Without a doubt, Gakkou Gurashi hit me hard. I took a dive into the show with some knowledge of its unconventional twist while still expecting a less serious, more silly vibe just because it looked cute, but that was too optimistic of me. Yeah...too optimistic, indeed.

It all started in a happy-go-lucky kind of way. A new day welcomes the child-like Yuki as she readies herself to emanate happiness once more in her beloved school, which happens to be her living place too. But that's inherent for all the members of the School Living Club: a club dedicated in activities encouraging self-governance and independence. Anyway, it's a peachy place, and the familiar sweetness fills my heart up. Maybe even a bit too much, but Yuki kept distracting me with her bright energy. Energy that's pleasant enough to take her cute club members and friends along. Energy that's lively enough to chase after an adorably smart dog. An energy that's deceiving enough to completely alter her perception of the real world—a world of a zombie outbreak—and from there on, the sweetness takes on a different taste.

A bittersweet kind. And it's heavy to take in.

That revelation was palpable to me, despite me already knowing about the walking dead setting. It was an instant make-over. What should've been a school full of youthful bliss has become a gloomy haven—a club room barricaded against the infected dangers that constantly surround these girls. Their peers are the undead. The atmosphere stifles with a seriousness way too different to that of the exam period. And Yuki's rosy view on life hints of a deeper trauma that's desperately trying to cover up the jarring truths.

It's these juxtapositions, thanks to the first episode's subversion, that Gakkou Gurashi heavily relies on to mould its part-moe, part-horror story. At its greatest, the duality is highly effective in terms of creating an emotional resonance within me, which I'll go into soon. But the show is also threading on a delicate balance between dark and cute here. With the significance of its flashbacks and subtle uncovering of truths to gradually reveal information of how the world came to be, where the girls came from, and the severity of their circumstances, having to be distracted by the more carefree slices-of-life doesn't bode too well with my immersion. In other words, the show sometimes ends up mixing comedy into seriousness rather intrusively.

That said, being intrusive is the show's minor downside as when the situation is appropriate, which is for the most part, the bittersweetness accentuates the sweeter feelings to heart-tugging levels. From the hardships, a tight-knit friendship is strengthened between all the members of the School Living Club. And with friendship, the hopeful spirit to survive is brought about, where living becomes much more meaningful than giving up. The fact that the girls try to live their lives just like any other day, despite the cruel world, is the main reason why I've become so attached to them. At the same time though, that very attachment also aches the heart; ever more heavily as Yuki's psychosis slowly shatters away to reveal the poignant realities and as the dangers begin to lumber into their fragile safety.

Visually speaking, Gakkou Gurashi constructs its art with the same contrast I've been talking about: you have the cutely designed girls—and a dog—living in a school environment reduced to a post-apocalyptic look. Zombies reflected on the broken window panes. Zombies stumbling about in the distant backdrops. The visual is a reminder of the harsh bittersweetness that constantly challenges Yuki's brighter delusions. Even more so, the way Lerche utilizes censoring—at most showing only blood and corpses—proves effective in getting its harrowing message across. The subsequent implications between scenes are enough for me to draw my own conclusions and leave behind a void in the stomach kind of feeling that draws out all positivity; positivity that could only come back by the more endearing interactions and expressions in the slice-of-life moments.

Now, I don't think the show had to necessarily employ a moe aesthetic. The girls could've been designed any other way and the overall story won't change, but as someone who adores the cute girls style, they probably wanted to intensify the emotions from people like me. Which I'll just say has worked way too well.

With sorrow in mind, the soundtracks further elicit the brighter and darker feelings. There's this one musical box theme, "Kyou wa Oyasuminasai" translated as "Good Night For Now", that really defines the show's auditory experience, where it has the sweet nostalgia that's pleasant to the ears, but the steady rhythmic notes—like the thump thump thump noises of heartbeats—sound distressing at the same time. These kinds of melancholic pieces play throughout the show and if my heavy responses are any proof, they are important components in the show's crafting of emotions alongside the voice-acting.

At times, sweet. At the other, bitter. But most certainly, bittersweet. Gakkou Gurashi has been one emotional roller coaster that tugged hard at my heartstrings. While not without its flawed distractions, it's still a show that narrates why hardships and zombie apocalypse is a duo that will never leave the rule of storytelling. So much so, that by the end of it all, I just want these girls to leave this nightmare and have sweet dreams once more.

For a warm rest is what they deserve after their many struggles.