The depth of just how out of her league she may be is made clear to Medaka.
What They Say:
Medaka is no match for the students of Class 13. The only way to power up is to visit a man that knows all her weaknesses.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The second season of Medaka Box certainly went big in its first episode previously, exposing us to this much larger and stranger fighting world that Medaka was being pushed into. With a mysterious 13th class with a number of highly powered individuals among a group of some hundred or so that never come to school, she has a lot of challenges facing her, ones that the headmaster hopes that she can handle in order to bring things to balance there. He’s definitely playing a very different game from what one might expect and he comes across as playing different sides against each other.
Bringing these unknowns into the show certainly ups the challenge that the rest of the student council will face, such as when Zenkichi has to deal with a man named Oudo who views himself as a god walking the world where everyone must obey him. His aura presence is intense and even just asking where the suggestion box is does enough to push down Zenkichi in a huge way. He takes it a few steps further when Medaka shows up on the scene and he makes the play that he’ll permit her to be his wife. Seeing her fall under his spell is definitely intriguing as it shows just how intense his persona is, but it also lets us see that Zenkichi can step up to playing in this world as he pushes back against him.
While the episode deals with some serious stuff from the start, it takes a curious turn in the second half as Medaka is forced into the position of having to deal with her older brother, Maguro. An older brother that looks much like her but has an unhealthy fascination with her in the way an obsessive fan would. The pair definitely have a hot/cold relationship, as she puts it, but she needs his help and the dynamic between the two is all over the map. His little sister complex is hilarious yet disturbing, especially with all the dolls he has of her. It’s a little uncertain jus thow big his role will be, but he has some skills that Medaka needs and knowledge from his time in the school which will aid her. But really, it’s just hard to get past his intense fetishism with all the Medaka related paraphernalia in his place. The reveal that he was part of the 13th is intriguing though as it unfolds and we learn the price he had to pay to leave that organization.
In Summary:
With Medaka getting a good glimpse at the start here at what she has to face when dealing with Oudo, both she and Zenkichi realize that there’s some significant challenges ahead. I liked the first half for making clear that as strong and intense as she was in the first season, it’s just barely letting her get to the first step of what she has to face with the 13th. The second half is a bit odd and amusing as we get to meet her older brother, realize the truth of why he’s going to be useful and just cringe at some of his fetishisms. But at the same time, it opens up the path to legitimate training that both she and Zenkichi can go through in order to really tackle the problems at hand and it should make for a really fun episode next at the least.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.