Best Student Council
"At Miyagami Private Academy, there is a group of beautiful girls, who have power and authority on par with the faculty members. Miyagami Academy Maximum Authority-Wielding Best Student Council. Or for short: Best Student Council!" |
Best Student Council - Gokujou Seitokai in Japanese. is the story of a down-on-her-luck parentally-abandoned girl named Rino Randou trying to make her way through life, or at least school. She enrolls at Miyagami Private Academy, an all-girls school, at the written recommendation of the shadowy "Mr. Poppit", assured that everything including room and board will be taken care of -- only to see that the apartment which had been provided for her had been burned down by a rampant arsonist. So, with only her clothes, luggage, a few yen, and her puppet - named Pucchan. to her name, Rino has only one option: Become a member of the student government in order to gain the free room and board at the school dorms afforded only to members of the Best Student Council.
For the most part, Best Student Council is quite episodic, and tends to focus on a single character per episode. Barring the beginning - which causes many people vague recollections of Mai-HiME., Best Student Council is a schoolyard comedy with drama at a few key moments. Don't expect too much seriousness out of a series that has a talking hand puppet as a major character, though.
The Japanese title is a contraction of the ending phrase of the narration: "Gokudai Kengen Hoyuu -- Saijoukyuu Seitokai".
Dubbed by ADV Films, and released in early 2007.
This series provides examples of:
- Absurdly Powerful Student Council - This is a council with its own assault, covert and vehicles divisions!.
- Anime First
- The Atoner - Seina, who takes the mantle of head of the V Orgination to make up for her feelings of guilt for feeling glad that Kanade and not her had the Junguuji power..
- Beware the Nice Ones - President Kanade is most of the time, calm, collected, and modest... until you call her a snobbish and arrogant woman.
- Big Fancy House
- Black Helicopter - Used by Covert Ops in the Cooking Duel.
- Blank White Eyes
- Blind Without'Em - Hida Sayuri,
- Bottle Fairy - The school nurse apparently likes to go drunk on her days off.
- Broke Episode - When the budget is completely diverted to repairing the self-destructed dormitory.
- Circling Birdies - Rino, in episode 1. Combined with a Talking in Your Sleep trope.[1].
- Clingy Jealous Girl - Izumi Kaori, toward her position as Class Representative, and toward the Student Council President's affection.
- Color Failure - Happens to Kaori in the first episode, when she loses the election to Rino. Later happens to Rino when Pucchan is taken away from her, Ayumu even comments on this..
- Continuity Nod - Every character who appeared in a single episode shows up again in episode 25.
- Cooking Duel
- Curtains Match the Window - Most of the main characters. Cyndi is one notable exception, to help emphasise her half-foreign ancestory.
- Door Step Baby - Which prompts the girls to go out searching for the baby's mother AND Rein's father..
- Eloquent in My Native Tongue - Inverted with Cyndi. Throughout the series she speaks halting, two-or-three word Engrish sentences, with the penultimate episode revealing she actually has fluent Japanese, but her mother, who isn't eloquent, convinced her it was incorrect..[2]
- Evolving Credits - The faces of the two members of Covert are revealed in the episodes after they are introduced.
- In addition, the pre-credit intro evolves as well, adding members to the Student Council line-up after they join the council, Rino is added for episode 2, or as the Covert members are revealed.
- Expy - The Christmas Cake teacher and Bottle Fairy school nurse certainly seem similar to two other teachers we might be familiar with. This is really apparant by their interactions during their Character Focus episode.
- The Faceless - Seina and Kuon are the only members of Covert Ops whose faces are shown for the first half of the series.
- Friends All Along - Lance and Pucchan.
- Gratuitous English - Cyndi Manabe.
- Even more gratuitous is her mother who appears later in the series.
- Hachimaki - Episode 8, when Rino starts cramming.
- Heterosexual Life Partners - Both Kanade and Nanaho plus Sayuri and Rein qualify..
- Hey It's That Voice - Shimon, the guy everyone thinks Mayrua's dating in episode 7, is voiced by Kamina.
- Highly-Visible Ninja - Rino and Minamo dress up as these when they get attached to Covert. It almost blew the real Covert agent's cover.
- I Am Who? - The reveal at the end, showing the Jinguuji power, and that Rino has that power.
- Idiot Crows - Episode 8.
- Idol Singer - At one point, Ayumu is scouted to become one, and is pretty excited about it, until she learns what outfit her manager wants her to wear...
- Ill Girl - Minamo.
- Important Haircut - Episode 12.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy - The reason why Kaori doesn't take action against Rino.
- Joshikousei
- Landlady - Hisakawa Maachi.
- Maintain the Lie - named after the episode.
- Mega Corp - The Jinguji and Iwazakura Conglomerates.
- Meganekko - Hida Sayuri.
- The Mole - Ginga Kuon. Doesn't exactly become the mask, but close enough.
- New Transfer Student
- Ninja - The members of Covert.
- Noblewoman's Laugh - The Kenran Gakuen Student Council President.
- Nonuniform Uniform - Minamo adds frills and ribbons to hers.
- Number Two - While the Student Council has two Vice Presidents, Kinjou Nanaho is the more senior of the two, being VP since the beginning.
- Old Timey Bathing Suit - Kanade's preference, when she gives one out as a gift only Kaori will willingly wear it..
- The Ojou - Jinguuji Kanade.
- Parental Abandonment - The death of Rino's mother puts the story into motion, and as the series progresses, other characters are shown to fit this trope as well.
- The Pollyanna - Seina.
- Portmanteau Series Nickname
- Promotion to Parent - Kaori.
- Romantic Two-Girl Friendship
- Rule of Three - Tsunomoto Rein, who has a tendency to include three variations of a word or phrase in her sentences.
- Schoolgirl Lesbians - payapaya anyone?.
- School Newspaper Newshound
- Self-Destruct Mechanism - In a school dormitory, no less.
- Sinister Silhouettes - The two other members of Covert.
- Shout Out: Pucchan's friend in episode 19 is named Lance Bean.
- The Stoic - Covert Squad member Kotoha Kutsugi. Frequently lampshaded in her Character Focus episode.
- Talking in Your Sleep - Rino, in episode 1, when Pucchan was trying to wake up Rino..
- That One Girl - Oume Ayumu, who doesn't even get named in the credits. Ironically, having Rino join the Student Council was her idea..
- She loses this status when she gets scouted to become an idol in episode 20. Should it also be pointed out she was always in the credits to begin with?.
- More traditional members of this trope are two classmates of Rino and Ayumu, fittingly named Eiko and Biiko, who have speaking parts for the first two episodes, and are never heard from again.
- The Thing That Goes Doink - Seen in the Dormitory bathouse.
- Thundering Herd
- Training From Hell - For 12 hours, for a futsal battle, and only implied.
- Translator Buddy - Pucchan does this for Cindy & Sunday in episode 17.
- Two-Teacher School - And one of said two is actually the school nurse.
- The Unintelligible - The 'Indian Helper' from the Cooking Duel episode who only ever says "Namaste".
- Verbal Tic - Landlady tends to say 'ehe' a lot, sometimes to the point of being The Unintelligible. Lampshaded in Episode 13.
- Wave Motion Gun - The 'Youth Cannon'.
- Whole Episode Flashback - Episodes 12 - A dramatic Character Focus. and 13 - a hilarious How We Got Here..
- You Are Not Alone: How the council gets Rino out of her depression enough to succeed in her exams.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair