Vintage: 2005Episodes: 26
Maker: Konami
Other Media: Manga, Playstation 2 game
Gokujou Seitokai (極上生徒会/"Ultimate Student Council")* is one of those shows that knows its place: it doesn't try to blow you away with spiffy, sparkling animation (and it never will, trust me), and it doesn't try to project some grand, shadowy crisis looming over the whole show (there are a few lingering mysteries, including one that comes to a head in the requisite climactic conflict that occupies the last 2.5 episodes of the show, but none of them jump out and hijack the narrative away from the characters -- the heart and soul of this show). Instead, what we get is a mostly fun, lighthearted school comedy/slicer-of-life fare with a large cast of cute, eccentric, and generally likable characters (exceptions will be noted below).
*The word gokujou literally means "absolute highest." It's generally used to denote something that is the best of its class (e.g. gokujou no egao = the most dazzling smile), and here it's used as an acronym for the organization that features the main characters of the anime: the Miyagami Gakuen Gokudai Kengen Hoyuu Saijoukyuu Seitokai (Miyagami Academy Ultimate Jurisdiction Holders (and) Highest-Level Student Council).
Since the show is all about its characters, let's break them down one-by-one and hope that the decentralized elements of the main plot --such as it is-- segways... er, segues... well from one character's section to the next:
Name: Randou Rino (蘭堂りの)Character Type: 単純 (tanjun - simple-minded), 泣き虫 (nakimushi - crybaby), どじっ子 (dojikko - clumsy child), バカ (baka)
Gokujou Rank: Secretary
Special Abilities: None. Seriously, she's useless.
Seiyuu: Tamura Yukari (goth-loli forever~!)
Rino is the main character of the show. As the story begins, she's on her way to Miyagami Gakuen -- her mother, Randou Chieri (misspelled as "Rieri" in the ending credits on many of the early episodes -- is ADV outsourcing labor to Konami now?), had passed away one year ago and left Rino dependent on the charity of her mysterious pen pal/benefactor, one "Mr. Popit." As the anime opens, Mr. Popit arranges for Rino to transfer to Miyagami Gakuen, a beautiful girls-only boarding school occupying a scenic island-with-forested-hills-in-the-middle-of-an-azure-lake setting. A slight problem arose, though -- the apartment Rino was to live in burned down (with all her luggage in it), and penniless Rino was reduced to a homeless bum. She was found asleep outside the front gate of Miyagami Gakuen (by her soon-to-be best friend, Oume Ayumu), taken to class (where she somehow became the new class representative, much to the consternation of her new classmate/last year's class representative, Izumi Kaori), and was then embroiled in a hectic turn of events involving the Gokujou Seitokai -- the student organization which wields ultimate civil, political, and economic powers on the island and its surrounding town (due to the fact that its chairman literally owns the whole area) -- and their attempt to arrest an arsonist who's been disrupting order and causing mayhem around the town. After displaying surprising powers in screwing up everyone else's work (Rino's powers) and even more surprising powers in single-handedly pacifying the criminal (not Rino's powers -- read on), the chairman of the Gokujou Seitokai gives Rino an executive role on the council (the secretary position ... that you rarely see her doing any work for) and takes an unusually personal interest in the welfare of our protagonist (who also gets free room and board in the Gokujou Dormitory as an executive member of the student council; benri da ne?)...
Rino is a cheerful airhead. She has an uncanny ability to screw things up (she accidentally incapacitates all three members of the yuugekibu in episode 1 and accidentally blows up the Gokujou Dormitory in episode 14) and she's a terrible student to boot (consistently earning goose eggs in both academics and athletics). She is, however, absolutely honest and straight-forward: she will tell you what she feels no matter what (usually breaks down and cries while speaking her mind). Her sincerity (and maybe just a touch of her goofiness, too) ends up touching just about everyone on the Gokujou Seitokai throughout the course of the show.In the Gokujou Seitokai TCG (Minamo designs one in episode 20 in an effort to booster the student council's lagging finances -- due to their own penchant for staging gaudy events and engaging in wanton property destruction -- through merchandise sales associated with a collectible card game), Rino's card is essentially useless. She has zero attack power, zero study-skills rating, and absolutely no special abilities. If you play five Rino cards at a time, though, a special event occurs -- the entire Gokujou Seitokai will take pity on her and allow you to take possession of all cards currently on the table and play them any way you want.
Her constant companion is ...
Name: Pucchan (プッチャン)Taxonomy: Ventriloquist's hand puppet
Personality: Caustic, sarcastic, tsukkomi (突っ込み - "straight man")
Special Attack: "Burning"
Seiyuu: Usually Tamura Yukari, but really depends on who's wearing him at the moment
Pucchan is a hand puppet with a mind of its own. Originally a companion for Rino's mother, he became Rino's confidant/personal protector when Chieri passed away. Pucchan is very sharp of mind (he deducts the identity of the fourth onmitsu member long before Rino even got a clue) and has a habit of saying bitingly sarcastic things (usually delivered in a very colloquial/gangster-like accent). The girls of Gokujou Seitokai initially thought that Pucchan was what he looked like -- a ventriloquist's prop -- and took him away from Rino in order to punish her for saying such disrespectful things about them (except, of course, that it was Pucchan saying those things). After some wackiness in which Pucchan lodged himself on the hands of many Gokujou Seitokai members (and proceeded to talk in the voice of whomever was holding him -- that episode was an exhibit in versatility for many of the show's seiyuu), everyone slowly came to realize that it's better not to try to understand the nature of Pucchan's existence and to just accommodate him.
In the Gokujou Seitokai TCG, the Pucchan card is used in combination with any character's card to give that character a 300% stat boost (attack power, study-skill rating). Ayumu tries to use this effect to tell Rino that her card isn't absolutely useless... until Pucchan points out that, well, three times zero is still zero.Pucchan is also an adept fighter, possessing a special move called "Burning" (where he seems to set himself afire with fighting power) and an even more powerful tag-team move called "Double Burning", which he utilizes in tandem with...
Name: Lance Bean (ランス・ビーン)Taxonomy: Ventriloquist's hand puppet
Personality: Ladies' puppet, roughouser, battle-tested veteran
Special Attacks: "Bang", "Double Burning"
Seiyuu: Usually Saitou Chiwa, but like Pucchan, it depends on who's wearing him
Lance is Pucchan's friend and partner. According to Pucchan, the two of them have been through thick and thin together. He is found in the garbage by Izumi in episode 18 and promptly, um, "seduces" her (how does a puppet seduce a person? yeah, I don't want to know either...). Lance carries a gun in his hand and can apparently use it to "shoot" things (that is, he yells "bang!" at stuff and said stuff acts like it was shot...), in addition to his aforementioned special tag-team move with Pucchan.
Lance! Pucchan! The invincible team!
The real reason behind Lance's visit was his desire to meet Rino, since he had always been very fond of...
Name: Randou Chieri (蘭堂ちえり)Character Type: お母さん (okaasan - Mother), 能天気 (noutenki - happy-go-lucky), 口悪い(kuchiwarui - foul-mouthed, particularly when she loses in video games)
Relatives: Rino, ???, ???
Seiyuu: Hisakawa Aya
Rino's deceased mother. Like Rino, she's very cheerful and kind-hearted. Chieri-san only appears in a few flashbacks throughout the series -- I only bothered to make a section for her because her personality is somewhat reminiscent of Honda Kyouko from Fruits Basket... and because I'm a huge Hisakawa Aya fanboy.
Konna kuso-ge (ge = ge-mu = "game") yatteranai wa yo!To be continued...
