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「すべての失敗は成功への過程に過ぎない。」 (Subete no Shippai wa Seikou e no Katei ni Suginai.)
“Every Failure Is a Step to Success”
You got to love it when a plan comes together. Even if said plan isn’t entirely of your making. What was promised last week? Kakeru going hard after Suzune? Kikyou indulging in a bit of treason? Oh yes, we got that and more. After all, cannot forget that Kiyotaka has his own way of doing things, and in this instance things require Class D to feel a bit of pain. Or, you know, a lot of it.
Much as delved into previously the main thread of this arc is learning to accept and appreciate the help of others and we got that on full display this episode. While Ken is the natural posterchild of this – he’s quite open with his interests and professed strengths – Suzune is the real star of the show courtesy of Class C interest and her own personality. Much like with Kei last arc Suzune’s issues are entirely internal: she has an embedded inferiority complex due to her brother, a desire to better and prove herself, and a total lack of understanding how exactly to achieve said goals. This leads to her standoffish and frankly arrogant attitude, something which does not play well in team settings and is, lo and behold, the one thing this latest test is evaluating. Suzune, much like Kiyotaka has slowly done, must learn to leverage the abilities of others, but getting her to do so will take some noticeable effort.
Part of the challenge on this front is that the real puppeteer in Kiyotaka doesn’t necessarily want Suzune to succeed right this minute. Again this heralds back to Kei and her own learning experience: the best way of building someone up is to first break them down, and Suzune has not yet gone through that process. Letting Kakeru run rampant pretty much takes care of the deconstruction, and though it is certain to cause Class D to lose, it can be considered part of the long game. Break down the remaining barriers to class cohesion now, conceive a true environment to foster its inception among all parties, and reap the rewards in the next test. Thus why you also don’t see Kiyotaka going that hard after the supposed traitor in Kikyou just yet. Proper class bonding after all can only come when all parties are participating honestly, and that must include the girl with a nasty cover face.
The only question is just when Kikyou’s hidden side is finally revealed, because even she will have trouble keeping things quiet once Kiyotaka hits the gas.
As interesting as a lot of these setups are, it feels like the last few episodes were also setups.
I am waiting for a big thing to happen, and I figured the first order of business would be to do something about Kushida. My guess is he’s letting Kushida run wild in this test to get evidence against her and prove she’s the one leaking everything. I don’t really know what comes after though since there’s a penalty for just one person being expelled right? Does he have to attempt murder or something? (I bet Kushida carries a knife)
Side note: is it just me, or do the teachers give zero f’s about the students? I know they labeled them as “nothing” but are they not even watching the events? They’re not monitoring the students incase they seriously injure or kill themselves? Have students died before on that Island challenge? Do lawsuits not exist in this world between parents and the school?
For the 3 years of the school you have zero outside contact including your parents. No guardian has any access to you. Now, they did skip some of the safety stuff involved in these events. BUT honestly you can simply pay points to not get expelled for beating someone. This school is some WW2 japan business.
TBF this season is playing out a lot like the first in that a lot of underlying subterfuge is cut out for the sake of time and plot progression (so it feels like nothing really happens). It’s not so much something big happens as we get a chunk of character development and hints of what’s to come. I will say, however, that should the pacing hold we should see some major developments towards the end of the season.
As for Kushida things will become clear in the next couple of episodes. Suffice to say expulsion isn’t in the cards though; have to remember the likelihood the whole class gets punished for that!