Drama Club Arc
Volumes: 1-2
Chapters: 1 - 17
Episodes: 1-5
Following a gruesome murder, the Cherryton drama club is shaken up. Legoshi, a strange gray wolf of the drama club, faces changes in his life after meeting the young dwarf rabbit Haru.
Tropes:
- Adaptation Explanation Extrication: When Legoshi catches Els alone in the drama practice room to give her Tem's letter in the manga, he announces his presence and approaches her with a series of poorly-chosen statements that have innocent meanings but would easily be misinterpreted as threatening by a herbivore who’s already convinced he’s dangerous. When she pulls out the scissors, and he walks up and disarms her, he seems to think that he tried to explain himself but his words weren’t working. The anime avoids most of this detail: he waits for her outside a building and walks towards her with an unnecessarily slow, menacing gait, completely silent in response to her terrified reactions until the moment he shows her the letter. Even if his behavior in the manga is a bit contrived for the sake of drama, it's at least explainable in terms of a misunderstanding. In the anime it almost looks like he’s going out of his way to scare Els, for no other reason than to set up the surprise for the audience.
- Adapted Out: Likely due to budget concerns of creating cg models for all of them, a large number of drama club members are entirely absent from the anime adaptation. While the bulk of the missing members were nameless background characters to begin with, named characters absent from the anime version of this arc include Mokichi and Riz from the sound team.
- All Part of the Show: Legoshi and Bill get into a fight on stage that Louis has to break up. He does intend to suspend the two of them from Drama Club, but since everything was assumed to have been a part of the performance and received very well on top of that, he has no choice but to keep the two on the club and pretend everything was planed.
- Cliffhanger: The arc ends with the reveal that Louis and Haru are secretly dating, setting up a love triangle that will come into play next arc.
- Foreshadowing: If having a quirk or secret is the only way one gets into Drama Club, then what's Louis' secret? What's Legoshi's?
- It's All About Me: As the star actor, Louis cares only about himself. Even as he gives a speech rallying the club, all he can think of is himself.Louis: Despite the incident, the solidarity of this club remains quite strong. (Solidarity doesn't mean anything now. I'm here. That's all that matters.)
- "Not So Different" Remark: When Legoshi attacks Bill for drinking rabbit's blood, Bill is quick to turn the tables and point out the only way Legoshi could have sensed he had rabbit's blood so quickly is if he's had his own experience with it. He drives his argument even further by clawing deep marks into Legoshi's back.Bill: This is the proof of our bond. We both have stripes we'll wear with pride.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The Drama Club is explicitly designed to be one, with the recruitment team explicitly seeking out only individuals with interesting quirks.
- The Show Must Go On: Louis seriously injures his leg but ignores it in favor of putting on the play. He only makes it to the end of the first performance before passing out.
- What the Hell, Hero?: When Legoshi discovers Bill is drinking rabbit's blood as a form of doping, he calls him out on it and resolves to take the argument to the stage, taking advantage of their fight scene together to fight for real.
