01 May 2012

Shiritsu Bakaleya Koukou ep. 3 review

Well with PV reviews no longer my priority I can stop being lazy about this and do my review for the third episode of Shiritsu Bakaleya Koukou.

This drama is a really solid drama for a late night drama. I confess that I have not seen many but most have a very amateur feeling to them or experimental while Bakaleya feels like it was a drama that could have easily been a prime time drama. I kinda wish it was a prime time drama and had the extra time to delve into the pasts of more of the characters. And perhaps they could actually give more of the girls actual personalities. I am really interested in where this drama is going, I mean I can see the overall direction it all seems to be heading but the path on how things will get there is not completely clear, which is really what keeps me coming back week after week to watch and re-watch this drama as I have.

But enough discussing on the future of the drama and onto the review of the latest episode.

It looks like every episode is going to open up with the final scene from the last episode shown. This is probably going to be annoying for anyone marathoning the show once it is all aired, but it makes sense with the airing format.

Love how the girls even have their own fancy tables.
We start off with the girls putting forth the usual campaign for student officials, which tends to be passing out fliers. When the guys see this they realize that they need to start their campaign which Tatsuya brilliantly believes means proving that he is better than Fumie. So he goes about besting her in things that she is just confused by as she does not understand what in the world he is doing in the first place.

Kinda wonder why the boys even bother coming to class.
We get to see what the classroom is like with the students in it for a lesson and I am honestly surprised that the guys seem so restrained. Though contrast with the girls they do look like completely unruly.

Reusing the set to get the most of it I see.
We get more character development with Fumie this episode with the use of a flashback. This time as her parents tell her to be the best, which explains why she is so set to keep her image of perfection.

I wish school elections were this interesting when I was in school.
Tatsuya continues his campaign by moving towards some more traditional methods, like the flier thing, but of course keeping with his style. So instead of campaign speeches he busts boards broken.

A girl's great weakness, a pretty boy.
We get to see that even though the girls like the boys are gross they are willing to make Tetsuya the exception. Much to Satoshi's disappointment.

Something does not belong here.
The student body vice-president, Saya, visits the guys in their club room and gives them a  schedule for the next day which includes the two student body president candidates must make a speech.

I sometimes feel the same way about writing papers.
Everyone leaves Tatsuya to do his speech writing on his own much to his disappointment.

"Spacing out again?"
While Shohei is out on his date he feels guilty for leaving Tatsuya when he really needed help. So he apologizes to his date before running off.

Juri needs to wear uniforms more often.
We get the same thing with Satoshi with his job. I rather liked these scenes as it helped flesh the characters out. Not to mention it is nice to see the boys away from school to see their life outside of school. I hope there is time to explore more of this thing for the drama.

Best friends ever.
Of course this leads to the whole gang returning to help Tatsuya out. So they set about helping him write his speech for the next day.

Reading is hard.
The next day Tatsuya is walking to school when he notices a kid being bullied by two much older boys. He of course, being the delinquent with a heart of gold, comes to the kid's defense and makes short work of the two. Unfortunately there was a group of other older boys around with "lead" pipes who attack Tatsuya.

How awkward the silence must have been.
Everyone at the school is waiting for him. It is decided that if Tatsuya does not show up in time he will be disqualified from the election which would mean that Fumie will win. Saya makes a comment about Tatsuya running away but Tetsuya defends him.

As they wait for Tatsuya it is decided to have Fumie read her speech to the school.

Fighting is hard.
Tatsuya takes on the whole gang by himself as we hear Fumie give her speech. And after some ass kicking, and unintential funny moments when the pipes can easily be seen as being obvious fakes, he beats them all. He asks the kid the time and races off to try to make it in time but forgets his speech.

Fast as the racing river, or not.
Tatsuya races towards the school to try to make it in the nick of time as Fumie concludes her speech.

The fake blood is looking pretty fake here.
Tatsuya finally shows up but it is too late as Fumie has already been named student body president. His group is angry at him for letting them down.

Best bud ever.
Tetsuya breaks in and reminds the group that Tatsuya is not the kind of guy not to get into a fight without a good cause. The rest agree with this and their attitude changes. Fumie is unhappy with Tatsuya though and lets him know as she leaves.

Argh! Who is he? I know I have seen him before.
Fumie and Saya are seen leaving the building and run into the boy that Tatsuya saved. He tells them as much as he gives them the speech that Tatsuya dropped at the park then running off.

I also want to bring up that I swear I have seen this kid before. I want to say that he is one of the younger Juniors but I just cannot put a name to the face and I normally do not pay much attention to the really young Juniors. Could someone tell me if I am right or not about this as it is really bugging me.

Fumie is getting good use of her 2nd expression, confusion.
What is probably the most interesting part is that not only does Fumie realize that Tatsuya actually had a good reason to be late but so does Saya. Since Saya has been one of the most dismissive of the guys I think her reaction is the more interesting and I am curious to see if it actually changes her opinion of the guys as well.


Since Fumie won the election and the events of the episode it makes me think that the end of the series will be when the school finally becomes Bakaleya. And that will be because by then the girls will have realized that the boys ways may be different than their's but it does not make them always better. As well as the boys being willing to accept the girls once they stop trying to force their ways on them so much. But I guess I will have to watch and see if this prediction comes true. I am honestly really interested in seeing what happens next as the episode left off with really no hint of what the next conflict will bring.

New Japanese word learned this episode: 演説(えんぜつ/enzetsu)- speech/address (used in the second half of the episode whenever discussing the speech the candidates had to make)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The young Jr is Tamamoto Fumito. Maybe you remember him from Jr ni Q segment on SC. Or perhaps from the mags.

Ep3 ratings slipped quite a bit. Given how short each ep is, anything other than the scenes from that ep itself feels somewhat like a waste of precious time. With so few (and short) episodes it doesn't look like the characters will be explored much, which is a pity as I think some of it could have made things more interesting.

Kel

Thennary Nak said...

Thank you so much, I knew I had seen him before and it was probably from SC.

I was sad to see the rating slip after it rose. But that is a good point, with how short the episodes are it is hard to fit much other than the main points in. I really wish this was a drama with hour long episodes so we could get more character exploration.

Anonymous said...

i agree with you
20 minutes too short
i really like hokuto in this episode. he is really understand about sakuragi tatsuya
it'll be nice if we get more character exploration.

Thennary Nak said...

Me too. But there are still a good number of episodes left so there is still a chance for some character development, even if it doesn't go too in depth.