First Impressions / Medaka Box

「私は貴様を許さない!!」 (Watashi wa Kisama o Yurusanai!!)
“I Will Not Forgive You!!”

In a way, Medaka is something of a contradictory existence. By now we’re all very familiar with her ideals, her love for all humanity, and her desire to save everyone, not just from others but also from themselves. Her interventions in the attempted assassinations were not merely to save her student council comrades from harm, but also their assailants. As Zenkichi said, had they gone through with the attack they would likely not have fared as well as they hoped. Bluff or no bluff, I harbour no doubts that the student council members could have thoroughly decimated their would-be assassins (even Zenkichi given how we’ve seen him deal with others in the past).

On top of that, Medaka was also performing her usual saviour role – alongside protecting either side of the conflict from harm (although there was plenty of mental trauma), she also saved them from performing unforgivable deeds. Given that one of her core principles has always been to redeem wrongdoers based around the idea that they’re all good people at heart, it’s pretty natural that she’d want to save them from corrupting themselves further. Even Medaka seems to acknowledge a point of no return on the corruption scale.

With the revelation of just how far Myouri is willing to go to take down the student council in his personal vendetta against Medaka (with his explosive-filled extremely-elastic Super Balls), we finally get to see Medaka snap. At long last, we see the War God Mode teased in the OP, resulting in what I can only see as a slightly contradictory personality. But that’s fine – rage does that to a person, no matter how saintly they might be on the surface. In addition, the triggers are worthy ones – who can possibly stand by calmly when someone directly threatens the lives of your friends, not once, but twice? Had it not been for Medaka’s superhuman reactions and resilience, they would all have died in the explosion. We actually get a quick moment of symbolism to further emphasise the bounds of her rage – her complete lack of care when stepping on a flower which represented one of the people she’d helped shows us that in this state she no longer cares about those ideals, heck, she doesn’t even acknowledge their existence. In a sense, had they not been so completely different, this suggests that Myouri might have had some miniscule chance to convert Medaka to the disciplinary committee.

It would seem that the reaction of normal students to Medaka’s activities is something of a double-edged sword. If they realise Medaka is involved, they will dismiss it as being a usual occurrence and will show no further interest in it. On the one hand, this is good because it means that no-one will ever feel the need to come and investigate it, thereby eliminating the risk of being caught in the crossfire (or suffering mental trauma just knowing what sort of demons they’re attending school with!). On the other hand, it also means that it’s extremely unlikely anyone will ever show up to render aid should the situation ever degrade to a point where such is necessary.

The sheer power we see from the War God Mode (and the strength we’ve seen from her on a day-to-day basis) makes me seriously wonder whether the next episode will actually be dominated by a battle, or if it will be no more than a continuation of the lengthy monologues both Myouri and Medaka seem to be excessively fond of giving.

Random thoughts:

  • Who actually holds a phone like this?!
  • This was a good episode for some adorable shots of Kikaijima. Onigase too, if to a far lesser extent.
  • We actually had some very nice Horizon-esque music from Katou Tatsuya this week which worked really well in getting the blood pumping (especially during the War God Mode segment)!
  • I really do wonder just how fast Medaka can move to be able to do so many things in such a short period of time (particularly rolling everyone up in a rug).

Full-length images: 02, 11, 19, 20, 28, 30, 31, 35.

 

Preview

39 Comments

  1. I haven’t watched many shows with Toyosaki Aki in them, but it’s a shame that it’s only until I started watching Medaka Box that I realise that she’s got such a good vocal range. From Yui (K-ON!) to Medaka “War God” mode, her voice acting is just amazing 🙂

    Speaking of which, it’s a nice change from Medaka being all “saintly”. As if Medaka wasn’t deadly enough when she was normal: now you have to have a super saiyan mode too. That glare and that punch, it was truly … insaiyan.

    Shouhei
    Reply

  4. It was a mistake to make the story take place in a school setting. If this were in a post-apocalypse, lawless desert area like Hokuto no Ken, then some people would not question about the whereabouts of the teachers, parents, etc.

    Unajuuphile
    Reply

      1. Don’t click that link if you haven’t read the manga and don’t want to be spoiled to certain things. It’s just an explanation of how a particular scanlation group decided that War God mode is a better translation, but that link also spoils a bunch of other naming standards.

        Player
        Reply

    1. These days I am convinced the only reason GAINAX had interest in animating this otherwise routine series is because the fighting shonen elements! This is where they seem to excel at!

      starss
      Reply

  15. Amateurs… when you do the assassination on superhuman targets, you use multiple snipers or laser guided karma, erm , Hellfire from five miles out. Or blow up entire building. Or hire Mage Killer. 😛

    ewok40k
    Reply

  16. Is it just me or did they change the scene when Medaka protects her friends by spreading water in the room and rolling them in a carpet. In the manga she spreads the water but stuffs them into a locker instead to shield them from the blast.

    wingzer012
    Reply

  18. Given BD Sales, there’s a lot of talk going around that Medaka Box would not get a Second Season.

    Really, I think the whole problem was that Gainax adapted it on the naive assumption that this would be a multi-cour series.

    In no way is Medaka Box even remotely routine (once you get to the Minus Arc, that is). Firstly, it undergoes a huge genre shift (the Unzen Arc)and secondly, it really goes very meta on Shounen tropes. Nor are it’s characters… typical Shouen fodder. Have you seen an idiot hero yet?

    It’s really a shame though, because this arc can be considered the “true” start of Medaka Box, and everything else merely prologue. Forget about everything you’ve seen in the first 8 episodes, except for characterizations. The manga took an entire 360 degree swerve at this point and never, ever, looked back.

    Andmeuths
    Reply

    1. And then spun around again for the Minus arc (when things were no longer grounded in the realms of logic, courtesy of Kumagawa), and yet again for the Not-Equal arc.

      Medaka Box has gone through more genre shifts than any other series I know.

      MasterDragonKnight
      Reply

      1. Oh yes. It took a 180 Degree Spin horizontally in the Enforcer/Unzen Arc, a 180 degree spin vertically for the Minus Arc, another 180 Degree Spin in the Fourth Dimension/Tessarect for the Not Equal Arc, and another 180 degree spin into a Fifth Dimension for the latest Arc.

        Andmeuths
        Reply

    2. The official site has a news entry entitled「最終回第12箱の情報公開！！」 which was posted on May 29. The title means “Information on the FINAL 12th Box!!” (boxes are what they call episodes) and the article talks about two brand new anime-original characters that will be introduced in the 12th episode.

      This site talks about the animes of Spring 2012 that are “caught up in the 2-cour trend” and it lists Medaka Box as one. This is the site that the Japanese wikipedia sourced for their inclusion of the fact that Medaka Box is confirmed for 2 cours. But it’s a fairly old article so we still can’t be 100% sure 🙁

      Bashira
      Reply

  20. As the story goes along beyond this point, the Contradiction of Medaka’s character becomes a recurring plot point.

    Truth to be told, Medaka deliberately chooses to be the “Saint” here. But that’s not really her. Nor is Perses Mode Medaka really her either. She is a hypocrite, a hypocrite for the sake of having a purpose in life.

    Medaka Box later goes deeply into examining the psyche of a “perfect man”. If a man is “perfect”, what challenge does she have in life. If there’s no prospect of failure, and victory is always yours, without fail, is life then meaningful? The core of Medaka is “purpose”. Therefore, her annoyingly Saintly act is that. An act, an act that gives purpose. An act that has been maintained for many, many years.

    Unfortunately, anime viewers would only really see of what really lies behind Medaka when you strip her of that purpose, and that commitment to being a “saint” in a Second Season, if there’s one, and only then, REALLY only in the climax of the next arc.

    Manga readers would know what I mean when I say that Medaka makes an awesome antagonist, but a very boring protagonist.

    The charge of hypocrisy is spot-on. It’s the first sign that there’s more to Medaka than just that “saintliness”, and Mary Sue perfection. I’d dare say it really constructs the concept of a Sue in directions even Haruhi Suzumiya hasn’t gone to before, but none of this is evident until now. Once you see that one of the underlying themes of Medaka Box is deconstructing a Sue, that “contradiction” becomes just the first sign that’s something is up behind the personality of “Saint” Medaka.

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Andmeuths
    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *