an idealized delusion for herself, believing that everything is normal and her classmates and teachers are alive and well. Slowly, she realizes the truth of her surroundings, but still acts oblivious, though she will panic on occasions when her delusion breaks down and she sees reality for what it is. Since leaving the school, Yuki has slowly been coming to terms with reality and has tried to be of more use to the group.
Kurumi Ebisuzawa (恵飛須沢 胡桃,Ebisuzawa Kurumi)
Voiced by: Ari Ozawa
A twin-tailed member of the School Living Club, who is often sent out on the more dangerous missions. She carries a shovel around with her at all times in case of zombie encounters. She was formerly in love with an unnamed upperclassman, but when the zombie outbreak occurred, her crush was bitten and attacked her. She then used a shovel to kill him, which explains why it is her weapon of choice. After she becomes infected by being bitten on the right arm by the zombified Megumi, she is seemingly cured by an antidote. However, her body remains cold and she is ignored by other zombies, suggesting that the antidote didn't work properly. In later manga chapters, she is beginning to display zombie-like behavior though she still manages to retain her sense of self.
Yūri Wakasa (若狭 悠里,Wakasa Yūri)
Voiced by: M.A.O
The president of the School Living Club, nicknamed "Rī-san" (りーさん). She is the one who manages food, electricity, lessons, and so on. Even though she acts as a strong girl and big sister for the other members, she is extremely mentally fragile, growing more unstable as the stakes get higher. She has a younger sister named Rū, who she believes she has rescued from an elementary school but is later revealed to be Yuki's stuffed teddy bear.
Miki Naoki (直樹 美紀,Naoki Miki)
Voiced by: Rie Takahashi
A blonde-haired girl who is a year below the other girls and is nicknamed "Mī-kun" (みーくん) by Yuki, much to her dismay. She was rescued by the School Living Club while they were scouting a shopping mall, where she had been living since the outbreak. She initially dislikes the way Kurumi and Yuri play along with Yuki's delusions, but later comes to understand how she helps them. She also becomes kind and soft, opening her true self to other members, and is especially close to both Yuki and Kurumi.
Megurigaoka Private High School
Megumi Sakura (佐倉 慈,Sakura Megumi)
Voiced by: Ai Kayano
A teacher and the adviser for the School Living Club who is affectionately called "Megu-nē" (めぐねえ) by her students, forming the club to protect the girls when the outbreak occurred. While initially shown to be a teacher with rather little presence, often being interrupted by the other girls, it is soon revealed that she, like the other students, is another part of Yuki's delusions. The real Megumi was infected shortly after forming the School Living Club, forcing herself into a hidden part of the school before completely turning into a zombie. When she is eventually found, she ends up infecting Kurumi before being put down by Miki.
Kei Shidō (祠堂 圭,Shidō Kei)
Voiced by: Juri Kimura
Miki's classmate and best friend who was with her when the zombie outbreak occurred. Forced to lock themselves in a shopping mall as a result, Kei eventually grew impatient of spending her life indoors and set out on her own. When the girls finally leave their school, Miki believes that she saw a zombified Kei on the way out.
Akiko Kamiyama (神山 昭子,Kamiyama Akiko)
Another teacher at Megurigaoka Private High School and one of the Yuki's teachers. As a teacher, she was calm and kind; but due to Yuki sleeping at class very often, she often got a little annoyed at her; though, she didn't get particularly angry and only warned her that if she would continue, she would get to stay after class. However, she did get angry when Yuki's friends would interrupt her classes.She was also very caring and before the outbreak, she seemed to be on good terms with Megumi, which was proven when she decided to spend her last moments telling Megumi about the outbreak and not to let anyone come in to the rooftop.
Takae Yuzumura (柚村 貴依,Yuzumura Takae)
A student at Megurigaoka Private High School, and she was a close friend and classmate of Yuki prior to the outbreak. She had a calm demeanor, with a punk-like atmosphere surrounding her. Takae also seemed to have a quite playful personality, throwing paper planes at Yuki with a drawing of her depicted as an angel inside the paper; she greatly cherished Yuki and was very affectionate with her, and she was also on good terms with her other two friends. Near the end of the series, Takae-(in her zombie form) was "listening" when Yuki spoke in the broadcasting room as she told that the students who were still at the school, that classes were over and that they could go home.
St. Isidore University
A university in the same town area as the School-Live club. It is one of the several designated facilities in the town with survival rations, solar panels, and an evacuation shelter. Following the outbreak, the surviving students at the school became divided, with some banding together to survive (the Dissolute Club) while others descended into anarchic survivalism (the Melee Fight Club).
Tōko Deguchi (出口 桐子,Deguchi Tōko)
The club president of the St. Isidore University's Dissolute Club (自堕落同好会,Jidaraku Dōkō-kai), a small team of girls who are at odds with some of the other students who are more focused on survival. She has a collection of video games and movies which she can play using the university's facilities. She makes an anime-original cameo in anime's final episode post-credits. She left the Melee Fight Club when she disagreed with their strict methods. Unlike the Melee Fight Club, she does not enforce body checks for signs of infection.
Aki Hikarizato (光里 晶,Hikarizato Aki)
Member of the Dissolute Club and like the most of its members, she was a former member of Melee Fight Club until she left after having a glimpse of the thrilling pleasure that Ayaka took in the zombie apocalypse. She was a Liberal Arts Major before the outbreak.
Hikako Kirai (喜来 比嘉子,Kirai Hikako)
Repairman of the Dissolute Club, nicknamed Hika for short. She is quiet and kind, but was kicked out of the Melee Fight Club after failing to kill a zombie by herself in fear, being deemed too weak to survive. She was an Engineering student and performs maintenance on the facilities that the Dissolute Club uses.
Rise Ryougawara (稜河原 理瀬,Ryougawara Rise)
The bookworm and librarian of the Dissolute Club, she often remains in the school library to read books due to her love of books and rarely leaves. She was also a Liberal Arts Major before the outbreak.
Takahito Tougou (頭護 貴人,Tougou Takahito)
Leader of the Melee Fight Club, the more survival-oriented combatant group of students at the university. He enforces body checks on all members of the club in order to eliminate the chance of a zombie infection among them. He is often seen with a negative outlook and expression because of the stress of surviving the outbreak. He uses a nail bat as a weapon. He is betrayed by Ayaka after he is infected, pushed into a horde of zombies and burned alive to cover her escape from the university.
Ayaka Kamiji (神持 朱夏,Kamiji Ayaka)
One of the remaining female members of the Melee Fight Club, she usually is calm and without obvious emotion but secretly takes great pleasure in killing zombies and people alike, as a means of having a fulfilling existence. She is adept at using a crossbow and knife as weapons. She kills Takahito to distract the zombies and escape the university, as she believes that she will have far more fun outside the walls of the college.
Shino Uhara ((右原 篠生,Uhara Shinō)
The other female member of the Melee Fight Club, she has a side ponytail and is the main zombie exterminator of the group. She has a kind-hearted nature, but is efficient in exterminating zombies. She considers another member of the Melee Fight Club, Kougami, as a precious person and has been hinted to be pregnant. She is adept with a variety of weapons, usually using a ice pick or a similar short weapon.
Renya Kougami (高上 聯弥,Kougami Renya)
Another member of the Melee Fight Club. Nicknamed Ren, he uses a crossbow and is Shino's lover.
Takashige (城下 隆茂)
Another member of the Melee Fight Club.
Other characters
Tarōmaru (太郎丸)
Voiced by: Emiri Katō
A Shiba Inu puppy that was found by Yuki and taken in as the School Living Club's mascot. However, because he was infected, the girls had to throw him away when he turned, but he still occasionally attempts to get into the clubroom due to his residual memories of the club. He has an expanded role in the anime version, having originally been found by Miki before they were both taken in by the club, but is later infected by Megumi. Although he is cured by the same vaccine given to Kurumi, he is left weak from the fight and later dies.
Radio DJ (ラジオDJ,Rajio Dī Jē)
A girl who broadcasts on a pirate radio station in the hopes of reaching out to any survivors. Unfortunately, she succumbs to her infection before the School Living Club are able to reach her. She does, however, live long enough to leave a note behind explaining to any survivors that come across her hideout to take the keys to the hideout and motorhome which the girls do.
Rū-chan (るーちゃん)
Yūri's little sister who is in elementary school. Yūri seemingly rescues her from the elementary school after the School Living Club leaves their own school. In reality, Rū is actually just Yuki's teddy bear that Yūri deluded herself into thinking is her sister similar to Yuki's delusions of Megumi. The others from St. Isidore University and the School Living Club, including Yuki, were simply playing along to keep Yūri happy and sane as they did for Yuki in the past. Yūri eventually comes to terms with Rū's death, giving the bear to Sino for her baby.
Manga
School-Live! is written by Nitroplus' Norimitsu Kaihō and illustrated by Sadoru Chiba. It began serialization in the July 2012 issue of Houbunsha's Manga Time Kirara Forward magazine. Houbunsha published the first tankōbon volume on December 12, 2012, with nine volumes released as of March 11, 2017. Yen Press began releasing the series in English in November 2015. Three manga anthologies illustrated by various artists have also been released, the first on July 13, 2015, the second on September 12, 2015, and the third on January 12, 2016.
Anime
An anime television series was announced on June 21, 2014. The series was directed by Masaomi Ando at Lerche, with scripts by manga writer Norimitsu Kaihō and character design by Haruko Iikuza. The series aired in Japan between July 9, 2015 and September 24, 2015 and was simulcast by Crunchyroll. The series features four pieces of theme music; one opening theme and three ending themes. The opening theme is "Friend Shitai" (ふ・れ・ん・ど・し・た・い,Furendo Shitai, "I Want To Be Friends") by Gakuen Seikatsu-bu (Inori Minase, Ari Ozawa, M.A.O, and Rie Takahashi). The ending theme is "Harmonize Clover" (ハーモナイズ・クローバー,Hāmonaizu Kurōbā) by Maon Kurosaki for episodes 1-3, 5, and 9, "We took each other's hand" by Kaori Sawada for episode 4, and "Afterglow" (アフターグロー,Afutāgurō) by Kurosaki for episode 6-8 and 10-11. Sentai Filmworks has licensed the series in North America. A drama-CD based on the anime television series was released at Comiket 88 on August 14, 2015.
Appearances in other media
Yuki appeared as a support character in a fighting game called Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel, which was released in December 2015.
Reception
The first episode of the anime was well-received and sparked a ten-fold increase in manga sales. It was also viewed more than 1 million times on Niconico.
The official Twitter of Houbunsha's Manga Time Kirara magazines has announced that School-Live! has 2 million copies in print as of March 2017. The English release of the first three volumes were also included on the American Library Association's list of 2017 Great Graphic Novels for Teens.
