After-school clubs show up in many media, but tend to be of particular focus in Anime & Manga, where an entire series will be focused around a club and its activities.
A common plot thread in such stories is that the school will not officially recognize the club until and unless they have a faculty advisor.
In some storylines, the students will ask a teacher to just sign on as an advisor and leave the students to their own devices, being an advisor on paper only (with a similar contrivance often used for meeting the mandatory minimum number of club members, usually four or five).
Sometimes the students get their teacher to join them as their advisor under Black Comedy Blackmail, having discovered some Old Shame of the teacher's.
Other times, they try to bribe a teacher with offers of treats or various favors for them.
In many cases, the club advisor becomes just as passionate about the club activities as the students themselves, even if they were initially uninterested or dismissive.
Other times, there may be a somewhat unhealthy dynamic of Hot for Teacher or Hot for Student involved, but more often than not Played for Laughs and never actually going anywhere. In other works, particularly those that take place in co-ed schools, the advisor might be a Shipper on Deck while also still having to make sure the students don't do anything untoward during official outings to events.
May overlap with Cute Girls Doing Cute Things, as club activities often fall under that umbrella, as do the club advisors. In such stories, a Sensei-chan is more likely than a Stern Teacher (though there are cases of them being one and the same).
Merely being mentioned or making a brief appearance is not sufficient for this trope. As a character trope, those serving as club advisors must contribute to the story in some fashion, be it as the Audience Surrogate to allow for exposition or moving the plot along in other ways.
See also Japanese School Club.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Asteroid in Love: Yuki Endou runs the Earth Sciences Club, and tries to help balance the former geology club and the former astronomy club into a cohesive unit, with such activities as a barbeque where they would collect rocks at day, and stargaze at night. Her former experience with being an Astronomy Club member at high school (including having been to a prestigious astronomy summer camp) also helps, but she also has some burnout issues.
- Bloom Into You:
- Riko Hakozaki is the school's literature teacher and the advisor to the Drama Club. As such, she proves helpful in aiding the Student Council when Touko wants to revive a tradition of the Student Council putting on a play as part of their culture festival. Riko helps train the various members on how to act out on stage, project their voice so they're heard through the auditorium, and rehearse their lines so that they memorize them thoroughly. She also makes sure the students adhere to lights out during their training camp, sequestering the boys from the girls at night (though it's unclear if she knew there was a Love Triangle between the three girls on the Student Council or not).
- Downplayed with Yuu's homeroom teacher, who serves as the advisor to the Student Council. When he overhears Yuu stating that she was undecided about what clubs to join, he essentially cons her into joining the Student Council, claiming it is a lot of fun. He's never seen or heard from again, but it was he who got the ball rolling on Yuu's story.
- Chihayafuru:
- Miyauchi-sensei, known and revered throughout the school as The Empress, agrees initially to be the club advisor to the karuta club on paper, with the stipulation that Chihaya, not known for her academic excellence, not be the club president. Miyauchi becomes a much more ardent supporter of the club after listening to Kanade wax philosophical about the history and heritage of the poems used in karuta, and goes to bat for them when the school is considering giving their club room to the wind ensemble. She also provides tasuke cords for the team to help them tie their kimonos when it's hot. What's more, Miyauchi serves as an Audience Surrogate, knowing little about the game of karuta herself, thus allowing exposition as the members of the club explain rules and situations to her.
- Coach Sakurazawa is the long-established head of the karuta club for Fujisaki High, and puts her students through rigorous Training from Hell to improve them. She allows students from other clubs to attend their training camp because she loves karuta and likes having Worthy Opponents, and if they can and are willing to endure her training, so much the better.
- Chidori RSC: The Rifle Shooting Club discovers they need an advisor to go to competitions, and are quickly approached by Yuko Tsurumaki, who is looking for ways to bond with students. She is an Otaku who has a ton of manga and anime around her apartment, to the point where walking around in her apartment is near impossible. She quickly reads up on the Rifle Shooting Club's history and activities to be able to assist the girls. After Izumi makes a remark that could be construed as romantic (that she likes Tsumaki-sensei as she is), she becomes infatuated with all the girls, with Hikari later joking that Tsurumaki has gone the harem route.
- K-On!: Sawako Yamanaka is initially blackmailed into becoming the advisor to the Light Music Club with a photo from her days as a member of her own band, Death Devil, during her days in the LMC. Sawako, however, quickly becomes a driving force for the club, often designing elaborate costumes for them and making them Cosplay, to the horror of Mio Akiyama, the club's shy lead bassist.
- Laid-Back Camp: While Minami Toba became the Outdoor Activity Club's advisor just because she's new to the school (and thus has no other advisor duties), she starts taking her role as the Outclub's advisor more seriously over time, especially after Chiaki and the others' Lake Yamanaka trip almost ends in disaster due to lack of preparation. To avoid a repeat of that incident, she asks the Outdoor Activity Club to run their plans by her first from now on. She also starts cutting back on her alcohol consumption so she can be more alert and able to get the girls where they need without designated drivers.
- Sabagebu!: Ena Sakura is the club advisor to the school's Survival Game Club. This is to the detriment of the girls in the club, as Sakura-sensei is Too Dumb to Live and a Sensei-chan who is also a fountain of bad luck. She becomes The Millstone from her first appearance in the series, burning herself, smacking into a tree, and being chased by a pack of wild dogs. She also poked open a hornet's nest that the club had knocked out of a tree because she insisted that hornets were just bigger bees and was trying to get at the honey in the nest (apparently unaware that there wouldn't be any).
- School Rumble:
- Itoko-sensei is the club advisor to the Tea Club, but largely leaves the operations of the club to Akira, the club president. She is present when Hanai wants to join the club so he can be near Yakumo but says membership is entirely up to the students, not her.
- Tae Anegasaki, the school nurse, becomes the faculty advisor for the nascent Girls' Basketball Team. This causes more than a few problems, as she knows absolutely nothing about basketball, and has a habit of giving the girls on the team Embarrassing Nicknames, such as giving Mikoto a nickname based on her large chest or referring to the aggressive Lara as "Gori", which is short for "gorilla".
Films — Live-Action
- Bottoms Mr. G is recruited because PJ and Josie assume, and try to encourage, him to just sign off on the club and not show up. But turns out he's really enthusiastic about his new position, including participating in their group therapy.
Literature
- My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, as I Expected, aka My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU, focuses on the Service Club, initially consisting of a single member, Yukino Yukinoshita. But club advisor Hiratsuka-sensei quickly adds Hachiman Hikigaya to the club to force him to socialize, and then sets up a contest to see which of them can help the most people, with victor and prize to be decided by Hiratsuka herself. She often tricks Hikigaya into participating in things, such as texting his sister to take them for a meet-up on a pretext, only to reveal that they're heading out to a summer camp to serve as counselors.
Live-Action TV
- Kamen Rider Fourze: Chuta Ohsugi is a strict and rather unpleasant teacher at Amanogawa High School who, for a decent chunk of the series, is antagonistic towards the members of the secretive (and unofficial) Kamen Rider Club — especially the new transfer and series protagonist, Gentaro Kisaragi, whom he immediately labels as troublesome on his first day. However, during the Musca Zodiarts' attack on the school, Ohsugi discovers the existence of the club and initially planned to report them to Principal Hayami (who himself is one of the main boss Zodiarts), though before he could do so, he learns that the Musca Zodiarts is a student who was given his power by a teacher. With the knowledge that someone on Amanogawa's faculty is now untrustworthy and that the Kamen Rider Club is actively protecting the school from the Zodiarts, Ohsugi agrees to keep quiet about them and volunteers to become their club advisor, both in part due to school clubs requiring a faculty advisor and his responsibility to help and protect his students, just as the club is doing for them now.
Video Games
- Blue Archive: This is one of the main duties of Sensei, who, as the head of Schale and the sole teacher in Kivotos, finds themselves taking on advisory duties for the many clubs found there as needed. They take on a more direct role when they're asked to be the advisor of the Make-Up Work club and getting them to improve their grades.
- Pokémon Masters: The "Pasio Paranormal Studies Club" Academy Event sees Florian start the eponymous club at Pasio Academy at Marnie's urging. Just as he's mulling over who to appoint as club supervisor, Professor Jacq having already turned the role down, Morty happens to overhear him in passing and volunteers. During the ending cutscene, Morty remarks that he's enjoying watching the club members investigating so earnestly.
"Ah, I see we have new members for the Trope Editing Club. I'm Troper-sensei, your faculty advisor. You'll fit right in with the rest of the... uh... colorful personalities here."