Anime Recommendation: School-Live!

It's Halloween so why not watch a psychological horror anime like School-Live!

At first glance, School-Live!, or Gakkougurashi!, does not look like a psychological horror anime, especially when compared to other popular titles in the genre like Monster, Parasyte: The Maxim, or Shinsekai Yuri. School-Live! looks more like a slice of life anime about cute girls doing cute things. Going into this series, that's what I thought it was going to be about because I really didn't do any research before starting School Live!

The reason that I started watching School-Live! was because of the impact it was having on the anime community when it first came out back in 2015, when I was still a fresh and innocent otaku. I didn't know why everyone seemed to be talking about School-Live! and seeing images of adorable anime girls didn't appeal to me at the time. I ended up putting it off to the side until I found the time to watch it a few seasons later.

I started watching School-Live! during a time when I was just randomly watching any anime series that I happened to stumble upon without any real reason. After the first few minutes of School-Live! I was confused. The show seemed to be about cute girls living at school and having a good time together. Just watch the opening theme so you can feel how I felt back when I started School-Live!

I'm sure that I was ready to just abandon School-Live! for being so disgustingly cute and also for being so strange. I thought it was strange because the show seemed to be kind of random, giving the characters strange quirks that seemed to be random for the sake of being random. For some reason the main cast was part of a club that let them live at their school, there was a girl who carried a shovel everywhere she went, there was a small dog that just happened to be running around the school, and one of the most responsible girls would suddenly interrupt a class that was in session.

I wasn't the moe trash that I am today and School-Live! was just too nonsensical for me. I remembering wondering why so many people were hyping this series up like they were when it was airing...and then the episode came to an end and I was shocked. Everything was starting to make sense and I had to watch more. As I progressed through the series, I became even more shocked with the new plot twists and revelations. While this is definitely one of my top ten favorite series, School-Live! is still one of my favorites.

So if you want an entertaining horror anime for Halloween, or anytime of year, I recommend you watch School-Live!, or at least watch the first episode. While I enjoyed the whole series, I could see that it is definitely not for everyone, especially not for anyone who dislikes moe blobs, but I do think that the first episode of School-Live! is something that everyone in the anime community should experience.