Afterschool Dice Club

Afterschool Dice Club

Afterschool Dice Club anime series cover art
Afterschool Dice Club

Overview

Afterschool Dice Club (Houkago Saikoro Club / 放課後さいころ倶楽部) is another anime which falls into the “cute girls doing cute things” (CGDCT) subgenre of slice of life. And this time around it focuses on a group of high school girls who enjoy playing board games.

Now, you’ll notice that I used the word board games, but the title of the series uses “dice.” These aren’t exactly the same thing, and in fact, neither accurately represents what the girls play. I’d say board games is closer to the truth, but it’s probably more accurate to say they enjoy playing analog games.

They play board games, card games, and maybe one of the games they played included dice as well.

Anyway, my point is that they play a bunch of games and barely any, if any, actually used dice. So I don’t think that’s a very good title for the series. Maybe it’s just me, but the title Afterschool Dice Club makes it sound like an underage gambling anime — you know, like Kakegurui.

And I have to say, if this anime was more like Kakegurui then it would be better. I get that a lot of people don’t like that anime, but when you compare it to a series like this there’s no contest. Sure, this anime is a CGDCT series, but even compared to other CGDCT anime it’s pretty boring.

There’s no real plot, as with many slice of life series, which means the characters have to do the heavy lifting. And unfortunately, the characters in Afterschool Dice Club are just bland — they’re not even that cute all things considered.

Characters

The protagonist of this series is Miki Takekasa, a relatively quite girl who originally had no friends. Now, although she does gain a few friends over the course of the series, and becomes slightly more outgoing when talking to them, for the most part she’s the same from start to finish.

By the end of the series she mentions that she’s grown a lot thanks to her friends, but that’s not really the case. Her character barely develops at all, which normally wouldn’t matter too much in a series like this, but they make it a point to mention how far she has(n’t) come.

Aya Takayashiki drowning in a river from the anime series Afterschool Dice Club
Aya Takayashiki drowning in a river

Miki’s first and best friend is Aya Takayashiki. Aya’s probably the cutest girl in the series, but that’s mainly due to the fact that she also isn’t the brightest. She enjoys just about everything except for losing, but she loses a lot because she’s not good at using her brain to win at games.

Midori Oono is the next girl to join the group, and is the one responsible for introducing Miki and Aya to analog games. She works at an analog game shop, and dreams of one day being a famous game creator.

Oh, and speaking of analog game shops, I never understood how these places make money. Even as this anime shows, people tend to just play games in them for free without actually making purchases.

The final member of the group is Emilia (no last name given). Emilia is either half Japanese and half German or entirely German. I forget, but what matters is that she’s an exchange student from Germany, the analog game capital of the world. And, like Midori, she hopes to one day be a game creator herself.

Cute Girls Playing Analog Games

Probably the best part of this anime is seeing the games the girls play. Most of the games, with the exception of the one Midori creates, are real games you could go out and purchase. And I thought this was a great thing to include because it actually makes a lot of these games seem like fun.

For example, I would totally play whatever that game was where the goal was to escape the island or whatever. I don’t remember what it was called, or all the rules to it, but it seems like an engaging and fun strategy game that actually has the potential to be different every time depending on how the board is set up.

Now, I’m not someone who plays board games often, maybe once per year. But I am a huge fan of games which rely on strategy and memorization, and which have dynamic gameplay. I don’t mean to brag, but that’s why I went undefeated the last time I hopped on the Pokémon Showdown gen 1 random battles ladder.

Miki, Aya, and Midori playing a card game from the anime series Afterschool Dice Club
Miki, Aya, and Midori playing a card game

What I’m trying to say is that in theory Afterschool Dice Club has a good thing going for it — the games. But the issue is that in practice, the games don’t take up as much episode time as I would have liked.

Yes, we get to see the games, and Midori frequently shows off the fact that she knows the rules and strategies behind them, but that’s it. I’m not sure we actually get to see any of these games played start to finish other than a quick card game.

I’m just so much more interested in these games than I am in the girls playing them.

Conclusion

Afterschool Dice Club is a 4/10 from me. It’s not the worst anime, but it’s definitely in “bad anime” territory. The characters are bland and the “plot” is generally boring any time the girls aren’t playing a game — which is far too often.

I also can’t remember either the OP or ED, which means those probably weren’t anything special either. And yes, I watch the OP and ED every single episode, so it’s not like I only watched them each once and then forgot.

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