170th G-View: Medaka Box

Greetings Haunters of the night. It’s once again time for a G-View. Well, this show’s on my Spring schedule so let’s get right to it and talk about Medaka Box.

Genres: action, comedy,

Themes: fanservice, school

Number of episodes: 12

G-Rating: 7/10

Plot Summary: Medaka Kurokami, a first year student at Hakoniwa Academy, excels at everything she does. She becomes the Student council president and along with her childhood friend, Zenkichi Hitoyoshi, she plans to solve all of the student body’s problems that are submitted to a suggestion box, dubbed the “Medaka Box.”

 

Let’s get this out of the way before focusing on the heart of the matter. This show is a run of the mill school comedy with the writers wanting to convey a life message of sorts. Like every other show that tries to preach something, it is up to the viewer to decide how to interpret said message(s). As a school comedy, it’s fine. I did laugh out loud at several moments after Akune made his debut (If you can get a pretty boy to make me laugh, that’s a well done pretty boy). Kitajima’s my favorite character btw.

From what I can understand, the school this show takes place in is divided in mainly three types of humans:

-The hard working type who were selected for that very reason.

-Those who excel in one particular trait among all others, such as swimming or judo.

-The special cases/abnormal, such as Medaka, who excel at many things. Medaka herself happens to be a super special case.

Anyway here’s where the show’s message comes to play: There are different kinds of humans and each of us excel and suck at one thing or another. That also means we all have differentiating opinions on everything, including what’s right or wrong and which laws we want to follow. The show goes further by exploring humanity’s negative emotions, especially pride, envy, jealousy and hate. What do people care about, value, like, believe in and all that other stuff that are popular topics in movies these days that attempt to be deep, or something.

Let’s see…have I envied and been jealous of know-it-all people who have attended my classes and basically made short work of everything I considered challenging? Yes, but I hold my head high and persevere to succeed. After all, my purpose in life is to be awesome, not the best of the best. Besides, I have better things to do or think about than complain about why this person excels due to natural born talent.

Both the animation and music do their job. I wouldn’t call either of them noteworthy but the animation does scream shounen I suppose.

 

The characters are mostly likable.The development comes after they each meet Medaka and are (mostly) reformed in a sense.

Zenkichi reminds me of a stronger Watanuki but not as amusing. He’s fun but I prefer the furball.

Like I said earlier, a pretty boy that can make me laugh is okay with me and Akune makes me laugh.

Kitaijima, hot, greedy and sort of a tsundere…sort of. Hmm, maybe she’s a yandere. I dunno. Point is, she’s my fave.

Hansode Shiranui…she’s a “shortie”, extremely nosy, is a bottomless pit and is a bitch unless fed. I will say this much, I like her more than that detestable midget “Hades” from He Is My Master. Check out that review for more details.

Let’s talk about Medaka herself. Is she perfect? No. Does she ever lose? Rarely. Is she flawed? Of course she is. Immediately after the first episode it is made perfectly clear what her problems are. She’s really good at many things due to being born gifted, however, despite having a high IQ she lacks common sense, is kind of an airhead, fails to understand the misfortunes of others (Most of the time), she’s TOO perfect for her own good and as we all know, what we perceive as perfection usually gets mixed opinions, she isn’t good with animals, her greatness is overwhelming, she’s an ojou-sama (Which usually means she isn’t good at making legitimate friends who really understand her. Basically a celebrity). She’s perfect, which is both her greatest strength and weakness. It’s like she says in the latter part of the show, “She knows she isn’t always right, but works hard to fight for what she believes is the right answer.”

My personal opinion on her? Yes she’s well endowed, but…let’s just say…

I like Tittyko better.

Medaka’s a fun character but she’s there to fulfill her role as the main plot device and source of raging ring boners for some. She fulfills her purpose, that is all.

As for yuri…well there is a kiss but is it consensual? Doubt it.

In conclusion: In the end, the 1st season was alright. If the show’s climax is a foreshadowing of things to come, then I have a feeling this will become another Gakuen Alice, which is fine by me. It’s by no means a work of art nor is it mediocre. It’s a decent preachy comedy with thankfully medium rate fanservice that while it won’t calm so called feminists down, it won’t destroy your sanity either. I don’t know who to recommend this show to but I suppose if you loathe perfection, this may not be the show for you.