Really unnecessary episode save for the last 5 seconds…
Summary:
So Medaka’s been admitted to the hospital after her big fight with Unzen. The rest of the student council have to work in a temporary office while their side of the school is getting rebuilt.
Zenkichi and Akune talk about how Medaka has a Detective Paradox meaning trouble only happens when she’s around much like how a crime seems to happen when a detective is conveniently present. Kikaijima doesn’t get it…
Kikaijima thinks that Medaka isn’t the cause of trouble rather she jumps straight into “seeds of evil” and nurtures them until they bloom into beautiful flowers.
Aaaaand 3 pics of Kikaijima’s face in a row. She asks Zenkichi to check the suggestion box for any “seeds of evil”.
They get a request from Sasae, the president of the Shogi club. She’s asking them to look for the missing King piece. I’ll admit right now: I know zilch about Shogi.
By the way, Sasae holds her head because she’s afraid of having it fall off. If that’s what people think is cute nowadays…then…I give up…I don’t see the appeal.
So the student council go to the Shogi club room and find it a complete mess.
The trio get to work on fixing the room to find the missing piece while they relate Medaka to the King piece.
In the end, they find nothing.
Akune suggests they just replace the piece with one from another set. He checks the other sets and makes a startling discovery: All the King pieces in the other sets are also missing.
Akune suspects that Natayama, a former club member and a pro-level player stole all the pieces because Sasae got the president spot and not her.
They find Natayama on the roofdeck as the sun sets.
Natayama recalls the time Sasae defended the other members because they just wanted to have fun and they didn’t expect to reach pro-level standards. She comments on how Sasae definitely pissed her off that time.
Akune tells the other two to fall back and let the teachers handle the situation.
Zenkichi rhetorically asks Akune what the student council would be for if they always relied on teachers. He says he’s going to do what Medaka would do and challenges Natayama to a game of Shogi, a challenge which Natayama ultimately accepts.
To her surprise though, Zenkichi arranges the tiles in Mawari style (No clue on what that is). He explains that with the King gone, they can’t play a proper game of Shogi. He also mentions Medaka somewhere in his speech.
Akune and Zenkichi do some more motivational speeching (Is that even a word?). Akune points out how Natayama thinks her club mates are weak but she failed to see the strength Sasae must have mustered to confront her.
In the end, she returns the tiles and re-joins the Shogi club. Also tries to get Sasae’s hands off her head while training her in Shogi.
The student council trio bring flowers to follow Medaka’s tradition of adding a flower to the student council room after completing a request.
Post-credits. Six ominous figures stand atop the school tower.
Thoughts:
Terribly unnecessary last episode. I guess what the show was trying to point out in this one is how Medaka is important to everyone. Well duh, she’s the main character. I just don’t agree with them having to shove the idea of Medaka’s importance down the viewers’ throats. If she was that good, she would have convinced us with her actions instead of having the main cast go “She’s awesome!” “She’s perfect!” and blah blah blah…Haven’t the writers ever heard of the saying “Action speaks louder than words?” Also, this episode was just terribly written. It’s obvious the writers made it up on the spot to complete twelve episodes. Thsi part wasn’t in the manga. Why? Why did it have to end this way? It’s like making love to someone and finishing off by peeing on her accidentally…Okay, my bad. That was an inappropriate example but you should get the idea.
Ultimately, Medaka Box was a let down. I’m not going to sugar coat anything this time. I’m going to tell it as it is. I was absolutely ecstatic when I heard Medaka Box was going to be picked up by Gainax. Gainax is known for delivering great action shows so an action manga like Medaka Box would have been perfect for them to work on. I don’t know what went wrong. The show played off like a slice of life with a lot of exaggeration. Then the Unzen arc came around but it was more full of dialogues and speeches than fighting. Gainax is holding back. I can tell. They’re better than this. Sure, the story past this point is going to be mostly action but did they really have to make this season look tame so the next comes off as over-the-top? If the Unzen arc didn’t entertain me then how will *spoiler* the Flask Plan arc or the Kumagawa arc? *end of spoiler* I’ll give it some credit, it was a pretty good slice of life if you just let it be. The visuals took a step up during the Unzen arc and the music is also noticeably good. There was an acoustic track that played at the start of the episode and it fit well with the relaxed, outdoors scene. Then there was the epic rock-orchestral mix during the Unzen fight. The music in this show is just diverse. To conclude my review, I’d say that this show is a disappointment for an action show, but it does have strong points on aspects where nobody is looking.
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