Studio: GoHands
Publisher: Kodansha
Genre: Comedy, School, Shounen, Slice of Life
Release: S1 (2010), OVA (2011-2013), S2 (2014), OVA (2014-2016)
“Good guy Takatoshi finds himself surrounded by crazy girls who do nothing but horrify him with their candid talks about feminine hygiene products and, what’s worse, assume he’s the worst kind of man, the kind who doesn’t clean himself and watches porn all day long.”
Literally translating to ‘Student Council Staff Members‘, Seitokai Yakuindomo starts with the cliched ‘protagonist on his first day of high school’ scenario. Osai Academy, which just turned co-ed from an all-girls school, is where Takatoshi Tsuda enrolled in– not for the delusional harem most simple-minded guys want to have, but simply because it’s close to his house. Upon entering the gate, he is stopped by the school’s Student Council President (Kaicho) Shino Amakusa.
The following scenes take place:
Osai Student Council President Amakusa Shino
Freshman Takatoshi Tsuda
The other student council members then introduce themselves: Secretary Aria Shichijou, who has a motherly and Ojou-sama (rich and well-mannered lady) air about her, and Treasurer Suzu Hagimura, who looks like an elementary kid but compensates with her 180 IQ and multilingual talents.
After all is said and done, the conversation suddenly turns to the student council needing a male staff member for formalities’ sake since the school just turned co-ed that year. So in short, Tsuda was forcefully made the school’s Vice President on his first day of school.
‘Your right hand is for masturbating‘!? Nope, that’s no typo. Aria really said that. Long story short, this anime can be green and perverted as can be although strictly limited in a verbal sense. From here on out, Aria and Shino would be constantly making unprecedented naughty jokes, in which Tsuda and Suzu would play the role of the straight man.
As it turns out, the oh-so perfect Amakusa Shino is a pervert at heart despite her being the school’s flawless role model and president, and would blurt out toilet-humored puns whenever possible. And Aria? She’s much worse. Suzu sympathizes with Tsuda at the least, although she mentions that she’s gotten used to it already.
This makes Seitokai Yakuindomo refreshing to watch. Well, you don’t normally see female characters making such sexually obscene remarks with a straight face that even the guys are cringing.
One might think perverted girls are a man’s paradise, no? And that the main character Tsuda shouldn’t try so hard to act cool and play the straight man? Normally, that should be the case. But the level of creativity these girls have with their green jokes make the naughtiest of men deplete their libido lol. The art lies in inserting unexpected sexual innuendo to every mundane conversation they have.
Most of the time, Shino and Aria make fun of Tsuda as if he’s the naughty one (stereotyping all males are perverts), and that they already accept him as one. But in truth, he’s a nice mature guy who has more important things to do than think about sex. This is where most of the jokes start: Tsuda making an ordinary remark such as “This DVD was great, you can’t finish it without using tissue.” clearly implying the tissue was for tears. Then they would go and say “It’s THAT erotic?” Haha.
Reminding you guys again that there’s nothing visually ecchi here, and the green jokes are only limited in a verbal sense. So I guess there’s an unwritten rule that they’re just doing this for fun. You can say they’re in it just for the sake of the jokes and nothing more. This is proved at scenes where there’s a romantic tension between Shino and Tsuda, and she just blushes and shies away at the slightest hint of conversation. As student council members, Aria and Shino are usually serious and implement the strict rules of the school as deemed necessary.
There was one time when Tsuda was at the point of fantasizing about the girls (accompanied with a scene from your typical ecchi fanservice anime in his mind), then they would just say something much more inappropriate beyond his imagination, that it’d ruin the mood. Well, you can’t beat girls who are more green than you.
This is what makes Seitokai Yakuindomo what it is– an anime made to be perverse, but VERY light on visual fanservice. They just rely on wits and puns to deliver the jokes, which is quite more challenging to do, IMO.
The plot is very light and generic since the anime would mostly revolve on student council activities we all see in other high school-themed anime: class sessions, sports festival, cultural festival, Christmas and New Year’s celebration, summer vacation, field trips, etc. So it’s basically just those cliched scenes packed with a rather overdosed amount of sexual perversity usually rebutted by either the ethical, naive or fellow maniacal characters who are on a different level of wrong.
The hilarity this anime brings certainly relieved some of the stress I had from work. No deep stories or ethical dilemmas to ponder about, it’s just a plain and simple anime that makes you giggle with their craziness. ‘Funny’ is subjective, though. If you’re the type who gets offended easily, this probably won’t be your cup of coffee.
I now end this review with another funny skit from the anime:
