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「人間は取引をする唯一の動物である。骨を交換する犬はいない」 (Ningen wa Torihiki o Suru Yuiitsu no Doubutsudearu. Hone o Koukan Suru Inu wa Inai)
“Man is an Animal that Makes Bargains: No Other Animal Does This – No Dog Exchanges Bones with Another”
Once again, Stilts decides to drop another show on my lap =P Thanks buddy. But it’s okay, we all get busy and we all know that certain shows deserve some coverage so here I am! I wasn’t expecting much from Youzitsu when I first read the preview; I’m pretty sure I even read it wrong because I was expecting some supernatural/fantasy elements to it. Now, it seems more like Grisaia no Kajitsu or some toned down version of Ansatsu Kyoushitsu where you have a classroom full of kids and not all is as it seems. The only thing left would be to see what’s up with the protagonist and what makes him special.
Building up to the surprise at the end of episode 3, there’s been a lot of subtle (or not so subtle) hints that Kikyou is not right in the head one crazy motherf*cker! First of all, she tries too hard. Or rather, the anime is pushing her good-girl image on us too often. Kikyou is always shown in the best light possible. She’s helping the old lady, helping her classmates, wants to be friends with everyone – there’s no way that someone is that perfect! And it turns out that she’s not. She has a dark, evil, crazy side! As Kiyotaka points out, I’m not very sure which “side” of her personality is the “real” one but anime girls these days are just getting more and more yandere (is this what people like in girls?). I remember back in the day, School Days and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai were some prominent examples of how girls can be nuts but now, they’re everywhere – Mirai Nikki, Deadman Wonderland and Danganronpa are some examples. I wouldn’t mind it so much if there was a reason for Kikyou suffering from multi-personality disorder (e.g. bad break-up, orphan, family history etc.) but there’s no evidence of that yet so I’m left to think that she’s just crazy for the sake of it. Hopefully they’ll breakdown her character a bit more later on to explain why she is the way she is. Plus, I don’t see how forcing Kiyotaka to touch Kikyou’s breast s going to incriminate him. Speaking from a female’s POV, I’m pretty sure underneath all those layers of clothes, no one can tell that you were touched.
Asides from that bomb at the end, the rest of the episode was a continuation of how well the D Class performed after their midterms. They all passed! And it’s revealed that it was a result of Kiyotaka “buying” the previous years’ exams from another senior student in Class D. The most interesting reveal (as the title of the episode says) is that the these “points” can be used to be exchanged for anything in the school – grades; exams; and even services. The catch is that the D Class doesn’t even have any points left after their first month (except for Suzune and Kiyotaka) so their spendings are limited. Luckily, the few students in the class that do have points have been spending it to save everyone else and although I don’t necessarily think they deserve it, I love how the main characters have big hearts. Now that we know the mechanics of how the points and bribing system works, we’ll see how else the class is going to earn their spots as Class C or simply how they’re going to earn some more points to begin with. It’s still a tough uphill climb.
Given that this is a classroom anime, I am horrible with names and faces with THIS many characters. You’ll have to forgive me if I don’t introduce someone because I can’t remember them much. Two new students are spotted talking about the midterm results of the classes. They are Katsuragi Kouhei (Hino Satoshi) and Sakayanagi Alice (Hidaka Rina), both in Class A. Given that they’re so far ahead of Class D I don’t see why they’d be concerned but maybe we’ll see more of them later on along with Suzune’s brother.
Full-length images: 32.
i dunno, in an other anime i would say, that showing someone his/her Darker Side (without consequences) is some kind of deep trusting building.. But i dunno, if my “rules” work here..
I just keep watching from afar
“.. you still want to live with him in good days and bad days…” Well i would not say, that she go there and hump be instand lovers. But this is the first step in trust each other.. or not…
This was not one of those events. This was not the “Hey, I have a dark side but I trust you enough, so it’s okay that you know about it.” It was the complete opposite, so I would say your rule can not be applied in this situation.
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“You can buy anything with points.”
I wonder how many aced tests it takes to buy Hiratsuka sensei’s warm love.
That’s like a prologue of some h-doujin
or…
Money are Power
I’m here from 3 years in the future to say I WISH 8man paid some points to end up with Hiratsuka.
This episode just makes it further clear that the school if focusing on shaping the students to work together as a class in such a way that benefits all the students in the class.
It is a welcome change from shows where you have often sociopathic elites climbing to the top and ruling like petty tyrants, like in this season’s show “Kakegurui”.
The ability to buy grades is actually consistent with the educational goals of the school, as far aw we’ve seen at any rate. The students got into the school because they already were the top students in the country. While some students with many points may use this to excess, I presume that there is some feedback mechanism to make this a limiting on.
Rather than promote sociopathic tendencies, this episode is showing how in order get ahead, the students have to work together to gain the collective reward and avoid the collective punishment. The smart students have to tutor the less smart ones, and even make sacrifices to help out the struggling students. It rewards altruism by demonstrating that it is beneficial.
Kicking a student out who is too far below the mean is fair, as sometimes the expected wonderboys/wondergirls turn out to be dissapointments, so it makes sense to weed them out from the expected cadre of future leaders. However, this would likely create negative effects for the group overall and would create a feedback loop whereby dropping those with too bad a grade ends up raising the expected mean in future tests, thus putting the marginal students in the position of being kicked out next time. This method of using half the mean as a division line means that the class has to focus on improving those at the bottom; it also means that a class that is more equal will be safer for the group.
That much of this isn’t pointed out may seem unfair, but it is also a better reflection of reality, and it also helps focus on the altruism rather than some smart students gaming the system by exploiting loopholes which would benefit sociopaths rather than reward altruistic attitudes and habits.
All in all, this show has been one of the more refreshing classroom animes to come out in quite a while.
I agree that buying that test results is consistent with what the system appears to do.
Buying grades by points is fine because you can only obtain the points by conforming to the system. The more you do that, the more influence the system should give you. It is not a cheat, but a privilege you gain when the system trusts you.
Ultimately this is a Catch XXII at work, because very soon, the only people who can cheat the system are those who do not cheat (willingly or not, there is no difference). In such system, cheating is allowed, it simply remains the worst possible option, this is in fact what we have seen in ep1.
This is ideal for two reasons. It eliminates cheating and solves the problem of rigid evaluation where the merit is not just the evaluation alone (your score on a test), but your “overall skill”, because the evaluation incorporates external aspects (e.g., your cumulative results until now or your conformance to the system). This happens in real life too, like when a teacher ignores an extremely bad result of an exceptional student. It may seem illogical, but the basis for this can be found in statistics – you encounter extreme value and assume external interference so you ignore it avoid influencing your otherwise consistent measurements.
Punishing a students for hick-ups will only put up entry-barriers and demotivate them.
I agree with everything you say. That being said, the system allows for multiple approaches to the same problem.
In other word, “Sociopathic elite ruling with iron fist” actually works equally well under the same system, so long as the sociopathic leader is competent enough to not let anyone fail the exam.
Show Spoiler ▼
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Viva corruption! The oil of a government.
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Eh? I hear something cracked, ohh…nevermind it’s just my heart.
Well, it was obvious something was up.
“Every time Suzune shuts Kushida down I feel like my sanity has been saved for another day”
I had no idea my words would carry their meaning so literally. Kushida, pls. Keep your rape fantasies in check.
So Suzune tried and managed to motivate Sudo. Gg. Too bad she truly only sees herself, but is also willing to change (though easier said than done), so we are already at S2 Yukinon. Although the compass-attack is crossing Senjougaraha territory. The world of aberrations is upon us.
Simply put, forget Suzu-dere, we need to prove we can take the pain first. I expect a lot more tsun-onslaughts, so do not disappoint me.
Koenji (ep1 bus guy) refused to cheat, got 92 in chemistry and a date too. If only he willed to contribute his awesomness to the society.
Ayanokouji-kun, even Hachiman won over all the girls, so what are you doing? Victimized by your teacher, mercilessly bullied by a girl with dislike powerful enough to stop the music and mentally raped by a mental case? At least you got exclusive attention of all three of them, an acknowledging laugh, full frontal tsun attack and a boob grab. How very zero-sum of you.
Impressive feats I’d say XD
At least ayanokuji scored one point over hachiman for grabbing elite op*ai.
Yes, most people would’ve seen something like this coming, but what made it ultimately work for me is that, since Kikyo’s personality is so unrealistic within this setting, I dismissed it. I ignored her. After episode one, for me personally, she was just there, and nothing more. I knew we would discover something new about her that would explain why she acts like this, but I just didn’t think it’d be anything this messed up in the head!
While I was focused on Kyiotaka and Suzune and their exploits since that’s where everything interesting is going on, I was completely uninterested in her, and so not only this came as sort of (not completely) a shock, it brought her back into the spotlight again. How should I say this, it worked like Kuroko’s misdirection from KnB, where the more people focus on him since he’s the most interesting (and dangerous) player on the field, the other “less interesting and dangerous” players are in the dark, until they bring their A game and knock the other team off their game. It was a good twist, even if it may have been obvious. A twist in plain sight. Or maybe I just didn’t think that hard about her because I didn’t want to.
I don’t know why, but I suddenly want to read all the works this anime is quoting.
Yup, this school is meant to be a place to train elites all right. Academics? That is for regular institutions. This is a full on Yoda school meant to teach cohesiveness, lateral thinking and problem solving. The school rules are unwritten specifically because it is up to you to figure them out and then how to break them over your knee like a twig or twist them like a pretzel at will. These skills will be worth more in the working world than all the book studying in the world. How to cooperate, coordinate, command and most importantly, THINK. There is always a way if you can figure it out. The school does not actually create “no-win” scenarios, just ones that are difficult to traverse.
Now if only they had actually warned the students what they were getting into.
Kushida’s psycho side did come as a welcome thing to me. Yui was always the necessary social glue character but she was immensely bland compared to Yukino and Hachiman. That Kikyou has Hinamizawa eyes whenever she wants makes her much more interesting to me.
I do concur that Sudo is basically a millstone around Class D’s neck though. Too proud to accept help easily, too dumb to do well at class on his own and too aggressive to win friends who would stick their neck out for him. His statement at the party was pretty poignant. He did not believe anyone would try to save him, let alone Suzune of all people. He does strike me as that jerk jock that exists to cause problems, a character type I have never been terribly fond of.
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“I’ll tell everyone you tried to RAPE me.”
Somehow… a switch on me turned on.
it will be hilarious, if ayanokouji then said “why wait?” and proceed to undress haha
Some movies (mostly based on Yakuza) would said then “If you go telling this to everyone, then at last i make this be real!”….
Crying Freeman
Hmm… That’s an interesting development. I think I’ll stick around for the behind the scene and underhanded politics and
Yanderegahama YuiYanderegahama Yuimost certainly piqued my interest andAraragi Kiyotakagets stabbed bySenjougahara Suzune… That’s most interesting.Back to the show itself. I had to watch it again to fully understand the rooftop scene. It truly never occured to me that the clause of “able to buy anything” even covers to buying results. So does that mean I can buy one’s silence and virginity or sexual services with the points? Additionally, watching the conversation between
Hiratsuka senseiand her students got me thinking, “how does one’s action is affected by one’s moral compass” or “should the needs of many be a justifiable reason to be in the grey?” That’s really what I’m getting here. I’m not sure about you guys but the roof top scene is tantamount to bribery and it’s rather intriguing that she agreed to the transaction.At this juncture, I am curious to see how far each and everyone would go in order to achieve their goals.
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For some strange reason, I really want to grab those plots and play with it.
P.S. Thr very concept of the show opens a wide variety of H doujin plot. Using points to buy sexual services… Hmm…
The Problem, this Points usage are based of “good will” Peoples. what will you do if some lier use “Fake points” to get his way and “I did not gave points away, he/she done it on free will!”…
See, thats the flaw.
This is a take on society’s hidden reality: “If you have enough money, you can do whatever you want.”
So we have Social Criticism done right. In this case we’ve seen the good side of the rule. I’m willing to bet that in the future something bad will happen because somebody will decide to buy some unfair advantage.
Well this was an unexpected twist.
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Girls who use weapons or brute force to slap around the hero/protagonist turn me off. It would be a deal-breaker for me. I would walk away at that point.
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At least now we’re not waiting for a break the cutie moment in the series. Both “top girls” of this anime just got flaws the size of train tunnels in them.
This show is like different groups of political people all aiming for a job at the top bureaucracy, knowing there is a cutoff as well as stratification. Just no press to hype up winners and losers. That’s what is missing from this anime – a student-run TV show or smartphone-blog telling everyone about the students in Class D.
if we are to describe ayanokouji based on this 3 episodes specially episode 3, it seems he is the type of person in the thinking level of hikigaya hachiman or even KEIMA KATSURAGI… a deep but quick thinker, observes/analyzes situation, perform best course of action based on the resolution he found in accordance to his philosophy… —- with that i can surely say he is not in anyway feeling threatened by kushida NOT even one bit. that “i dont give a fck (but thank you for the oppai :D)” face he gives as he gets confronted by kushida looked like he has already anticipated everything and is already predicting what will happen next and what is the best course of action to take by the moment he saw kushida’s extreme character change.
i believe he can devise a plan to bend the situation and make kushida look the dumb fck in the next episodes but it seems like he would rather watch and wait as the secret reveals itself.
anyway, is this getting covered then? if yes that will be great!
I think you’re over thinking things mate…
I completely agree with you. He is a cunning person, playing the role of the outcast lost in the background. Remember episode’s 2 quote: “It takes a great talent to make everyone think that you have no talent at all.” Or something along those lines.
He is the student that scored 50 in every test. Enough to pass, good enough to fly below almost everyone’s radar. The man is quite the badass strategist laying undercover.
As the story goes, I’m sure we will see more and more of his hidden talents shining through.
Hearing Yurika Kubo as an evil crazy girl is definitely a twist, as she normally voices characters who are almost always happy or innocent (with maybe the possible exception of Loki in Danmachi.)
Well I guess will see if Kushida can keep up her facade, or if she will be outed at being the psycho girl at some point….
I like Kushida’s eyes when she’s on her ‘dark’ mode.
If she’s going to frame for touching her press, might as well touch her other boob and fondle it. Heh.