Medaka Box Final Thoughts--Far From Perfect

Who would've guessed that an anime about an extraordinary person would be so boring?

 
For an anime about a perfect human being, Medaka Box is far from earning top marks itself. The majority of the problem has to do with its title character; watching a perfect person excel at everything does not make for an interesting show. I brought this point up in my first impressions post but it bears repeating. Where's the conflict when it's predetermined that no matter what's thrown at her, Medaka will come out on top?

 
And the show certainly does throw things at her--the arc with Unzen at the end of the season was a high point--but there was always one more feat of supernatural prowess that we hadn't seen yet that would get Medaka out of trouble. There's a scene where crazy things start happening around the school and the students start to freak out... But then they realize that it was caused by Medaka and they go back to business as usual. "Oh, it's just the student council president. That's normal, then."

 
And that's where the heart of the problem lies; the show establishes all this as baseline. Once we, the viewers, realize that all this insanity is "normal," it stops being interesting. The only time a show should be "normal" is when it bills itself as slice-of-life, which is definitely not the case with Medaka Box. Conflict arises when the barriers of what's "normal" are tested, and the protagonists have to push themselves outside of their comfort levels. That starts to happen with the final arc in this season, but otherwise it feels like the creators are simply showing off the superhuman being they've created. I feel that this is a deep flaw that pretty much breaks the narrative.

 
And yet... I can't bring myself to completely dislike this show. There are flashes of things that I find genuinely interesting, especially towards the end of the season. Unzen's inner monologue questioning Medaka's humanity was incredibly interesting, as was the shadowy introduction of a person presented as the anti-Medaka in a flashback. I also really liked all the secondary characters, particularly the student council despite the fact that Kikaijima didn't get much a personality besides "obsessed with money." The three of them are clearly a step above the average person, but they're not invincible like Medaka, and that makes all the difference. The anime-original final episode is easily my favorite because it shows them using their own skill. You don't have to be superhuman to solve people's problems.


All in all, Medaka Box has got some issues. It was an adaptation of a manga arc that apparently no one likes, and its DVD sales have apparently taken a hit too. Gainax's usual flair wasn't enough to save this adaptation. Regardless, a second season has been announced, so the worth of this season will be decided by where that ends up. Right now, it's just another "media franchise for the sake of creating a media franchise."

Images from Crunchyroll.com.