First Impressions / Medaka Box

「余計な真似だよ!!／めだかさんの御心のままにっ!!」 (Yokei na Mane da yo!! / Medaka-san no Mikokoro no Mama ni!!)
“None of Your Business!! / As You Wish, Medaka-san!!”

I’m forced to conclude that everyone in this show is a monster. At first glance Zenkichi seems to have pretty normal levels of strength (and relative to Medaka I suppose he does), but he’s obviously a lot stronger than he appears to have been able to embed those wooden bats in the ceiling! Not only that, but to take down Kanoya (Nara Tooru) – a guy so tough he has to use wire cutters to trim his nails – in a single blow is probably not a feat that could be achieved by a normal human being.

I still find Zenkichi immensely cool during those times where he feels the need to stand up to the students who turn their nose up at Medaka. In a way, I can understand his anger – it’s pretty frustrating to have your feelings thrown back in your face and despite the fact that Medaka doesn’t care, this obviously rubs him the wrong way. It’s good to see him do his own little part to protect Medaka, a being who ostensibly needs no-one to defend her (even if it does appear to have disappointed her a little bit)!

This episode once again gives us a good idea of how Medaka is viewed by the rest of the student body. While the slightly more intelligent ones (maybe intelligent isn’t the right word here…) stockpile an absurd number of weapons, others still view her as ‘just a girl.’ Quite a poor judgement there friends! It’s fortunate that they never actually had to face the demon herself, else they would have learned an extremely painful lesson! Although… perhaps it would have done them some good to witness firsthand that gender is no barrier to our beloved student council president…

Three episodes in and we’re finally introduced to the third (I’m assuming) prospective member of the student council – Akune Kouki (Namikawa Daisuke), Judo Prince and Zenkichi’s rival in love dating back to their middle school days. My first impressions of him lead me to believe he could well be your typical pretty boy whose frequent stripping leads to frenzied screams of ‘Hentai~’ from girls everywhere. This, however, doesn’t seem to be the case as his chest reveals are carefully restricted to the dojo and girls swoon at the sight of him instead of fleeing in panic. If I wasn’t rooting for Zenkichi, I would almost consider Kouki and Medaka a match made in heaven.

Continuing with Kouki, it seems pretty clear that he’s very close to being Medaka’s adoring pet dog. In fact, perhaps that’s what the students were referring to when they mentioned that they’d heard Medaka kept a dog eariler in the episode (or they could have meant it literally). While basking in Medaka’s presence he becomes subservient and affectionate, but when confronted with a rival (Zenkichi) he becomes agressive and dangerous. The perfect guard dog perhaps? These early interactions between Kouki and Zenkichi really make me hope we’ll have some amazing scenes later on where they’ll put their differences aside in order to team up to take down foes on Medaka’s behalf. For now though, it looks like Zenkichi is in for a tough battle next week as he strives to protect his spot on the student council! I know who I’ll be cheering on!

Random thoughts:

  • What’s with this reaction?
  • Five litres of ramen? Really Shiranui?
  • As much as I appreciate the nod to Nagisa and Honoka, that wasn’t exactly the most subtle of Pretty Cure references.
  • Nekomi makes a good point – it’s far more impressive that Zenkichi manages to keep up with Medaka through sheer hard work than it is that Medaka is capable of superhuman feats when she naturally has the strength of a demon!
  • Speaking of which… I want to see more Nekomi!

* Full-length images: 09, 17, 25, 35

 

Preview

28 Comments

  4. I’m not going to lie or sugar coat my words, I found this episode boring compared to episodes 1 & 2.

    The first half literally felt totally random as a lead up to the second half, which would have been more interesting if the writers concluded the whole dojo affair in one episode instead of breaking deciding to finish it up the next episode.

    LightnDark
    Reply

    1. That’s what you get when you decide to do straight one manga chapter to half anime episode adaptations.

      I seriously wonder what the fan reaction would be if they skipped all the request chapters (a.k.a episode 2 and first half of 3) and went straight to Enforcers in like episode 5 lol.

      Spinarakk
      Reply

    3. I agree. There was just something about this episode that I couldn’t quite point out, but it was very boring. I think it was that this is all exposition for what’s coming up next week.

      starss
      Reply

  6. What’s with this reaction?

    I think it’s a “She’s done it again”, but actually in the manga the reaction is more funny and speaks a lot more by itself: http://www.mangareader.net/215-15430-5/medaka-box/chapter-5.html

    I wonder why Zenkichi is the one always poorly drawn, even in this episodes, Akune is very well made but Zenkichi is not T_T Anyway, I love the fact Gainax already shown how he was at high school (BLACK HAIR!! XDDD), in the manga he is shown waaaaay further! XD

    Akira
    Reply

      1. Odd enough, it doesn’t, the black underneath it’s just a coloring style (see Shinarui too).

        Spoilers on Zenkichi’s family and his hair at middle school and possible spoilers on Akune>>

        Show Spoiler ▼

        So much for a hair color XD /me is Zenkichifag

        Akira
        Reply

  8. The high number of Mary Sues and Marty Stues in this school is kind of a mayor plot point later on. I don’t think this anime will reach that far in the story though sadly.

    Nevertheless, I’m happy to see Medaka animated like this. I think it is a pretty interesting and fun to read manga, after all.

    Zreon
    Reply

    1. If only the hadn’t have done such brilliant work before this, I’d say this is a standard GAINAX work. But as it is, the animation looks even worse than their regular shows!

      starss
      Reply

  12. I think the reason this is boring is simply because it should’ve started like it did, but somehow ended with the end of the judo battle. Not sure how they would’ve done that, but I think that would’ve worked better.

    Dorian
    Reply

  14. Why would you assume that Akune is Medaka’s dog when you even had Zenkichi announce his dog status to all those rebels?

    Also, I find it kinda unusual to call Nabeshima-senpai by her name. Guess it’s because she’s always called by her family name in the manga.

    SingerOfW
    Reply

  15. Man it really seems like with episodes 2 and 3 Medaka has been out-shined by everyone else. I’ve always thought Zenkichi was a great character, even with his constant “I have to protect Medaka” shtick but he’s still easily my favorite character from the series. I virtually heard nothing about Yuki Ono before this show but his performance is working for me. For the second half of the episode I really like the characters of Nekomi and Akune. Nekomi is simply a fun character while Daisuke Namikawa, as to be expected, gives a great performance as Akune. He really sold me on his obsession with Medaka and the back and forth he had with Zenkichi was great.

    Mike
    Reply

  16. Okay, She’s amazing
    HE’s in love with her and wants to protect her…so he does…
    I havent read the manga but i hope we see major growth an not just a war over her approval.

    omeganx
    Reply

  17. This episode felt a little messed up but Medaka was still amazing. She is real crazy. However his pure train-of-thought makes here likable for me. Shiranui is still my favorite though.

    Sinan Çevik
    Reply

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