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Oct 11 2009

Categories: episodic review, seitokai no ichizon
Tagged: seitokai no ichizon

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USO DA!

Seitokai no Ichizon (The Student Council’s Discretion, not to be confused with The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi) has one of the greatest intros in recent anime history. Loved the cold open where the characters are discussing their animeization, and the repercussions of such an endeavor. (Though Mahoromatic did this originally for both of the original seasons, with Mahoro completely flustered when rewatching the breast pump episode.) If you thought that Shaft dug their claws in Kyoto Animation in Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, then Seitokai and Studio Deen is really just finishing the job. There’s a lot of jabs at Haruhi, Raki Suta, and K-On!.

(Really needs to make fun of Sunrise a bit… no Code Geass or Gundam gags? Bah. Also, it would be awesome if it made fun of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.)

And that’s really the problem with Seitokai. It’s awesome. Until you realize that they used up their best jokes in the first five minutes. (To be fair, the jokes in the remaining twenty minutes aren’t bad and definitely better than Nyan Koi, but they blew their wad in the first five minutes. They should have saved this bit for the end, much like Lucky Channel or Butler Network.) Then it dawns on you… it’s an ensemble comedy that happens almost exclusively in a single room with possibly A-class source material… executed by Studio Deen. Doesn’t that seem horrific? Isn’t that like trusting Tony Romo with a two minute drill? Except for the Higurashi/Umineko gags and lines, what exactly does Studio Deen bring to the table? Sub-par animation? Check. (Nyan Koi blows Seitokai out of the water in terms of animation quality… should Nyan Koi blow anything other than the horrible anime scale out of the water?) Inability to do proper gravure shots? Check. (Got better gravure shots in Darker Than Black Nii-Pah for Oyashiro-sama’s sake… I’m not asking for Bakemonogatari-class gravure shots, but at least Princess Lover.) Jokes that probably would have been funnier if Studio Deen weren’t involved? Check. (Still, much funnier than Nyan Koi. So I’ll give them that much.)

Okay, okay that seems harsh, but Seitokai should really have gone to Shaft, JC Staff, or Kyoto– either or would have turned this into the next Maria+Holic, Potemayo, or K-On! and be one of the best anime of the year filled with great anime. Instead, it’s just going to be an enjoyable anime in a season filled with crappy anime. The Stephen Curry of fall 2009, if you will.

What I like… let’s start with the male lead, Ken, who subscribes to Maria’s “Score them all!” newsletter. Ken’s love of eroge and his attempts for a harem ending… well… I’m rooting for him. He’s a great womanizer, except he can’t get any women. (Yes, loved the scene where he teases Aka-chan about her fatness… and how he’d abandon her if she got fat.) He’s the bizarro Itsuki.

(Also loved the scene where he ranks the girls based on their difficulty scale in an eroge and how the girls get mad when they’re ranked too easy, but he justifies and defends the scale. Obviously, this is a man of both intelligence and testicular fortitude. Maybe instead of a bizarro Itsuki, he’s a more serious Hosaka. Okay, maybe I’m enjoying this anime more than I let on. But it really should have been made by someone other than Studio Deen.)

Aka-chan herself is a cross between Becky-sensei and Taiga, with the same sensitivities towards weight and flatness.

“Dangerously moe.”

Agreed.

(Loved how she swiftly approved castanets for the light music club. Yui would be happy. And, seriously, why isn’t Kyoto, Shaft, or JC Staff involved? This drives me nuts. At the very least, all the moe scenes would be 50% better with JC Staff… all the wacky scenes would be 50% better with Shaft… and all the Haruhi references would be actual Haruhi references with Kyoto on board. There hasn’t been this bad of a pairing since Jon and Kate.)

Chizuru… well… let’s just say that no matter how much you wish for it, you’re not getting Kuroko x Misaka. Why? Misaka is completely aware of Kuroko’s flaming lesbianism and explosive stalking abilities and thus has her guard up. Misaka is quite careful around Kuroko and has the ability to keep Kuroko at arm’s length. Well, I can’t say the same about Aka-chan x Chizuru because I don’t think Aka-chan knows how dangerous Chizuru really is. I’m just waiting for Aka-chan to wake up one day and find Chizuru next to her, much like Natsuki discovering that Shizuru thoroughly violated her in Mai Hime.

(Needless to say, Ken ranked Chizuru as the hardest get.)

Minatsu is the token tsundere, who has yet to show any dere… which is par for the course in a first episode. Though she looks good when wielding a baseball bat. While wearing a wedding dress.

(The writing and dialogue is pretty solid. I wonder if Seitokai can keep it up.)

Mafuya… well… they haven’t done much with her in this first episode, but Ken ranks her as being the easiest. I agree. Though it’s not clear if she’s just a video game junkie or an eroge junkie as well.

The uniforms are fantastic. Love the design. The overhanging shirt with the plaid skirt with the ties is a great look for the girls while the plaid pants makes Ken look like a clown. And that’s what you really want from the school uniform of a moe comedy harem random anime– cuteness for the girls, ridiculousness for the guys.

I see a lot of potential with this show, and I just hope studio Deen doesn’t ruin it. But, at the very least, I found a fall 2009 show that I’m looking forward to.