Seitokai Yakuindomo is an anime that is based on the manga. The first season has thirteen episodes as well as eight OVAs that were released before the start of the second season. It is a slice-of-life anime that isn’t afraid of breaching more sexual topics and isn’t shy or embarrassed because of it. Our male protagonist is Tsuda Takatoshi, who ended up enrolling into Ousai Academy as a freshman. This was the first year that the high school allowed male students, before declining birth rates forced the school to stop being a girls-only school. He turns up on the first day only to meet the president of the student council and be forced to become the vice-president.
The student council members are an odd bunch but you’ll soon find out that nearly everyone is like this. Amakusa Shino is the president, Shichijo Aria is the secretary and Hagimura Suzu is the treasurer. Amakusa immediately lays down a few bombs in terms of sexual references that are not subtle in any sense. Shichijo is the daughter of an absurdly rich family and often shows off how well off she is. While Hagimura is sixteen but has the height of a grade schooler and is very self-conscious of this fact. If you don’t know what to expect then the anime will make it very clear within the first five minutes just what type of humor is delivers on. There are plenty of sexual references that aren’t subtle. The characters blurt these out in everyday conversation but the punchlines and reactions make it obvious that it is definitely not normal. It’s funny all the same.
There are running gags that continually come out of the blue and make you crack up. The frequent ones being Hagimura’s short appearance and actions that are very like a child, to Amakusa constantly comparing her breast size with Shichijo. It likes to point out tropes in the genre and then have the characters joke how it should be happening right now before somehow turning it into yet another sexual joke. The sexual references can be extremely explicit and daring at times.
The characters have unrealistic expectations since it is all based from adult games that they have played or adult videos that they have watched. While done jokingly, it implies that all the expectations of the students are messed up due to it being an all-girls school before. Tsuda has to put up with a lot compared to the other members. Part of it is due to him being the only guy within the group. The other part is that he is simply just not as amazing in terms of academics or natural ability as the others. The final part being that he, and Hagimura to a degree, is the only normal characters of the group. However, it is obvious that several characters are falling for Tsuda, most obviously Amakusa, despite her dirty mouth.
The episodes are structured around short bite-sized chunks at a time. It’ll show the gag and the punchline before cutting to the next scene. It can be abrupt and unexpected the first times but once you get used to it, it flows better. It helps that the punchlines get better and better as the season progresses while still managing to show a coherent flow of events that centers around a theme for that episode. The short season ends as you’d expect. It had little fanfare and was just like another normal episode. The characters do reminiscent about earlier events but not in the typical fashion as they embellish their own fantasies into it.
The OVAs continue in the same style as the normal episodes, it’s just that it starts adding several new characters. That’s to be expected since it is a new school year. This means more character variety and further confirmation that nearly everyone has weird out-there personalities in the anime. The OVAs feel like a natural extension of the season, complete with the sexual jokes, made better with the added cast, as if they had always been part of the show.
Overall, Seitokai Yakuindomo is a bold anime in terms of content as it does not shy away from explicit references. It’s quite daring at times, with all the characters having unique and weird personalities. They’re not afraid or embarrassed to talk whatever they are fantasizing at the time and this gives the anime a breath of fresh air compared to other slice-of-life anime set in high schools.
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