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「歓喜なき勝利」 (Kanki Naki Shōri)
“Joyless Victory”
It’s not that I spent much time on speculation, but this was not how I expected Nagisa’s backroom schemes to unfold. It’s clear that I’m simply not very well versed on the Japanese political system—and I’m assuming that Classroom Crisis uses the system that Japanese viewers at home would be familiar with. Same as theirs, but on Mars. Classroom Crisis has usually not wandered far from the 21st century other than in the realm of space travel, and I won’t assume they have now.
Do politicians in Japan really defect so easily? It certainly doesn’t happen in Australia, where I live. Dropping out of your party to run as an independent? Sure. Crossing the floor for a contentious vote? Sometimes. But career politicians are still very much creatures of their parties. Even though our two major parties aren’t as divided in ideology as they are in, say, the USA, switching allegiances to the other is the kind of treachery that voters will not readily forgive. Therefore I’m still finding it a bit hard to get my head around these politics. I suppose the details aren’t really all that important. The takeaway is that Nagisa took part in some shady maneuvering to secure himself a political puppet, and the other guy, an idealistic young lad left out of the loop of the game, is left sad. And nobody really feels good about how it turned out.
So this episode was a fork in the road for Nagisa, with a choice to either return the 1.5 billion misappropriated yen to help A-TEC, or to use the knowledge of it as leverage/blackmail so that he may eventually destroy his brothers. Considering the foreshadowing of this episode and the last, the path he takes should not be a surprising one. The revenge motive is not hard to understand, but his brother is a giant douche (that’s corporatespeak, by the way), but it does feel like there should be something deeper there. Something that would make Nagisa’s triumphant gloating feel like more than hollow spite. Maybe some more of that family history.
Perhaps the hollowness (‘Joyless Victory‘) is the point, as punctuated by Nagisa’s showdown with Kaito. Being foils for each other, they differ in many aspects, but one thing they shared was pride, and Kaito had a point when accusing Nagisa of losing his. With them just having started to respect each other, this was a natural course. Kaito, no matter what kind of goof he was, was never one to doubt, which gives him a sort of moral high ground in this matter. Nagisa, on the other hand, is pretty insistent on playing the pariah, perhaps to make A-TEC repudiate him so that he could in turn. It’s a bit of a shame, really. Nagisa was quite the skilled painter for an amateur. What a waste of talent.
Nagisa still seems bent on taking on his eldest brother, though, who is a lot more chill than the middle one and also lot more enigmatic—perhaps even sinister. With Kiryuu Yuuji exiled to the boondocks, I think we can count him as thoroughly defeated and taken out of the picture. Kiryuu Kazuhisa seems well poised to be the ‘last boss’. It’s not certain that he’s going to be a big villain, though since it’s implied that he’s had his hand in all the pies (did I use that idiom right? It sounds rather gross) if the plot calls for an Emperor Palpatine he’d be it. I’m sure he’s going to have all sorts of secret reasons for doing all his secret things, though; that’s how these stories usually go.
Full-length images: 25.
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I seriously hope Nagisa goes all out in his quest for revenge. To be honest, I really love this dark side Nagisa waaaaaaaay more than his nice side. Perhaps because he reminds me of Lelouch in some way. And I love Lelouch.
GO FOR IT, NAGISA! I’M ROOTING FOR YOU, MAN!
DEFEAT THE PRESIDENT!!! XD
Democratic party of Japan, which took power in 2009 from Liberal Democratic Party, then lost it in 2012, was founded in 1996, by politicians who had left LDP before that.
Japanese politicians, especially conservative ones, do change their position sometimes, like Furubayashi did here. It’s allowed because their strength in the voting districts is basically of their own. They have their own supporters and those people follow them no matter which party they choose to get in. Right, left, they just don’t care. Those people follow their guy, not the party. And that’s one reason Japan has so many multi-generation Diet members. It’s like their family business, year after year, from one generation to another.
On the left side, however, labor parties have very different dynamics. Parties and unions have much more say than each representative, and without their help, a politician would certainly face the same fate as Murakami did here.
I think political drama in this episode is a little dramatized, naturally, but still believable.
Thanks for this comment. Lots of informative context for the episode.
The political defection doesn’t strike as odd to me. Must be because of a difference in sensibities.
Going into the episode, Yuuji’s reaction to this outcome was laughably pathetic. What with Nagisa continually dancing around his “orders” and with him being an abusive prick, this was bound to happen sooner or later.
On the other hand, eldest brother acted admirably in my view. He wasn’t even fazed by the whole thing and the conspiracist in me thinks that all of it has been a ploy for him to pit Nagisa and Yuuji.
nothing like showing your superior his own orders as you present to him outcome he wished to avoid
“The person that presents this letter acted on my orders, and for the good of France, Richelieu”
Even in America, there is examples of politicians switching parties, even for similar reasons to Furubayashi. Most recently, Arlen Spector, a senator from the state of Pennsylvania, in 2009 switched from the Republican party to the Democratic Party (he was previously in the democratic party until 1965 when he ran a Republican since the Democratic party leaders of Philadelphia, the city he was running for the office of attorney general in, didn’t want him to be their candidate, so the switching parties thing wasn’t a first for him). He did so a least nominally for ideological reasons (he was a Democrat before) but was worried that he wouldn’t win the primary election for the Republican party. He ultimately didn’t get the nomination and the Republican won his seat in the 2010 election (American election campaigns are really long, for example Canada’s and America’s campaigns for the next election started about the same time, but Canada’s election is later this year and America’s is not till late next year), not before making some important votes as a Democrat, such as being the deciding vote for the much despised by Republicans Affordable Care Act a.k.a. Obamacare, which Republicans hated him for. So switching parties for electoral reasons is not unheard of, but most politicians don’t do it and the ones who do are reviled as traitors (both times for Spector).
I think what was so unusual about it was that the guy changed parties one the very EVE of the general election. That would be political suicide here in the USA. No one would ever vote for you since it would seem like the ultimate flip-flop, and a betrayal, which doesn’t go over well with supporters of any party. Also, because of the ways elections are done here, there would be absolutely no time to change the ballot at that point unless you decided to do it as a write-in which means for sure that you wouldn’t be elected.
I suppose it would happen sometimes, but what impressed me in this episode was how completely mundanely it was treated, relatively speaking.
Furubayashi’s followers would definitely go with him no matter where he goes. Some of the union voters would feel uncomfortable with this situation, but like the union leader said they can be persuaded, and he did just that.
Like most countries, many voters have no party or candidate they feel to be obligated to support. And most voters feel this time the Seimin party should step aside. Some of them could dislike Furubayashi’s b!tchy move and back off, but most of them could still be like anyone but Seimin party members would be ok.
You and I both know we enjoy this. This is why revenge is a dish best served cold.
https://randomc.net/image/Classroom%20Crisis/Classroom%20Crisis%20-%2009%20-%20Large%2034.jpg
And this is how Donald Trump wins 2016. Just sayin…
Money? Power? or will of Citizens?
All three at this rate.