Hellomotto on July 5, 2010 · in Other Series

Summary:

So, it’s the first day of school, right? And I’m pretty bummed out. I mean, damn, I wanted to keep singing “School’s Out for the Summer,” but that obviously had to end. But then I realized: hey, I’m going to a school that used to be an all-girls school. Shit’s so cash!

So, I arrive at school, and the females are hot as hell. And I’m quietly tiptoeing along the grass, trying to get a good look at all them fine chicks, y’know what I mean? Then, suddenly, among the way comes this guy–average build, average looks, average height–everything’s average. (Turns out his name’s Takatoshi Tsuda. Normal much?) There’s nothing special about him; but then suddenly, this fine lady comes along and stops him. Damn brah, I was hella jealous! But then it turns out that she was just fixing his tie, and then they have this stand-off! I was hella scared. And then I was like wait…she looks familiar! And I was like damn, that’s the student president, Shino Amakusa! Oh snap! And then the rest of the student council came–you know, Suzu Hagimura, the accountant, and Aria Shichijou, the secretary–and joined to gang up on him! Lucky sonofa–I mean, damn, son! Who knows what’s gonna happen? Shit’s about to get real, brah!

(I’m never writing a summary like that again.)

Reaction:

Well, I guess surprises do come in all shapes forms.

Before I start, let me explain two important facts about myself. First, I am less-than-fond of harem romances. Although my hormones and social pressures forbid me to hate them, I still have a certain dislike for them. They’re usually trashy and predictable, their characters bland and lacking depth. Why, then, should I have care about the cliche harem series? To put it rather arrogantly, I have better use of my time. (Perhaps the only exceptions are Kimikiss: Pure Rouge and, to some extent, Kanon (2006), but even they were good at best.)

Second, I yawn at the prospect of a show about a “student council.” This may derive from the poor “student council” at my school (which we call the Associated Student Body–ASB for short), which really does nothing: each person simply speculates but takes no action, as the staff/faculty make most of the decisions. Of course, it’s probably influenced by the rather weak portrayal of student councils in anime. Just look at Kaichou wa Maid-sama: it’s student council is down in the dumps. (Alas, I did like the student council in the Fruits Basket manga, but that’s only because I’ll ship Yuki x Machi anyday. But I digress.)

These two facts combined should have automatically set off the alarm to avoid Seitokai Yakuindomo. I had no need for a student council-central anime, let alone a harem comedy. Yet I decided to persevere. I had said this previously in my preview of the series, but I decided to stick with it in hopes that the show had some potential.

Fast forward to my celebration (that is, staying at home) of the July 4th weekend, and my rather low expectations for Seitokai Yakuindomo (to be shortened SeiYaku from now on) have been exceeded to a certain extent. SeiYaku is not a student-council-harem-com; it’s a 4-koma slice-of-life, just as Impz from THAT Anime Blog mentions. (For those who don’t know the 4-koma, it’s a four-paneled manga–that is, each “scene” is four panels long, and a chapter chains a whole bunch of these four-panels to make a [relatively] coherent story.) One can definitely tell that the series is a 4-koma: the jokes occur very quickly and in barrages. In a sense, my expectations were not so much exceeded as rendered completely irrelevant and futile; I had mistook the series’ identity altogether.

I should also talk about another personal fact: I love slice-of-life series. And when I mean love, I mean love. It’s probably my preferred genre, even if I’m not quite that picky about genres. It’s no surprise, then, that I began to like this series more and more as it progressed. The series had essentially no traces of romance or any harems whatsoever. In fact, the show pokes fun at the prospect of a harem, making the show that much better. These girls are also never viewed as potential “soulmates”; rather, they are simply classmates who happen to be a bit on the wild/crazy side. Ultimately, I describe this series as a bawdy form of Azumanga Daioh; SeiYaku is simply a series about student council members going through the daily life of any high-school student. Granted, SeiYaku seems to lack the magic of the former classic, but the comparison is still apt.

Nevertheless, there has been considerable backlash from the aniblogging world. Caraniel rants that the characters and “bland and uninspired,” and the rather bawdy jokes are in bad taste. Scamp believes that the 4-koma automatically makes the series a failure, as the jokes are repetitive, short-lived, and ultimately not funny. Although I can definitely see Caraniel and Scamp’s reasoning, I still felt that SeiYaku was not abhorrently distasteful. The characters are admittedly bland, but the character interactions make up for it. Moreover, the character’s perverted manner were rather refreshing, as opposed to the ideal, conservative, prude Japanese lady. (Maybe that was a bit harsh…)

Of course, the comedy is repetitive at times, and I can barely manage a chuckle out of some of the jokes. Nonetheless, glimpses of comedy were hilarious; constant teasing about Suzu’s height actually struck me as funny, simply because I have a friend who’s exactly like Suzu. The pornography interview-esque scene (yes, there is a scene like that) sent me into a fit of laughter, as well as other random jokes. Granted, SeiYaku‘s comedy has a completely different nature than, say, B Gata H Kei‘s: the jokes and moments of laughter of the former come in random spurts, while the latter’s comedy comes mostly from buildup and long scenes. Moreover, the sexual jokes were sometimes in bad taste, though I tend to like dirty jokes anyways. Either way, SeiYaku managed to make me smile and laugh–and that’s all that really counts, right?

Of course, whether or not this show can continue this method in the future is a different story. Will the show create new, original comedy that will consistently make me laugh? Or will it beat a dead horse like an Otaku watches anime?

I rest my case.