Strawberry Loft

Teaching has never seemed like an easy task. For Haruaki Abe it feels like an ambitious dream turned nightmare.  Haruaki is a timid teacher who isn’t prepared for the challenges of teaching troubled youth and in fact flees at the sight of a tough-looking teen decides to try his luck at a new school. Unfortunately, he didn’t read the fine print, and this teacher is going from delinquents to truly cursed creatures and yokai -spirits. A two for one spin on the slice of life genre, a story from the teacher’s perspective and supernatural students. I expected A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School to come out on top as a show I remember fondly. It ended up not fulfilling that expectation, and the exact opposite happened, it was hard to finish. The class curriculum in A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School wasn’t a fit for me, but it still had its bright moments.

I was drawn to A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School by the cover crouched over her classmates was a Gashadokuro, a giant skeleton and my favorite yokai. Having never seen a casual representation of a Gashadokuro in anime I thought the show would have a unique cast of yokai characters, and I was right. The class is large and introduces different yokai such as Tanuki, Oni, and more.  In some cases, these introductions come at a break neck pace, especially the first few episodes. Luckily one of the shows gimmicks that I enjoyed was basically a yokai handbook for dummies. When a new character was introduced their page in the book would be presented with a brief summary of their supernatural abilities.  I liked the way the art shown with the blurb was actual historical depictions of the yokai not just their anime-fied representation. Each time I saw the book I realized maybe I wanted a cute historical show on yokai talking more about their real history than school shenanigans.

Seeing a multitude of yokai was what I started the show for, but I slowly realized as more students were added, I was personally losing track and having a hard time keeping track of who as who in human and yokai forms. I did like the characters having different forms, it was good for gags and giving the character designs some depth.  I felt like the student roster kept growing and students would get convenient scenes to show up before disappearing again for the main cast.  Another gag that I found was great for keeping the story rolling is when a student is thrust into the middle of a story beat, a sign is shown that says ‘and so’. This represents the student getting caught up to speed, it’s used more often than you’d think.

The art for the anime version of A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School feels like standard fair for a comedy anime with chibi versions of characters for skits, especially Haruaki. The reason I mention the art is because the manga art has a lot of life. The blocking in the panel fills them without making them feel cluttered. There’s always action or the space is filled with a purposeful character close up. The covers especially are beautiful they would catch my eye in a Barnes & Noble.

I’m left conflicted about A Terrified teacher at Ghoul School, it starts strong with a wimpy teacher-Haruaki, afraid of his own shadow getting himself hired at a school of monsters. He adjusts rather quickly, but we get a taste of the complications of having a human teacher teach young yokai. Haruaki can’t actually teach most classes like scaring or yokai history not being a yokai, and he’s just in charge of homeroom. It’s a story beat I wish was explored more, not just Haruaki being afraid, but him struggling to connect with his students because he’s human. It does get him into dangerous shenanigans that his students need to save him from every time. That’s another personality trait of Haruaki’s that throws me; he’s less of a mentor character and really just another student int eh bunch most of the time. He has moments where he stands up for his students and wants better for them, one student Beniko stops coming to class and Haruaki takes it upon himself to convince her to come back to class and learn. Mostly though he’s in trouble because he’s a little incompetent. He gets lost a lot, but so do I so I’m giving him a pass on that episode. The biggest glaring issue for me about Haruaki is his fascination with uniforms, nurse, school, you name it he’s obsessed with them. It’s the big gag surrounding his character and uniforms are often used as a bribe or a means of amping Haruaki up. It’s somehow not played and played as a perv thing. Haruaki swears it’s just a normal appreciation and everyone calls him a pervert. The issue for me here is that sometimes when the uniform gag happens it takes away from any real sentiments made in the moment. In one scene a thief steals something Haruaki expresses as a precious item; it could have been anything-it was kind of annoying it was a uniform.

 I enjoyed the episodes where we saw the students outside of the classroom most. There were a few that especially stood out like a parent teacher conference day with Mamekichi Maizuka’s family- the tanuki. Turns out that friendly bubbly ball of fluff comes from a yakuza style family. Another episode was a two-part episode I very much enjoyed where we see that all of the teachers knew each other from their teen years meeting on a school trip to the city. It was a feel-good friendship episode that I could get behind where Haruaki finally felt like he was on equal footing to the other teachers, at least for a moment. Another teacher centric episode that goes more into Miki Rintarou’s home life. It’s a more serious episode dealing with the abuse Rintarou’s family put up with at the hands of his mother. It had heart. My favorite episode of the bunch dealt with Zashiki Beniko and her dad’s inn. The inn is known for being a haunted hot spot thanks to Beniko. A reporter stays there to try and prove the hauntings are a hoax, but thanks to the other kids in the class they turn that inn into a next level haunted house. The episode had a lot to do with Beniko being proud of her dad’s ambition in following their dreams and creating an inn. She wants to make them just as proud by protecting their inn and home keeping its good name unblemished.

For me the story has steep ups and downs, some of the episodes I was invested in, I wanted more, and I thought maybe this show isn’t that bad. Other episodes I was checking how much time was left before it was done. The issue was the lack of overarching story in my option. I love a good slice of life adventure of the week, but every episode felt disjointed. There was rarely a common issue that tied episodes together. We learn very early on that Haruaki has a very powerful ability to exorcise yokai and even that isn’t brought up again for a few episodes. There is a thread of a story with Haruaki’s powers, but it’s not explored much, just ominously mentioned here and there by the principal. Haruaki’s exorcism powers do come in handy in some scenarios.

I don’t think A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School was bad, I think it had funny gags and cute meaningful moments. I think it also undermines itself by trying to be a little too goofy. If you enjoy a silly story that’s easy to pick up and put down this would be a good watch. It might be a good palate cleanser after an intense anime. Just because it wasn’t for me doesn’t mean it might not be for you. I appreciate the spin on traditional spooky yokai as well as the traditional school setting. It’s worth a try for the unique tropes alone. Side note, I find the yokai not recognizing spirits of humans but Haruaki being able to see them a neat tidbit. Take a scare class or two with A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School.