Posted by OP Sequence
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OP: 「HAPPY CRAZY BOX」 by Kuribayashi Minami
Watch the OP!: Streaming ▼
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「生徒会を執行する！」 (Seitokai o shikkou suru!)
“To carry out the will of the student council!”
Written by Nisio Isin: Check
Soundtrack by Katou Tatsuya: Check
Produced by Gainax: Check
Alright guys, grit your teeth and let’s dive into the fray!
It’s a little hard not to get excited about an anime when faced with this kind of lineup. A popular, over-the-top manga written by Nisio Isin, famed for his witty dialogue and often non sequitur writing, and adapted by Gainax, famed for their over-the-top original anime Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann? With a soundtrack by Katou Tatsuya (Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon, Mirai Nikki), who is rapidly becoming one of my favourite anime soundtrack composers to boot? It sounds almost like a dream come true!
Medaka (Toyosaki Aki), recently elected as the student council president through a landslide victory, coerces her childhood friend Zenkichi (Ono Yuuki) into joining her as she fulfils the requests placed in the Medaka Box, a suggestion box she set up as part of her new reign. The first of these requests, to clean out the third year delinquents led by Kamina Moji (Konishi Katsuyuki) from the kendo hall, results in a markedly short clash during which Medaka shows off her superhuman abilities. With this out of the way, Shiranui (Kato Emiri) confronts Zenkichi with the idea that he may not know Medaka as well as he thinks he does. Zenkichi returns to the newly-cleaned dojo to find that Medaka has succeeded in rekindling the delinquents’ desire to practice kendo, proving that Shiranui was at least partially correct with her observations.
Responding to a request to ‘fix’ Hyuga’s ‘bad personality,’ Medaka hands off her speech at the council recruitment meeting to Shiranui and arrives in time to discipline him (though Zenkichi already taught him a lesson of sorts) as he staggers from the dojo with his tail between his legs. What this entailed is a complete mystery, but it somehow results in Hyuga becoming the tsundere leader of the temporary kendo club, the object of his affections being Medaka of course! Convinced by Medaka’s words and her dream of filling the student council room with flowers (one for every request fulfilled), Zenkichi relents and somewhat reluctantly takes one of the armbands, marking him as a member of the student council.
—–
Let’s get this out of the way – beyond quickly glancing over a few pages of the first chapter to get some idea what to expect, I have not read the manga, so all impressions are based almost entirely on information garnered from the adaption.
Medaka is a very interesting character from my point of view. From what little I’ve heard about her courtesy of manga readers, she seems to be an entity approaching a Mary Sue, her good traits far outweighing any bad and her superhuman strength far beyond that of other characters seen so far. This being Nisio Isin however, I strongly suspect a unique spin on the concept will be introduced.
In fact, not everything about her is quite as perfect as it may seem on the surface. She may have a strong desire to help others, an unflinching belief in humanity and an understanding of the value of each individual as opposed to their value as a statistic, but she’s also not afraid to force her own ideals onto others and has the strength to back this up. While her desire to discipline delinquents and set them on the right path might be admirable, her apparent fervor for ‘fixing’ people could be seen as a fearsome thing.
Her faith in humanity, that on a base level we’re all fundamentally similar and everyone has the potential to do anything, is also a slightly double-edged trait. On the one hand, belief can act as a strong motivator. As we see in this episode, Medaka’s belief in the delinquents helps them remember their love for kendo and stand up against Hyuga. However, belief can also be percieved as a burden. Should the subject of that belief truly be unable to complete the task set for them, the belief will only bear them down. I’m looking forward to seeing whether the latter effect will occur during the course of the series.
Zenkichi’s loyalty to Medaka, his willingness to stand up for her even though she ostensibly has no need of it, is impressive. Despite her strength (both physical and as a person), Medaka appears to have some basic desire that can only be fulfilled by having Zenkichi stand alongside her. Whether this is because of their status as childhood friends or something specific to Zenkichi himself remains to be seen, but at this point, I’m leaning more towards the former. Even the most perfect of beings suffer from lonliness and it’s pretty cold at the top without someone to stand beside you.
It seems to me that Gainax is really setting the tone for the rest of the series with this episode. From the crazy, over-the-top imagery of Medaka as a godlike being during her lecture, to Hyuga’s effortless defeat of the third year kendo club members and Zenkichi’s retaliatory punch, all the stops have been pulled. Whether they’ll manage to bring the sense of awe exuded by Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann to this adaption remains to be seen, but I think we could be in for quite the ride nevertheless!
This week the ED – 「お花畑に連れてって」 (Ohanabatake ni Tsuretette) by Toyosaki Aki – was used as an insert song, so no ED Sequence caps yet!
Since many readers will likely already be aware of the contents of the manga, I’d like to ask everyone to kindly refrain from posting spoilers in the comments. If you absolutely must, please remember to use the spoiler tags!
Preview
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Whenever I read Medaka Box, I can’t help but be reminded of Bakuman, and how mangas become “battle” mangas to gain popularity if the original premise doesn’t pan out. There is no flow to the plot from what it began to what it ended up becoming, and while the plot devices and characters are interesting, I couldn’t have been more disappointed by Nishio Ishin’s work.
You obviously have not spent alot of time reading the manga then.
Show Spoiler ▼
For some reason, the anime seems to remind me a lot of Utena.Shiranui is like the Kashira girls! Did anyone else get that feeling (along with the SHAFT-esque visuals)?
Anywho, looks like a really good adaptation! I can’t wait to see how far through the manga they get 😀
And the music’s by the same person who composed the Horizon soundtrack!
Gah, I meant the first episode, not the anime…
yes i had that shaft-y feeling… but hey! what’s there to complain….
i thoroughly enjoy nisio isin writings eversince bakemonogatari!
Same here! I’m also just a big SHAFT fan in general.
Maybe it’s less about SHAFT visuals and more about Nisio Isin’s style…
Then again…this is GAINAX animating it.
Same here! If u like shaft, you’d like silverlink as well
SHAFT originally worked with Gainax on a lot of Gainax’s not-Eva franchises. Mahoromatic, Ugly and Beautiful World, these are some of the more notable Gainax produced but SHAFT animated shows. Even now, Gainax and SHAFT are often seen trading help with each other, with the most easily recognized of recent history being Bakemonogatari.
Shiranui is very amusing and Medaka looks very nice, but for some reason I’m having trouble getting into the story. Maybe this will improve later on. (I really hope so…)
well this show dont have that much of story behind it
just enjoy it
btw wasnt her breasts bigger in manga?
After the 10th chapter or so Medaka Box pulls a genre shift and things get extremely trollish from there. Medaka Box is basically TV Tropes Averted.
Can’t believe that Aki-chan can pull that voice. :O
Could not believe it either. I knew Aki was doing the voice, but when I heard it, I was pleasantly surprised.
I was wondering who the seiyuu for Medaka was so I looked it up and saw that it was Toyosaki Aki. I am amazed that it sounds completely different to her other characters who usually have a similar voice.
you can almost sense how hard she tries to do an octave lower voice.
what do you mean by this?
I was a little skeptical at first based on what little I already knew about the manga and Toyosaki Aki’s usual roles, but perhaps it’s because I’m not overly familiar with the manga and didn’t already have a picture of her voice in my mind that I’m actually pleasantly surprised by her apparent versatility. So far I have no strong objections.
Very surprised by the music. And it looks great so far and the narrative was also good. I didn’t get bored watching this.
As for critique, I have my doubts about the VA choice for Medaka (K-On’s Yui). I felt that her voice acting didn’t transmit the character’s self-confidence as well as, say, Saito Chiwa does with Senjougahara (another NisiOisiN character). Medaka didn’t leave that much of a big impression on me and that should have been the main objective of Episode 1.
This series seems to be a late bloomer. I’m not going to drop it but people should give it a chance up to episode 5, for fairness’ sake. And I hope this runs for long too, it doesn’t seem to be a bad show and commenters are satisfied with the failtfulnes
PD: Read about only 3 chapters of the manga and didn’t remember any of them. I’m going “blind” into this.
Agreed. I wasn’t disappointed either. Though I did think that Medaka’s voice was authoritative enough.
From the comments it does seem like folks are going in with preconceptions. Which is too bad.
But I watched the first episode, found the voice weird/unconvincing and then checked who the VA was. So I didn’t have that kind of preconceptions on my part at least.
What I did know was about Medaka’s character being a ridiculously strong female lead that’s supposed to be too perfect, always right, and the most important character of them all.
This is why I payed extra attention to the voice acting of that role and I also set my standard a bit higher.
Yup- your comment definitely showed you had an open mind.
It’ll be interesting to see what her flaw ends up being- there always is with someone too perfect, too right.
I don’t foresee anything very heavy in the emotional department from this show. Definitely not a Guinness Stout- more like a strawberry margarita. Light and fruity and if made with the right stuff may be pretty damn good. Use the cheap stuff and you’ll send up with a bad hangover.
I agree with you. When i skipped through the chapters, the first thing i thought was Freezing’s anime second season. But after watching it for a while it didn’t feel as bad as Freezing. I think that the problem was more on the director than the voice actor. I believe that the voice actress would have been able to pull out the authoritarian voice. Medaka’s voice always softened when she was talking to Zenkichi. Medaka was not supposed to show her soft side not even to Zenkichi; except for really rare cases. She was supposed to sound more Kuudere than what she is being acted.
And Zenkichi’s voice on the other hand is horrible. He was supposed to be a younger voice. And i hate that “Kah” thing. He is supposed to say it normaly which sounds more like “Hmm”. Zenkichi’s character was supposed to be more like the “complainer” but they made him look too cool here.
Nisio Isin? … The BlabberyGatari guy? He does shounen jump stuff?
Art looks pretty “standard” for a Gainax show. Underwhelming compared to the new Lupin III (which was superb). I think I’ll give this a pass.
Happy blogging.
Nice post, though I could do without the summary of the episode.
As for the episode itself, I still dont like the choice of Aki Toyosaki for Medaka. Should have been a different one.
Zenkichi’s is okay and Shiranui’s is perfect. Art and animation is okay, too much jiggling and I could have sworn Medaka has blue hair.
As for plot, let’s just say that things are in line with how Gainax does shows; over the top.
Expect the unexpected here and remember: Medaka is the main character.
S-spoiler! SPOILER! Nyahahahahaha! 😛
And yeah, there was a lot of jiggling, though I guess Gainax is just catering to the fans. I did snort during the op when we had an eyeful of Medaka’s panties for a good 2 seconds XD I don’t know; I guess I just wasn’t expecting that.
Read the 1st chapter of the manga and I felt it was somewhat interesting. Watched the anime and I was pretty damn bored. However, I was impressed by how Toyosaki Aki is capable of doing a stronger and deeper voice, besides doing the high pitched chipmunk Yui. Her voice definitely needs some more work on, but not a bad start.
This adaptation is going to be… interesting. The manga was a “work of progress” for most of its publication history; now it seems it more or less settled into its own style, but who knows…
Just to let people know (I don’t consider this spoiler since it does not reveal any plot point, but rather a fair warning to the non-manga readers):
— The first 13 manga chapters are basically slice-of-student-council-life with Medaka’s craziness thrown in (i.e., following from this week’s opener). This part doesn’t have much of a story, and it wasn’t very popular in Jump, prompting Nisio Isin to…
— …abruptly turn the story into a somehow standard battle manga, which goes on till chapter 57 or so. To me this was the most boring part, but the popularity of the manga in Jump increased significantly after the genre shift.
— After the second arc, the manga just becomes… weirder and weirder. At this point it is basically a manga about manga… not in the sense of writing them like Bakuman, but because it constantly breaks the fourth wall and lampshades all sort of typical Jump’s cliche, starting with Medaka’s Mary Sueness. It is also when the manga really became popular.
Now of course the point is, how far will they get in the anime? Is this scheduled for one cour or more? Gainax never worked on a long adaptation… This week they covered the entirety of chapter 1 (57 pages). The OP shows that they will cover the first part of the battle arc, so at least until chapter 21. I guess after that we will have to see.
^I still consider it a spoiler rather than a warning since. We’ll get there at some point and it’s best that anime only viewers see the change rather than be informed about it. After all, we didnt see it ourselves in the manga until it was too late.
It may spoil things somewhat, but a lot of people may drop it else during the early episodes while not knowing that it will change totally soon.
yeah, if I hadnt already read through all the manga, im pretty sure id be disappointed with the anime being only 12 eps. one genre shift happens, and im sure a lot of people would start saying medaka box is inconsistent(if they didnt know it was shounen).
only once you read far in the manga do you appreciate it. its the (in)famous genre-shifter.
I really enjoyed watching this! XD This is way way way better than Sket Dance! They both solve a bunch of problems but this one’s really on a different level, more like with Medaka being on the godlike level! XD By the way, huge thanks for Moomba for posting this one up fast~ ^^
Writen by Nisio Isin but wasn’t very good at all.
His name was the only reason this manga kept running despite being in the last 5 for months.
thanks for the coverage, Moomba :3
so QB reincarnated as a loli girl here?
seems like it will run like sket dance in a way? the first episode is good 🙂
though I can’t say I found too much Isin’s style in this one yet (aside from naming sense)… maybe I will check out the manga at some point.
Guys! Why can’t I view the opening from here?
At the moment the addition of OP and ED videos is slightly delayed following the recent transition but we’re hoping to have them up soon. It’s not a feature that has been permanently removed.
Whew. Good to hear.
Wish I read this sooner
Thanks for the Info
The link’s not working…
Gainax skipped the ‘Medaka stripping and posing cutely in front of the mirror while Zenkichi talks’ part >:( Instead, we were forced to feast our eyes on Zenkichi’s back! Down with Gainax! Burn the trolls!
Anyway, I’m not too impressed with Aki’s portrayal of Medaka, but maybe it’ll grow on me after a few more episodes. Somehow, I think Gainax chose Aki just for Medaka’s “Proof of One’s Worth” skill…
Neither ANN nor wiki states how long this series will run, though judging by the OP, I don’t think we’ll reach the ‘battle’-arc unless Gainax plans to turn this into 2-cour, so we’ll probably be entertained with Sket Dance shenanigans before bouncy boy appears.
She iiiiissss~! Well, Nisio’s take on a Mary Sue, anyways…If episodes permit, things will get weird while at the same time make sense. Nisio does a great job with this manga. Only thing is, I don’t understand why it’s serialized in Jump.
What did strike me as interesting in this adaptation are Medaka’s eyes. I don’t know if it’s because this is the first time – bar chapter covers, of course – I’ve seen Medaka coloured but her eyes in the anime really do reflect her personality, making Zenkichi’s claims that “she’s used to looking down on people” easier to believe now.
On one final note, I’ll get this out now…Medaka/Zenkichi all the waaaaaaayyyy~!
Last news (nothing confirmed) talk about this getting 45 time slots.
So… 45 episodes?
o.0 That’s..an odd number o.o
First of all, respects to Aki Toyosaki. Her voice range has stepped into god tier here.
Now, the issue here is that the series keeps the story inside the first arc (the gather of the Student Council), period (even if Medaka is an egocentric, Mary Sue, plot-armorish kind of character). The rest is like watching a Naruto-esque, non-ending power-leveling, uber-rubbish nonsense.
I read the manga so I’ll be careful about spoilers! I will only say you are right in not understimate the fact that NisiOisin is the writer. The series is nothing of what it seems at beginning..
I think the episode was pretty good, unfortunately there are the usual Gainax-quality-draws here and there, but most of the episode was quite good. Unfortunately, I don’t like at all Aki Toyosaki on Medaka: the kind of voice she use is too soft and I don’t think it fits Medaka’s male way of speaking. But maybe the contrats is less noticed by people not familiar with the different way of talking in japanese. Matter is I’ve always imagined Medaka with a stronger and rougher voice, and I had the luck/unluck to listen to the vomic in which Medaka was voiced by Junko Minagawa.. and she stood three feet above Toyosaki.. I hope to get used to her, because my experience with the first episode has been quite ruined by the fact I can’t stand her voice on Medaka 🙁
On the contrary, Yuuki Ono on Zenkichi is just perfect. I appreciated Hiroshi Kamiya on the Vomic too, but Ono is a very good replacement (and adds a little more masculinity that is not bad :)).
The adaptment is quite faithful, the only thing I would have apprecited (fangirl-wise XD) is the fact in the manga Zenkichi is more embarassed and flustered when Medaka hugs him.. and he falls on the floor XD
Just a question: do you have more reliable info about the number of episodes, Moomba? Because I’ve read that a japanese site states 45 episodes, but it’s quite a strange number.. and before I read a 2-cours series, 12+12. Any fresh news? 🙁
Currently the only site I’m aware of that’s claiming 45 episodes is this. Unfortunately, they don’t list any sources nor do they appear to have any connections to the broadcast companies or studios so there’s no way of knowing how reliable the information is. For now it seems the only way to find out is to wait and see.
That’s the same site I knew of. Thanks for your reply! We’ll wait and see ^^
Medaka is supposed to be a perfect girl, giving her a rough voice would go against that.
Maybe rough is not the right word, sorry.. Maybe I meant a more “mature” voice? Something like the voice Megumi Toyoguchi gave to her in the Vomic (in my comment I wrote Junko MInagawa by mistake). Unfortunately it cannot be found anymore in the web.. it was a stronger voice, not that soft and somewhat irritating (to my ears, obviously) voice. But well, that’s my opinion. ^^
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm9619175 Here, that’s the voice I meant, and doesn’t make her less perfect girl at all 🙂
45 isnt that strange, it’s 4×12=48 take a few eps. There are shows with ~51 eps too, and sometimes they adjust to budget or holidays.
I see! Hadn’t considered that. Thank you! Hope it will be that way ^^
I’m pretty sure the delinquents didn’t actually have any childhood dreams of Kendo, but just stated it was so because Medaka said as much.
Basically, she was wrong, but ended up being right anyway.
I honestly don’t have high hope for this show but it looks like it’ll be good enough to tide me over until the days of the shows I’m looking forward to.
Gainax make adaptation of Medaka Box just because of Moji’s resemblance of Kamina, to commemorate 5th anniversary of Gurren Lagann, maybe? -_-
Anyway, knowing this is NisiOisin’s works, I hope Medaka Box is not just another wordplay series like Monogatari series. Sure, Monogatari is good, but I prefer this kind of pace, full of battles and a little romance development, for upcoming episodes.
Epic ginyu force poses.
Medaka’s voice will grow on me eventually, hard to tell after an episode; can’t believe it’s the same voice behind Yui from k-on and Aoi from Beezlebub. I thought Shirnaui’s voice was really spot on and I like how bouncy the girl’s ahoges are.
I like the manga and I gotta say I like so far this turned out; gave me a show to watch this season, can’t wait for the other characters get introduced so I can hear em.
Anime has become too stagnant and predictable. Assuming that these tropes are being introduced for the purpose of subverting them later, this was just another typical case of “hot-blooded males being humbled by super-eroticized, inexplicably strong woman.”
I honestly feel like most anime writers are simply incapable of writing believable female characters, so they super-idealize them (and make the men overly emotional) in a backwards attempt to seem progressive. Come on guys! Give me a character I can identify with! :O
*assuming these tropes aren’t
tell me about it! But you know people get mad if their same old recycled stuff get attacked, so you should expect mountains of negs from the angry mob……well, you asked for it by being reasonable on Medaka Box’s comment section (instead of Uchuu Kyoudai, for instance). ha!
Well, actually the matter is Medaka is that way on purpose. Of Gainax will animate the series until the crucial point, you will see ^^ Medaka isn’t meant for anyone to identify with her, on the contrary. ^^
As long as Kumegawa shows up in the anime. 10/10
Yes, Kumagawa is always THE MAN
Minus are awesome 😛
Imagine if Kumagawa only makes a cameo in the last episode.
I hope we won’t need to wait for another season for him!
Um,Um,Um,Um,Um,Um
I been reading Medaka Box manga ever since chapter 1, what I can say is teh story is fun and exciting at first but down from middle to current chapter it get very confusing. Problem is there is so many different character and so many different abilities, it turn into one big mess then we got weird situations like Medaka vs. the whole school in a tug of war.
Bottomline is good manga at first but get confusing and weird the more it goes.
At most this was a decent episode. From the looks of the OP, the focus of the series’ first cour will be on the Discipline Committee, and that’s… not good, especially since, unless I’m misinformed, was the arc where Medaka Box’s popularity began to sink.
Also, as frequent reader of the manga, I can say this with certainty: if Bakemonogatari flashed Nisio Isin’s wit, Medaka Box blurts at the reader all of his pretentiousness. The first 50 chapters are tolerable, but after a certain main character is introduced, whom I consider as by far the greatest character in the series, the pretense skyrockets and the writing gets just god damn sloppy. It’s still a fun ride, but everything just goes straight to shit, especially past chapter 100. The writing is all over the place, and characters who are introduced are thrown away instantly, again and again. Medaka Box often directly lampoons stereotypes in Jump, but there’s no wit or cunning to it at all; they all take the form of “If this this were a manga…” and so on.
TL;DR I don’t remember a single moment where Medaka Box was truly great, and this coming from a frequent reader. I’m hoping that the anime will be pretty decent, but considering that the first episode actually made me feel absolutely nothing, everything’s up in the air for now.
Oh, and I’m fairly sure that over-the-top animation moments weren’t GAINAX moments, but actually parts of the first chapter of the manga, if I’m not mistaken.
Wow you manage to read more than 100 chapters? I couldn’t even stand 30 chapters, it gave me headache. Well as you wrote 50 was still good, I will continue read the manga again.
I agree the seiyuu does not match Medaka’s personality, Saitou Chiwa or Hikasa Youko is better. Also I think this anime version Medaka is more cute than manga version, is more like an H doujin one fufufu
For this season, let’s enjoy the jiggling ups sorry, the superhuman seitokai kaichou!
Lol, I still read chapters on a weekly basis even today. I’d definitely be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy any of it at all. But yeah, past chapter 50, the climate changes rapidly. From there on I believe, all the 4th wall-breaking humor begins, and the focus drastically changes, for better or for worse.
Most of people love chapters past 100 even with all the meta whackyness.
And characters who are introduced are thrown away instantly… Let me to disagree, specially at how things developed lately.
Gonna put this is a spoiler to be polite to the folks who don’t read, but…
Show Spoiler ▼
I’ve never heard one character say “kisama” so many times in an episode…until now. I definitely like Medaka. She’s hot and she knows it. Show Spoiler ▼
Is that Rias Gremory with blue hair? (O.O)
unless if it’s her human twin lookalike yea another rias ok where issei & oh kamina lives again!!!
hmm don’t give don’t eps number give of going beyond over 26eps can’t watch it till if get dub.
unless 13eps on less i’m in.
it must be !
You read my mind! that is the first impression that came in my mind too! that cross hair thing in her forehead, her boobs…
After reading all the comments, I must be in the minority. I really enjoyed it. 😀 It is by no means a mind blowing anime but it’s a laid back fun anime.
I miss the video that came with new op, ending or insert song.
Really don’t like their choice for Medaka’s seiyuu. I think Koshimizu Ami or Hikasa Youko would have been a better choice.
GAINAXING [one huge check]
throughout the whole ep… the one that strikes me the most is the witty dialogue, absurdly hilarious lines and senjougahara-sama vibe medaka herself.
although her VA was rather OK…. i feel it would’ve been definitely better if hitagi senjougahara was voicing it. my ears would totally go to a meltdown every week
and her tsundere special power….. is almost on par w hitagi’s tsundere service
While I get some Senjougahara vibes from Medaka, I feel as though Haruhi might be a more apt comparison.
Senjougahara enjoyed viciously taunting Araragi at every opportunity and that played a strong role in their relationship. She definitely had the tsundere side shared by Medaka and obviously had a strong need for him though. Medaka however doesn’t seem like the type to derive pleasure from abusing Zenkichi. It seems like it would be against her desire to help everyone and change people for the better.
On the other hand, she drags Zenkichi around with her, much like Haruhi did with Kyon, forcing him to take part in her grand escapades. They seem to share something of a similar relationship in that respect.
I don’t think either of the two are a perfect fit for what I’ve seen in Medaka so far, but there are elements of both mixed into her personality and interactions. It’ll be interesting to see how she develops from here on (I wouldn’t mind if she began to take on more Senjougahara traits. Not at all :3).
GAINAX produced this?!??
It sure doesn’t look it from the screenshots.
Probably because their best animators (Yoshinari Yoh, Sushio, Hiroyuki Imaishi, etc.) left GAINAX after Panty & Stocking. Most of GAINAX’s iconic animation scenes were done by them.
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF.
I wasn’t really feeling this episode.I laughed more when I read the manga version of the content in this ep.Watching it, I felt forced laughs.I liked the voices so far and the animation is on point.
That Moji was literally Kamina himself. He even has the same VA.
Hmm nice really loved it
I decided to watch this one because of a little(?) romance between the main character
Medaka Box is the 1st spring 2012 anime that I watched
I didn’t read the manga so I wouldn’t feel bored(?) like when I watch accel world
Overall it’s a nice beginner episode
I read the manga for a bit, but then I dropped it. The manga never really held my interest, and the same goes for the anime. There’s nothing about this series that really grabs my interest. And there’s WAY too much Gainaxing for my liking (even though I’ve seen worse). I will follow the posts here, but I definitely won’t be watching this series.
So they bring over Hachikuji so Nisioisin knows he has someone who can keep up with his dialogue, Gainax weasels in Kamina, And Hitoyoshi Zenkichi teaches us all that you dont bring a wooden sword to a fist fight >). hehehehe X3;.
Ugh so conflicted on Toyosaki Aki <<;. I enjoyed her roles immensely in YuruYuri and Un-Go. She's a voice I like if I can't place her to any of her other roles ;p. (Which annoys me because usually I /like!!/ knowing what people are from <<;.
Medaka makes me think of Haruhi – if she was good and earnestly wanted to help others. ie, even scarier.
Thought instantly as I was watching Gurren Lagaan x SKET Dance = Medaka Box. Watashi wa shiawase desu!
art style is very weird animated, and as people have said the VA for Medaka didn’t quite match my expectations…
i don’t quite know what to think or expect because i have mixed opinions about this.
Call me interested. I always like stories where a foundational piece is built on friendship that has lasted through the years. I’m willing see to see where this ride takes me. I have no set expectations so if it ends up stinking – oh well – ざんねん. But if it’s good- great.
I almost bust laughing when I heard Moji. I halfway expected a naked baby to be hanging off his back.
Ah, such a nostalgic first episode. Especially since the last arc of the manga just wrapped up.
Isin is an interesting creature. I used to find his writing to be extremely annoying, but the immense popularity of this author whose writing is so “mannered and self-aware” (Enzo’s words; extremely apt, if I might add) in style intrigued me so much that I forced myself to suffer through all of Bakemonogatari, Katanagatari, Nisemonogatari and most of the Medaka Box manga simply for the sake of finding out why…
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I often enjoy a lot of Nisio Isin’s works. He can be a very entertaining writer, though sometimes he seems to get a little carried away with the wordiness. Bakemonogatari was my first experience of his work, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I also enjoyed Katanagatari quite a bit, but there were times where I felt some of the dialogue was drawn out to unnecessary lengths, even by his standards.
As you said, it’s that reaffirmation of basic concepts that are close to everyone’s hearts that makes his works truly a joy to read. Those basic concepts are always the best because we’re so familiar with them and we can all relate on some level. While it’s too early for me to be sure (having only seen one episode and all), I can already see several avenues he might chose to take in order to bring something similar into Medaka Box. The innate desire to do good (or justice as it was in Nisemonogatari) and to live up to the expectations of others would be one such theme.
The other major draw for me has always been his evident adoration of puns and clever wordplay which we see so often throughout the -monogatari series. I really hope to see more of this work its way into Medaka Box despite the differences in genre and style.
I couldn’t agree with you more on that point. I suspect that this aspect of his writing is related to another major criticism that I alluded to above, that of attenuated logic; brilliant as logical reaffirmation of simplistic themes may be as a novel new literary technique (In anime), the man isn’t perfect, not by any stretch of the imagination. The logical pathways he uses to get to his conclusions are frequently quite attenuated, and I suspect that his wordiness is at least partially due to him trying compensate for this by veiling his iffy logic with verbosity. I would imagine that this works pretty well on people who don’t have terribly robust vocabularies, and aren’t accustomed to the device of logical deconstruction (Again, this is probably most of the general population), but to people like me who are used to the device (And are themselves purveyors of wordiness…XP), attenuated, iffy logical pathways stick out like a sore thumb.
Isin’s “brilliance” lies in the fact that he brought this new and novel plot technique into the medium of anime and got it to work for him, becoming immensely popular as a result of it. His actual execution of the technique, however, leaves much to be desired; his writing could be improved significantly if he focused more on basing his arguments on sound, non-attenuated logical pathways, and abandoned his over-reliance on conversational deconstruction, positing more of his arguments through situational means rather than through straight-up, unnecessarily verbose dialogue…
Great adaptation!
Haha, not only did Moji LOOK like Kamina, he had the same seiyuu as well. Nice throwback, GAINAX.
Simon will jawdrop and go “ANIKIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!”.
Good or bad, I’ll stick to it. I’ve been waiting years for the series to get an anime and I’ve even been listening to the vomic.
It doesn’t look like much of NisiOisin’s dialogue rubbed off here. It’s still really entertaining albeit in a stupid, fun, over-the-top way
I see a lot of Haruhi-sama vibes coming from Medaka, and I like that, but this first episode let me a little bit disappointed, maybe I expected something more. Nonetheless I’ll be watching it to see where it goes and if it really hooks me.
after seeing medaka say “those” words to zenkichi… I feel like hitting her again.
So THAT’s what happened to Kamina! He didn’t die, but was sent to another dimension!
I am extremely disappointed. I saw Nisio Isin + Gainax and got very excited.
I couldn’t make it through 10 minutes of this. I’ll have to try again as I really do love Nisio (the monogatari series is my favorite thing right now) but I’m not expecting a second attempt to be any more fruitful.
Discussed Kamina: Check.
Discussed Medaka’s flawlessness: Check.
Discussed the implications of that flawlessness: Check.
Spot-on analysis. I’ve got nothing left to comment on, actually o.O
Oh wait, the ecchi. I’ve always felt that studios include ecchi in their work to make up for some flaw, one of which I’m trying to find in Medaka’s character, which Moomba has kindly pointed out to be pretty much a Mary Sue.
…I mean, look at dem bewbs!
*ahem*
Aside from being rather disproportionate, “dem bewbs” only serve to muddle the anime’s focus on the rather unique premise of the “Medaka Box” and the interactions among the student council. I watched the episode to the end because the overarching plot, if any, looks interesting, but it annoyed me everytime I had to look at an out-of-place ecchi scene.
Disclaimer: I don’t dislike H. My anime and manga list stand testament to that.
I’m not going to spoil Medaka Box for new viewers, but I would like to make some comments that I feel viewers should know beforehand
Medaka Box will seem to shift genres all the time, it may be school life comedy, or it may become something else. However, the manga has very witty dialogue and ideas, and while it may be difficult and confusing to follow, the manga ends up being a very interesting read, especially in the later arcs. So even if it feels like it goes downhill at one point, I urge new viewers to continue watching it, because it’s certainly worth the ride 😀
I may or may not like this show, but I’ll follow it for now anyway. I find it hard to take seriously the idea of a shiny, pretty school the size of a small town given how I live in a metropolis where a tiny business doesn’t last 2 years in this economy. That, and characters like Medaka usually annoy me, but Medaka has hints of flaws herself, which makes her a bit more interesting.
“You will neither be able to smile nor cry”
Oh look, THAT’s what I want to hear from someone in a position of power: Nightmare Fuel.
I love the manga and whant her to bear my children if i was in the anime(chest of Medaka)xoxooxx