(12 episodes)
What’s it about ?
Adaptation of a comedy manga about one of those high school clubs that don’t do much of anything.
Characters
Kazama, our male lead, is a Delinquent. He’s even got a posse named after him (with an ugly short fat dude, and a tanned hunk who may be partially foreign). On the other hand, they’re way more talk than actual action, and it’s even joked later on that there are far more prominent delinquent group in this school anyway. Really, Kazama is more the straight man than anything here.
Roka is a small girl who’s the head of the Game-Making-Club. Who don’t actually create any games (they just play around), and don’t even have the required number of members for the club to survive. So obviously she’s desperate to find new members, by any means necessary. The joke here is that each of the members patterns themselves after an element ; Roka wields “fire” (read : moe) as a weapon. And when that doesn’t work, she can fall back on her alternate type : Darkness.
Other members : Sakura, who’s Water (read : waterboarding) ; Minami, who uses Thunder (with a taser) ; and Chitose, who’s Earth mostly by virtue of having her hands dirty when she punches people. They’ve actually got a bit more depth beyond that ; I won’t spoil the joke with Minami, but Chitose managed to get elected Student Council President, apparently by beating up everyone else to submission. Why this devious mastermind is slumming it with such a club remains to be elaborated.
Ataru used to be part of Kazama’s group of friends, except he stayed a straight arrow and is now the Student Council Vice-President. Er, the “straight arrow” part shouldn’t be taken at face value : he looks to be as much of a pervert as the lot of them, if not bigger. At the very least, he’s very attracted to Chitose, and it’s obvious what their rivalry is really about.
Production Values
Quite good ; the action sequences are animated fluidly, and the director knows how to set up atmosphere for a throwaway gag.
Overall Impression
Well, crap : I found this hilarious. It’s got some impressive comedic timing indeed, and more than one joke. It helps that it’s got characters with actual personalities, served by some great voice-acting. (In particular, Hana Kanazawa as Roka is a riot.) And it’s just very funny. I have no clue whether it can sustain itself for three months, but I’m game for it.
This is the very reason why I try out everything : it’s a kind of unassuming gem I could have let pass by otherwise.
