The board game will often, but not always, relate to a degree of character growth of one of the cast. This pretty much sets up the structure of After School Dice Club – there is a vignette with Miki and her friends, who meet with one of a group of supporting characters and then playing a board game. Miki and Aya have fun, and the three of them, along with other supporting characters, end up discovering the joy of European Style boardgames Ono introduces them to one of the games the store carries, and they play it.

This takes the form of discovering the part-time job of the class president, Midori Ono, at a game store specializing in European Style board games. Miki is very nearly literally run into by outgoing, extroverted classmate Aya Takayashiki.Īya initially takes Miki on a big exciting “let’s go wandering literally nowhere adventure” – but when Miki has what is effectively a semi-meltdown (not as in “tantrum”, but in the sense of achieving overload and in this case just breaking down in tears), Aya realizes that what she did was kinda crappy and they go back into more familiar populated areas for something a little quieter. The show follows Miki Takekasa, a shy, introverted girl in Kyoto who is likely On-Spectrum (when she’s introduced and in flashbacks she’s seen using headphones to avoid auditory sensory overload – something done as a coping strategy people who are On-Spectrum, myself included). The high concept pitch of After School Dice Club is, basically, “Wil Wheaton’s Tabletop crossed with a Cute-Girls-Doing-Cute-Things” anime.

Well, the Fall 2019 anime season has (as of when this goes live) wrapped up, so it’s time to start giving thoughts on some of the anime from the tail end of the year – and we start off with After School Dice Club, a healing anime about Euro-style board games.

Afterschool dice club anime