First Impressions / Medaka Box

「やり過ぎなけりゃ正義じゃねえ！」 (Yarisugi Nakerya Seigi ja nee!)
“It’s Not Justice If You Don’t Go Overboard!”

And so the battle arc begins. Honestly, if it keeps up like this, I might actually enjoy it despite all the claims that it’s the weakest part of the manga!

We actually have a few new character introductions this episode, but only one really stands out so far. Unzen Myouri (Paku Romi) seems like your typical psycho antagonist, all the way down to his self-justifying monologues and wanton violence. He’s even the perfect polar opposite to Medaka – where she believes in the innate goodness of humanity, he believes in their innate evil! I always wonder why antagonists feel the need to justify everything they do in monologue format… maybe it’s a feeble attempt to convince themselves that their reasoning is sound as much as it is to convince their opponents. As one might expect, Myouri gives Gainax an opportunity to fill a lot of the episode with (awesome) menacing partial face shots.

Myouri isn’t the only one who gets this treatment either. There are several instances of the same direction used for Shiranui, particularly around Medaka’s suggestion that she would make a good vice president for the student council (scary stuff). But of course, the offer is turned down – Shiranui likes to remain autonomous rather than be tied down to an organisation. With all this going on, I can’t help but feel that Shiranui is being used to troll us – when Medaka left her behind to hold off Myouri, I fully expected to see her true colours. But no, her method for stalling him was entirely based around the idea that she had done nothing wrong and thus he couldn’t lay hands on her. I suspect that this isn’t the real reason why Medaka left her behind though… if not for Harigane’s white lie, that tactic would not have worked and I doubt Medaka had merely overlooked Shiranui’s flagrant rule breaking. I still fully expect to see Shiranui’s true strength at some point!

It would seem I may have been right about Harigane – her conflicting loyalties are already beginning to show in her choice to lie in Shiranui’s defence. While she may have joined the disciplinary committee fully believing in its creed, even she is afraid of Myouri and considers his methods to be too extreme. I would like to see her join the student council at the end of the arc – at the very least, she fits the criteria (particularly the ‘hate Medaka’ part) and she’d bring some much needed discipline to the fold. On the other hand, I could also see her taking over the disciplinary committee once its current leadership has been removed.

While it’s true that justice and saints do not properly mix – you cannot fully mete out justice if you’re completely unwilling to cause some level of suffering – there are still limits on what can be considered just. ‘Let the punishment fit the crime’ and all that. Of course, there are many faces to justice, but nearly all of them lead towards the same goal – giving everyone their just deserts and working towards a greater good. It could be argued that Myouri fits both of these, even in his extremities of dispatching assassins to deal with the student council members (their obvious rule breaking is a bad thing thus from his viewpoint, removing them would be working towards the greater good in stopping others from following their examples as people in positions of power), but at what point is justice too extreme? There is something very obviously wrong with choosing to kill someone outright to stop their wrongdoing without even giving thought to the possibility of reasoning with them.

Random thoughts:

  • It’s nice to see Harigane mirror the thoughts of many of us viewers on Shiranui!
  • I’m also interested in seeing how the rest of the school views Medaka’s activities – it’s pretty funny to note how people are only fazed by the possibility that it might not be Medaka performing these crazy feats. Medaka riding a bike at 80kmph down a school hallway though? Perfectly normal.
  • We had a short introduction for her this week, but I’m hoping the next episode will properly explore Yobuko Fue (Koshimizu Ami). Nice to hear Koshimizu Ami cast as yet another psychotic, bespectacled stern girl!
  • Gainax does what Statelight would not!

Full-length images: 03, 04, 06, 07, 11, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 21, 26, 30, 33.

 

Preview

33 Comments

  2. It has begun. The genre shift has begun. This episode should have been the third or fourth episode. Those who dropped it because of the Three Episode rule would still be watching if this episode was this early.

    Andmeuths
    Reply

  3. Okay. Here we REALLY go!

    I certainly hope this anime isn’t 12 episodes long, because otherwise, the volume-spanning genre shift would only last 4 animated episodes!!

    starss
    Reply

    1. It’d take more than four cours to finish the Minus 13 arc, and even then it pretty much seamlessly flows into the Not Equal arc, and I doubt Gainax is going to make a two year anime without taking a break. We’re all a bit sad we won’t be able to see him till the very end, but there is always hope for a sequel.

      Tarage
      Reply

  5. I did the math and by doing two chapters per episode they are on target to finish the Plus 13 arc in 26 episodes, which would fit the season.

    While I am sad we won’t get to see ‘him’ till the very end, I am glad that in only three more episodes we will meet Naze, one of my favorite characters. I wonder who will end up voicing her.

    Tarage
    Reply

  6. I agree with starss. It’d be kinda odd to see the anime actually take up the genre shift for a sad 4 episodes. That, and I just don’t want this to end, no matter how odd the anime is.

    Crook
    Reply

    2. It’s like introducing Azusa in the first season of K-On! for only 5 episodes of the already-short season (despite season 2 averting that)! Unfortunate that these short animes need to cut stuff.

      starss
      Reply

  7. So here we are at the boundary line where Nisioisin was either planning for this the entire time or he just realized halfway he wanted to write a different story. To this day I still have no idea. Still, with only 4 episodes left it’ll be hard to see the massive change though, unless there’s a second season planned.

    About Shiranui… well, without spoiling too much, I can tell you that she has the True Neutral alignment. Make of that what you will.
    If Kugimiya Rie is considered to be the queen of tsundere lolis, then Katou Emiri is the queen of moe lolis. XD

    Rakkyo
    Reply

    1. Im pretty sure it wasnt planned! Even in the manga the genre shift just didnt seemed planned. I was like…um….. WHAT!?
      It didnt bother me because i was getting tired of the whole “help this person today” theme.
      Im just saying the shift was poorly done imo

      omeganx
      Reply

  8. As a manga reader, this show has one of the things that both piss me off, and make me happy: the constant Shiranui teasing. As many may have deduced, she is far from sweet and helpless in spite of her looks. Even in the manga, where she does some really awesome things, we still don’t get to see what she can ACTUALLY do, but we are constantly teased with that.

    DmonHiro
    Reply

  13. Umm, Saints are the one that create Justice and set rules… They are called saints as they do what is deemed right by the people and themselves and achieve important stuffs… Even if saints are oppressed, they are still proven right in future. So 13 years old, you fail… Shiranui is really dangerous, please dun hurt me, Producers please keep feeding her with food!!!

    Tingster013
    Reply

    1. Actually, no. Saints and justice have no solid connection of that type. A saint is someone who is considered to be particularly holy – very much tied in with religion and mercy. Justice on the other hand transcends religion as a topic of philosophy based around morality and ensuring that every individual gets exactly what they deserve, whether good or bad.

      Spinning
      Reply

      1. Both (practicing) religion and justice are driven by a set of moral codes.
        Ensuring that every individual gets exactly what they deserve (ie, karma)? That’s only one of many types of moral code.

        How about this: You have to kill an innocent person (or leave him to die, etc) so everyone else can survive. What’s the karma on that? By allowing him to survive, you knowingly cause the death of everyone else; but in order to save everyone else, you forcefully take away another person’s right to live. And very often no one is at fault.

        Another classic example: Abortion. Assuming you can only pick one (ie, endangering the mother’s life during labor), who should have the right to live? The mother or the unborn fetus?

        Karma works only if everyone’s fate do not intersect. However, this is not true. You get to where you are by helping many, and hurting more in the process, unless you live a life of solitude. So if everyone inevitably hurts someone else, then karma rules that everyone deserves to be hurt.

        DoggieMoon
        Reply

  14. One more thing, I think the 13 years old lack mother and father love… Which explain his crazy antics, he keep saying Kurokami is the weird one, too bad, he is the weird one…

    Tingster013
    Reply

  16. Certainly Unzen is a bit of a psychopath, but I don’t entirely disagree with him. Rules don’t generally stop people, it’s the consequences of breaking those rules that do. They also need to apply to everyone equally, you can’t have a Justice system which favors one person over another.

    The ideals of Saints, which focus on helping the “weak and downtrodden” are definitely biased in that regard. While some people lack basic needs, the powerlessness and unhappiness of most people is a matter of perspective. A rich celebrity getting arrested for jaywalking is funny, a lower-middle class citizen getting arrested for jaywalking is a tragedy and unfair. Even if the rich celebrity and the lower-middle class person feel equally shitty about their lives.

    In this regard Justice and Mercy are like oil and water, they simply don’t mix.

    MuffinSymphony
    Reply

    1. I don’t really want to spark any large scale debates on justice – justice is very much an individual thing, something based on your own personal moral compass. However, I will say that I would never consider sending assassins to murder people for minor school rule breaking to be within the realms of justice.

      His points on the topic are definitely valid, but his actions don’t speak of justice so much as sadism and thus I find it hard to sympathise with his viewpoint.

      Moomba
      Reply

  17. soo, did he actually just murder nearly an entire class room of students? I am assuming since he said he “called the nurse before hand” that he intended to let them live despite the fact we don’t see any bodies other than the two unharmed cowering students left.

    Bijyu
    Reply

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