Insomniacs After School: A Feel Good Anime That’s Perfect for Summer | Anime Review

 

I recently watched Kimi wa Houkago Insomnia better known as Insomniacs After School. I’m fairly new to Anime, although I do have my preferred genres, consisting of romance, comedy, and slice of life. Basically I tend to gravitate to enjoying those “feel good” anime with wholesome vibes. Anyways, Insomniacs After School was recommended to me by a friend. He told me he hasn’t watched it yet, but based on what he’s heard, it’d fit what I like!

So I gave it a watch and I’m here to give it my personal review. It’s only got 1 season with 13 episodes at the time I’m writing this. There’s a lot of speculation that a second season may be in the works, but that’s not officially confirmed yet. Nonetheless, I’ll summarize the plot, dive into what I personally enjoyed, and give my rating at the end of this blog.

Oh. I should mention SPOILER WARNING!! Since I’ll be discussing what goes on in the latter episodes.

The anime revolves around the main protagonist Ganta Nakami, a high schooler who is awkward, reserved and does not have many friends. Most notably, Nakami has insomnia and often endures many sleepless nights which make him feel tired and out of it when he goes to school. He does his best to hide his insomnia at school and doesn’t want to tell his classmates about his insomnia out of fear of being labeled as weird. 

One day after being tasked with looking for cardboard boxes around the school, Nakami stumbles across the doors to his high school's observatory, which now serves as a storage room, and is avoided by students due to a story claiming that the ghost of a past student resides behind said doors. However, Nakami notices that the door is slightly open and decides to look inside to find some boxes. Upon inspection of the room he finds a girl fast asleep. He startles, thinking he has just seen the ghost from the rumored story. But it turns out the girl is just another student by the name of Isaki Magari, who is the series’ other protagonist. Magari shares with Nakami that she also has a sleep disorder, due to ongoing health complications she’s experienced since childhood. This starts the budding of a friendship between the two insomniacs, who agree to use the observatory as their secret hideout to catch some rest during school hours.

However, their secret gets exposed one day when Usako Kurashiki, the school nurse, finds out that the two students have been using it as a hideout. The two protagonists expect to have to pack it all up and stop using the observatory but... Kurashiki lets them off the hook by allowing them to keep using the observatory… under one condition: Nakami and Magari serve as members of the school's revamped astronomy club. 

This is then the narrative that the rest of the anime builds off from. Nakami and Magari’s school life relating to the astronomy club. The two quickly learn about what it takes to run the schools astronomy club, with the help of Yui Shiromaru, one of their high school’s alumni and past president of the school’s astronomy club, a role now filled by Nakami. Shiromaru teaches Nakami the basics about taking photos of the night sky. Fascinated by this, photography becomes Nakami’s hobby. And using the camera his father gifted him when he was young, Nakami, along with Magari spend their sleepless nights walking around and learning to take photos of the stars in the sky.

One of the main challenges that remains central in the anime is the status of the astronomy club. Since it is a new club at their high school, Nakami and Magari have the challenge of curating and executing astronomy club activities in order to show the school that the astronomy club is worthwhile and shouldn’t be cut. Alongside the task of establishing a positive reputation for the club, the two must also deal with the struggle of receiving funding for the club. Student council is strict, and even with the support of student council member Tao Ukegawa, who happens to be one of Nakami’s only other friends, funding for the astronomy club isn’t graciously offered. However, one way the club is able to get funding is if the pictures that they take can win a prize in a regional contest. This adds more fuel to Nakami’s motivation to take breathtaking pictures of the night sky. 

The series then dedicates episodes to relationship building through Nakami and Magari putting in their effort in making the astronomy club a success. The two sneak out to take pictures of the sky when on a school field trip, plan a meteor shower watch party for people to attend -this plan unfortunately goes to waste because it rains on the day of the meteor shower-, and the latter episodes of the series focus on Nakami and Magari going on a “Training Camp” for the astronomy club, an excursion with many stops, each meant to be a place to capture great starry photos. However, Magari’s older sister Haya also tags along with them during their camp… at least until she ditches them to spend time with her boyfriend. 

I briefly mentioned relationship building throughout the anime, but getting closer is not just seen with the two main protagonists. This anime has quite a handful of supporting characters and what I think Insomniacs After School does well is have each of these characters bring something different in helping the viewer understand the characteristics of Nakami and Magari better. No character feels unimportant, each feels like they have some kind of role whether explicit or implicit. For example, Ukegawa serves the role of being the guy best friend who teases Nakami about all the time he’s spending with Magari, which makes Nakami get flustered. At the same time Ukegawa supports and wants the best for Nakami, rooting for him in whatever way he can. But more importantly, from the standpoint of us, the viewers, Ukegawa gives us insights into Nakami’s childhood. Through his words, we learn that Nakami used to be energetic and bubbly, even being remembered as one of the fastest running kids from his class. While the anime does show flashbacks from Ganta Nakami’s childhood, the anecdotes from Ukegawa are what make it apparent to us that in between Nakami’s childhood and present day, something happened that made Nakami become more on the timid side. We ultimately realize that this change was Nakami’s mother leaving while Nakami was asleep one night.  

Another supporting character has a hidden symbolic role; Magari’s friend, Motoko Kanikawa. During the beginning episodes she comes off as very self-centered and rude. When Nakami initially asks for her help in planning the meteor shower watch party, she instantly rejects him and replies with something to the extent of “Just because I’m friends with Magari, doesn’t mean I’m friends with you, so no I won’t help you”. Eventually she does cave in and offers help once she realizes all of her friend group is helping out as well. This initial portrayal of Kanikawa is something that I’d like to highlight for a second. Her and Nakami clearly have a rocky relationship that we wouldn’t classify as a “friendship”. But as the episodes progress, we see these two characters develop a genuine friendship, through the two being grateful for each other’s help and Kanikawa visiting Nakami and Magari during the training camp arc. I view this relationship development going from one of mutual dislike to one of true friendship as symbolically representing the development of Nakami’s social confidence. We see in episode 1 that Nakami is awkward and reserved. But by the end of the season, we see that he stands taller, has a smile on his face, and is surrounded by a circle of true friends; accurately testified by his observable friendship with Kanikawa.

At the end of the training camp is where the climax of the season happens. Funny enough this also happens to be in episode 13. Prior to this episode Nakami and Magari’s relationship has budded and bloomed into something very special, it is clear that both share romantic feelings with one another, and the characters themselves know this as well. The two spend a lot of alone time together, they laugh together, and share many heart-to-heart conversations with each other; the most significant of which led to their first kiss. Yet even after all of this, there remained a hesitancy between the two; a lack of a true confirmation of their feelings toward each other. Thankfully this was addressed in episode 13, where at the last stop of their training camp adventure, the Mawaki ruins… Nakami did something that I would argue his entire character development set him up for: he confessed his feelings to Magari. At first he tried to string together some heartfelt sentences to get his feelings across… but after getting flustered, he decided to restart his confession, opting to just outright tell Magari that he loves her (Can’t lie, I shed a tear or two at this moment because aww it was so wholesome).

Magari reciprocates these feelings back, immediately asking Nakami to take a picture of her because the current moment is the happiest she’s ever felt. The training camp is then officially over, and the anime fast forwards towards the end of summer, where we learn that Magari has been grounded by her parents for sneaking off with Nakami for an extra day during the training camp when they called her to tell her they were picking her up after finding out that Haya had ditched them. More importantly we learn that one of Nakami’s photographs was able to win in a competition, implying that the astronomy club is sure to get ample funding for the upcoming school year. The final minutes of episode 13 conclude with grounded Magari talking on the phone with Nakami while he’s at the observatory. Saying that she has no regrets and is glad she met Nakami, and then right before she continues their conversation from the Mawaki ruins and is about to tell Nakami she loves him too, she lets out a big yawn and says she’ll tell him the rest of what she has to say when she wakes up.

Man, what a plot summary. Hopefully the details didn’t bore you! I was very pleased with the plot and pacing of the episodes in the anime. Nothing felt rushed, nor dragged out. Each episode was required to progress the story further in a way that highlights the development of Nakami and Magari’s lives, and the status of the astronomy club. I can confidently say, that for the first season, the pacing was well done. 

Insomniacs After School also does something that I have personally noticed a lot of anime in the 2020s has done: attention to details with animation and visuals. I feel like nowadays people have expectations for what HD animation should look like, and Insomniacs definitely meets those expectations and in my opinion goes beyond them. Characters are bright and contrast from the background in such a way that background elements can still be noticed if the viewer chooses to take them in. One particular area in the anime’s visuals that I would like to give high praise to is with how it uses lighting and shadows. These aspects are impressively used whether that be in simple contexts such as showing reflections of light on hair, or in more demanding contexts such as during a fireworks show, rainstorms, and especially in scenes with a starry purple and blue night sky. 

Keeping on the theme of impressive animation, another thing this anime does well is show us powerful and captivating expression. This can be seen in a plethora of ways such as body language and speech. But one way I particularly found myself being emotionally drawn in by the characters was by a combination of their eye and facial expressions. I mostly saw this with Magari, who goes through many emotions in this anime, such as happiness when she is confessed to, sadness when she thinks she can’t go to the Mawaki site, frustration when she is teased by her sister, and worry when Nakami runs off in the middle of a rainstorm. Magari, along with many other characters tend to have an extra white sparkle animated in their eyes when displaying a big surge of emotion. This technique alongside the right eyebrow and mouth movements are a huge quality this anime has in allowing readers to not only read into the various emotions at play in the anime but also get drawn in by them, sympathize with them, and relate to them.

In the title of the blog post I mention how Insomniacs After School is a fitting anime for the Summer season. I guess I feel that way, one because I enjoyed the anime and watched it during the Summer… but also because the settings we see  just perfectly scream “Summer vibes”. For example, in Nakami and Magari’s high school it is very hot, with students constantly looking for rooms with air conditioning. Next time you’re in class during the summer months I’m sure you’ll notice the same thing. Of course there is also the Summer break, filled with clear skies and trips to the beach. It is also during Summer break when Nakami and Magari go out of the city on their “training camp”, staying at Magari’s grandmothers’ house. They buy groceries for themselves including a watermelon that Magari exclaims is a necessity for them to purchase. They go out and about touring nearby landmarks and capturing pictures of the starry night skies. An out of city escape, having a house for yourself, and nearby sites to see? Could you imagine a more fitting Summer adventure! For me everything about this part of the anime was just pleasurable to watch during Summer. Even though I’m laying in bed watching episode 11, its like I can vicariously experience that city escape in the warm weather.

A last element of this anime that I will praise is its ability to keep you on edge and curious about what shifts or twists in the plot may occur. While seeing the interactions between Nakami and Magari are generally wholesome to intake. There are a few plot details that build a subconscious suspense for the viewer. The two main ones stem from the personal lives of the two protagonists. For Nakami, we learn that a big reason why he has insomnia is due to the childhood trauma of his mother abandoning him while he was asleep one night. Nakami explains that since that day he has sort of become afraid to wake up to a new morning. For him, staying up all night allows him to live an “extended today”. Throughout the anime, I kept wondering if we’d see Nakami's mother return, or at least a heart-to-heart conversation between Nakami and his dad that delves into how their family life cycle has been impacted. However, we didn’t see any of this in the 13 episode season. So, us viewers still feel like we lack a comprehensive understanding of Nakami. 

In a similar, yet more worrisome fashion, the anime gives a reason for viewers to be anxious about the future of Magari. We learn at a couple points that her sleep disorder is due to health complications she’s been experiencing since she was young, namely heart problems. Unlike Nakami, Magari’s struggles are physical with no real solution. The anime’s opening that plays at the beginning of every episode shows brief scenes of Magari walking in a hospital (both as a kid and high schooler). Once I noticed this after learning that Magari has heart problems, I immediately thought “Oh no, is Magari gonna have to be rushed to the hospital at some point in the anime?”. While in her flashbacks we learn that she had a few hospital visits as a child, I couldn’t help but think that the opening may be foreshadowing a dire moment for Magari as a teenager; one that we would see Nakami react to and cope with. To put it more simply, I thought that Magari’s bubbly and eccentric personality would do a complete 180 to one that is fearful due to the possibility of dying because of health complications acting up. Once again, these concerns of mine were subdued, since we didn’t see any moments of distress for Magari health wise. However, I do feel like in future seasons we will see health complications for Magari become apparent to the plot. At one point this season, we saw that Magari also had scars on her body that she hid from her friends by choosing to wear a t-shirt while at the beach. In my opinion, Magari’s health is something we’ll see addressed more prominently in future seasons; what we saw in this season just subtly sets this topic up.

So, those are my opinions on Insomniacs After School. And now for my final rating…

I have a 5-step rating scale that goes as follows (in order from least admiration to most admiration):

😐 = Mid

🙂 = Decent

😃 = Great

🤩 = Really Enjoyed

🥰 = Absolutely Loved!

I thought Insomniacs After School was Great 😃. A well paced story that follows and connects the lives of two well designed characters who share the struggles of insomnia, and use this commonality as a means to become closer and engage in new life experiences! For a first season, the anime was well done. However, I really do hope (and honestly expect) that this won’t be the last we see of Nakami and Magari. There is so much more chemistry to be built between these two, and even more struggles they have yet to endure. I eagerly await more from Insomniacs After School and am glad to have watched it this Summer! 

Thank you for reading!

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