Medaka Box (Anime)

Hakoniwa High School has many departments, many students and many troubles. In her first year of school, Kurokami Medaka becomes the student council president by a 98% majority. Her main policy is to make a suggestion box and encourages any and every member of the school to ask the council for help with whatever problem they have. And for every problem the student council solves, Medaka intends to plant one flower to mark the occasion. Along with her childhood friend, Hitoyoshi Zenkichi, and the other members of the student council, Medaka is on a quest to fill Hakoniwa high school with flowers and help EVERY student she can.

(Anime; 1 Season (2nd slated for release), 12 episodes, Manga: 15 volumes, still running)

For one of shonen jump's most popular manga series, the anime is a bit touch and go. It has its good points and its bad that tend to balance out in equal measure, but is still a thoroughly entertaining series. There is plenty of humour to be had from great punch line jokes, hilarious high jinks and just some CRAZY random stuff. The major pull of the story though is the characters; of which there are many. Whatever problem comes up per episode, there are always interesting character to be had, but none more so than Medaka herself. She can do anything, literally anything, including become a giant to impress her position upon people. She is an exhibitionist so there is plenty of fan-service to be had, and she even has the occasional kawaii moment. Other characters that stand out are Zenkichi who's always trying to act like a bad ass and does so and his friend Shiranui Hansode who is Always eating and is the main comic relief of the show. The antics of each episode are each unique and result in hilarious reactions and great amusing events.

That being said, this show is not without it's downside. And unfortunately these end up countering many of the good points of the series. The series is very episodic; for most of the time there isn't any overriding enemy of great cause (what else do you expect from the synopsis) and this will either come across as very fun, or a bit mundane after the first 2 or 3 episodes. Medaka will either come across as a great character or a pain in the ass because of her domineering, 'better than everybody else' attitude. And apart from a few exceptions most of the characters don't really stand out: they aren't boring, they just don't offer anything more than other series of the same kind.

All in all, this is a good fun anime, and will either make you want to grab the manga or just dip into the second series.

Rating - 

7/10