neflight86
Sat, 10-05-2019, 02:55 PM
1870
* Based on a comedy slice of life shounen manga by Nakamichi Hiroo.
Takekasa Miki is a timid homebody who doesn't find fun in the kinds of activities that most of her classmates do. In fact, she doesn't know what "fun" truly is for herself until classmate Aya just misses running her over on an out-of-control bike. During an ensuing exploration of Kyoto, they run across class rep Midori, who seems to be contravening her own rules about not being out in certain places in the evening, and follow her to Saikoro Club, an analog game store where she works. As Miki and Aya try out a board game, with some reluctant coaching from Midori, Miki starts to realize that maybe this kind of activity is where "fun" lies for her.
Source: ANN
Genre(s): Slice of life
Houkago Saikoro Club 01 (https://nyaa.si/view/1180776)
___________________________
Okay, so for the first time, I get to enjoy being in the Venn diagram cross-section of being both an Anime fan and and an avid board game geek (https://boardgamegeek.com/user/neflight86). Normally I consume these "cute girls do ___" shows as a means to gain a little knowledge about the appeal of that activity; however surface level it may seem. This time, I get to actively commentate on different modern board and card games as I watch! Bliss!
Amazingly, all of the board games awkwardly rendered as CG are real modern hobby games (with their Japanese language covers, of course). I had to pause multiple times while reading off games I recognize. This must have been how retro gamers felt watching High Score Girl and seeing real games represented instead of the usual tongue-in-cheek off-branding anime tends to do. I don't know how old the manga for this is, but some of those games released less than a year ago, so I was surprised.
Gushing aside, there really isn't much to see here. The characters are pretty simple, there is almost no tension, and the only reason to really watch is if you have even a passing interest in board gaming as a pastime.
I will be providing a light summary of gameplay and thoughts on these games as played (unless I haven't played them, of course!)
Marrakech is about as simple as they make it sound, and they covered around 70% of the rules in the in-episode breakdown. One neat thing that is hard to see is that the little rugs players put on the board are actually made out of fabric cut outs... most games would use cards or tiles like to reduce costs, but that was a nice little production. I expect that, to properly give the feeling of playing a game, games with simpler rule sets that can be explained in moments are going to be heavily featured, which makes sense for this casual format.
Shop keeper is right; imagination is important in board games, but not as much so in "euro-style" games, or "euro-games" for short (which Marrakech is). Those types of games typically focus more on elegant mechanisms and strategy than evoking a feeling. Running businesses or civil affairs are common themes. The opposite end of the gaming spectrum is the "Ameritrash" or "thematic" games that involve immersing players into their roles, like dungeon crawling, fighting wars/battles, or other often overt conflict activites, though hybrids are becoming the norm. I certainly look forward to what is coming next, though I actually have not played next week's game I believe.
Did I just hijack my own anime thread to rant about board games? You're welcome.
* Based on a comedy slice of life shounen manga by Nakamichi Hiroo.
Takekasa Miki is a timid homebody who doesn't find fun in the kinds of activities that most of her classmates do. In fact, she doesn't know what "fun" truly is for herself until classmate Aya just misses running her over on an out-of-control bike. During an ensuing exploration of Kyoto, they run across class rep Midori, who seems to be contravening her own rules about not being out in certain places in the evening, and follow her to Saikoro Club, an analog game store where she works. As Miki and Aya try out a board game, with some reluctant coaching from Midori, Miki starts to realize that maybe this kind of activity is where "fun" lies for her.
Source: ANN
Genre(s): Slice of life
Houkago Saikoro Club 01 (https://nyaa.si/view/1180776)
___________________________
Okay, so for the first time, I get to enjoy being in the Venn diagram cross-section of being both an Anime fan and and an avid board game geek (https://boardgamegeek.com/user/neflight86). Normally I consume these "cute girls do ___" shows as a means to gain a little knowledge about the appeal of that activity; however surface level it may seem. This time, I get to actively commentate on different modern board and card games as I watch! Bliss!
Amazingly, all of the board games awkwardly rendered as CG are real modern hobby games (with their Japanese language covers, of course). I had to pause multiple times while reading off games I recognize. This must have been how retro gamers felt watching High Score Girl and seeing real games represented instead of the usual tongue-in-cheek off-branding anime tends to do. I don't know how old the manga for this is, but some of those games released less than a year ago, so I was surprised.
Gushing aside, there really isn't much to see here. The characters are pretty simple, there is almost no tension, and the only reason to really watch is if you have even a passing interest in board gaming as a pastime.
I will be providing a light summary of gameplay and thoughts on these games as played (unless I haven't played them, of course!)
Marrakech is about as simple as they make it sound, and they covered around 70% of the rules in the in-episode breakdown. One neat thing that is hard to see is that the little rugs players put on the board are actually made out of fabric cut outs... most games would use cards or tiles like to reduce costs, but that was a nice little production. I expect that, to properly give the feeling of playing a game, games with simpler rule sets that can be explained in moments are going to be heavily featured, which makes sense for this casual format.
Shop keeper is right; imagination is important in board games, but not as much so in "euro-style" games, or "euro-games" for short (which Marrakech is). Those types of games typically focus more on elegant mechanisms and strategy than evoking a feeling. Running businesses or civil affairs are common themes. The opposite end of the gaming spectrum is the "Ameritrash" or "thematic" games that involve immersing players into their roles, like dungeon crawling, fighting wars/battles, or other often overt conflict activites, though hybrids are becoming the norm. I certainly look forward to what is coming next, though I actually have not played next week's game I believe.
Did I just hijack my own anime thread to rant about board games? You're welcome.