Chronicles of the Going Home Club is another slice of life school club setting series. There certainly are many of them in the anime world. This series joins the ranks of others with a premise surrounding students in an after-school club and their ongoing comedic hijinks. Members of the "Going Home Club" are girls who haven't joined any other group for a afterschool club experience. Normally they would just "go home" but now they have a established group where they can hang out instead of leaving school.

The series doesn't really have a sense of plot or storytelling structure in the sense of being a series about story. This is a series about having fun and it provides jokes and laughter for audiences more than anything else. Each episode has several sketch-style anime scenes. I wouldn't recommend the show to anyone looking for solid storytelling but rather to those audiences who enjoy slice of life shows that are about the quirkiness of the characters and situations.

The animation was done by Nomad (We Without Wings, Rozen Maiden). As far as the overall animation is concerned: its excellent. The series looks quite impressive with notable production merits. The series has a nice polished look to it and the aesthetic works well with the series. The character designs are unfortunately a wee bit on the bland side (and remind me somewhat  of school club series like K-On!) but the designs still fit the show ad its scope. Background art also seems minimal with a big emphasis on the school setting.

In each episode of the Chronicles of the Going Home Club the members might discuss various anime-related topics, play some games together, bird-feed, or find new means to "break the fourth wall" and acknowledge their placement as anime characters in a comedy. With each passing episode and sketch the series is aiming squarely at sharing good jokes so that the audience will laugh and embrace the program.  It is the zany over-the-top antics and the accompanying writing which are the main focus.

While Chronicles of the Going Home Club isn't an ambitious production in the long run, I do think it's successful with its goal to be entertaining for viewers. The primary director Hikaru Sato (Zakuro) and screenwriter Go Zappa (Koihime Musō) are mainly interested in bringing the laughs and interesting characters that can carry the sketch-style comedy. For audiences simply looking for an entertaining show that's a lighter slice-of-life excursion, Chronicles of the Going Home Club certainly fits the bill and will work as a fun diversion.

The Blu-ray:

Video:

 Chronicles of the Going Home Club is presented on Blu-ray with an impressive 1080i High Definition presentation in the broadcast aspect ratio of 1.78:1. I was actually surprised by the 1080i encoding method as there weren't any major issues to report with interlacing problems (though some of this will come down to playback devices used). The image is crisp, clean, and well defined. The colors are also uniformly strong. This is a pleasant high-definition presentation which will please fans of the series.

Audio:

The Uncompressed PCM 2.0 24 bit stereo presentation is excellent and has great sound reproduction. The clarity of the vocals and music is exquisite and the dynamics are all impeccable. This is an impressive sound presentation through-and-through.

Presented in Japanese with English subtitles.

Extras:

The on-disc extras for this release include clean opening/ending themes, Japanese trailers, and the Going Home Club Mini-Theater! (7 min.) inclusion. This extra is a comedy short which is done with similar style to the series but features Chibi versions (or "Mega" Chibi versions) of characters. This is a typical but appreciable bonus feature for a series like this one to have.    

The set also includes a decidedly massive extra in the form of a 64 page hardcover art-book featuring full color illustrations, a character guide, interviews with cast and crew, letters written from the series voice-actors, and more. This is an extensive book that fans will undoubtedly want to have.   

Final Thoughts:

Chronicles of the Going Home Club is a fun slice-of-life comedy series which primarily aims to make audiences laugh and smile with the jokes. It's successful at that goal. Though the series lacks a more dynamic story, it's another successful entry in the school-club comedy genre.

NIS America has done an exceptional job with the presentation and packaging. The included artbook is a nice addition to the collection. Fans of the series will want to strongly consider picking up this quality release.

Recommended.

Neil Lumbard is a lifelong fan of cinema. He aspires to make movies and has written two screenplays on spec. He loves writing, and currently does in Texas.