English Dub Review: Insomniacs After School “The Congregation Star -The Pleiades Star Cluster-; Altair and Vega”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Gaku tries putting together a gathering for the Astronomy Club but a sudden rain storm puts an end to that, leading Isaki to console him. Later, Gaku gets a part time job to raise money for a club training camp and the girls go to the beach.

OUR TAKE

We’re back for a double helping of Insomniacs After School after another week off for the holidays, and it’s actually a big help because it is becoming increasingly obvious that this is not exactly the most eventful show out there. Each episode does have just enough emotional development to warrant some discussion but to get it to this site’s minimum word count of four hundred words requires quite a bit of stretching to talk about it. So, it’s nice that I have two episodes to focus on, as well as using as much as possible of this first paragraph to talk about how nice it is! Isn’t this the hard hitting analysis you came for about Insomniacs After School?! So yeah, the first episode of these two is mainly significant because of the scene near the end where Gaku and Isaki meet at the bus stop when it’s pouring rain. Gaku is feeling at his worst because he put so much effort into this gathering, in fact everyone did, but it was all wasted by the rain. No one else is nearly as broken up as him, but for him it’s just another reminder of how many times he’s put meticulous effort into something only for it to mean nothing.

Isaki finding him and reminding him of how important and special he is to her helps him to get out of his funk, though unfortunately they’re interrupted by Yui before things can go any further. This leads into the next episode, where things are back to the status quo, but the next item on the agenda is putting together a training camp…but the school is out of money after the festival, forcing Gaku to find work to pay for it. It’s at least a sign that the club is coming together nicely, and that even after a seemingly significant low point, Gaku can pick himself back up and move forward. As for the rest of the episode, it’s mainly Isaki and the other girls (whose names really aren’t really worth mentioning) having fun at the beach and doing high school girl shenanigans which don’t really have any plot or character development significance but are a nice light bit of fun. But that just leaves four more episodes of the show, so let’s see if things can start ramping up now that I’ll have to cover them week by week for the remainder.