Our cute little newbie has become the cruelest commander in the game.
What They Say:
Racing heartbeat and expanding fantasies… After being accepted to her dream school, Stella Girls’ Academy, Yamato Yura is excited to begin her high school life. “Maybe, at this school, I can change!” Then, when she lies down to rest after moving into her dorm, her hopes still high… she finds a Desert Eagle under her pillow! High school girls?! The C³ Club?! A survival game?! A new youth survival story is about to begin!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Although there appears to be a lot going on in this episode, especially within the characters, it’s really just a straightforward focus on one thing: Yura’s downward spiral. This is the culmination of pretty much everything that’s happened with her character throughout the series. For much of it she was struggling to be welcomed and appreciated, overcompensating to try to offset her inferior complex, often resulting in her losing a grip on her boundaries and succumbing to tunnel vision that ends up with her going overboard. Even as she tried to convince herself that she had become a new person who wouldn’t be bogged down by her past insecurities, the realizations of her misjudgments were clearly bottling up inside of her, ready to explode at any point. The overdramatized “loss” of her greatest friend, mentor, and idol in the previous episode was the catalyst needed to release this, and it manifests in an extreme, revenge-driven version of Yura’s tendency to overdo things. She wants more than anything to do Sono-chan justice, but doesn’t realize that she’s being as contrary to her mindset as possible, and her complete absence just adds another factor to make it that much worse.
As Yura and the team, which she has come to treat strictly as a group of her subordinates, barrel through the tournament under her vigorous direction, they get ever closer to the final boss, the one responsible for what Yura believes is the single act of villainy committed, Rin. The obvious dramatic irony of all this is that, in her quest to take Rin down, Yura is quickly becoming the same as her. Let’s be nice and call it classic rather than overdone. The one big message is that these are games that should be played to have fun, which Yura is completely disregarding in favor of treating it as actual war and playing to win. Specifically, in the spirit of the game you’re expected to be a good sport and acknowledge as soon as you get hit so the game can move on in a smooth manner. But like her enemy, and very much unlike her ally who she claims to be doing all of this for, Yura is determined to keep going until she’s hospitalized as well, essentially reaching the bottom of this spiral.
And that’s about it. I wish I could say that the execution really makes the experience of watching it particularly valuable, but it’s basically just a straightforward presentation of these well-worn tropes, and continues to feel way too serious given what the show is about. It’s actually rather unpleasant to watch, and in an episode dedicated to the protagonist deteriorating, perhaps that’s intentional, but this show was better served by being fun, at least judging by this execution.
In Summary:
This episode turns out to be very straightforward, illustrating a simple descent into unintentional villainy despite the apparent best intentions. In this sense it’s not very original but is written well enough. However, the sense of overbearing seriousness is a show that doesn’t fit that tone at all, along with redundant and fairly uninteresting execution and an overall unpleasant feel to the presentation, keeps it from being a very enjoyable or recommendable experience.
Grade: C
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Toshiba Satellite L655-S5191 PSK2CU-1C301U Notebook PC.
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