Bishounen Tanteidan – 10

「 D坂の美少年 その１」 (Dii-zaka no Bishounen Sono Ichi)
“The Pretty Boy on D. Hill (Part 1)”

Bishounen Tanteidan’s 10th episode follows a new mystery involving a Rigged Student Council Election as the successor Nagahiro endorsed, Wana Naganawa, was hit by a car. Although the hit-and-run wasn’t fatal, the frontrunner’s inability to take part in the election is pushing the Detective Club to investigate who wanted Naganawa out.

Mayumi’s status as one of the funnier characters in the series is further solidified as she’s put upon by the rest of the club to replace Naganawa as a candidate to become president. No matter how much pushback she tries to give about not being morally upright, Michiru and Nagahiro only see the optics of getting Mayumi hit by a car. It was pretty funny to see how taken aback Mayumi is at how brazen and desperate they are to see her in danger.

On the same coin, much of what makes Mayumi hilarious is how she’ll enthusiastically operate off of impulsive decisions made for her personal gain. Moments like her playing up her shamelessness to dissuade the Detective Club from designating her as Naganawa’s replacement are effective in giving you an idea of how she tries to navigate her surroundings.

Another instance is when she’s doing recon work on the one candidate who seeks to benefit from Naganawa’s mishap, Yokuya. Her method of understanding who he is involved taking it upon herself to scootch her desk towards his and borrow his notebook during class. In the process, she catches herself mocking him for being the typical middle-schooler who has no discerning personality. She feels bad about it, but then goes right back into being astounded that someone who tries to express themselves through their sloppy wardrobe could still end up being suspiciously bland.

There is a little background on Nagahiro’s desire to continue the trend of endorsing internally for Student Council positions. He seems to be on board with keeping the status-quo as-is while he upholds the tradition of finding the most qualified candidate who already has a position in the cabinet and is sympathetic towards keeping things as they are.

But one kernel that should prove to be important is how Nagahiro wants to preserve the cabinet by the time he leaves so that Manabu would have an easier time becoming president someday. I can see the Student Council’s nepotism and Manabu’s eventual involvement in the Student Council come into play as they look further into the case in the next episode.