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,

Best Student Council, Volume 4 is silly. I know that that will come as a shock to you. But it is. The volume is subtitled “The Secret Lives of Students,” which is pretty accurate for the first three episodes.

The first two episodes are a two-part look at two students with secrets – covert squad member Kutsugi Kotoha and Covert Squad VP Ginga Kuon. Because Kuon’s secret (which isn’t a secret to either Kanade or Nanaho) is shocking, Kotoha feels that Kuon is a huge threat – and that she will no longer take orders from Kuon. Of course, it all works out, because Kanade’s secret is also really obvious. (Sorry if that seems a bit obscure. I’m trying to not spoil too much.)

Episode three is both the funniest episode and the most painful of the entire series. Cyndi’s mother is due to arrive and we all learn that Cyndi has been telling her a pack of (not very intelligent) lies, which the entire Council spends a lot of time and money trying to make come true. The best scene of the episode has to be when several of the council members are forced to hula dance as Cyndi has dinner. The episode ends with a stunning confession by Cyndi about her true love, which happens to be the only male member of the cast. The only non-human, as well. I particularly liked Cyndi’s mother’s vile and crude Japanese language skills which frequently had her saying the exact opposite of what she meant – and usually very rudely, as well.

The final episode is an exploration of the fragility of women’s friendships. I’ve been a bit mean the last couple of weeks about Japanese men, so just assume the rant and let me explain a thing. In most cultures, when a woman got married, she was taken to her husband’s house and basically, never saw the light of day again. This relic still exists in anime/manga in the seemingly bizarre idea that after a women marries she will never again see friends or be able to work or anything. It seems bizarre to us that women would simply have to stop working, but lots of them do, still.

All of this is to explain why the fourth episode is supposed to be “funny.” In this episode, the two teachers deal with marriage meetings and their friendship. The moral of the story is the assumed “women’s friendships are weak, because as soon as a man comes into their lives, they stop being friends.” That this was mandated by culture and law never seems to sink into the superior male’s mind. (It’s not like they’d make a saying “Women’s friendships are weak, because after we’ve screwed ’em, we put them in a box and never let them out.”)

The bottom line – I hated this episode, and I hate all similar things, like Doki Doki School Hours‘s “Mika-sensei’s getting married we’ll never see her again,” episode. Welcome to the 12th century.

For the technicals, as usual, there’s no extras worth calling extras on the DVD and the case…well it has a case. ^_^

But aside from the irritating premise of the last episode this is another funny, silly disk of Best Student Council. With some serious Kuon time.

Ratings:

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

Overall – 6

Not a lot of Yuri, but some good Kuon service, which has to be worth *something*. ^_^

While Best Student Council, Volume 3 isn’t the Yuriest volume of this series, it has some notable moments where Yuri fans, depending on their level of desperation, can project some. ^_^

The volume begins with one of the stupidest plots I’ve ever encountered in an anime, for which it has to get some credit. The school futsal team has all come down sick and they can’t play against the (of course) rival school. So, it (of course) falls to the Supreme Student Council to protect their president’s reputation. Because you wouldn’t want to, say, ask the *outdoor* soccer team to be replacements. No, of course you wouldn’t. The episode explores every possible cliche it can – ojousama laughing rival president, absurdly corrupt referee, incredibly stupid physical gags, absurd ringer for the rival team, etc. etc. The few good moments are watching Kaori continue her level of extreme competence, and the utterly absurd gag that wins the game. As a self-aware parody of “one for the gipper” type episodes, it was splendid.

The second episode is where more desperate fans may wish to linger, as we look back upon the origin of Nanaho’s and Kanade’s friendship – and the larger nature of their relationship. Personally, I don’t see it as “Yuri” but as a really excellent story of close friendship/shinyuu. But then, I’m not desperate. ^_^

This is followed by a brutal two-episode arc where they beat us over the head with the least funny situation ever – the bratty kid who runs around and destroys things because she can. This is followed by the episode where we learn who the bratty kid is and why we shouldn’t kill her; although I was never convinced, myself. I adore Seina, I do. She’s my favorite character. But regardless, Minamo needs to be punished thoroughly. Perhaps permanently.

The one amusing thing about the arc is the lame play the Council puts on to raise funds to rebuild their dorm. It was so awful I can only imagine that they asked a real child to write it. ^_^

(True story. Last Thanksgiving my nephew, who is 12, asked me if I published comic books. I said I did. He asked me about what, and I told him that they were stories of women who loved each other. He then went on to tell me what they *ought* to be about. The story he suggested was a pretty standard fantasy quest-type plot, but rather intensely dull, because he RPGS and those usually have pretty basic plots – since the main focus isn’t in the complexity of story, but complexity of the challenges/opponents. When he was finished – and of course his plot included a male hero and no women – I said, quite honestly, that comics like that was already being published by about a million people, so my books were about things that *weren’t* that. He didn’t really get it, and then we got into a slapping contest, which sort of killed that conversation. The point of the story is, you want an excruciating plot, ask a 12-year old.)

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 6
Characters – 7
Yuri – 2
Service – 2

Overall – 6

So, no, this volume is not super high on the Yuri-o-meter, and you need Yuri goggles for what little there is, AND it has an annoying little sister plot, but for all that, I’ve seen worse.