What They Say:
After walking in on Kikajima changing in the student council room, the mood has become awkward. With Medaka and Akune out, what will these two talk about? Yabaru the artist has called upon Medaka to model for competition piece, but things are never that simple.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
As the series has progressed, the cast has grown in general as we’ve seen more of the school, but we’re also getting more members for the student council which become regulars. There was some amusement at the start with Zenkichi being the only one working for Medaka, but it’s grown nicely and not too fast with only the second real addition hitting in the previous episode with their new treasurer, Kikajima. She looks to bring something interesting to the mix but her arrival also brings some challenges for Zenkichi as he’s wondering why they’re all in a higher position than him even though he started first and does so much for Medaka. But it’s the kind of comical wondering more than anything else because he’s not really actively looking to gain more position and power.
Kikajima’s definitely different from the two guys on the council and very much fits what you’d expect from the treasurer as she’s financially focused. So much so that when Zenkichi walks in on her changing, she not only beats the crap out of him but demands payment for what he saw. She’s not exactly a harsh personality, but there are walls there with new people and she’s also quite focused on her job. But she’s also human so she worries about everything in general. There’s some very good fun when we see the two of them trying to get along some later on, but there’s nothing but tension there as each doesn’t know how to soften things. Of course, Shiranui has to walk in and be a burst of humor and levity, which of course means she goes too far and just gets Kikajima all riled up. While she has her intense personality, seeing Kikahima going big is a lot of fun and Shiranui knows exactly how to draw her out. Unfortunately for Kikajima.
While that provides for a lot of fun in the first half, the second half kicks up the naughty factor a bit as Medaka is approached to be a model for an artist in the school, which means its skimpy outfit time. This part doesn’t work as well as the first half since the whole art angle and the girls in skimpy outfits just don’t come together well here. The artist is going for a goddess n the beach motif but everyone that’s drawn in for it just don’t seem to work for the artist, which makes them all pretty despondent. Even Medaka is hit hard by the criticism, but as always she finds a way to make things work and to help out the student, even if it doesn’t exactly work out like she originally intended. It’s not bad but the whole thing just feels weak after the fun of the first half.
In Summary:
Medaka Box hasn’t won me over at this stage but this episode actually works well for at least half of it since Kikajima is a really fun characters and her interactions with Zenkichi are spot on. The two spend a lot of time alone together and that leads to some very fun moments as we get to know more about both of them and see how well they play off of each other. Kikajima really steals the show here at this point. Which isn’t too hard to do in all honesty. The second half goes more for an ensemble feeling, which is good since we have to see how they all operate together, but it feels weaker by comparison and doesn’t really do much. It tries to spice things up a little but even that falls rather flat in some ways. There are cute moments but not enough to salvage that part of the episode.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
0 comments