Insomniacs After School

 Insomniacs After School (君は放課後インソムニア) is a 13 episode slice of life romance series based on the manga of the same name by Ojiro Makoto.  The series originally aired during the Spring of 2023.

    Nakami Ganta is a rather serious and grump first year high school student.  He suffers from persistent insomnia, causing him to have little tolerance for anything.  His classmates distance themselves from him and he has few friend as a result.  While his class is preparing for the school festival he sent to the unused observatory to retrieve cardboard boxes.  They choose him due to rumors of it being haunted by the spirit of a past astronomy club member who died.  The club hasn't been active for many year and the facility is used for storage only, a place students don't go.  Once inside the observatory, with its disused telescope and stacks of supplies he realizes it would be the perfect place to a mid day nap, far away from any interruptions.  Before he can take advantage of the hidden sanctuary for rest he notices a girl from his class already sleeping soundly in a box next to the telescope.  Magari Isaki is a popular and cheerful girl but also suffers from insomnia and uses this as a secret hideout to rest during the day.  Isaki is willing to share her paradise with the bewildered Ganta given they have a bond in their sleep disorders.  Unfortunately their safe zone is soon compromised when a teacher discovers they are sneaking into the unused space.  

    In order to keep their hideaway they restart the schools astronomy club, with the help of the teacher who spoiled their secret.  With only two members, years of dormancy and inexperience, their time is limited if they don't do anything to convince the student council to keep them going.  Their best bet of keeping the club going is to enter into a photography contest and win.  Ganta owns a high quality camera but has little experience in using it, let alone doing astrophotography.  Isaki's enthusiasm and determination pushes him to take on the role of club leader, doing everything they can to keep their time together going.  As they work hard with planning events and trips for photography the two become closer to each other, forming a bond greater than their insomnia, a bond that leads them to open up to each other in ways they normally wouldn't do.  If they can't keep the club active will they be able to have more times like this together?

    This is one of the most enjoyable anime I have seen in a long time.  The artwork and character designs are fantastic, the main characters are well crafted and very likeable.  While the story has some funny moments it is a deeply realistic drama with real emotions, fantastic voice acting and a believable story.  After a while it was hard to not anticipate a seriously dramatic shift akin to Your Lie In April.  I won't say whether it happens or not, due to not wanting to spoil anything, but I watched the series as quickly as I could in anticipation.  I felt compelled to spend as much time with these characters as possible and live their world with them.

    This is another series in recent memory that offers a potential shift in story telling for anime and could lead to a brighter future for narration and composition styles.  But it also takes the right source material and without reading the original manga I can't determine how faithful the anime adaptation was.  All I can say is this almost 300 minute commercial for the manga did a really good job convincing me to start picking this series up.  Sadly it's only just started to be release in English and is quite a bit behind the 13 volumes so far.  There was also a live action adaptation that recently aired.  Things are looking up for Ojiro-sensei and hopefully we will see more work, though the manga is still ongoing.

    The anime was simulcast in North America on HiDive.