The adventures of the Hero Club start here!
Mizuki Hijiri's hopes for a peaceful high school life are dashed when she transfers into a new school and gets entangled in the shenanigans of the Hero Club, a group of students affected by chuunibyou syndrome. Her new friends include superhero fan Yamato Noda, 2D-girls obsessed otaku Tomoki Takashima, the supposed "reincarnation" of an angel or a devil Kazuhiro Nakamura, and self-proclaimed schemer Rei Tsukumo. The Hero Club has decided that Mizuki is one of their own and involve her, often against her will, in their activities to help other students with their problems.
Outburst Dreamer Boys is a light novel series inspired by Vocaloid producer rerulili's song "Outburst Dreamer Boys" (Chūbyō Gekihatsu Boy), written by Minato Tonami with illustrations by Hojima. The series under its original name was published from 2016 to 2018 for five volumes, and it received a continuation, Outburst Dreamer Boys: Youth Syndrome, named after the original song's own sequel composition "Youth Syndrome" (Seishun Shokogun), which was published for another five volumes from 2018 to 2019. This series was instead illustrated by Coffee Milk. A third series began in 2020 under the subtitle Pride Supernova (Pride Shoushinsei).
An anime series produced by Studio DEEN premiered on October 4, 2019 in the Fall 2019 anime season. It ran for 11 episodes on television, with the final episode included in the series' home video release.
The anime is available for Streaming on HiDive.
Compare The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. for another comedy anime that has a snarky protagonist and is full of cloudcuckoolanders and characters with chunnibyou delusions.
Outburst Dreamer Boys contains examples of:
- Affectionate Parody:
- Most of the Hero Club members parody characters with serious Chuunibyou tendencies who think they're characters from the anime world.
- Nakamura is one for fantasy heroes Trapped in Another World.
- Ascended Fanboy: Takashima is a fan of the virtual girl iSora or "Sora-chan" and when he attends an iLive of her, he meets the real person playing iSora on stage. Takashima calls him a master and instantly becomes a fan of him. Then when the guy isn't able to perform again, Takashima takes his place and plays iSora on stage.
- Bonfire Dance: At the end of the cultural Festival Epsiode, the school gets into pairs to do the folk dance near the bonfire. The Drama Club joins the fun to celebrate their club winning the festival's popularity poll which means the club won't be closed.
- Book Smart: Nakamura is mentioned to have top grades and even called a brainiac by Hijiri's stalker.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Eccentric as they might be, the Hero Club is pretty good at what they do, as seen when they help Mizuki earn a real friend and Nanako in getting rid of her stalker.
- Casting Gag: Daiki Yamashita voices Noda and this isn't the first time he voiced a bright, passionate character who's obsessed with heroes and helping others, and comes off as a geeky nerd because of it just like Midoriya from My Hero Academia.
- Cat Scare: When the Hero club members go to investigate the mystery behind the thing causing chaos at their school, they think a monster or so would show up just for it to be an iguana, then a suspenseful moment again and Nakamura's parakeet comes out, then in the third time Benjamin the cat shows up. The thing behind the accidents turns out to be a penguin on the loose.
- Character Tics: Nakamura has a habit of adjusting his glasses for added coolness.
- Chromosome Casting: Hijiri and Nanako start out as the only truly relevant girls, but later on in the series they acquire an Elegant Gothic Lolita as well to add to the craziness.
- Class Representative: Nanako Watase, Mizuki's Only Friend outside the Hero Club.
- Chuunibyou: The Hero Club, of course. Only one of them hides this by being a Closet Otaku.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Save for Mizuki, everyone is odd and acts in a silly manner ranging from Nakamura who thinks like he's in a fantasy world, and Takashima who's only into 2D girls to Noda who's obsessed with live-action works and names the club members based on the Super Sentai colors.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: More like the cuckoolanders were right, but when the Hero club warns Mizuki that someone is trying to hurt her she doesn't believe them at first and yells at them to leave her alone. Turns out Hijiri's stalker was really targeting her after all.
- Curtains Match the Window: With the exception of Tsukumo and Nakamura, all of the main characters have eye colors that match with their hair.
- Deadpan Snarker: Mizuki often makes witty remarks about the other character's eccentric behavior.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: "Outburst Dreamer Boys" as a Cover Version is performed by all of the male members of the Minakami High School Hero Club.
- Fanboy: Takashima is a fan of the 2D girl iSora and he's seen crying while cheering with lightsticks when he attends a live performance of her.
- Fowl-Mouthed Parrot: Faust, Nakamura's parakeet, is prone to saying "shut up, imbecile," which is something Nakamura says a lot himself.
- Genki Guy: Out of all members, Noda is the most cheerful and energetic one with the loudest and highest voice.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Takashima is blonde and he generally has a pure and friendly personality. When he helps a lost child find her mother he cheers her up by singing an iSora song to her and giving her an iSora charm.
- Incoming Ham: The moment Nakamura steps into a scene, it's bound to be dramatic and exaggerated as hell. He even has his own background music.
- Magical Eye: Discussed by Noda. The Hero Club thinks Mizuki has one hidden behind her eyepatch. It's just an eye infection.
- Mythology Gag: Multiple different references are made to Vocaloid songs, rerulili's discography, or the original "Outburst Dreamer Boys" song, due to the series' origin as a rerulili Vocaloid composition:
- Nanako informs Hijiri that she can also choose Vocaloid songs at the local karaoke joint, and seems interested in "Spinal Fluid Explosion Girl" being on the setlist (another song-turned-adaptation composed by rerulili).
- The poses the five boys do in the opening are all the poses their original designs had in the original PV. The black silhouettes are also how they're shown in that video up until the end.
- An answering machine message Hijiri receives is taken from the break in "Outburst Dreamer Boys". Similar messages have been left in many of rerulili's "Girl/Boy" songs.
"The number you have reached is out of range or turned off. Calls will not be accepted unless from cute girls." - Large Ham: Nakamura constantly talks and behaves like he's a magical being reincarnated into this world with fancy language. He acts like he has powers sealed in his right hand and acts dramatically most of the time. Him wearing gloves adds to his hamminess. He lets himself get soaked in the rain in episode 2 while showing up to play Hijiri's fake boyfriend just for dramatics.
- New Transfer Student:
- Mizuki at the beginning starts as one and makes it her goal to make friends and live a peaceful school life.
- There's also Mikuriya who came from America and joined class 1-C in episode 4.
- Only Sane Man: Mizuki, much to her misfortune, is the only normal person in a cast full of oddballs. She has no problem pointing out the fact that they're all hopeless idiots.
- Opaque Nerd Glasses: The Student Council members are seen wearing them and they take their club very seriously.
- Out-of-Character Moment: Hijiri not complaining about being called Pink by Noda means that she's not her usual self.
- Pretty Boy: It's mentioned several times that Takashima has good looks. Same goes for Mikuriya.
- Shout-Out:
- The Hero club is based on Super Sentai and Noda even calls the members by the colors of the rangers in the franchise. They even have a scene where they're in a theme park and there's an area where they have a show called "Blasto Rangers" where they're dressed as the rangers and do their "Super Sentai" Stance.
- Nakamura has a notebook where anyone's name written there will die.
- Sixth Ranger: Mikuriya joins the Hero club by the end of episode 4, becoming their literal 6th member and matching their Super Sentai theme.
- Smug Smiler: Tsukumo is constantly shown smirking due to his arrogant personality.
- Tamer and Chaster: Takashima compared to his original design in the PV is quite a different boy. The PV associates him with sex and vulnerability, as he's seen in intimate situations with a similarly vulnerable girl at different points and his verse also includes condom imagery. Takashima, on the other hand, is a very pure, virginal boy with an interest only in 2-D. Even the context of his pose is changed; the anime adds a phone screen with his beloved Sora-chan on it.
- 12-Episode Anime: The anime ran for only 11 episodes.
- The Un-Smile: When Tsukumo tries to smile as he gets appointed to work for the children's area in a theme park, his smile looks scary.
- Wingding Eyes: Happens multiple times.
- When Noda prevents Mizuki from leaving by spinning them both around, her eyes turn into spirals while his turn into stars.
- Noda's eyes generally turn into stars whenever he's super excited.
