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"If you do nothing, your youth will pass by in an instant. That is why we formed the Going Home Club."
Sakura Domyoji

Chronicles of the Going Home Club (Kitakubu Katsudou Kiroku) is a comedy manga series written and illustrated by Kuroha, which was serialized in Square Enix's Gangan Online magazine from 2011 to 2014. An anime adaptation by Nomad consisting of twelve episodes aired in July 2013.

It's common for Japanese students with no intention of joining an after-school club to be referred to as having joined the "Going Home Club;" So when freshman Natsuki Andou declares her intention to join the eponymous club, she's surprised to find that her new pal Karin Tono has been led to believe in a literal Going Home Club. As Natsuki comes to find out, the club has a presence in the school, and is staffed by three of its most bizarre upperclassmen:

There's Ordinary High-School Student Sakura Domyoji, whose inheritance is her grandmother's scissors, Botan Ohagi, whose family are heirs to the highly-guarded Hagizuki-ryuu martial arts style and who once wrestled a Brown Bear (And a Grizzly Bear, and Polar Bear), and Claire Kokonoe, who's the daughter of a company executive and almost bought Karin a stationary store when the school store had run out of her favorite color of eraser.

Espousing their belief that life will pass before their eyes unless they're having fun, the Going Home Club is dedicated to having as much fun as possible before going home.

Those living in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand may watch the anime legally at Crunchyroll.


Chronicles of the Going Home Club provides examples of:

  • Absurdly Powerful Student Council: The Student Council President Reina Takamado exerts a sphere of influence around the school grounds, causing students to be incapable of breaking any rules, such as bowling in the hallway as seen in episode 11. However, she then subverts the trope by allowing them to bowl, and stamping permission on Sakura's forehead.
  • Art Shift:
    • Apparently because Claire depleted the episode's budget with close-ups of herself, a nearly 10 second period near the end of episode one is aired as storyboards.
    • There's a brief one to an 8-bit era video game style in episode four, and again in episode five when the cast applies RPG logic to Franz Schubert's "Erlkönig."
    • The second ending uses CGI in addition to the show's typical style.
    • For that matter, the "Going Home Club Miniature Theater" introduced in episode four following the ending have the characters super deformed and animated in CGI, whereas the backgrounds are drawn.
    • The commercial that Sakura watches in episode five shifts to a more simplistic and prismatic style.
  • Attack Her Weak Point: In episode 3, Botan claims physical attacks don't hurt her, no matter how hard she's hit. She challenges Sakura to do that, so the latter throws a punch, kick, and even a chair at the former's face, only to not so much as cause a bruise. Sakura then decides to try a different approach. She tells Karin to push her, while simultaneously saying "I hate you!". Although a little confused, Karin follows through with it, and it does seem to "hit" Botan pretty hard, despite Karin barely pushing her. After the credits roll however, Botan sees a picture of them together, with Karin's comment that she doesn't really hate her.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: Natsuki jokingly tells Karin in the first episode that she's going to join the "going home club", a euphuism for going home instead of joining a club. Then much to her shock, she finds out that such a club actually exists, and they're automatically accepted into the club by Sakura.
  • Berserk Button: Do not try to take away Karin from Botan and Claire. The soccer team tried this when Sakura offered to let karin be their manager in exchange for half the field. It wasn't pretty.
  • Big Sister Bully: Natsuki is this to Lloyd, as proven when she uses the term kore instead of koitsu when introducing him to her clubmates.
  • Bland-Name Product:
    • In episode three, "Soda," typeset in a quasi-Coca-Cola font.
    • A Facebook stand-in shows up in episode three.
  • Blood from the Mouth: Played for Laughs in episode 3 with Sakura and Natsuki, after reading Botan's middle school diary.
  • Blood Knight:
    • Botan, who simply had to fight the brown bear because it was the largest animal in japan, and then went further north to fight the grizzly and polar bear because the brown bear was too easy.
    • When she challenged Sakura to hit her as hard as she could, Sakura escalated to hitting her over a chair. She downright swooned!
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: ALL of ep 3. Err, 4. The second half of episode 11 as well, as they talk about what to do in the last episode.
  • Brainless Beauty: Notable because this trope is name checked and averted in episode two by Karin, who because this trope was in full effect, the club members assumed would be a Lethal Chef—as it is, she's surprisingly competent.
  • Brick Joke: Botan cracking the ceiling in episode three.
    • Also in episode three, the fact about the Parasaurolophus' crest during the cold opening.
    • Defied In episode one, Karin mentions how tasty the ice cream on the lid of a ice cream cup is and Claire gets interested. Cue The Stinger where Claire walks out a store with a ice cream pop in hand. However, she does finally get to taste it in episode 12.
    • The pointless fanservice shots of Botan in episode four, which the viewer had probably thought were being played straight, are given a Call-Back later in the episode and revealed have been subverted all along as a gag.
    • The Four Heavenly Kings makes an appearance in episode 6.
  • Bridal Carry: Botan does this for Karin in episode 3, after the latter seemed unable to climb the stairs on her own, despite Natsuki mentioning she had done it nonchalantly earlier in the day.
  • Butt-Monkey:
    • Sakura and Natsuki are on the tail end of most of the jokes.
    • The ___ Genbu in episode 6, one of the Four Heavenly Kings. The "___" is originally "Anime-loving", but since it doesn't have positive connotation, he asks his pals to change it. After coming up with even worse names. They almost immediately change the subject much to Genbu's ire.
  • Cannot Keep a Secret: All of the girls discuss secret plans for Natsuki's birthday party the next day in episode 7...all while Natsuki is sitting next to them listening to everything they're saying.
  • The Cat Came Back: Sakura resorting to increasingly extreme measures to prevent Botan from kicking the coffee can beyond the stratosphere. These starts from handcuffing both her wrists and her feet, to restraining her whole body in chains, to tossing her inside a box and then detonate a bundle of dynamites next to it. The result is just as well as you'd expect if Yosemite Sam is trying to do those very same things to Bugs Bunny.
  • Censor Box: Played for Laughs in episode 6. The guy being censored also wonders why his name is pointlessly whitened out.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: Botan, who is capable of fighting bears with her bare hands, and winning because of her fighting style..
  • Chekhov's Gag: A constant offender. Notably, the seal suit and the crack Botan left in the ceiling.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: It doesn't happen too often, but threaten to take Karin away from Claire, and later, Botan, and they can make your life painful. Claire calls off a sniper after the club wins a soccer match against the soccer team in episode 10, after Sakura promised to make Karin the soccer club's manager should her club lose.
  • Clothing Damage: Happens to some of the soccer club members in episode 10 after Botan kicks the ball really hard.
  • Cloud Cuckooland:
    • The Going Home Club is this, with the exception of the obligatory Straight Man, Natsuki.
    • Played straight and downplayed in the beginning of every episode.
  • Color Failure: Ai in episode 4, after Natsuko and Karin walk past her.
  • Comically Missing the Point: In episode 3, Botan offers to show the girls some self-defense techniques. She has Sakura play the assailant, and tells her to attack her however she wants. The latter takes this literally, and "attacks" her psychologically, by saying she would do things such as sending her joke faxes or putting fermented soybeans in her mailbox, instead of attacking Botan physically as she was supposed to do.
  • Contemplate Our Navels: Sakura goes into a monologue about true freedom while they're all at the pool. She hits a wall on her train of thought, and declares the end of the episode right after.
  • Conversational Troping: They frequently talk about tropes. Sometimes as Lampshade Hanging, sometimes Breaking the Fourth Wall, but mostly they just talk about various tropes.
  • Corner of Woe: Sakura goes into the broom closet in episode 3 at various points, such as when the girls tell her her "suspicious person disguise" consisting of shades and a face mask does make her look suspicious.
  • Crash-Into Hello: Parodied in episode five, along with Late for School.
  • Credits Running Sequence: The girls do a brief one in the opening, and Natsuki does one in the ending.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Botan is generally on the giving end of these, whether its fighting bears, a rival dojo, or a soccer team.
  • Curse Cut Short: Sakura does a Spit Take with her udon when Karin is about to say "curry-flavored shit". Amusing, since, they just censored the word when it was said previously.
  • Cuteness Proximity: Karin invokes this on Claire, and later, Botan.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Allegedly because she exudes a "murderous aura" that can be sensed instinctively, Botan spent most of middle school alone.
  • Delayed Reaction: In episode 8, Natsuki gets upset about having to pick up soy sauce on the way home from school, nonchalantly mentioning that her brother should do it. All the girls go back to what they were doing for a moment, then they all simultaneously realize that she has a brother.
  • Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: In the anime, Sakura hums the themes occasionally; using the first ending theme during the musical chairs game and at the start of episode 7 while getting dressed for school, and the opening theme when she's walking on the street before seeing a street poet.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Botan teaches the club how to defend themselves against a "suspicious person" by violently killing them Fist of the North Star style.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: Botan's "signal" in episode four, later revealed to have been a gag.
  • Do It Your Self Theme Tune: The anime's themes are sung by the voice actors.
  • Dominatrix: Claire briefly dons a dominatrix outfit during the fanservice-fueled retool of episode four.
  • Don't Try This at Home: Once in episode one, and again in episode four when Botan doesn't wear a catcher's mask.
  • Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Natsuki delivers a flying chop to her brother's throat when he accidentally insults Claire.
  • Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: This happens a lot, and seems to be Claire's default when it comes to Karin. If fact most examples are brought on by her.
  • Economy Cast: Among the characters left out of the anime was a girl named Okada, who was the soccer team's manager that Karin almost replaced.
  • Epigraph: Almost every episode begins with a fact about a species of animal, and often pertains to the subject of the episode.
  • Expressive Hair: Karin has an Imagine Spot in episode 7 imagining Natsuki's Idiot Hair wagging.
  • End-of-Series Awareness:
    • Part of episode four is devoted to the cast discussing how keep the show's ratings up and prevent it from being retooled into a fighting anime. We're treated to an alternate interpretation of the episode that attempts to generate as much overblown fanservice as possible, including censored panty shots, Claire in dominatrix gear, and Botan having somehow lost her clothes.
    • Brought out again in Episode 11 as everyone discusses what to do for the final episode. Turns out Sakura got things mixed up with that again.
    • Sakura announces the last sixty seconds of the series in the actual final episode. This time, she was right.
  • Evil Is Petty: How the girls describe the Demon King in Warusugiru / Warsgil / Veribadd. Then even call him a Mook.
  • Fanservice: Episode four has the club (namely Sakura) intentionally, albeit satirically, attempting to invoke this trope in order to keep their ratings up.
  • Fake-Out Fade-Out: In the very first episode, Sakura and the others try to air the ending twice only to be stopped by Natsuki.
  • Faux Horrific: Used in a skit during episode 10. Sakura finishes telling a scary story, and Botan mentions for every hundredth story, they blow out a candle on the table. Since they're on the last one, Karin wonders what's going to happen next. Sakura then explains that animating the scene will be a lot easier. The seal mascot then does a scream as if terrified. Also in the same episode, when the 5-person relay race is over, if Karin spent the whole thing on the sidelines, then who did Natsuki (club runner 4) give the baton to?
  • Fiction 500: Claire. For example, if she needs an eraser, she will buy a stationery store.
  • Foregone Conclusion: During the soccer match in episode 10, Sakura promised the soccer team Karin as their coach if the going home club lost the match. All of the soccer players who approached Karin talk to her as if they had already won. And they probably would have, were it not for Botan delivering a very forceful kick which destroys the goal post, does some Clothing Damage to the soccer players, and makes them wet their pants in the process.
  • The Four Gods: The Four Kings, rival to Hagizuki-ryuu martial arts, of which Botan is an inheritor.
  • Fractured Fairy Tale: Done three times in episode five: to Goethe's "Der Erlkönig," Nakajima Atsushi's "Sangetsuki," and to the Japanese folk hero Kintaro.
  • Friendly Enemies: Botan and the Four Heavenly Kings though they swear they're enemies who hate each other.
  • Fun with Acronyms:
    • In episode four, the characters discuss what the fire safety acronym "PRD" (No Pushing, Running, or Discussion) stands for. Karin suggests "No Pushing, Running, or Dying," and Botan suggests "Past misdeeds Revealed for your Destruction," which is itself given the acronym "PASTRY" later during the show.
    • Again in episode five, when a quote from Natsume Soseki's novel, Kokoro, "Spiritually, you must keep seeking to improve yourself, or you're a buffoon," gets the acronym "SKB."
  • Gag Censor: Natsuki has one of the seal mascot during a would-be Panty Shot in episode four.
  • Gamer Chick: Botan is often seen commenting on, or playing video games.
  • Genre Blindness: While the main cast is entirely aware that they are in an anime, a secondary character in episode four is confused when Botan mentions that it would only create more work for the animators if she wore a catcher's mask during a softball game.
  • Girly Girl: Karin's "feminine appeal level" is high enough to make a DBZ scouter explode because she has so many girly traits, like knitting a cute handkerchief.
  • Goofy Suit: The Going Home Club's mascot is a Hooded Seal costume.
  • Gory Discretion Shot: The illustration of the attack Botan teaches the club is censored for this reason.
  • Hand Puppet: Natsuki at one point in episode 3 remarks on the various comments made by her clubmates, and appears to be Super-Deformed. However, if you look closely, you can see a hand sticking out from behind it. A few moments later, Natsuki just appears on the screen, complete with the hand puppet she was using earlier. It shows up again in episode 10.
  • Harmless Villain: The Four Great Kings. They're Botan's rivals, and she says they're out to take over her family as the main branch, and they even have nicknames of The Four Gods... but in their appearances, they sit around and chat at a family restaurant, and even spar with Botan at times.
  • Hero Insurance: Botan's comes in the form of Claire, who replaces the wall she destroyed with marble.
  • Hidden Depths: Despite being self-proclaimed as being "normal" compared to Botan and Claire, Sakura is able to sing in German.
  • Hoist By Her Own Petard: A lot of Sakura's plans often end up like this, with her plans backfiring, such as her word game against Natsuki in episode 7, or the other girls simply ignoring her, as in episode 6.
  • Honest Axe: Averted in episode five when Claire mistakenly includes the folk hero Kintaro (known for wielding an axe) in this story, but is corrected by Natsuki.
  • Hot-Blooded: Natsuki's various shocked replies to her clubmates tends to be like this.
  • Hypocritical Humor:
    • Natsuki in episode 8, first she criticized Sakura using heat table as a feel good word. Only to reveal that she wrote heated floor.
    • Natsuki also tells her little brother not to be so rude to their sempai. Sakura quickly calls her out on both occasions.
    • The Straight Man of the four heavenly kings group in episode 6, who criticizes his group for admiring Botan, their sworn enemy, and buying whatever she buys, only to then have the same exact items hidden in his clothes drop onto the table they were sitting at.
  • Idiot Hair:
    • Natsuki has one and it's huge. Seriously, it's compared to a Parasaurolophus' crest. The girls discuss it in length during episode 8 while sleeping over at Natsuki's.
    • So does her little brother, Lloyd. His is significantly smaller compared to Natsuki's.
  • I Just Want to Have Friends: Botan's main motivation in high school, as she was friendless up until the point she met Sakura.
  • Imagine Spot: Too many to count—there are times when it's difficult to distinguish what's real and what's imagined (not that it matters all that much in this anime). Notable examples include when the club reimagines Goethe's poem, "Der Erlkönig," to make the "Demon King" more befitting of his title, and when Sakura retells Nakajima Atsushi's short story "Sangetsuki."
  • I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: In episode 2, Claire says this to Karin after she finds out the latter can cook and sew.
  • It Meant Something to Me: The female Heavenly Kings member in episode 10 says she knows the weird shirt she's wearing, with a picture and word "croquette" on it, is terrible. But she doesn't care, because it was chosen by Botan, so she wears it with pride, despite Botan herself later telling Natsuki that she mostly chose it as a gag gift.
  • Japanese School Club
  • Lampshade Hanging: Natsuki frequently alludes to the low-budget quality of the show, and at one point mentions the number of frames that the studio is limited to producing, but is censored.
  • Last Episode, New Character:
    • Invoked with Reina Takamado, the Student Council President. She shows up briefly in episode 11, is given an introduction, then walks off after giving the Going Home Club permission to bowl in the hallway, only to then be told by Sakura that it's the final episode. She turns around with shock.
    • In episode 12, Ai Furuhashi finally gets a speaking role.
  • The Last Of These Is Not Like The Others: Sakura introduces her fellow club members: Botan is a skilled martial arts prodigy; Claire a rich Ojou; and Sakura herself, whose inheritance is her grandmother's scissors.
  • Letting the Air out of the Band: It happens occasionally in the anime, like when Claire has trouble articulating what a retool focused on her would be like, or when Sakura's Guilty Judge plan goes awry.
  • Loners Are Freaks: Botan was afflicted by this, partly due to her No Social Skills and the Death Glare look she usually had on her face frightening off other students.
  • Loophole Abuse: Sakura's musical chairs game is supposed to eliminate one person after each round. The others get past that by sitting on another's lap, even when only one chair remains.
  • Ludicrous Gibs: The end result of the Pressure Point attack that Botan teaches the club.
  • Luminescent Blush: Sakura displays a subtle one in episode 3 after Botan says the former was a beacon of light for her.
  • Meadow Run: Parodied in episode six's cold opening.
  • Mundane Made Awesome:
    • The kick the can game in episode 6 goes this way when Sakura is so determined to give Botan a handicap, she chains her head to toe, locks her in a box, and blows it up... when that doesn't work she just gives up and ejects Botan... by strapping her to a rocket and launching her skyward.
    • The word game between Sakura and Natsuki in episode 7. It reaches Serious Business levels towards the end.
    • The soccer match in episode 10 ends in one play after Botan kicks the soccer ball really hard.
  • Mundane Utility: In middle school, Botan used her super speed to create mirror images of herself and avoid having to pair up in gym class.
  • No Fourth Wall:
    • This is the source of much of this show's comedy. It's debatable whether a fourth wall was present to begin with. For instance, Natsuki calls out the characters out for making too much work for the animators, and eventually the episode's budget is depleted and the storyboards are aired instead.
    • Botan is training herself in martial arts because she believes the show will be retooled into a fighting anime if it becomes any less popular, and she gets her own ending theme in episode four, courtesy of Claire.
  • Not So Above It All: Despite being a straightman, Natsuki carries around a handpuppet of herself in episodes 1,3, and 10.
    • Natsuki passes out just like Sakura after reading Botan's middle school diary. In episode 4, she has a nervous breakdown in episode four after her name is revealed to be an Incredibly Lame Pun. And in the first episode, while in the bathroom, she tries swinging her hand in the same manner Botan had done earlier to cut a water bottle open. Sakura sees the entire thing and smirks as Natsuki has an embarrassed look on her face.
    • In episode 6, during the introduction of the four heavenly kings, the Straight Man of their group asks them about contradictions to their statements, such as praising Botan, their supposed enemy, with a lot of adoration. Later on, he criticizes them for having bought the same stuff she had, such as a matching cellphone strap, only to then have said items fall out from his clothing, revealing he was also secretly admiring her as well.
  • The Notable Numeral: Most of Botan's rivals, which include The Four Great Kings, Hagishirabe Five, Celestial Nine, Magnificent Ten, Hagishirabe Eleven, and Twelve Hevenly Generals. Hagishirabe Thirteen is just one guy.
  • Obviously Evil: The Demon King, "Veribadd."
  • Only Sane Man: Natsuki likes to think she's this, but she has some lapses...
  • Parlor Games: Natsuki and Sakura play a shiritori taboo game (in addition to losing if you can't think of a word that starts with the last syllable of the previous player, and losing for saying a word that ends with the "N" syllable, you can also lose by saying the word written on your or your opponent's card). Naturally, Mundane Made Awesome kicks in and a Narrator appears to call the action.
  • Pixellation: Done to Botan in episode four and to Sakuranote  as a What If? Botan was the pitcher.
  • Pocket Protector: Subverted. Botan was shot by a sniper when she was very young, but was saved because the bullet deflected off something in her chest — her ribcage.
  • Potty Failure: Several of the soccer club members in episode 10 suffer this after Botan kicks the ball past them really hard.
  • Proper Tights with a Skirt: Karin wears this because she's an junior Proper Lady.
  • Public Domain Soundtrack: Lampshaded by Sakura in episode five, after singing part of Franz Schubert's "Erlkönig:"
    Sakura: The song was written in the nineteenth century. The composer died more than fifty years ago, which means we can use it in our show without paying any royalties to the composer's estate!
  • Pun:
    • After a discussion about what a cuckoo actually looks like, Sakura decides that it's simply "a bird gone cuckoo."
    • "Andou Natsuki" ("Donuts") is a Stealth Pun at first, but later becomes this.
    • Demon King Warusugiru / Warsgil (Crunchyroll changed his name into Veribadd).
  • Pyrrhic Victory: In a humorous manner; Natsuki prevails in the Shiritori game against Sakura, and wins the prize of something good from Sakura... which turns out to be one of Sakura's hair decorations. Natsuki is quite humiliated by it.
  • Razor-Sharp Hand: Defied by Botan who uses Razor Wind instead.
  • Readings Are Off the Scale: In a Shout-Out to Dragon Ball Z, Sakura somehow procures a scouter and measures Karin's "feminine appeal level" until it explodes, causing Botan to be Blown Across the Room and into a wall, and Natsuki to complain that a device which explodes when it exceeds its measuring parameters is against Japan's Product Liability Law.
  • Relax-o-Vision: When Sakura goes too in depth with some Toilet Humor and Natsuki very quickly shuts the segment down, the scene that follows is one of the seal staring at a TV while eating some food.
  • Retool: Botan is training more than usual because she's convinced that this trope will be invoked, and the show will become a fighting anime in an effort to increase ratings.
  • Roofless Renovation: Botan managed to knock out an entire wall while opening a bottle of soda. She later cracks the ceiling doing the same thing.
  • Rewind, Replay, Repeat: In episode three, to remind the viewers of when Botan cracked the ceiling.
  • Running Gag: The girls sometimes try to end the show early, only for Natsuki to lift the ending credits off the screen and tell them it's too early for that.
  • Schoolgirl Series: But of course, it is about schoolgirls and the activities of their school club, after all.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Claire uses the power of money to change the ending theme.
  • Secret Diary: Averted by Botan, who claims that she's a bad enough dude to allow the cast to read her middle school diary.
  • Serial Escalation: Botan escaping various things Sakura puts her in during the kick-the-can event in episode 6, such as handcuffs, chains, and being put inside a box, Houdini-style. No matter what happens, the former always escapes and kicks the can into the stratosphere, causing Sakura to buy yet another can of bitter coffee, and forcing Natsuki to drink it.
  • Serious Business: The entire cast (yes, including Natsuki) takes everything too seriously. This includes genuine distress, culminating in Botan having to help her, when Karin attempts to climb some stairs by herself, even though she had done it just before with no fanfare, and Natsuki and Sakura being KO'd in a pool of blood while attempting to read Botan's Diary.
  • Shōnen Genre: It's not, but the girls are seriously considering retooling their own series to one if they don't get popular soon enough. They plan for the 'bad guys' to get more ridiculous as the series runs longer, from a lone enemy to four person ensemble to twelve person group. The final boss? Golgo 13.
  • Shout-Out:
    • A prominent one to Dragon Ball Z in episode two, and to Inazuma Eleven and 13 Assassins in episode four.
    • The silhouette that is killed in a hypothetical example of Botan's Pressure Point attack in episode three screams "Hidebu!" just before he explodes.
    • In episode four, the producer and director are seen playing with, among other things, a Rozen Maiden figure.
    • Franz Schubert's "Erlkönig" (rendered as "Demon King,") is given a shout-out during episode five, where part of it is performed by Sakura, and the club ponders why he's called a "demon king" if the majority of his evil deeds are so petty as kidnapping children, and reimagine the story so that he is more befitting of his title.
    • Momotarō is depicted in the Star Wars format.
    • "Urashima's turtle grew up big and strong and became Gamera! Don't ya know?"
    • An entire sketch in episode five is devoted to the discussion various novels and short stories, among them Natsume Soseki's novel Kokoro and Nakajima Atsushi's "Sangetsuki".
    • In episode 6, Sakura tries to channel Jigsaw and fails.
    • In episode 9, when deciding where to go for their training camp, Sakura draws parallels with other "ultimate decisions" such as choosing between the fire or water-type starters; the Ayanami or Shikinami warships; and No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular! or Kitakubu.
    • The second Death Star can be seen behind the title card for Record 43, which has the subtitle Aikarin Strikes Back.
  • Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Reina Takamado is played up like this, as the student council president, her strict rules-enforcing style a contrast to Sakura, and her first appearance being to stop another one of the club's antics. It's too bad she only started showing up near the end of the anime.
  • Sketch Comedy: Each episode is composed of a handful of individual sketches.
  • Spirited Competitor: Botan gets visibly excited at a challenge, even if it's just a video game.
  • Spit Take: Sakura does one with some udon to cut Karin off when she's about to curse.
  • Sound-Effect Bleep: Used to censor Natsuki when she attempts to reveal the number of frames the show's studio is limited to producing.
  • Start My Own: Sakura tells Karin and Natsuki about her first year in high school, and how the Going Home Club was formed in episode 11.
  • The Stinger: The anime has scenes and later a "Going Home Club Miniature Theater" after the credits.
  • Stock Footage: A serious offender of this trope, lampshaded by Natsuki, who tells Sakura to stop reusing footage of herself.
  • Straight Man:
    • Natsuki. It gets lampshaded and invoked as well.
      Botan: Even in the pictures she uploads herself, she includes retorts. She's so dedicated.
    • Also Genbu of the Four Heavenly Kings.
  • Student Council President: Reina Takamado, who makes her first appearance in the anime in episode 11.
  • Super-Deformed: The characters are portrayed this way during the "Going Home Club Miniature Theater" introduced at the end of episode four. On occasion, the characters will be drawn in this way during the show proper.
  • Super-Speed: Botan is capable of this, and uses it several times throughout the anime.
  • Talking Animal:
    • The seal mascot interacts with the characters and addresses the audience on occasion. It isn't clear which side of the fourth wall it belongs on...
    • It even sings with Botan in her Character Focus ending.
  • Talking Is a Free Action: Hilariously defied in episode 10 when Botan is facing off against one of the four Heavenly Kings. He takes a moment to explain how his shadow can be controlled and used in attacks. As he's doing it, Botan simply rushes up to him and delivers a dropkick before he can finish his description.
  • Telepathy: Botan, Sakura, and Claire are apparently capable of communicating telepathically with one another, as seen during the softball game in episode four.
  • Toast of Tardiness: Along with Crash-Into Hello, this is parodied in episode five with Natsuki's teddy bear, complete with toast.
  • Total Eclipse of the Plot: An eclipse occurs just as Sakura prepares to read Botan's middle school diary. It begins to end when Natsuki, ever the buzzkill, does the same.
  • Tsundere: Sakura adopts the personality briefly in episode 10, and even goes so far as to describe this trope. Amusingly, she did so specifically because of her Girlish Pigtails hairstyle.
  • What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Kouhei Iizuka's special ability is "The Perfect Equal", which ensures that lunch portions are served equally. Too bad their school doesn't offer lunch service.
  • When She Smiles: While Botan has smiled throughout the show, this trope is in play during the Flash Back in episode 11, when both she and Sakura were first years. Sakura noticed Botan was always alone, and didn't smile at all. Once they talk for the first time, Botan's face lights up when Sakura says she wants to be friends.
  • Whole Episode Flashback: Well, just the first half of episode 11, but Sakura tells Karin and Natsuki how the club formed, along with how she first met Botan.
  • Yandere: Played for Laughs with Claire, who will develop Dull Eyes of Unhappiness if anyone tries to take Karin away from her. She even tossed out her Ojou-sama facade and called for a sniper in episode 10 during the soccer match, but calls them off after they win the soccer match.

Alternative Title(s): Kitakubu Katsudou Kiroku, Chronicles Of The Going Home Club

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