Sobu High School is the generic high school setting where the series takes place. This place is modelled after Inage Senior High School in Chiba. Most of the characters either work here or attend school.
It was mentioned that the entrance requirements are quite high. Those who wish to gain admittance are required to score highly on the entrance exams or receive a recommendation from good junior high schools. The entrance exams are held on a single day in February. The entire school gets a day-off except for the faculty.
According to Hachiman, Sobu teaches the "Big Five", Japanese, English, Social Sciences (Liberal Arts), Mathematics and Sciences (Physics, Chemistry and Biology). It also has various forms of Art, Sports, Music and Home Economics classes for nine total.
Second year students are required to fill out a career survey for help with their future course choices. Later they will choose either Liberal Arts or Sciences to focus on for their third year classes.
Most schools post results of exams on a billboard within school grounds. Sobu High does not, instead the teachers tell the students about their rankings and scores in person (with the exception of entrance exam scores, which are posted on a billboard).
Dress Code[]
Sobu Indoor Shoes
Yukino's Athletic Shoes.
Sobu High has three uniforms it allows its students wear. A summer outfit, winter outfit, and athletic outfit. The uniform has brown outdoor shoes, colour-coded indoor shoes with an X stitching, and colour-coded athletic shoes that has two vertical lines on the side.
Colour Code[]
Light Novel[]
In Volume 1, it is said when wearing a normal school outfit, girls in each grade wear a colour-coded ribbon to identify themselves. Ared ribbon meant the student is in second year. The ribbon colours are never mentioned again.
However, in Volume 3, it is mentioned the students also have colour-coded indoor shoes and the first years wear yellow ones. The third year colour is unknown.
Anime[]
In the anime, both Iroha (1st year) and Meguri (3rd year) are shown to be wearing a red ribbon along with the 2nd years.
In the anime, the students' indoor and athletic shoes match their athletic outfit colours. Red is worn by first years, green is worn by second years, and blue is worn by third years.
Summer Outfit[]
Kakeru does not wear the uniform up to code.
The summer outfit is a simple white collared shirt, black jacket with white trim, and black pants or red plaid skirt. Girls may wear a blue vest. The boys' outfit includes a green tie, and the girls wear a red ribbon around their necks. Many of the students do not wear the neck-piece. Since the summer is very hot, many students disregard the jacket, and girls roll up their skirt so its shorter/airier.
Winter Outfit[]
The winter outfit is exactly the same, the only difference being an additional cream-coloured long-sleeve cardigan (for girls) and a much larger navy blue overcoat for insulation.
Athletic Outfit[]
Athletic Uniforms for the Athletic Festival.
The athletic outfit is colour-coded, but it does not match the Light Novel ribbon colour. It is a two-tone track suit with athletic shoes. Saika wears his athletic outfit year round. He also has his own special athletic shoes.
Club Outfit[]
Sobu's sports teams have a white and purple track suit. Most noticeably seen being worn by the tennis club.
Location[]
The school is located in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture. The school building is situated near the sea and because of the tides, the wind would change direction around noon.
Facilities[]
Special Building[]
The special building is connected to the main building by an uncovered walkway and a breezeway between buildings. It houses many of the club rooms for the school, including the Service Club and the Games Club. The top of the breezeway has an open walkway overlooking the school's courtyard.
Home Economics Room[]
The Home Economics Room.
A large room with many cooking stations. It is mentioned in the First Light Novel that Tsurumi-Sensei is in charge of classes in this room.
Conference Room[]
The Athletic Festival.
The school has a conference room for various activities. It is used as the planning room for the Cultural and Athletic Festivals. It is mentioned to be the size of two regular classrooms and contained gaudy seats and tables inside. There is a white board bolted to the wall for writing.
The Committee for the Cultural Festival.
The conference room has a large "U" shaped table with the open end of the table facing the whiteboard. There are extra tables at the sides. And another near the whiteboard for presenters.
Staff Room[]
The area looks like a standard open office space consisting of joint tables with small partitions and desks for each teacher. Each teacher has personalized their desk to some degree. Shizuka often leaves her cigarettes on her desk.
There is also a consultation section for teachers to interact with their students. This appears to be a smoking area as Shizuka often smokes while she deals with Hachiman. (Smoking indoors is not as frowned upon as it is in North America. However this is changing).
Reception Room[]
Reception Room
An elegantly appointed lounge with couches and awards on the walls, meant for receiving guests to the school.
Library[]
A medium-sized library with low shelves and several tables for students.
Student Council Room[]
Meguri in the Student Council Room in Zoku's opening.
It is a small office room. It consists of a table, desk. and several chairs for its members. It also has a number of shelves for files and folders. A school laptop is kept here for council business. Later, Iroha installed a Halogen heater and refrigerator.
Bicycle Parking[]
Sobu provides covered parking for students and staff that ride their bicycles to school.
Sports Facilities[]
Athletic Field
Sobu is mentioned to be academically focused and none of its sports teams are very good.
Athletic Field - It is a large dirt field, yet not big enough for multiple sports teams. The soccer club, baseball club, track and field, and the rugby club all share the space. The Athletic Festival Bo-Taoshi event was held here.
Tennis Courts - Located in the southeast corner of the school grounds.
Indoor Gymnasium - A large space suitable for holding events such as graduation ceremonies and the Sobu High School prom.
Staff[]
Shizuka Hiratsuka - (until Volume 14 Chapter 9) Modern Japanese Teacher, Homeroom Teacher for class 2-F, Service Club Adviser.
Sobu High has 30 classes, 10 for each grade. Each class is represented by a letter from A to J. The Class J of each grade is an International Curriculum class is aimed at nurturing talented students capable of fulfilling an active role in the international level. It mostly consists of those who return to Japan from overseas or have aspirations to study abroad. The academic standards of Class J are 2 to 3 times higher than the other classes.[1]
Furthermore, those of this class have a unique air about them that make students of other classes wary of socializing with them, so it is safe to assumed that Class J students are of elite background.[2]
Class 2-J (Known Student: Yukino Yukinoshita) - International Course class. Approximately 90% of this class are girls. Performed a fashion show for the Cultural Festival.
Class 3-B - Constructed a "trolley guided museum" for the Cultural Festival. They later "illegally" turned it into a roller coaster to attract more people.
Class 3-E - Held an open petting zoo using house pets for the Cultural Festival.
As of Volume 14 Chapter 10, the main characters of the series are in their 3rd year of high school:
Although it is assumed that Yukino Yukinoshita and Yui Yuigahama are in separate classes, little is known at this point about the classroom arrangements of the rest of the main characters.
Activities[]
2nd Year Workplace Tour - There are survey forms used to determine the occupation students are interested in learning more about and then the school allows students to visit the most popular workplace choices.
Cultural Festival - Held every year at the end of summer.
Athletic Festival - Held every year, sometimes in the summer. Sobu holds theirs in Autumn.
2nd Year Trip - The seconds year students go on an overnight trip in November. In the series' timeline, the trip is to Kyoto.
School Marathon - Held near the end of winter, in early February or late January.
Prom
Prom - A Western graduation tradition introduced to Sobu by Iroha, held in March shortly after the graduation ceremony and replacing the traditional sending-off event.
Joint Prom
Joint Prom - Also known as Prom Saikou Project. This is a second prom that is co-held with Kaihin Sougou High School at a beachside event hall in Chiba. It was started by Hachiman (together with Yui, Yoshiteru, and the UG duo) to initially serve as an inferior dummy prom to increase the appeal of Yukino's and Iroha's prom. However, Hachiman eventually organizes this prom with Yukino, with many of their classmates and the Student Council providing support.
