Seitokai Yakuindomo

ChatterboxZombie | 6 Oct 2010 | tl;dr

After every season I go back and watch one of the shows I didn’t follow as it was airing. Last time it was Angel Beats, and this time it Was Seitokai Yakuindomo. I had heard very little about the series and so had nothing expected, which is always the best thing for an anime. Once again a series has formed itself around the premise of a school student council and their various activities, but this show comes in the form of a fast paced, snippy slapstick with a sense of humor that is definitely one in its own.

Tsuda has entered high school, one that has only just become co-ed, and had previously been girls only for many years. Out of the blue Tsuda is selected to become a member of the student council by the president herself, the eccentric and proud Shino. As it turns out, Shino and another member of the council have sex on the brain, literally meaning they can’t stop thinking about sexually related stuff, leaving Tsuda and the more mature Suzu to bring them back to reality. The group spend most of their time in the council room chatting, but move on to other locations for laughs in the forms of school trips, Christmas parties and home study sessions. Its a simple setup, and while its not intended to be dynamic or climactic, it does a good job of what the series demands. Pushing the characters into different settings so that the jokes can continue to flow fresh and funny.

With a fairly small cast the series manages to put a lot of effort into developing its characters individual quirks and jokes. Almost all the characters have some funny little attribute built into them from the get go, and sitting there waiting for them to bust out the predicted line is usually pretty funny. While the interaction between the characters never really expands beyond the two extremes of aggressive yelling or apathetic mumbling, the series chucks in a love interest aspect later on. It’s not influential on the show or even the characters however, so its very positioning in such a straight faced comedy is a little awkward to swallow.

Seitokai is a comedy, through and through. It presents most of its jokes with a straight face and lets the viewer do most of the work for them. Some jokes you can see coming a mile away but simply won’t care because you’ll still want to see them, and that is an interesting aspect of the show. The comedy itself is very low energy, relying heavily on sexual innuendos and the characters goofy tendencies rather than a more classic approach with physical comedy. Its quite unique to an anime, but feels strangely familiar because of its high-school settings. The series often likes to blame puberty for its characters obsessive sexual interests, and it often fits the part being quite funny and appropriate. People may be shocked at just how effortlessly bold the series is as the female characters suddenly start up a conversation about their periods or sexual interests. The sort of people who burst out laughing at the mere mention of the word “Vagina” will be right at home here. It comes off as a little immature now and then, but its hard not to laugh as the jokes are often so off beat or blatant that the shock alone will bring a smirk to your face. As it goes on the jokes become more and more predictable while not getting anymore extreme, so it does get a little boring by the end of it, but for those who like the sense of humor, it will be enjoyable right the whole way through.

The transitions from the scenes is a pretty aggressive in its speed on times. Each episode is crammed with jokes back to back, and while its a nice touch that the series has focused on its strong point, there’s usually not enough down time to sit there and appreciate it. The show will suddenly sweep to a new scene while you’re still laughing at the first one, and while it does help to keep it feeling fast paced, some people will find it a bit too racy in terms of its constructive pacing for its episodes.

The art style is quite simple and stylized in its design. Character models are consistent and prominent, and the scenery, while never really impressive, at least serves to hold a school-themed presence as the characters do their stuff in the front ground. Animation quality is good, but the series has a fondness for morphing into simple chibi form for its jokes. its quite cute, and its definitely fitting for some of the jokes, especially when dealing with the height-challenged Suzu, but it does begin to get a little bit annoying by the end of the show. Facial animations aren’t very broad, as the characters usually don’t have quite the emotional spread to go beyond the few predictable responses for the set style of jokes in the show. The niches in the presentation are all to compliment the series comedic tendencies, and while it usually does suit the feel of the funny moods, it comes at the sacrifice of being technically impressive in terms of visual design and animation. But the series is still very easy on the eyes, and is bright and colorful in its style and presentation.

Voice acting is a little hit and miss. Because of the characters restrictions to being joke based at pretty much all time, the actors don’t have a lot of opportunity to use variation in their voice, so the few tones and mumbles that the characters have become quite predictable after a while. Great jobs have been done though as the voices often deliver the jokes with perfect pronunciation and social detail. Some of the punchlines are made just that much better by the hilarious acting of the characters, and its definitely easy to see why the series presents itself in such low energy when it can create such static jokes that are still very funny. There are some nice musical swoops that can be heard in the background every now and then, and both of the theme songs are devilishly catchy. The odd sound cue feels a bit chunky at times, but they’re usually fitting enough to help add to the skits at just the right moment.

Seitokai Yakuindomo is undeniably different with its reluctant toilet humor and hilarious cast of off beat characters. It throws tampons in the face of maturity and laughs at its own cleverness like an immature high school student. Wether you like Seitokai Yakuindomo will be entirely dependent on if you enjoy its sense of humor. Its presentation, structure and development are all average, if not very predictable, but if you enjoy its humor then this all becomes easily excusable. People looking for a cheap laugh will find its various minor flaws to be vastly over-shadowed by the comedic style of the series, and the flaws are indeed infinitely ignorable to people who aren’t diving deeper into how the series is actually structured. From a critics point of view, Seitokai Yakuindomo is nothing impressive. But for those who love to laugh, and have got a little bit of immaturity brewing in the sexual aspect of their brain, Seitokai is a fun and unique comedy with its own remarkable sense of style and flare.

The Student Council is open for inquiries, but you might soon feel like you’ve walked into Sex ed.

Written by ChatterboxZombie.