When first year Medaka dominates her new school, it’s her way or the highway as they’ll come to find out.
What They Say:
Kurokami Medaka has become student council president at Sandbox Academy, despite being a first-year. One of her campaign pledges was the institution of a suggestion box, and the first request is to chase out some delinquents who have taken up residence in the kendo dojo. Medaka enlists her childhood friend Zenkichi and the student council moves into action and heads for the kendo dojo.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Based on the manga of the same name, Medaka Box was one of the shows that started early in terms of promotion with promos and artwork and that got me interested from the start. It’s the kind of show that looked like it could fill my Highschool DxD fix where it’s got the bounce and fanservice that I do enjoy, just not in every show as it seemed like it was going for awhile with a few seasons. The show is one that plays things big and impressive as it introduces us to Medaka, the student council president at the Sandbox Academy who as a first year seems to literally hold almost all of the positions on the council. With beautiful looks, an outgoing personality and strong presence, she’s a force to be reckoned with even though she’s just starting at the school.
The show moves at a fast pace at first which is kind of a whirlwind as it introduces us to Medaka as well as her childhood friend and person she abuses in Zenkichi. He doesn’t want to be involved with her but he also knows there’s little choice in the end but to do as she says because of her personality. Case in point is when she sets up a suggestion box as council president and gets a request to help deal with some third year delinquents in the kendo dojo. She gets the skimpiest outfit she can after stripping down in front of Zenkichi and then heads off to mete out some justice to the punks and restore the dojo to what it should be. And she does it all with enthusiasm, fun and a whole lot of bounce. It’s the kind of show that you can point to as being one of the problems of anime’s perception but at the same time just enjoy the heck out of.
Amusingly, while Medaka is able to beat them back easily enough, they come back for more later on as she in a sense inspires them to step up what they do. There’s a little more to it as we get to see who it was that put the suggestion in the box, who himself has an issue with Zenkichi and his ways as well as his absolute disgust with those who took over the dojo. The high and mighty types fall easily and it’s no surprise to see the delinquents really come across better here as they show what they’re made of even while questioning Medaka herself. And it also serves to show what Zenkichi is truly made of, which is useful since he spends a lot of the episode kind of resentful of how he’s continually drawn into Medaka’s plans for the majority of his life so far and then being questioned as he is here. It gives him the chance to man up and show what he’s made of.
In Summary:
Medaka Box is a pretty overactive but not hugely so series that puts the “can do it all” lead character in the position to do just that without question as student council president. She’s the type that has everything going for her and loves helping others, though her style doesn’t always work well for some of those involved. She’s a character that can easily be found to be annoying, but there’s so little about her here that’s given that it’s hard to say what it is that makes her tick. It’s all surface level. Of course, it’s an appealing surface as she has a kind of devilish personality about her that complements her attractive nature. The show plays out in a pretty formulaic way here but it’s not one that’s really bad, but it hasn’t found its own voice this early on. It has potential but it’s also likely to be trapped by what it starts out to be. In the end, I suspect it will fill the void of good, mindless and vapid fun with action and fanservice that I’m looking for, but I doubt it’ll be as strong as some other shows that can surprise like the aforementioned Highschool DxD.
Grade: C
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.
You think Medaka Box won’t SURPRISE? You haven’t read the manga, have you?
Nope, I haven’t read it. It hasn’t been licensed so it’s not on my reading list.