Not Thriving: Nondescript Club

YourIdeas Since: Mar, 2014

#1: May 4th 2021 at 5:08:59 PM

Been around since June 2013 but only has 21 wicks. The description is only a small paragraph, not much bigger than a laconic, and the examples given tend to either be ZCE or closer to something like The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything.

I think there's something here but the description could be greatly improved. As I see it, the club plays a role of giving the narrative a reason to keep the story primarily in a school setting but doesn't want the members of its club to be confined to a single activity because they could be doing other exciting things.

Examples on page

Bludgeoning Angel Dokurochan: Dokuro-chan forms a student club called the "wood glue club". In this club, you watch white wood glue dry and turn transparent. She wants to make it to the nationals. It's implied that she physically tortured a teacher to approve the club — the approval form is signed in blood and wet with tears. Club has a description/goal, as silly as it is.
Haganai: The Neighbors Club by Yozora. ZCE
Gintama: Not a school club, but Yorozuya Gin-chan (Odd Jobs Gin). ZCE
Chronicles of the Going Home Club: The Going Home Club by Sakura. ZCE
Love Chunibyo And Other Delusions: The "Far Eastern Magical Nap Society of Summer", a name that Rikka came up with in an attempt to cover the interests of all its members.
Oreshura: The Maidens' Club by Chiwa and Masuzu. ZCE
Sket Dance: The Sket-dan by Bossun and Himeko. ZCE
Suzumiya Haruhi: The SOS-dan by Haruhi. Kyon at one time lists the requirements for an official club, which they don’t meet, so they call themselves simply a “group”. Nearly ZCE
No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular!: Tomoko attempts to start one. The student council rejects her proposal for being too vague in its goal.
My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU: The Volunteers Club. ZCE
The Amusement Club in YuruYuri. ZCE
The GJ Bu. Member just laze around and no attempt at an objective was raised.
The School Life Club in School-Live!. They live at school 24/7. Of course this makes sense as the girls are the only people in their school alive during a zombie apocalypse and the 'club' is just there to keep them occupied while they're stranded.
Love, Election & Chocolate: The Food Research club. ZCE
The Telepathy Club lampoons the concept in Mob Psycho 100, as they're not only portrayed as mostly lazy slackers despite having a declared goal, but the school cuts their funding and disbands them as an official club when Mob chooses to join the more active Body Improvement Club and leaves them a member short of the official club requirements, with them only getting to stay in the room due to the generosity of the aforementioned Body Improvement Club. Once they actually make an effort to work towards the goal the club was founded for (using telepathy to contact aliens), they eventually succeed. More like The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything.
The Pastimers Club in Asobi Asobase, which only consists of the three main characters and has a very vague goal of "having fun". Reality Ensues when the Student Council President rejects the girls' bid to get approved as a club, since they only have three members and "having fun" is something they could easily do at home.
The Go-Soccer club in Nichijou was intended to be this - its founder created the club just so he and his friend would have a room to hang around in, and only found out later that go-soccer is an actual sport.
Genkaku Picasso has the Riverside Club, an unofficial two-person club which Picasso uses to draw with Chiaki after School. By the end of the manga, it's expanded quite a bit.
VideoGame.Yandere Simulator
- On it's surface, the Photography Club looks to avert this, as photography is a legitimate subject to have a club for. However, the club leader Fureddo Jonzu freely admits to interested students that they don't actually do any photography and it's just a place for him and his friends to hang out and chat about manga. It's subverted if enough people disappear or are murdered though, as the Photography Club decide to become detectives to try and find the person behind them. Pirates
- A straighter example would be the Gaming Club, who basically are just getting together to play video games. Akademi doesn't even recognize them as a legitimate club, and they had to hijack the sociology classroom to get a room for them to put their stuff in. The club seems to have a defined, if relatively lazy purpose.
- Another example would be the Info Club, which is really just a front for Info-chan's spying, and only exists despite having a membership of one because Info-chan's blackmailing the Headmaster.
- The Light Music club used to be like this, where they didn't really play much music and mostly got together to hang out, but when Miyuji joined and expressed a desire to make something meaningful, they decided to actually take music seriously and formed a rock band. Pirates
The Activity Club in Para Natural is this to characters not in the loop, particularly Suzy. It's called the "Activity Club", for Pete's sake, it's difficult to get more nondescript. However, its members (and the readers) know that its full name is "Paranatural Activity Club"^note and takes care of paranatural threats around Mayview, as well as brings up its members as Spectrals.
The title club in Senpai Club is simply a bunch of parodies of anime senpai sitting around. It's supposed to be a He-Man Woman Haters club, yet they have a female member (Lady-senpai). This one is a bit odd. The club apparently has a goal of avoiding women, which isn't a standard club activity but it doesn't seem completely non-descript.

Wicks

Anime.Marginal Number 4: The Marginal boys' club was really made so that the four can gather together in school, in true Nondescript Club fashion. The first episode was pretty much devoted to trying to give the club a purpose, and they do perform some club activities in-show, but the club itself is very vague. Good
Anime.Tropical Rouge Pretty Cure: The main group sets up the Tropical Club at their school, which Manatsu describes as a club that does what's important right now. It's nearly rejected by the student council president for having a vague goal. Apart from being a front to allow them to discuss their activities as Pretty Cures, the members bounce around between different activities and also use their club room as a place to hang out. Good
Characters.Archetypal Archetype Academy: Part of creating a club in this school is for it to not be this, although given the principal's a grumpy Extreme Doormat, the clubs that end up like this are fairly common. Somewhat ZCE, no examples given.

Mob Psycho 100 Seasoning City: Momozou Takenaka

The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: The only real aversion among the Telepathy Club, as he originally joined hoping it would be a support group for telepaths like himself, only to find that no one really cared about studying psychic powers except Tome, and even she spends most of her time being swept away by the laziness of the other members. Pothole; repeated example from the trope page that might not be correct

Laconic.GJ Bu: The Most Nondescript Club Of All Time goes on about their equally nondescript club business.
LightNovel.GJ Bu: We still don't know the purpose for the GJ club. ZCE
Manga.School Zone: Yatsude was roped into joining the Film Studies club, which mainly consisted of chatting at family restaurants on club funds, and now she and Tsubaki (her kouhei) are the only two members left. Neither knows what the club is supposed to do, so they spent two months just cleaning the club room. Film Studies seems like an apt enough goal/interest for a club so I'd lean on this possibly being The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything
Manga.We Are The Main Characters Of The Demon World: According to Gruppen, Our Battler's goal is to rule over the school and eventually the entire Demon World, but most members just hang out in the clubroom and the only thing they seem to do is listen to other people's requests and problems which they help solve with limited success. Looks like The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything
Manga.Yuru Yuri: As the name implies, the Amusement Club serves no purpose other than for its members to amuse themselves. Somewhat better description than the trope's page.
Manhwa.Flight Highschool: The 5th Gen Club doesn't do much other than hang out before and after school.
Recap.The Amazing Worldof Gumball S 1 E 28 The Club
- Start My Own: After all the clubs start rejecting Gumball pre-emptively, he forms "Gumball's Club of Gumball", but he disbands it in minutes when he tries and fails a trust fall with himself. Pothole. It's also not a Japanese School Club, which Nondescript Club is considered a subset of.

Edited by YourIdeas on May 5th 2021 at 7:58:07 AM

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu

#2: May 27th 2021 at 5:45:52 AM

Opening.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

eroock Since: Sep, 2012

#3: May 27th 2021 at 5:50:00 AM

Perhaps just rolling this into the broader School Forced Us Together?

4maskwolf Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: Barbecuing

#4: May 27th 2021 at 6:55:46 AM

There's probably a salvageable trope here about generic or strange sounding clubs created as a front for hanging out/going on adventures, and most of the non-ZCE examples seem to point to that, but the only example I can come up with that isn't already on the page is the "kids with superpowers" club from Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain which they use as a front for their supervillain team.

If we keep it, it definitely needs a rename and a new description.

WoodKnapp94 Since: May, 2020

#5: May 27th 2021 at 7:12:39 AM

Yeah, the whole "school club as a cover for hanging out" thing sounds like a trope in its own right; I also think that just keeping it a subtrope of Japanese School Club only restricts the trope to Japanese works even though school clubs exist in other parts of the world and I'm pretty sure that's at least part of the reason why this trope isn't thriving.

YourIdeas Since: Mar, 2014

#6: May 27th 2021 at 7:51:10 AM

I think it could work if School Forced Us Together allows for situations where the students themselves make a club (of their own volition) and members join it, which is largely what Nondescript Club is used for.

That sounds like School Club Front with villains.

Edited by YourIdeas on May 27th 2021 at 7:51:41 AM

4maskwolf Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: Barbecuing

#7: May 27th 2021 at 7:53:18 AM

I didn't realize School Club Front already existed.

In that case yeah, I'm not sure there's anything to this trope that isn't already covered someplace else, between School Club Front, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, and School Forced Us Together.

Edited by 4maskwolf on May 27th 2021 at 10:54:11 AM

WarJay77 Big Catch, Sparkle Edition (Troper Knight)

Big Catch, Sparkle Edition

#8: May 27th 2021 at 12:11:29 PM

Maybe it can be disambiged then.

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

ImperialMajestyXO Since: Nov, 2015

#9: May 27th 2021 at 2:15:22 PM

If it really is redundant, I think a disambig would be best.

GastonRabbit Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me

Sounds good on paper (he/him)

#10: May 27th 2021 at 2:50:00 PM

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.

YourIdeas Since: Mar, 2014

#11: May 28th 2021 at 9:13:28 AM

Gone ahead and made a crowner. These options look fine?

Move examples into other appropriate tropes like School Club Front, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, and School Forced Us Together.
Send back to TLP/Redefine trope as 'school club used primarily to hang out/goof off'.
Disambiguate it.