Houkago Saikoro Club

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* 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

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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. 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.

I liked it overall, and I was a fan of the transfer girl as well as the class president. But I really struggled with the crybaby blue-haired main character. I found her mopey behavior to be incredibly irritating and supremely distracting.

I hope she's only like this for one more episode at most.

I know they're mostly playing German games, but it would be funny if they did an episode with something super complex like Twilight Imperium or Arkham Horror, and they just get exhausted after an 8 hour session.

Dropped it after 5 minutes, skimmed the rest. That was a whole lot of ... nothing. Even K-On has more plot :/

Episodes 2 & 3

Boy, I got diabetes from episode 2's innocence, and then my diabetes watched episode 3 with me and got its own diabetes from the adorable moe-redemption, so it died and I am cured.

There is so little to talk about other than the games. In episode 2, boy likes airhead and tries to help her win a game, but she is so ditsy that it defies decent king-making play. Episode 3 had a bit more bite in the low stakes game of Incan Gold (Diamant) "chicken". At least everyone seems to have had fun, and I enjoy Garyu characters.

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Okay, so some board game talk *rubs hands*: I've never played Cockroach Poker, but it is a certifiable classic, certainly more popular than Marrakech. I think they actually cover all of the rules to this one, and you wouldn't think a pure bluffing game even simpler than old maid might be entertaining for as long as it is, but these types of games are the best kind of game to bring people who are already familiar with each other closer together, if that makes sense. Its not a great ice breaker, but is fun to 'pull one over' on people you know.

Incan Gold on the other hand, is a fine specimen for most groups. One of my favorites for large groups (can play up to 7-8), the simultaneous revelation keeps downtime extremely low (you're not waiting long for your 'turn', which can be a problem when games support more players) and the uncertainty of the card flips keeps eyes glued to the action. Highly recommended.

So far, all three of the games fall under the "filler" classification; games that take 30 minutes or less to play and are generally played in between longer games that offer more strategy and depth (in hobby gamer game meet-ups), but also make good introduction games to help sus out people who are receptive to the allure of cardboard. I wonder if they will ever explore some of the more medium fare, but I imagine the logistics of illustrating over 45 seconds of rules might do more harm than good? We shall see.

I want to like this series more, and like the board game exploration part of it, but Miki (blue hair) is killing it for me.

She's obnoxiously timid to a degree that is almost absurd, but reflects the reality of the socially awkward. So I was willing to forgive it. Then in episode 2, she seems to overcome a great deal of it. The bluff games really are her type of game, since she's developed skills to be quite good at reading others.

Then, episode 3. She's nearly right back to where she came from. Meek, easily intimidated, and weepy. Is every other episode going to be a setback for her? Shouldn't she be gaining some degree of confidence? This has become her type of "fun." She shouldn't need absolute hand-holding every episode.

Well, maybe I'm inoculated by watching Hitoribocchi a couple seasons ago; there is paralyzing social anxiety that makes Miki look like a talk show host by comparison...

After seeing Scythe in the background of the eighth episode, I want to see the girls play Twilight Imperium.