Tag Archives: Medaka Box

This is the end of Medaka Box though some of us already trolled and treated the last episode (ep. 11) as the finale. However this episode might as well being a filler episode because there was no Medaka at all, with exceptions of a few flashbacks. Not that it’s a bad thing by itself, but Medaka has tainted her clean attendance record for the first time due to her being admitted to the hospital after sustaining substantial amount of injury in her fights against a certain asshole last week.

I did mention yesterday that I din’t feel well and to be honest I’m still not fully recovered from headache and slight fever (but I went to work as usual today). That said I’ll make this review short, probably the shortest review I’ve ever written. So let me go straight to the point, this episode is about the student council solving a problem, which is to find the lost shogipieces, particularly the ‘king pieces.

Turned out the loss had something to do with the former member of the shogi club, Natayama who has left after not appointed as the new club president. Somehow Akune managed to ‘force’ her to confess about it. Then Zenkichi challenged her into a “mawari shogi” match, of which if she lost she must return those stolen shogi pieces, where in the end she fell to the trick and lost.

Natayama then realized she was too harsh all these times and then returned to the club and started teaching shogi to the club members again. The student council on the other hand has proved that they could manage without Medaka around them, as long as they work together. Now they are waiting for Medaka to return, and the season 2 will be fiercer with the arrival of some ‘villains’.

After all aired episodes so far (and how many episodes left? 1? 2?) this is perhaps the worst one of this show. Not in terms of the so-called “animation quality” or something but because there was an asshole inside (not to mention there was not much awesome snapshots either). I know it was necessary as part of the plot development but still an asshole is an asshole. If anything blame that asshole for being an asshole.

I don’t need to explain who that asshole is. He finally fights Medaka face to face. Turned out that he didn’t have any special ability; just being very skilful in using explosive-filled superballs that most people couldn’t notice due to those things moving too fast that only Medaka could see them.

For the first time in 3 years Medaka ‘transformed ‘ into “battle mode” in order to fight that asshole. Well she was enraged because that asshole might have killed the student council members. Of course that asshole was no match to Medaka but with him having many tricks up his sleeves it might not be an easy fight…

It’s been a while since the last time I saw a very hateable character. The last one being “daath” (or Death?) from Shitty Crown. And the most recent one is here in this episode, an evil character in the form of an extremely hateable brat that I don’t bother to neither feature his face/look nor remember his name.

I guess it’s enough to say that following the ‘conflict’ between the student council and the disciplinary committee, the leader of both sides faced each other in an attempt to solve a problem regarding this one club. It was a bloody battle for Medaka though she didn’t she a drop of blood but she did received some “superpower” attacks from the brat I mentioned above.

I believe Medaka alone would have been able to solve the problem alone but the brat already sent 3 “assassins” to “eliminate” the other 3 members of the student council. Naturally Medaka went to save those three while leaving Shiranui to take care of the brat. Oh well I forgot to mention that Medaka actually asked Shiranui to help her dealing with that brat while she goes to save other student council members.

You wouldn’t believe me if I said Shiranui was able to stop that brat, that is, if you haven;t watched this episode. Long story short, Medaka managed to save all members of the student council just in time. The real trouble has just begun.

The show starts with ass and boobs.

Oh yeah this is not really a mizugi episode but there’s something happened that Medaka ended up in her swimsuit again. Of course this has something to do with the suggestion box, except that the suggestion reached the student council directly, verbally. That is not before Zenkichi and Kikaijima-san had “some fun” in the student council room though

So there was this one dude (Yubaru) wanted to Medaka to become a model for his drawing model and he was in a rush to turn the drawing in for a contest. Being Medaka she wouldn’t turn ‘any’ request and agreed immediately. However she turned out being “too perfect” to become the model thus rejected right after the first drawing was finished.

Desperate to find a replacement model, both Zenkichi and Akune went separate ways and managed to ‘drag’ Isahaya (from the track team) and Nekomi (the former president of the judo club). Those two aren’t bad, in fact they are super good-looking too but both of them screwed up, giving the ‘scary’ impression and thus rejected too. Finally Kikaijima-san was given a chance to become a model too (only after she was ‘bribed’ into it) but the opportunity didn’t last long.

Well, Medaka actually hadn’t given up and presented “the other two members of student council” and her last bet. Those two are none other but Zenkichi and Akune. Their pics are drawn smoothly but still got rejected too in the end.

Luckily at the last minute Shiranui unexpectedly came in and instantly became the ultimate model for the drawing. She got everything that is needed to draw the “Goddess of Potential”. With Shiranui being selected that means she ‘defeated’ Medaka

Going back to what happened since the start, I found that this show does use the formula similar to the “monster of the week” in classic anime, albeit it uses the “request of the week”. I have no problem with that though because I know everything that happened in this show does related to each other. The more serious thing is waiting in the future.

With this episode I must say the introduction for all members of student council is now completed with Kikaijima-san being the last. Now I’m worried about what will happen in the next episode. The next episode preview hinted that the time for laid-back episodes is over.

The beginning of a “serious arc” next week?

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Continuing from last week’s episode, the inter-club aquatic meet now entered the second event, which is yet another ridiculous competition, a three-legged underwater race. Zenkichi and Akune represented the student council but they surprisingly seemed to get along extremely well. However with the Yakushima-Tanegashima pairing from the swimming club being one of the contestants, it might not be easy to win.

Right after the race started Zenkichi and Akune quickly made it to the front-most pair while the the Yakushima-Tanegashima pairing surprisingly fell last. Turned out that it was just their trick so that Tanegashima could keep up with Yakushima. once they reached the “even point” between them Tanegashima and Yakushima began to show their true colors. Easily both of them defeated Zenkichi and Akune who were way in front of them though if I was the referee I’d make them disqualified because no matter how you see it they were swimming instead of running!

The next event was eel-catching but this one was easily won by Kikaijima from the swimming club. Not sure why did Medaka represent the student council (there’s a probability that she ignored the fact that she’s a “natural animal repellant”). No matter how much she loved animals, they’d always keep a distance from her and in the end she couldn’t catch even one eel.

The final event was perhaps the most intense one because for the first time all three representatives from student council appear in a team. Actually they had to because it was a cavalry battle but with a slight twist to the rules as opposed to normal ones so that the currently winning team (the swimming club) wouldn’t have much advantages while the losing team could turn their fate. At first the swimming club didn’t really care about defeating the student council but after hearing Medaka’s words Kikajima who was pissed off of that decided to go all out against her though they could win without having to defeat her at all.

Long story short the student council defeated the swimming club but they didn’t end up becoming the overall winner. Turned out that while those two teams were intensely fighting the judo club managed to defeat all other teams and collected enough points to be declared as the winner. They were awarded the increase in club fund but Nabeshima joined the event only for fun and she shared the prize with other clubs in the end.

From the event the swimming club have learned something valuable from Medaka, that they could still love the money but they should value each other more. Soon after that Medaka ‘hired’ Kikaijima as the accountant for the student council. Actually she was rented from the swimming club for ‘only’ 320 yen per day!

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In one of my previous reviews I did mention about a series of mizugi episodes right? They’re too unrealistic to be considered as coincidence. They are more like the anime makers and broadcasters have agreed to air mizugi episodes around the same time.

No, I’m not complaining, in fact I’m being thankful that they happen almost at the same time. If possible I’d like all anime this season (as well as from the last season that is still airing; I’m talking about you Mouretsu Pirates) to have a mizugi episode too! Minus the all-boys anime of course (unless the all-boys anime is like Nichibros).

Let’s get back to the track, this episode introduces us to one of my most awaited character, Kikaijima-san. If you’re wondering who this Kikaijima-san is, she is the meganekko in the OP of this series. Right now she is still in the ‘antagonist’ side (I don’t know the better word to describe her status now) but that will change of course.

In this episode the student council received tons of request from clubs for increase in club funds. It’s weird that the school management allows so many clubs to exist yet the fund provided is very limited. Because of that the student council hold an aquatic meet for the clubs to compete with each other where the winner get all the funds for themselves.

Aquatic meet sure sounds like an advantage for the swimming club (of which Kikaijima is in). Of course Medaka has taken that into account and set some rules so that the event will be even for all clubs. Medaka did her best all by herself but in the end the swimming club ‘defeated’ her by seconds.

This time it seems like a difficult task for Medaka to beat the swimming club. Even if the swimming club won, which would feel like a fair competition, it would still an unfair victory considering that they’re only after the money and not really the club fund. How is Medaka going to deal with them is unthinkable but I think she’d still need Zenkichi for that.

Continuing from the last week’s episode, we’re presented with the match between Zenkichi and Akune. The match was decided to have a 10:1 ‘handicap’ winning ratio (due to Zenkichi being a judo amateur). That’s why I was seriously worried when Zenkichi got “ippon-ed” on the first 9 strikes.

Lucky that in the end Zenkichi won the match. However the winning does not prove him as a better judo fighter than Akune because it was a handicap one. The fact is I hate that Zenkichi won only after Medaka suddenly gave him a “cheering shout” (oh well at least he won but not really something I’d be happy about).

After the match Akune was ‘kicked out’ from the judo club but then ‘absorbed’ into the student council as a secretary. As expected Akune and Zenkichi would not get along with each other but I was quite surprised that those two don’t really have much conflicts between each other. However if possible I’d love it if Akune wasn’t in the student council at all because his presence would only mean “less vanilla flavor” in this series.

Now when will we get Kikaijima-san? Meganekko isn’t my thing but if she’s as oppailicious as Medaka then…..

Title: Medaka Box
English title: -
Genre: Action, Slice of Laifu, Comedy, Fanservice, Fighting, Romance
Sub-genre: Shounen/Seinen
Flavor/Theme: High school
Character design/Original artist: NisiOisiN (writer), Akira Akatsuki (illustrator)
Source media: Manga
Seriousness factor: Medium (it seems it will become more serious in the future as what it is in the manga. After all this is from Nishio Ishin)
Studio: GAINAX
Episodes: 12, “half-season”
OP: “HAPPY CRAZY BOX” by Minami Kuribayashi
ED: ED1: “Ohanabatake ni Tsuretette” (お花畑に連れてって) by Aki Toyosaki
Airing status: Currently airing
Aired by: TV Tokyo
Watchability factor: High
Rewatchability factor: High
Hateability factor: Low
Recommendability factor: High
Characters: Medaka Kurokami, Zenkichi Hitoyoshi
Characters I like: Medaka and Zenkichi
Characters I’d like to beat to a pulp using a spiky baseball bat: Anybody who seriously oppose those two above
What I’m in for: Not sure but I’m totally in for whatever is served to me
What I hate about it: Super perfection
Other noteworthy remarks: Medaka looks a lot like Rias Gremory from High School DxD

First thing is there’s no magic at all, let alone a magical girl here. What we do have is an oppailicous seito kaichou with long blue hair, complete with an ahoge.

Medaka Box is a series I’ve been anticipating for a while. Just like the rest of anime I’ve watched, I also haven’t had any experience with the source media either. It’s a good thing too because at least I have nothing to compare with and get mad over a “poor adaptation” like some people would do.

Into the story, it’s about Medaka whom upon being elected as a seitou kaichou set up a suggestion box for students who need help. Currently there’s nobody in the Student Council besides her so she always drags Zenkichi around to accompany her, even if it’s just for the sake of accompanying.

Medaka Kurokami is not your ordinary first your high schooler. I mean for a first year, to be able to get 98% votes by all students (the remaining 2% being the delinquents who didn’t vote for her) and became a President of the Student Council is very impressive. Not to mention she seems to remember every students name in the school. She is also EXTREMELY passionate to help others.

Written by the same dude who did the xmonogatari series (which I found less interesting than this series) Medaka Box is quite different than most high school drama setting. At some point it feels like a mixture of Haruhi, Seitokai Yakuindomo and Sket Dance (take note that it is not as bad as Sket Dance though).

When I said different earlier I mean look at how she was able to become a seitou kaichou, the highest position a high school student could get and usually held by a more senior student. It’s just a proof that Medaka is a high-caliber person.

I’ve heard from some anime community that the manga this anime is adapted from is a “trolling” (or mocking) manga, a trait usually seen from Nishio Ishin’s works. I’m not sure how is this trolling or parodying but his works always found parodying other popular works and can be seen in xmonogatari series.

Setting that aside, I do like the ‘romance’ found in this series. If you ask me Zenkichi is the “tsundere” one here although at the end of episode 1 he did mention that he’s weak against Medaka’s “tsundere attack”. Another Zenkichi’s good point is he’s a quite capable man himself too though it appears that he’s always behind Medaka in everything. Not sure if he’s just unmotivated or he really did fall behind.

I wish they could emphasize more on the romance part though. I’m not sure how long the manga would run but I hope to see some conclusion soon, preferably a decisive one between Medaka and Zenkichi. Speaking of those two, I must say they have a very interesting kind of relationship.

It seems that they’ve known each other since they were two. Medaka on the other hand seems to be an ojou-sama type who is perfect in EVERYTHING. She must have never faced a failure before and Zenkichi is actually worried about what if she suddenly failed? That said I kinda dislike Medaka’s “super perfect” traits. maybe not as much I hate tsundere but I’d like to see one occasion where she failed and Zenkichi was there to comfort here, at least once.