Sabage-bu!

On a train to her new middle school, Momoka Sonokawa is preyed upon by a molester, only to be rescued by a girl wielding dual pistols. The girl turns out to be Miou Ootori, Momoka's upperclassman and president of the Aogiri Academy's Survival Game Club, called Sabage-bu for short. Noticing Momoka's aptitude with a pistol, Miou takes a liking to her and tries to persuade her to join the club. In spite of her steadfast refusal, Momoka inexplicably finds herself a member of Sabage-bu.

Sabage-bu is anything but a typical middle-school club. Its members' socially awkward behaviors scare Momoka. Their personalities range from the fanatical to the completely delusional. They do not hold back from walking around public areas wearing ghillie suits or even bungee jumping from the school building. Thrown together with this collection of survival game maniacs, the zealously ordinary Momoka must somehow adjust to her unexpectedly wild school life.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Sonokawa, Momoka Main

Ohashi, Ayaka Japanese

Kasugano, Urara Main

Ookubo, Rumi Japanese

Ootori, Miou Main

Uchiyama, Yumi Japanese

Goutokuji, Kayo Main

Touyama, Nao Japanese

Kyoudou, Maya Main

Lynn Japanese

Kamo Supporting

Sonokawa, Kazue Supporting

Inoue, Kikuko Japanese

Karaage Lemon Supporting

Arai, Souta Japanese

Isurugi, Yayoi Supporting

Matsui, Eriko Japanese

Tenchou Supporting

Genda, Tesshou Japanese

Aitani, Atsushi Producer

Fujieda, Shuuichi Producer

Arisawa, Ryouya Assistant Producer

Yamatani, Nakuru Assistant Producer, Associate Producer

Reviews

Oct 15, 2024

JJMFREAP

Recommended

Sabage-bu is another hidden gem in the realms of comedy anime. Thankfully, it seems I've gotten quite good at running into these or influencing people to recommend these to me. If you love anime about a colourful main cast going into all kinds of shenanigans and antics with covering a wide spectrum (several kinds of spectrums) of how nonsensical it can be. If you want a good laugh, this is a definitely must watch. Also, do you like GUNS? Only LOSERS don't like GUNS! And this anime delivers surprisingly well on that front.

To get the gun thing out of the way, as somewhat of a ... gun enthusiast (although I can't actually have any, because fucking gooberment) that was one of my favourite aspects of this anime. All the guns looked exactly how they should and they were operated correctly too. The studio didn't even cheap out by making them CGI. There was definitely a very knowledgeable gun enthusiast involved with the making of this, because you really need to know your shit to get things this right. Even more serious action focused series flop more in this regard (I'm looking at you Fable, that pistol of your is still not a Nighthawk, it's an M1911, get it right, ya 'tismo!).

Being that it has all these pew pews in it, another pleasant surprise is how action packed Sabage-bu is. While the comedy is still the main focus, there's plenty of fights, shootouts and scuffles and all of them were executed superbly. I've seen shonen anime that look much worse in this regard. So if you wanna enjoy some amazing action while also laughing like an idiot, this is the series for you!

Beyond that, the series was just really well done all the way through. The jokes landed consistently and it easily nails everything from pop culture references, to surrealist jokes, to slapstick nonsense and more. It also loves fourth wall breaks as well as poking fun at common anime tropes, both of which are also done really well and never overstay their welcome. The animation is clean and fluid, the visuals are nice and vibrant, voice acting is superb and reflects each character perfectly and the sound effects are really comical and add to the slapstick. The artstyle isn't anything to write home about and the opening isn't bad, but it's really generic and forgettable. Really just "one of the anime themes of all time". But these are really minor things and they are still done well, so I don't consider them true downsides.

TL:DR If the premise of "Girls with guns engage in slapstick action" isn't a selling point enough, know that in these 12 episodes, you get awesome humour and amazing action with plenty of cute girls to fawn over and gratuitous fan service to, ummmm, clean your gun barrel and empty your mag to. So just lock and load and give it a watch already!

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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May 9, 2022

B2Reviews

Recommended

Animated Japanese comedy can be hard to explain. More so without an English dub to pave the way. Basic premise of Saga-. Saddam- geez. SURVIVAL GAME CLUB can be summarized as "guntoting high school girls and their chaotic fantasies".

As the narrator will tell you a few times, the guns are airsoft and it's all playing out in their heads. Sounds like larping, but once the girls whip out their hardware it's all spent casings and bloodshed, with the occasional action film parodied. Stories are slice of life with club members personality quirks leading them into various shenanigans.

Silly ... and over the top, great day off binge to relax and have a few laughs. The OVA shorts are on the U.S. disc release and they add fourth wall breaking to the mix.

Bonus trivia; there's a long running anime out of context meme that came from this show (you'll know it when you see it).

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Dec 1, 2021

9sayaka

Mixed Feelings

The show has a fantastic main character, but not fantastic enough to save Sabage-bu from its shortcomings.

I didn't really like this one at first, but the show's sense of humor really grew on me by the end. Watching Momoko's mean streak was very enjoyable, and was quite refreshing compared to the Mary Sues you see in most other slice of lifes. It was this aspect of the show that differentiated Sabage-bu and made it a unique watching experience.

Onto the negatives, the OST and animation were not memorable in the slightest. The characters? Well, aside from Momoka and maybe Lemon, the rest of the cast was ... completely forgettable. The first few episodes were also tough to get through, and the anime didn't hit its stride until over half way through. For these reasons, I really can't rate Sabage-bu any higher.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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