Anime: Medaka Box

Medaka Box is another take on the seitokai motif as apparently student councils are all the rage. Like many of the others, ecchi is a part of the theme. However, Medaka is unique in that the student president is literally a monster; she is skilled at everything from sports, martial arts, mathematics, etc. She is so skilled at everything that, for her election, she promises to implement a suggestion box and literally take on everyone's problems. This series is about how Medaka and her essentially pet following take on various problems.

The concept borrows significantly from GTO. Not only is are both protagonists strong in both will and constitution, but both of their goals is to seek out and fix the root of problems (usually someone's personality) rather than just fix the issues at hand. However, unlike Onizuka, Medaka is truly a monster, enough so that watching her overcome every obstacle without breaking a sweat becomes boring. You never feel that she is ever really threatened, rather you spend the time guessing at how she works out of yet another situation. In the end, despite all the ecchi and action, this is a character based series, and this one just lacks heart.

Animation:
I don't have any serious qualms about the drawing style of this show. The show is cast in a slightly over-saturated palette giving it a slightly more cartoon-ish feel. Backgrounds could be a bit more detailed at times but nothing appalling. The character styling isn't terribly inspiring with a mix of moe and boing female characters and a bunch of other ordinary-looking characters. This is the opposite of some ecchi shows in that Medaka's clothes are made of Kevlar or something as they don't get very damaged for the amount of force she exerts/damage she takes.

As you can guess from the previous statement, there is a lot of action in this show, despite the fact that Medaka attempts to resolve all issues peacefully- this usually implies a sports tournament or martial arts battle. Expect a lot of carnage as the school she is supposed to oversee is damaged repeatedly. And expect a total lack of adult supervision- is this really a school at all? Ecchi is limited to Medaka randomly undressing and unnecessary panty shots throughout action scenes.

Overall a run of the mill work. The action isn't bad but Medaka going super saiyan was a bit childish/unnecessary.

Sound:
A melodically uninspiring OP (sounds as if the instruments are going against the singer at times) and a sleep-inducing ED (come on, the characters are literally sleeping...) combine with a sub-par BGM, that is not nearly supportive enough, to really make for a sad score here.

The VA cast is also underwhelming. Medaka doesn't sound like she's ever really trying, even when in Super Medaka mode. Zenkichi also sounds like he's just plain bored all the time. When bored-sounding VAs take up all the screen time, you'll just end up with a likewise bored audience.

Story:
First, let me point out the shonen tag for this series. Beware, there are a lot of concepts that are dumbed-down to childish levels of good vs. bad. Expect a lot of idealization that just isn't realistic, as well as big blank statements that you'd expect to come out of the mouth of a clueless politician.

Anyways, so as mentioned before, Medaka works to better everyone's life by solving all their problems for them. As the series continues, she encounters larger and larger problems, which she seems to solve with a, sadly, constant amount of effort. The only way in which you see any real tension/issues are when her minions try to do some of the work for her, in many cases she has to go "clean up" after them. Throughout the story, many of the students' problems are related to individuals, which are pretty much your antagonists.

The story builds (plateaus) to a final climax of ridiculous proportions over a ridiculous matter, and the resolution comes in the form of a big sign saying "season 2 is announced!". I didn't find the premise all that promising and the rinse and repeat approach to many of the arcs didn't help.

Character:
For a series about developing the character of others, I really feel this fell way short of its goals. Medaka is still a black box, and her minions are mere shadows in her wake, and are developed accordingly. So apparently there is this tsun dude named Zenkichi who likes Medaka but refuses to publicly acknowledge it. There's another dude who openly loves Medaka and willingly acts like a servant all the time. And there's a former villain who suddenly develops a personality after being saved by Medaka. Oh, and there's Medaka who is so magnanimous towards everyone for an unknown reason that you question why she is content on just running a school.

GTO shined by developing the students in Onizuka's class. They didn't suddenly became "pure" after meeting Onizuka, but went through difficult trials and experiences until acceptance was formed. With Medaka? She says she'll "reform" the student/villain. She'll disappear with them into a room for a day (probably begetting the endlessly-deep imagination of roriconfan) and suddenly the student/villain is all nice and on Medaka's side now. Repeat this a few times and you really do stop paying attention. As many of the unimportant students of the school say, Medaka's acts of magical transformation eventually just become "normal".

Value:
If you're looking for an idealized, action-centric battle watch Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. If you're looking for a seitokai-based series with a bit of indirect ecchi watch Seitokai Yakuindomo. If you're looking for a series where you actually have to root for the antagonist to end the Endless Eight of an overwhelmingly-powerful protagonist, then this might be your series. Otherwise, I'd say look elsewhere.

Every so often there is an anime show which i just can't tear myself away from.
Every time a show like that pops up, it gobbles up a day or two in my life without any effort, leaving me in a happy upbeat mood. If the show is really good, it also gives me a ton of things for pondering and further inspiration.

Medaka Box was just such a show. I'd even say it was of the "really good" variety.

The fact that it seems to receive such low ratings makes it all the more interesting to write a review on it.

Enjoyment

The show is very honest about it's true nature from the very first scene. Said scene involves a confident and obviously successful girl in a "hello nurse" outfit making a "follow your dreams!" declaration as a part of campaign for student council president. The fact that she then proceeds to win by a landslide tells you everything you need to know about the ideas of the show and the message it be conveying for the next few hours.

If this piques your interest at all, then you'll love the rest. If this doesn't do anything for you, then, much in the spirit of it's own main character, the show puts it's true colors up-front, is there for you to enjoy, but won't be bothered much if you go watch something different.

The first scene worked and pressed all the right buttons for me personally. The remaining 12 episodes worth of scenes that followed both remained faithful to the ideas expressed at the very start and explored them to their fullest extent, leaving me completely satisfied. Every single element of the show (including the over-the-top ecchi-ness of the main heroine) works towards realisation of the show's message. Thus i feel perfectly comfortable giving that show a perfect enjoyment rating.

Sound and Video

I always had a hard time separating these categories, because they both have to do with mechanical implementation of ideas. However, this show bothers with just enough visuals and audio to make sure the atmosphere is conveyed. The show has a consistent visual and audio style. The characters are portrayed in a way that gets their emotions across in an efficient manner. The locations are represented in a way that allows you to feel the atmosphere.

If you want cutting edge graphics and sounds, this show is probably not for you. However, i, for one, saw enough high-tech duds to appreciate a low-tech style that works for the message. This is not a show that would take great advantage of a top end home theater system, but it is still a great show to watch in a cozy atmosphere with a group of friends that genuinely love anime.

In short, audio and visuals do work, but are certainly not masterpieces. "6" in both categories.

Story and characters
This is a character-driven story. Meaning that there aren't a whole lot of twists and turns of the storyline, and while the show uses a little bit of a detective premise, it doesn't use it to make you wonder and obsess over where the story is going to go, but rather to establish pacing and order in which the characters show their new sides.

The characters themselves are great. The only problem i can mention is a suspension of disbelief hurdle in terms of accepting the main heroine, but that's honestly the only flaw in characterisation that is really standing out to me. And even that is woven in beatifully in the way other characters develop, as they are influenced by the female lead and (among other things and together with the viewer) wonder if she is for real.

Yes, it is a Mary Sue story. In the sense that it has an overpowering main character (or possibly two, depending on your point of view), around which everything seems to revolve. But there is a reason why Mary Sues exist and persist despite all the flak that has been given to them for all the history of storywriting. When treated with sufficient care, these kinds of characters can and do have great and inspirational stories built around them. When it comes to treatment of Mary Sues, GAINAX knows how to do it just right.

Aside from the main characters, it should be noted that the support cast is given exellent treatment as well. If a character is given any line of text at all, - even if it is a throwaway single-use character, existing only within a single scene, - you can expect him to show some manner of interesting development.

The verdict on characterisation is "9". It would be 10, but the show does shove the female lead's boobs in your face a wee bit too often :/
The verdict on the story is "7". It works to support the characterisation without any glaring flaws and benefits from it just enough to be elevated above average.

Value
The show borrows heavily from other franchises and can be criticised for that. That is, if you are actively looking for bad things to say about it.

But, honestly, if the notion of "Haruhi meets TTGL" doesn't work for you, then you either didn't watch Haruhi or Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, or didn't like them. In first case, you need to type the names in the search bar right now and watch them ASAP. In second case, the show simply isn't for you.

Medaka Box is certainly not a timeless classic. But i reckon it has exellent value for anyone who loves anime, loves smart stories of how human beings build, protect and pass on their ideals, and is at least somewhat partial to cleavage. Thus, "8" in this category.

Medaka Box is a deconstruction of school comedies, so get ready to be triggered because of it. It starts as a goofy school council president helping out students and then changes to a fighting shonen about ridiculously overpowered teenagers. Said school council president is able to defeat everyone with a single punch from the very beginning, making this One Punch Man all over again, but with a girl. You might as well call it One Punch Woman, or since she loves running around in her panties, One Pantsu Woman.

Despite that, Medaka Box is not super famous or highly praised for being a deconstruction, because that word has lost its meaning and is now used only when someone wants to convince himself he is not reading garbage. This includes everything made by Nisio Isin, the guy who can only write softporn and has every pretentious overthinker making him sound like a genius for being meta as fuck.

And by meta, I mean having the entire manga taking place in a school, where the only things you never see are parents, teachers, adults, or any form of education. Meaning there is nothing school-like happening inside a school, because the setting has absolutely nothing to do with the plot. It’s just there as a cheap and lazy way to have teenagers being in one place so any shit you want to see happen, will happen. Which is why buildings are constantly blown up, psychotic teenagers are constantly sexually molesting each other, people are constantly being severely injured, and not a single police officer ever comes to check out what the hell is going on.

So basically, it’s another one of those chuuni stories where the entire planet is a generic high school full of oversexualized teenagers who are constantly fighting each other with cool superpowers they gained simply because they really wanted them. There is absolutely no realism whatsoever, and thus becomes pretentious when it tries to have a serious theme going on somewhere in there. The heroine for example is the definition of a Mary Sue. Perfect at everything, always on a higher moral ground, and always trying to help out everyone.

She is obnoxious for her constant smug and boring for never struggling to defeat someone. How do you expect any semblance of theme exploration to be taken seriously when your protagonist is always trying to reform the bad guys into good guys with the power of friendship, and a way of thinking that never goes beyond treating everything as either black or white?

Ah, but wait, there is a catch, she is intentionally written to be unsympathetic, as part of making the point more clear. It goes for a Mob Psycho 100 approach, poking fun at overpowered characters, who despite being perfect at everything, they are pressured psychologically because they don’t feel they are human next to everybody else. This is why Medaka constantly needs weaker people around her. Not because she needs assistance in defeating the bad guys, since that is something she can easily do by breezing through the school’s problems in her underwear, but because she doesn’t want to lose her touch with humanity.

The way I describe it makes it sound like excellent material for pretentious overthinkers. So why isn’t it super popular or analyzed to death like One Punch Man and Mob Psycho 100, when it’s essentially the exact same thing? It’s definitely not because it didn’t have an anime adaptation to promote it. It was adapted, by Gainax of all studios, where it bombed horribly despite the bouncing boob physics. It’s also not because it wasn’t made by the super famous author who made the masterpiece of harem deconstructions that is the Monogatari franchise. It should have worked by mentioning his name alone.

Despite these credentials, nobody cares about it because down to it, no matter how subversive they try to make it seem, most people dropped it right away because of the unsympathetic Mary Sue. Most of the rest lost interest soon afterwards, because there is not much going on in terms of theme exploration. You get everything the story has to offer in twenty chapters, with the rest just regurgitating the exact same story structure for every new character that is introduced. He is psychotically evil, he has some strange power, Medaka and her friends kick the crap out of him, he becomes good, then another character appears and the cycle starts anew.

If you compare it to something like Neon Genesis, a show made by the same studio, which also had an unsympathetic protagonist, you see how you were always kept engaged there because something new was happening on every episode, which was far more than learning about the special power and backdrop story of someone who will not matter after a couple of pages. Neon Genesis also had fan service but even that was kept to a reasonable amount, wasn’t ever present, and was way more creative than the done to death way it’s done in Medaka Box.

There is nothing of interest in it once you have read enough titles to stop giving a damn about the premise or how meta the jokes are. It’s a case of not hitting any of the right buttons, despite having good ideas.

In summary:
- Unsympathetic Mary Sue
- No tension because she is undefeatable
- Runs out of juice very fast
- Ruined theme exploration because of done to death sex jokes you can find on every ecchi comedy