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「自分自身を御せない者は、いつまでも奴隷のままだ。」 (Jibun Jishin o Gyosenai Mono wa, Itsumade mo Dorei no Mamada.)
“A Man Who Cannot Command Himself Will Always Be a Slave.”
They say what goes up must come down – but in the case of Youjitsu that descent is very much the schadenfreude to come from sticking Kakreu in his place. Yeah the guy was always annoying, a blowhard of the highest proportions, yet one cannot say he’s not willing to go all the way to get what he wants. Quite literally.
Given how much Youjitsu has beaten around the bush between Kakeru and his desire to raise Class C on the backs of Class D destruction, it’s funny yet fitting that it all comes to a head just when Kiyotaka decided to finally step back and enjoy things. While I’m not about to deny how deliberate and curated this arc is (developments are just a tad too perfect), it is a fitting bit of growth for Kiyotaka as a whole. The kid after all has only just learned how to cooperate and leverage others in the pursuit of a goal, being able to turn that into actual care and altruistic action for the sake of another (and not just an objective) is the next logical course for Kiyotaka to take. As the meeting between Kiyotaka and his ‘father’ last week showed, being at school is only half the battle for independence. The other half now comes from joining with the wider world.
In terms of practicality though, getting to enlightened deadpan expressions runs straight through Kakeru and his, well, frankly pathetic methods of extracting advantage. There’s no denying the utility of torture and waterboarding at times, but damn, is it really needed here? Not like one needs a further reason to dislike Kakeru, and even the likes of Mio are starting to show disgust with how far he’s willing to go for the sake of the name. Especially egregious is that a name alone won’t help. You learn it’s Kiyotaka and then what? Intimidate him? Blackmail him? Leverage others into doing your dirty work? Kakeru really doesn’t know what he’s getting himself into, which is what has me quite looking forward to seeing how Kiyotaka handles this situation.
Kei might be suffering for no good reason right now, but it ain’t the guy currently pulling glorified parlour tricks who’ll be having the last laugh.
No one in this series is likable. Why do people like it so much?
I’m happy I’m not the only one that thinks this–the not-being-likable part, at least. Aside from like 3 characters the whole cast seem varying degrees of awful and kind of uncomfortable to watch, which is strange because I definitely didn’t think this at all during the first season?
Either way, I’m just happy for forums and blogs like this that talk about/review it, because I’m curious as to what happens to Kei and if things will ever look up for her. Also wanna know how Kushida’s whole thing will end.
A good chunk of it comes down to the scheming. Mind games and strategizing is often fun, especially when paired with suitable suspense. The first season did this well (partly why I wound up covering this one), but like many series you eventually start to exhaust the easy options and have to one-up what came before. Kikyou and especially Kakeru are consequences of this, though it does open a lot of room for schadenfreude down the line.
Maybe because the characters being likeable isn’t needed to make a series likeable.
It doesn’t help that the whole purpose of the school is to find the best of the “best”. Some high schools are super competitive, but this is ridiculous.
I thought this series was like Baka to test…boi was I wrong. It is like a mixture of No game no life (with the fan services and such) and Kakegurui. I binged from Season 1 ep 1 to the current episode.
I also thought it was a bit overboard and unnecessary with the water torturing and such. I mean Dragon Boy has a hunch on who Classroom D’s mastermind is and with the detailed tailing he has his cronies doing along since Paper Shuffle and with his intelligence – I am sure he can figure out who Kei is trying to protect.
Actually, to me, it seemed like he didn’t know who the mastermind was. That’s why he confronted Koenji, since his demeanor was probably the most unusual/unorthodox which may indicate a certain level of intelligence. His hyperfocus on Kei means that the tactics he used to discern who the mastermind was did not lead him any closer to the answer, and thus, for him, this is the ONLY way he could potentially get the answer to who is the mastermind. The torturing, while cruel, is necessary from his perspective, since he believes that the mastermind cares enough about her to save her since he protected her from the bullies. If he doesn’t, he at least will deliver a psychological blow to him by completely breaking Karuisawa, which may also lead to him revealing himself, if his torturing persists.
frubam has it right, Kakeru has no idea who the mastermind currently is. Kiyotaka is on his list of options (if I remember right), but he honestly has no clue, thus the confrontations and now the torturing of Kei. It’s basically Kakeru’s final Hail Mary because the only thing he has to go on is the mastermind being close to Kei and her knowing who he is. Blow this moment and he may never find out who it actually is. Unless Kiyotaka decides to reveal himself of course.
This whole episode seem to be about why Kakeru is in class C and not higher. The guy has everything the school wants, brains, brawn, lack of empathy and possibly more. His biggest weakness is a tendency towards violence. It even compares him to Koenji and Sakayanagi. With Koenji it was like DnD Neutral Evil vs Chaotic Neutra, so yeah, their thought process is completely different. With Sakayanagi it showed similarities in that they both poke and prod to see what works.
Hopefully future episodes don’t focus on Kei too much. I’m not sure if she had character development or just turned into a loyal dog. Seeing Kiyotaka break her was enough. No matter how satisfying the plots final outcome may be, it just isn’t fun to watch.
@theirs
I hope I did the spoiler tags correctly.
If you’re into “conspiracy” theories, Karuizawa will play an even bigger role in the future because her voice actress is Ayana Taketatsu, who I think is a big name (IMHO). In the first season, Karuizawa didn’t do much, so I found it strange that her management company would allowed Taketatsu-san to take a background role. Furthermore, Karuizawa’s importance became more clear when Japanese fans voted her to be a top 10 favorite light novel female character. Now, it seems to me that her manager was looking in the long term. I wouldn’t be surprised if a third season is announced.
Not a spoiler so you’re good Bakapooru!
Also you’re more on the money than you think, especially regarding long term. A third season was announced alongside the second and (IIRC) is set to air in Winter 2023.
Hahaha. I didn’t know about the third season…. Never mind!