Seitokai Yakuindomo - Episode 1

It's the first day of high school for Takatoshi Tsuda - A day which is always likely to be filled with new experiences, and nowhere more so than his preferred choice of school; Ousai Academy, once a girls only school, is now a mixed-gender school for the first time in its history.

Before he knows it, Tsuda has been press-ganged into taking a place as the vice president of the student council, to give it at least a little male balance in the midst of its three female members - The slightly oddball president Shino Amakusa, the short and rather young-looking accountant Suzu Hagimura, and the outwardly nice but also rather eccentric secretary Aria Shikijyou. Yes, I know this is sounding a lot like Seitokai no Ichizon, but it's bound to be funnier than that series, right? Right?!


Wrong. If I'm quite honest, most of the brief skits which make up this episode are entirely and absolutely unfunny - Perhaps I'm just too much of a modern man or something, but I'm neither shocked nor incredibly amused by hearing girls talking about tampons, periods or masturbation, and randomly throwing them in as punchlines to almost non-existent gags isn't going to change that. Perhaps luckily for this episode, it does manage to save itself a little with its final scene which sees the student council get interviewed, which is genuinely funny both in delivery and premise thanks to Shino and Aria's decision that their interview practice should be based upon the interviews given by porn actresses at the beginning of DVDs (complete with some hilarious examples).

If Seitokai Yakuindomo could keep up that kind of quality a little more, then it could hold a chance of being more than a reasonably well animated but ultimately boring attempt at comedy, but sadly I'm expecting more of the pointless "girls talking about sex and girly stuff when there are boys around is so funny" humour and less of the sharp wit and observation delivered towards the end of this instalment. Between this and the aforementioned Seitokai no Ichizon, I'm starting to suspect that the student councils at Japanese schools are filled with incredibly unfunny people.