I have to admit that after playing Kirara Fantasia, an event “Hitsugi Katsugi, GA, and the Golden Kuromon Statue” finally introduces characters from Satoko Kiyuki’s works. They are Hitsugi Katsugi no Kuro and GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class, which the latter received an anime adaptation. Charmed by the cuteness of Yamaguchi Kisaragi, I decided give the anime a watch.
The story of GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class focuses on the day of a life of five girls who specializes in the art. They are Yamakuchi Kisaragi, Oomichi Miyabi, Nozaki Namiko, Tomokane and Noda Miki. Each episode focuses on the girls doing some type of art or activity to teach the audience about color, composition, and anything related that is done at art school.
Some segments are focused on the fine arts club. While they don’t get as much screen time compared to the main group, they are still enjoyable. The club is led by Awara Chikako, who is energetic and loud girl. Members of the club consists of Mizubuchi, Kisaragi’s childhood friend and three other boys. Uozumi, who is the most normal of the group. Also, there is Homura, who is very excitable and tries to impress his crush.
Lastly, there is Tomokane, which judging from the name, is Tomokane’s older brother. Compared to his tomboyish and energetic little sister, he is frail. However, he plays pranks on his sister. This is very evident when the fine arts club decided to set up Halloween props former members left to create a haunted house. Of course, they scared the main cast and Usami Mayumi who only wanted to get an art easel from the storage room.
As for the story, it is a slice of life with comedic moments as the girls do various activities involving art. For instance, as mentioned in my first impressions post, the girls talked about pictograms. This is while they work on an assignment to create one. Aside from that, they also focus on other aspects of art such as photography, collages, surrealism, color tones, etc.
I have to admit that I really liked how they presented surrealism through Kisaragi’s dream. She wakes up and goes to fetch some art supplies. Each time she leaves the classroom, the surroundings around her get stranger and stranger. That is until she wakes up again in another dream. From this, I think the show presents the various aspects of art in a fun and interesting way.
Of course, most of the show’s enjoyment comes from the characters. I feel that Kisaragi is a pleasant main character of the story. Besides her cute appearance and large, round glasses, she is very clumsy, which adds to the comedic moments. It shows when she actually believes that the pencils that the grandmother at a shop was special. In reality, they aren’t. She also finds cute things irresistible, especially when it comes to cats. There is moment when she finds a cute cat statue and tries to hug it. Without knowing, it had wet paint and she got paint over her jacket, hands and hair.
Also, there is of course the antics between Tomokane and Noda Miki, which lands most of the pranks usually on Namiko, the most mature member of the group. Lastly, there is Miyabi, who not only manages to have the chickens line up in a straight line, but she also takes care of her friends. She is seen without any emotions and apparently loves the color black.
As a whole, GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class is an enjoyable show. While this show can be compared to Sketchbook or Hidamari Sketch, this show like the original manga does a good job in the educational aspect by teaching the various aspects of art while being fun. While I don’t have much interest in art, besides probably photography and image manipulation, I learned a few things that I didn’t know before. Regardless of whether or not you are interested in art, I think most people who enjoy slice of life or school girl anime will enjoy this show.
With that, this leaves the visual novel tie-in, which came out a year later for the PlayStation Portable. It’s titled GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class Slapstick Wonderland, which focuses on a girl named Mari who attends Ayanoi High School’s G.A as an exchange student. While the game already has an English fan translation, I will cover it eventually in the future. ¶
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