First Impressions / Medaka Box / Series Introduction

OP Sequence

OP: 「BELIEVE」 by 栗林みな実 (Kuribayashi Minami)

「ノーマルと、スペシャルと、アブノーマル」 (Nōmaru to, Supesharu to, Abunōmaru)
“Normal, Special, and Abnormal”

Medaka Box returns as you would expect from this arc – with a bang. The extensive battle with Unzen Myouri at the end of the previous series was merely a taste of what’s to come over the next arc, the arc wherein Medaka Box switched to being a full on shounen battle manga. Of course, it still retains all the absurdities surrounding Medaka herself, along with the strong ties of friendship that made the original arc good, but the addition of some (hopefully) spectacular battles should make it far more entertaining to watch. This first episode certainly didn’t disappoint on that front – while the animation continued much in the same vein as the first season, it still gives lots of opportunities for some great shots.

The first season didn’t exactly do very well in terms of sales, which doesn’t really come as a surprise since Shounen Jump anime adaptations aren’t known to be bestsellers and, while completely faithful to the source material, quite a few things about the first season were less than perfect in many people’s eyes. Had it not already been pre-planned, it’s entirely possible that this second season would never have come into being, despite being one of the arcs that many Medaka Box fans would love to see animated. This is why the OP worries me slightly. Perhaps it’s just Gainax having a little bit of fun at the expense of fans, but the OP teases at least one character who should not be appearing anywhere near this arc. On top of that, there’s a giant robot that was never anywhere in the source material. Of course, both these things could just be some extra flair to make the OP cooler and give a nod to fans of the series, but it could also mean one of two other things – either they plan to adapt much more of the material than originally expected, or they’re planning to go for a Gainax ending. I sincerely hope it’s not the latter.

Unsurprisingly, the flask plan arc begins with a slew of new character introductions. No punches are pulled here – rather than introduce them one at a time as the series progresses, Nisio Isin announces their existence right off the bat. Where the focus of the first arc was more on Specials (with the exception of Medaka and Unzen), this arc brings us the Abnormals – beings around whom the world itself seems to bend resulting in outcomes so improbable as to come across as creepy and weird. The first of these new Abnormal characters to cross paths with Medaka is Unzen Myouga (Ise Mariya), Myouri’s elder sister who speaks solely in numbers. Her presence gives everyone’s favourite Nabeshima Nekomi a chance to show off her trickery and remind us why we love her. On top of this we have the rest of the Thirteen Party – Miyakonojou Oudo (Katsunuma Kiyoshi), Munakata Kei (Kamiya Hiroshi), Takachiho Shigusa (Nomura Kenji), Naze Youka (Sawashiro Miyuki), Koga Itami (Yonezawa Madoka), and Yukuhashi Mizou (Asumi Kana). Whew, even discounting the three quickly defeated members of Class 13, that’s a lot of new characters!

We also get some typical Medaka logic in this episode – the idea that if there’s no reason for someone to attack you, there’s no reason to dodge. This is Medaka logic in the truest sense – if you’re not a godlike being, it’s an absolutely terrible idea (even then it’s still a pretty terrible idea). In a way I guess it is true – in most cases when there’s no reason for someone to attack you, they will not, therefore you have no reason to dodge or retaliate. This happens completely unseen in almost every single interaction between two people. Neither party attacks nor does either party defend. Medaka just takes it a step further and applies it to all cases when there’s no reason to be attacked resulting in refusing to defend herself even when she should. It’s a good thing Nekomi taught her a valuable lesson on the subject pretty quickly!

tl;dr: @MoombaDS – #MedakaBox returns with a bang! 88248591047!

Random thoughts:

  • From the moment I lay eyes on all that food I was wondering when Shiranui would show up.
  • Onigase remains as adorable as ever!
  • Nekomi remains one of the more awesome characters of the show!
  • We had some nice music from Katou Tatsuya for her battle with Myouga too!
  • It was also entertaining to see the differing yet similar thoughts which ran through each of the participant’s heads during that battle.

Full-length images: 04, 06, 07, 10, 11, 17, 27, 32, OP 02.

*Note: There are currently no plans to cover Medaka Box Abnormal on a regular basis here on RandomC.

Please remember to use spoiler tags.

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「守護心PARADOX」 (Shugoshin PARADOX) by 美郷あき (Misato Aki)

Preview

45 Comments

    1. I just re-check that part in the anime with the manga. Apparently, some (if not most) of those numberspeaks are copied straight from the manga, not just a random rumbling.

      Kevin Yamagata
      Reply

    1. the manga pretty much reached its peak in Minus Arc…all of the arcs following it were great but Minus arc is still hard to beat…(which makes me all the more disappointed Gainax doesn’t have the balls to make this a two-hour..)

      kingofconquerors
      Reply

  5. well after s1 now the abnormal season yea the john cena of anime aka medaka is back.

    sure now more dealing abnormal give medaka cena was not in mood being attack by chain ball girl til neko-judo came up to beat chain ball girl with knock some sense back to medaka cena.

    indeed rise above cause medaka cena is back in action.

    frez
    Reply

    2. Because unique plot turned into shounen shit? I thought it would be Sket Dance with shounen shit. But it just became shounen shit permanently: all fight, no point.

      Man, WTF happened?

      The Moondoggie
      Reply

    2. Amazon says 6 BD volumes with 2 episodes each so 12 episodes.
      Split-cour so more or less the same number of eps as the first cour.
      Plus considering how the first season sold poorly I doubt they can pump out more episodes.

      belatkuro
      Reply

      3. Considering there’s only 3 months time difference between the two seasons, it’s most likely this was planned for 24 episodes from the beginning as a split-cour just like Rinne no Lagrange, Fate/Zero, Arakawa Under the Bridge to name a few ones that has done this.
        So no matter the sales, they’ll still push through.

        And Moomba, there are still WSJ titles that sell well, though they’re more of exceptions. Gintama for one I believe sells about 10k. And the recent Kuroko no Basket is selling almost 20k per volume. Though some WSJ titles are more reliant on merchandise, TV ratings and manga sales rather than anime sales. So yeah.

        belatkuro
        Reply

      4. I was aware that Kuroko no Basuke sold really well, but had no idea that Gintama did too. I’m also pretty sure that this second season was planned at the same time as the first – the original source that there was going to be a second season came in the form of a tweet from before the first aired which gave airdates for both seasons.

        Moomba
        Reply

  11. The OP confuses me. The first two characters shown are
    Show Spoiler ▼

    who don’t even show up in the storyline for two more arcs.
    The last character in the OP
    Show Spoiler ▼

    makes his real debut at the end of the Abnormal arc, which is, I assume, what this season will be covering. Are they just baiting the manga readers or something?

    Shiden
    Reply

      2. Because happening to post on the same site on two different posts makes me a stalker.

        Why do I get the sinking feeling you are from 4chan? It seems pretty obvious by the way you talk. That isn’t a complement.

        Tarage
        Reply

      3. That’s because he is Tarage…. A small number of us go there from time to time to pilfer some images(all types) and memes…

        If you ignore all the hate, I bet Stilts-oniichan will even be a regular…

        The Moondoggie
        Reply

  15. nabeshima, you once again demonstrate why you are my favorite character in the entire series. In a series of overpowered super creatures you remain just a “normal” special who beats people she has no right to beat. You will always be “special” in my heart.

    Bijyu
    Reply

  17. So is it just me or is this OP going straight beyond the flask plan Show Spoiler ▼

    would be a pity to stop this one after 13 episodes aswell

    Phantasm
    Reply

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