Shiritsu Bakaleya Koukou ep. 8 review

Sorry for the delay this week. I just kept letting myself get distracted by other things instead of working on this review. I will try to avoid that with the next episode. Though some good news is that it has been confirmed that the series will air its final episode on June 30th, which means that there will definitely be twelve episodes. So I really look forward to what we will get for the next few episodes, and of course the movie later this year.

The episode starts off with Miyata-sensei telling the girls that he has a friend in the publishing business that wants to do a photo shoot of the girls at the school. The girls are excited and agree.

When they are alone after that, Saya confesses to Fumie her crush on Tetsuya. She asks Fumie if there is somebody she likes but Fumie says there is not even though she thinks of Tatsuya when asked the question. Saya does bring up that even though she likes Tetsuya she still sees as the boys as a group that is their enemy when it comes to the school.

The girls wonder what to do with the boys and Saya defends them by saying that they have improved. But then they find out that they are fighting in the school which negates that.

Later in class the girls approach the boys and tell them about the photo shoot. While the boys do not oppose the idea of it they are not sure about being told to change their image for it.

The boys think about what they would look like as ideal students. It really surprised me with Tanaka Juri with how much he looks like his older brother, Tanaka Koki, dressed up like that. I think it has to be the hair.

But overall all the boys really do not look like themselves at all.

The boys refuse to do that so the girls then ask them to just not come to school the day of the photo shoot so they keep their reputation of high standards. The guys refuse that as well as they do not think being dishonest like that is right. And from Fumie's expression she does not seem to disagree.

After school Saya and Fumie spot Tatsuya and Tetsuya together and Saya asks Fumie to help her out. It ends up that Saya wants to ask Tetsuya to a meal as a thank you and wants Fumie to be her "wing-man" to cover Tatsuya and make it not seem like a date. The four go to a family restaurant (which is something like Denny's or Red Robin for example) and of course Tatsuya proves that his stomach is a bottomless pit. The scene pretty much pushes the love triangle/square between the four.

After the meal they run into a former Catteleya student, Risa, that talks to the girls a bit. She then leaves with her boyfriend, a motorcycle driving thug.

The next day the girls find that the entrance to the school has graffiti all over it. A term repeatedly used is Bakaleya which confuses them. The boys show up and the girls accuse them for being ultimately responsible for it because of all the fights with other schools/gangs they get into. The boys just blow them off.

While the boys talk about it they mention that it is not so bad as their school placard was not the one defaced. Tatsuya though tells them that does not matter as it still is another group messing up their school and attacking their honor. So the guys leave to hunt down the group responsible so they can defend their pride.

As the guys leave the school the girls, who are cleaning up all the graffiti as their photo shoot is later that day, confront them again, this time about not helping and leaving to go fight again. The guys have not changed their attitudes and Fumie tells them that if they are going to leave then to not return to the school for the day.

The boys search and have various run ins with other groups. Then Shouhei remembers something and comes to tell Tatsuya.

Apparently the other day when he was on a date with Momo-chan she was viewing a message board. On the board there was a girl really mad at a school she was calling Bakaleya and even made a mention of the magazine photo shoot. The guys figure that they must be the ones behind it so it really did not involve them at all.

As the guys wonder what to do the girls are busy with their photo shoot. The publisher friend talks about how great they are and how before there were delinquents at the school so he was glad to see that they were not there anymore.

We then see Risa arrive with her boyfriend and a group of thugs. She tells them to go ahead and ruin the photo shoot.

Before they get far the boys show up to fight and stop them from ruining the girls' photo shoot.

The girls spot Risa and confront her about what is going on. She confesses to be the one behind the graffiti and wanting to ruin their magazine shoot. She blames the girls of Catteleya for her dropping out and still holds a grudge against them.

As Risa tells the girls she could not remain friends with them Shouhei shows up from wherever he was hiding to cut in. He brings up that he is still friends with the students at Bakada and the other boys confirm it as they continue the fight. This causes Risa to have a change of heart and she tries to call off her boyfriend and his thugs but finds out that her boyfriend was not really the guy she thought he was as he refuses. But it does not really matter as the boys end up beating them all shortly after.

The teacher his friend show up then and freak out. The publisher friend goes all holier-than-thou while dismissing the boys after one of the girl students tells him that they do not go to the school. This of course makes the boys mad but before they really get to say anything Fumie cuts in.

Fumie though ends up standing up for the boys, explaining that it was because of them they were able to do their photo shoot and that they are students at the school. This impresses the boys and even the girls that she would not just deny that the boys belong at the school.

With that the episode ends, but from the preview for the next episode it looks like there will be continuation of this one for it.

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)