Medaka Box - Episode 8

While the student council handles all of the suggestions and elements of student relations, someone has to keep law and order around Sandbox Academy, and that job falls to the school's disciplinary committee, otherwise known as the student police.  Or, judging by the first half of this week's Medaka Box, the fashion police.

At the forefront of all of this is Harigane Onigase, a hard-nosed disciplinarian and a stickler for the rules.  When the lax dress code of the student council comes to her attention she goes bananas, and before we know it Hitoyoshi and Akune have been properly dressed and Mogana has been stripped of her swimming costume.  That leaves only Medaka herself who, of course, refuses to budge when it comes to changing her uniform.  Similarly bull-headed, Onigase looks to take matters into her own hands, be it by fair means or foul - the trouble is, trying to understand Medaka's mindset is beyond even the smartest of students, so our disciplinary committee member has no chance, leaving us to chalk up another victory to Medaka.

Things take a turn for the clichéd as we enter the second half of the episode with a continuing focus on Harigane - this time, an attempt to arrest Shiranui for eating on school property ends with her handcuffed to Hitoyoshi in typically slapstick style, making for a rather unique walk of shame back to the disciplinary committee office.  Things only get worse once Medaka herself gets involved, as we end up with the student council president added to our handcuff train, in turn making for distractions aplenty from the task at hand as Medaka goes about interfering in everyone else's business.  Still, at least her presence saves Onigase from her toughest foes, while also providing the answer to how to bust out of those pesky handcuffs.

Another week goes by, and Medaka Box still shows no signs of breaking into anything other than predictable and shallow storylines - still, at least this episode's offerings managed to prove themselves as passably entertaining and mildly amusing rather than leaving me writhing in my seat while I waited for the episode to end.  This is, of course, me damning this series with faint praise yet again, which says a lot about how big a disappointment this show continues to be - Nisio Isin isn't exactly my go-to man for forgettable story-telling, but between this and Nisemonogatari his association with anime is fast becoming anything but a "must-watch" label when it comes to choosing shows.