Medaka Box Abnormal - Episode 10

With the brainwashing of Medaka complete, what sort of monster has emerged as a result?  Certainly, this isn't the Kurokami that we've grown used to...

Instead, this new revision of Medaka is far more embracing of her talents, and wants nothing more than to rejoin the Flask Plan and join their quest as the head of their attempts to create a perfect human being - a human being who would, of course, be Medaka herself.  As she dismisses the student council and pays little heed to their woes, it seems as if all is lost...

...but if that's the case, why is she crying?  As Zenkichi refuses to stand down and instead faces off against his former childhood friend, we get to look into Medaka's past and the dark side of her genius as it pertains to her relationship with others, all the way through to her first meeting with Hitoyoshi which turned everything around for her.  Even this doesn't seem to be enough to overcome her brainwashing until, although ultimately the realisation that Zenkichi also remembers that first meeting is enough to turn her around, putting us back on course for a final battle to put an end to the Flask Plan.

In terms of story and plot, this was another pretty decent episode of Medaka Box - over-the-top and dumb to a point, but knowingly so and somehow able to roll with it to create a suitable narrative.  Again though, it's hard to put a quantity on what the transition from manga to anime has brought to that story, as there's so little effort put into that animation that you aren't gaining anything from partaking in this version of the series.  At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it feels as if GAINAX simply aren't making any effort with the show, and it's a shame to see a relatively big name series given such a treatment.