Shinomiya Kyouya is forced to become a new member of the GJ, an unidentified club that dwells in a room of the former building of a certain school. Here he meets the club leader, Mao, a short girl with a big attitude; Mao's younger sister, Megumi, who has the heart of a bipolar angel; Shion, the recognized genius with a lack of common sense, and the always hungry and mysterious Kirara. Time flies with these unique girls around.
GJ-bu (Good Job Club, pronounced "Good Jobbu") is a Japanese light novel series written by Shin Araki and illustrated by Aruya; it was originally published from 2010 to 2012 for 11 volumes, followed by a spinoff series, GJ-bu Chuutou-bu, which was published from 2012 to 2014 for eight volumes. It was adapted into an anime in January 2013.
This light novel series contains examples of:
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Kyoro's "Ore Man" persona causes the girls to Squee.
- Allergic to Love: Mao, who couldn't stand anything Shoujo, and even for Shonen works, she couldn't stand when a kiss was involved. She loves Bridal Carry, though.
- Badass Adorable: Mao.
- Bifauxnen: According to the novels, Moris usually wears male clothing and hence looks more like a butler than a maid.
- Big Eater:
- Kirara, who is always seen to be eating.
- Tama happens to be one as well; she is frequently seen eating snacks and sweets, yet she does not seem to gain any weight (she even managed to lose weight despite eating a whole week's worth of cake). Much to Megumi's dismay.
- Big Brother Attraction: Kasumi is very close to her big brother. She stays in his room all the time, gets jealous when she finds out he brushes other girls' hair, and if that's not enough to imply her brother complex, she confiscates every novel with dirty content except for one, quietly explaining that she left that one because the heroine is the hero's little sister. She then demands that he read that one volume at least five times.
- Big Little Sister: Megumi is taller than her sister, Mao. While she's not too bothered by this, the fact that their younger sister Seira is a millimeter shorter annoys her to no end.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Mao and her feelings towards Kyoro. As Megumi says it, 'it's not that she doesn't want to, it's that she can't'.
- Cartoon Meat: constantly eaten by Kirara in the anime, with other characters even commenting that it's "That sort of meat that only shows up in anime."
- Cat Girl: Kirara.
- Childhood Friend: Shion and the Amatsukas.
- Color Failure:
- Occurs twice for hilarious reasons in episode 2.
- Happens twice to Megumi in episode 7; both due to Weight Woe.
- Comically Missing the Point: The scene with Kyoro's sketchbook in episode 10 takes this to rather absurd lengths.
- Covert Pervert: Shion. After Kyoro smuggled the large amount of Shōnen Demographic manga and light novels that Mao may or may not stand (see Allergic to Love, above), Shion made a list of books "banned by Mao"—which lists the books Mao shouldn't read for being too intimate, and in the same time one she should read because they're enough intimate.
- Credits Jukebox: The anime changes the ending theme every two episodes.
- Curtains Match the Window: Shion, Megumi and Kasumi all have this.
- Cute Little Fangs: Mao's are on display almost 24/7.
- Ditzy Genius: Shion is capable of beating Chessmasters in chess but is astonished by things like instant ramen.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The sounds the girls make when they get their hair brushed can easily be mistaken for something else entirely.
- Dragged into Drag: Episode 9 features all the girls forcing Kyoro to cross-dress for their amusement. It turns out that Kyoro both looked good in it and got into character rather quickly. The girls weren't so amused anymore. They force him to do it again in episode 11, albeit this time it happens off-screen.
- Eek, a Mouse!!: The entire club is terrified by a large spider in the first episode, despite Shion identifying it as harmless. Everyone, that is, save Megumi, who actually picks the spider up and releases it outside.
- Extreme Doormat: Kyoro is very passive such that he pretty much just give a Visible Sigh to the girls' hijinks. In fact, he was described as "the peaceful defeatist."
- Fantastic Arousal: Kyoro's hair brushing will give this vibe to the girls.
- Girly Skirt Twirl: Mori does this for Kyoro multiple times much to his delight.
- Huge Schoolgirl: Kirara is considerably taller than the rest of the cast.
- Insane Troll Logic:
- Mao forces Kyoro to give her candy or marshmallows for White Day, but she didn't give any chocolate to him at Valentine's Day (it was Mori).
- Kasumi hides Kyoro's ecchi novels because she didn't want Kyoro "became a boy", although she spare one volume because it has a little sister as the heroine.
- In-Series Nickname: Kyouya gets the nickname 'Kyoro' at the very end of the first episode.
- Large Ham: Kyoro while invoking his Ore-Man persona.
- Miko: Tama
- Meaningful Name: Name order considered, the names of the older two of the Amatsuka sisters can be translated as "Angelic Demon" (Mao) and "Angelic Goddess" (Megumi).
- Meido: Mori-san, although according to the novels she doesn't put on a maid uniform as often as in the anime. Megumi also dresses up as one in episode 4.
- Mum Looks Like a Sister: Mori-san's mother, since she looks identical to Mori-san.
- Mundane Made Awesome: Kyoro's hair brushing skills. It's also invoked by Mao on multiple occasions.
- Nice Guy: The girls found Kyoro so harmless. Lampshaded by the Amatsuka sisters.
- Oblivious to Love: In the novels Kyoro has a crush on Megumi, but Megumi didn't seem to notice it. On the other hand, in the anime all the girls have some Ship Tease with him, but he didn't notice much, either.
- Older Than They Look: Mao is the eldest sibling of Amatsuka family, yet can quite easily pass as an elementary student. She actually exploited this to have Kyoro brings her to a diner to have a children's meal. The novel noted she stopped growing since the fourth grade.
- Picky Eater: Kirara, as shown in episode 7, REALLY doesn't like vegetables.
- Real Men Hate Sugar: The corollary was used. Kyoro once stated he didn't care for "real coffee" because it was too bitter, and prefers over-swetened canned coffee instead. He was immediately called "little kid" by Mao. On a macroscopic angle Kyoro isn't a "real man" either but a defeatist Nice Guy that the girls found harmless. Hence his occasional Ore-man form when the girls want someone more testosterone poisoned.
- Running Gag:
- Mori spins for Kyoro. Kyoro really likes this. Kyoro is later kicked by jealous club members.
- Shion's obsession with commoner's items.
- Mao biting Kyoro.
- Kyoro's "Ore-Man" mode.
- Ship Tease: Happens every episode between Kyoro and the other female characters he interacts with.
- Short Story: This series calls itself a yonkoma Light Novel, by having all stories four pages long.
- Shout-Out:
- In episode 5, Shion believes that Kyoro is anxious because the picture on his wall is off by a few centimeters.
- The second time Kyoro acts as "Ore Man" resembles JoJo.
- In the second episode, Megumi holds the box of a game of Twister. On the cover, there are three girls who look a lot like Rei, Asuka and Mari.
- In episode 6, Kyouya's sister was seen reading Detective Doiru, a thinly veiled spoof of Case Closed.
- In episode 9, Tama is reading a light novel. The character portraits from Psycho-Pass are on the front cover with different hair colours.
- Sheltered Aristocrat: Shion acts like this, but there was a further justification—all her older brothers were all geniuses in one field or the other, so that she in fact doesn't need anything that comes outside of her household—those would be inferior to what is in her house anyway. When you have an blue-cordon class Supreme Chef—or maybe an Supreme Barista as well—preparing your lunch box every day, do you expect you to know what Instant Noodles or Canned Coffee is? She doesn't, but she finds this depressing as well, and wants Kyoro (who is the only person of a lower status in the cast) to actually teach her those common sense.
- Spoiled Sweet: Shion, who as noted above is fascinated by lower-class living despite her genius brothers providing everything she could ever need, and Megumi, whose family employs at least two maidservants but who personally enjoys cooking, cleaning, crafting, and serving tea for her friends and is a Friend to All Living Things.
- Strong Family Resemblance:
- Mori-san and her mom. Then they pull The Reveal in episode 11: Apparently the Mori who had her hair brushed was the mother.
- When Kyoro cross dresses in episode 9, he looks a lot like his younger sister if she was older.
- Super-Deformed: Every now and then.
- Super-Strength:
- Kirara effortlessly flips Kyoro on his head during the arm wrestling contest.
- Episode 11 reveals that her younger sister Geraldine is capable of picking Kirara up and running with her.
- Tareme Eyes: The entire cast except Shion, Tama, Mori and Seira have them.
- Talking with Signs: Geraldine since she doesn't know how to speak Japanese too well.
- Token Mini-Moe:
- Mao; she's only 138 cm tall (just over 4'6").
- Gets a little more confusing when Tama and the main cast's little sisters start showing up. Granted, said sisters are still easily convinced that Mao is a grade-schooler although they don't look like they're much older.
- Trademark Favorite Food:
- Sweet potatoes for the girls.
- Kirara loves meat.
- Tsurime Eyes:
- Shion, Tama, Mori and Seira have those.
- Kyoro in "Ore Man" mode has them as well. The rest of the time he has Tareme Eyes.
- Tsundere: Mao.
- Unwanted Harem: This series is basically applying this concept into a Slice of Life rather than Romantic Comedy. Early on in the novels a ramen store owned already noted Kyoro pretty much has a harem.
- Walking Swimsuit Scene: Episode 8. In lieu of actually going to the pool, the female club members and their respective sisters mess around in their swimsuits in the club room.
- Weight Woe: Megumi.
- Wholesome Crossdresser:
- The girls in episode 11.
- Shion apparently participated in a butler cafe for a prior year's school festival. When she puts on her old costume for Kyoro, he spends the next several minutes in a daze.
- Younger than She Looks: Shion, especially when not in school uniform.
