Best Student Council, aka Gokujou Seitokai, was never a Yuri series. It is, however, a series about love. And much love to Ted, the sponsor or today’s review! (And thanks, too, for Volume 5, which I did not review here, because there really was just nothing relevant to our interests…)

One of the things we’ve talked about on and off, here and on the Yuricon Mailing List, is the obsessive propensity for Fans of both genders to eroticize practically every relationship they see. The commonly held assumption is that this is because Fans tend not to have erotic entanglements of their own, even though that is not true. So why do we insist on seeing couples every where we look? I’ll leave the answer to the philosophers and psychologists among you. I just wanted to note that there really aren’t any couples in this anime. Just in our imagination.

Volume 6, the last of the series, is more about love than any of it’s predecessors. But the love here is the love of family, of friends, and the family you make with your friends – something that I’m sure a lot of GLBT people can relate to.

In Volume 6, we finally hit the wall we always knew was coming – Kanade is required to leave school and become the new Jinguji clan leader. This is apparently paramount to becoming Emperor, so that in order to function as leader, she needs to be locked in a box and “protected” by scads of black suits from ever leaving. Of course, the girls of the Gokujou Seitokai reject this idea. Individually, they leave the school to see Kanade, discover that they all had the same idea, and finally band together. They aren’t trying to rescue her – they just want to see her, they rationalize. Rino is, of course, the most vociferous in her wish to do so. But all the others, drawn by the common love of their leader, are glad to join her in her quest.

Because this is an incredibly silly comedy anime, need I say that their quest is successful? Probably not, but I do want to mention that in order to succeed every single loose end and tertiary character that ever appeared in the anime, reappears to help the Seitokai gain access to the Jinguji enclave. So Rein meets her father at last, and Sayuri’s rival appears randomly to help her fight, etc, etc.

Ultimately, it’s Rino who makes the difference, as her Jinguji power – the ability to transmit her voice and feelings vocally and telepathically – manifests fully. Thus dooming her to life as a member of this ridiculously elite family against her mother’s wishes. Pfft. And of course, because this series is what it is, they all get to bask in Kanade’s wonderfulness again.

The epilogue to the story is well summed up, by someone, Ayu, Rino, Puu-chan, I don’t remember. As Kanade “graduates,” then immediately installs herself as the chairman of the school, and Nanaho becomes the new Seitokaichou, and Rei and Sayuri run in screaming about an emergency, someone comments that it all looks exactly the same as before. Bwah bwah bwaaaah~ It’s meant to be funny, but I bet every viewer was vaguely relieved, because we don’t *want* anything to change. Then it wouldn’t be funny anymore.

This series showed wonderful examples of filial affection, maternal affection, family bonds, best friends to the point of being sisters, rivals who respect one another, sisterly devotion, peers who work together, adult female relationships, and respect and admiration for a beloved leader. And other than Kaori’s thing for Kanade, why do we insist that they are all couples?  Haha at us.

Ratings:
Art – 6
Story – 6
Characters – 7
Yuri – 2
Service – 4

Overall – 7

Two final notes. Despite all the above, I still see Nanaho and Kuon as a couple. Just wanted to say that. Secondly, I forgot to add Kanade to the list of Nabatome Hitomi characters that all hang out in the “fun idea, but actually a bad story” thing from a few days ago – so, Eriko, Nobue, Shizuma, Letti and Kanade,