The chaotic, unrecognised club of the Pastimers
In short: In Rin Suzukawa's manga, three middle school girls form an unofficial club with no clear goals. From pretending to be foreign exchange students to dealing with a butler who fires lasers from his butt, the series thrives on the bizarre and the energetic.
Asobi Asobase, written and illustrated by Rin Suzukawa, follows the lives of Hanako Honda, Olivia, and Kasumi Nomura. These second-year students at an all-girls middle school form the Pastimers Club, a group that lacks official recognition and possesses highly ambiguous objectives. Their activities typically consist of whatever "pastimes" the trio decides to pursue in the moment.
The group's dynamics are defined by extreme personalities. Hanako is a highly intelligent and athletic student whose energetic nature often drags her classmates into strange games. Olivia, despite being born and raised in Japan to foreign parents, maintains a persona as an American transfer student by speaking in broken Japanese. Kasumi, meanwhile, struggles with English and avoids games due to childhood teasing from her sister, despite her interest in writing BL fantasies.
The series' surrealism extends to supporting characters like Maeda, Hanako's wealthy family butler, who is capable of firing laser beams from his butt after being probed by aliens. The school environment is equally unpredictable, featuring a Student Council President who oscillates between being a friend and an adversary, and a teacher, Chisato Higuchi, who was blackmailed into serving as the club's advisor.
Originally serialized on Hakusensha's Young Animal Densi website starting in June 2015, the manga concluded in November 2022. Its chapters were eventually collected into fifteen tankōbon volumes. The series also received an anime adaptation by Lerche, which aired in Japan between July and September 2018.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Asobi Asobase
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