Anime Viking Review: "GJ Club" is the Best Anime of the Season

...also the most heartwarming




Turned out GJ CLUB actually is the best anime of the season.


Do not be scared by the seemingly dull premise of a single male character being stuck in a clubroom with pretty girls, because rest assured: this is no Haganai anything remotely similar. Instead of pandering to the audience with different fetishes, sexual tension, abusive jokes or the likes, GJ CLUB instead takes a modest approach that does not make much of a ruckus.


It is a simple and honest attempt at having a bunch of likeable and charming characters confined to a single room while still being entertaining.


And GJ CLUB succeeds at that with ease.



What makes the series so enjoyable to watch is the aforementioned likeable characters. Considering how similar anime usually stick with dull stereotypes we have seen a million times before, it is a pleasant surprise that this is not the case with GJ CLUB.


If you want to it is possible to define every character by certain common tropes, such as “Bizarre Character” or “Hyperactive Character”, but they all have distinct enough personalities to feel unique in the end. Mao, the orange little energy pill, has a calmer side to her while our male character, nicknamed “Kyoro”, avoids being the generic bland lead without a personality. It is hard to properly explain each character in detail thanks to how natural they come across to be.


In other words, most of the fun with GJ CLUB therefore comes from an aspect that is highly personal. If the characters do not fancy you, there is simply no need to continue watching. But if they manage to charm you, then you might just fall for GJ CLUB as much as I did.



The actual content of the series is not anything new or amazing, but it gives of a calming atmosphere that at times remind me of why I fell in love with, hold your breath, Aria the Animation. It is the kind of atmosphere that at first embraces you before devouring your entire mind rendering any sort of critical thinking meaningless.


The only things I could criticize GJ CLUB for are the sudden appearances of uninteresting imoutos and that Tamaki sounds a tad bit too much like Dekomori from Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!. Everything else is pure love.


Watching our characters play Twister, eat sweet potato, tease each other or do other trivial matters is simply fun. Add a competent production with simple but lovely visuals and a good pacing that never drags anything out and you end up with the most heartwarming anime of the season.

GJ CLUB is, without a doubt, my favorite anime of the season.




Marow is the creator of the blog Anime Viking where he shares his thoughts about anything related to anime. You can follow him via his Twitter feed @Marower if you want to talk about anime, games or that cats are the best thing in the world.

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