If you’ve watched a lot of anime, you’ll know that certain themes or motifs pop up everywhere, like high school students joining clubs or a mysterious transfer student arriving unexpectedly.
Well, light novels are the same. The concept of “If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all” – or in this case, read them all – can easily be applied to light novel as well. While some series are able to follow traditional tropes and still bring their own flair, others fail to offer anything new or original to the genre.
Unfortunately, Our Crappy Social Game Club Is Gonna Make the Most Epic Game falls into the latter category. The plot of this light novel is something I’ve seen time and time again. A high school student, Shiraseki Kai, transfers out of his school after an incriminating incident at its social game club. After some initial hesitation, he becomes interested in the social game club at his new school, only to find out it’s on the brink of disbandment. Kai needs to team up with his new friends, who are a cast of quirky characters, to get the club back on its feet again. Along the way, the student council tries to deter their plans, drama ensues, crushes are developed, and friendships are tested.
Sound familiar? It does to me, at least. However, that doesn’t automatically make the light novel poor quality. My favorite anime Love, Chuunibyou, and Other Delusions has a similar run-from-the-past-and-reluctantly-join-a-questionable-club storyline, so I can’t really judge the novel just based on the premise. (I’ll nitpick at it more later, though.) Predictable plot aside, there were some elements I enjoyed about the light novel, namely its spotlight on social games, a.k.a. mobile games.
In the novel’s world, students are able to create their own gaming apps from scratch and manage their sales. The book thoroughly details the process of running a mobile game, covering everything from planning to marketing strategy. I’ve been addicted to gacha games in the past but never really considered how much work go into them on a daily basis. As someone who’s interested in technology, I also liked the more technical aspects that were given. Though, these parts may bore other non-techy readers or someone that has never played Japanese mobile games.
Another thing I appreciated was Kai’s character because he is a shy, nervous, people pleaser who doesn’t want to burden anyone. In other words, his personality is similar to mine. While he is far from what I’d call a unique character, I understood his actions and thought processes, making him very relatable to me. Sadly, the other characters weren’t really anything special, except for the club’s programmer, Aya. She’s the eccentric type, which almost always end up being my favorite character in every series I encounter…and then there was Kai’s sister, who I found incredibly annoying. She served no purpose other than providing unneeded fan service and irritating her brother which in turn irritated me.
Now let’s go back to the premise. At first, I was incredulous about high school students creating professional-level games. Pretty early on, the reader learns that, in this world, the Japanese government created a law that encourages students to create their own games. It also provided schools with a special software that made creating games much easier than in the past.
This does explain why students can make such high-quality games in short periods of time, but I still found it kind of hard to believe. Why would the government go to such lengths to promote this policy? Maybe I’m overthinking things. I just think a scenario where adults were making these games would have been more realistic. It also would have prevented the same old high school tropes from being used. Though, it’s inevitable I suppose… light novels tend to rely heavily on many of the same motifs as their animated counterparts.
Despite my complaints about its lack of originality, I wouldn’t say Our Crappy Social Game Club is a bad light novel. It’s actually pretty cute, and I did enjoy it. It’s like when you eat your favorite dessert too much. You may still like its flavor as you consume it for the umpteenth time, but the taste has gotten a little stale and you’re a bit bored of it. What I’m trying to say is, if you want a quick, light read and like playing mobile games, Our Crappy Social Game is a good book to check out. Just steer away from it if you’re only looking for something completely fresh and new…or if you’re trying to break a bad gacha habit.