12 June 2012

Shiritsu Bakaleya Koukou ep. 9 review

As promised this week's episode is getting reviewed much sooner than last week's. And it seems like it has been confirmed that the series will have twelve episodes in addition to the movie later in the year.

The episode starts with Tatsuya talking to Tetsuya confused to why Fumie stood up for them for the fight. Tetsuya tells him that Fumie probably sees them as friends, which is something that Tatsuya does seem to get.

When the two get to the classroom Tatsuya greets Fumie by patting her shoulder which surprises her. But Tetsuya explains that is just how he greets his friends and Fumie is happy that she is considered a friend now.

The happiness is short lived though as Sayuri exclaims disbelief over a website she if looking at. It is about the school and has a bunch of vicious rumors about it on it.

They go over the rumors which are all either completely false or exaggerations of things that have happened, like Shohei getting in trouble for purse snatching. But the school is taking a lot of heat because of the rumors so the girls decide to make sure they find out who is responsible for them.

The main group of girls is lead by Mana, who is played by Team 4's Nagao Mariya and has been gaining a more prominent role over the past couple of episodes. They think the boys are behind it and spy on them. When confronted she tells them that they do not trust the guys, which angers them.

After the guys storm out of the classroom Tatsuya passes by Fumie. He tells her that they can't be friends anymore, which surprises Fumie as only that morning he greeted her as a friend. After he leaves though Tetsuya shows up to talk to Fumie.

Sometime later the other boys are walking along and a girl in a Catteleya uniform bumps into Maya and falls down. She quickly apologizes and runs off. Maya finds that the girl dropped her student ID, that she goes to the first Catteleya High School and her name is Arisaka Yuna. After talking to Tatsuya and Tetsuya about it they decide to give the school a visit.

This gives us much needed light hearted moments for the episode as so much of it is pretty serious in tone. We get highlights like Makoto and Yuuki dealing with another fancy toilet and Makoto getting water in his face/mouth for it.

Then we get Maya, Satoshi and Shohei spying on a class. Maya spots the girl that bumped into them and they decide to go down to talk to her. Of course this turns out to be a terrible idea as they are spotted and the girls freak out with having boys in the school.

Meanwhile Tatsuya and Tetsuya are talking outside and Tetsuya explains to Tatsuya that Fumie did not know about the other girls distrusting the boys and she was hurt by his comment. When questioned about why he cares so much about Fumie, Tetsuya says he owes her a debt and then even goes on to try to tell Tatsuya that he likes her but does not get the chance as the rest of the boys, who have all been spotted, show up running away from pursuers.

The two initially hide but then Yuna shows up and leads them to a room to hide in.

They learn that Yuna actually admires Fumie very much and was around the other school because she was worried about her.

Meanwhile Mana tells Fumie she thinks the guys are suspicious. Fumie tells her that she believes that is wrong. Saya and Sayuri agree with Fumie and bring up that the boys really do not have much to gain by doing something like this.

Back at Cattelya they ask Yuna about the trouble that has popped up and she does seem to know something about it.

Back at Bakaleya Mana brings up to the other girls that maybe it is Fumie that is the one responsible. Meanwhile Fumie is with Saya wondering who the traitor could be. Tatsuya and Tetsuya show up and tell them they have a good idea who it is but they need their help to confirm it.

The next day a new rumor shows up and the suspicions have been confirmed on who the traitor is. Though it is rather obvious by that point.

Fumie and Saya meet up with the traitor, Mana. She at first tries to deny that she is responsible for the rumors but it falls apart when they tell her that the latest rumor is something only something she would know as they told her and that it was a lie.

We then get a flashback of Yuna telling the guys what she knows. She has seen Mana return to Catteleya frequently recently. She has been meeting up with a boy but Yuna has not been able to get a look at who it is, but of course recognizes her former schoolmate. Mana has been complaining about being at Bakaleya and apparently the boy has told her that she needs to continue on for a bit longer and it will not be an issue.

Fumie demands that Mana tell her why she did what she did but mainly gets silence in reply.

Mana finally gives her reason and it is simply that she hates Fumie.

She leaves and Fumie ends up breaking into tears, very much hurt by Mana's words. And the episode pretty much ends there.


I thought the previous episode was setting things up for a larger story arc but even though that is not completely wrong it went a direction I was not quite expecting. Though I don't mind it as this story line helps a lot with making the girls more interesting characters and not just background dressing and seems to be setting up the finale, and perhaps even the movie.

Of course now the big thing is how will the other girls react to Mana being the traitor and of course who the boy Mana has been talking to is.

I do confess to geeking out a bit with Koike Rina in this episode as I am a long time Sailor Moon fan and do remember her from the live action series where she played the character Sailor Luna, Luna's human form for that version of the series. So I would not have any issue with her showing up again in the drama.

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