Summary
After Medaka goes to the hospital to treat the injuries she received from fighting Unzen, the Student Council receive a request to find a missing shougi piece from a 2nd year, Mochibaru Sasae. After searching the room and finding no trace of the piece, Akune suggests that they ask Natayama, an ex-member that has a resentment towards the club.
Impression
Even if Kurokami Medaka isn’t here, huh? Maybe it was a good thing that Kurokami Medaka wasn’t there, to be honest. I doubt someone like Natayama would have a conscience like Isahaya-senpai, and would probably pass off Medaka’s trusting kindness as a lucky break. I love how the Student Council are suddenly aware that most of the trouble or attention they’ve attracted has been because of Medaka, and that it really is quite peaceful without her around. Not like that’s a bad thing, of course xD Looks like even she has to go to hospital once in a while.
Enter Mochibaru Sasae, a girl who for some weird reason thinks that her head will roll off all the time. She’s one of those people who are genuinely nice, yet is shy and timid, which leads her to ask for the Student Council’s help in finding the missing shougi pieces of her prized boxwood chess set. Or rather, the subtle undertone was: “please help me confront Natayama”. Well, I don’t blame her, seeing as she doesn’t have the fondest memories of the last time she stood up to Natayama.
Natayama has a lot of inner rage doesn’t she? To an extent, I do see where she’s coming from – to her, the shougi members must seem like they’re not taking the game seriously and are there just for kicks, which was clearly seen from how no-one realized it wasn’t just the boxwood set’s king that was gone. Even so, revenge would never bring any form of result to either of them, especially when one is too stuck-up to properly state her feelings and the other is too shy to raise any questions. And here’s where the Student Council comes in – looks like you’ve got the hang of this reforming thing, Zenkichi (:
The shougi pieces themselves could be interpreted as a loose form of symbolism for the Student Council themselves – where all pieces are important, and can function in their own right, but are somehow not complete without the centerpiece – the king, whom Medaka represents. Medaka is the support that holds both the council and the school up, which is probably why it felt a bit weird without her around.
Anyway. After the genre shift last episode, an ending like this is not what I expected. However, the tease of the Flask Plan and some Thirteen Party members right at the end wasn’t a complete waste – since a Medaka Box Season 2 has been green-lit! Forget the whole series so far, because everything you’ve seen up till now isn’t the real show at all. To be honest, they should have given the “helping out people” arc just a couple of eps, then moved on straight to Unzen, but as they faithfully adapted the manga to its very core, I know a lot of people have lost interest and passed this off as a normal school comedy, where in fact it’s anything but. For anyone that dropped this, I really urge you to give this another try starting from S2, since you might just be pleasantly surprised.
