There isn’t any real story in Ichizon. The episodes are loosely tied together for the most part and center on the exploits of a high school student council. While shows revolving around clubs and student councils are quite common, initially Ichizon appeared to be unique. However the freshness of the series quickly wanes as I found just getting through each new episode was somehow a test of my patience and sanity. I really wanted to like this series as well but as it went on and on I found it more torturous to watch.
Is Ichizon bad anime? Not really. It’s just incredibly boring anime. And that is the main problem it has. Let’s begin with the humor. The parody and comedy is way too forced and thus doesn’t have any flow to it. It’s almost as if the writers thought the more anime and culture references they could pile in the funnier people would think it was without any regard to whether or not the jokes were actually, well funny. Just because I can recognize that something is being lampooned or a joke is being told doesn’t mean it’s funny. Sure there were many things I did find amusing and a few that I actually did laugh out loud at, but for the most part Ichizon is humorless and clichéd.
The other main issue with the series as a whole is its claustrophobic setting. 90% of the series takes place in the student council room. Even when they do leave the confines of that room then they soon seal themselves up in yet another small room. Had the jokes and parody actually been funny, this might not have been such a problem but each episode is mostly just the five of them sitting around a table screaming, talking at the speed of light, or spouting whatever cliché or stereotype their personality type is based on.
The ending is also rather bizarre. While Ichizon by its own admission doesn’t take itself very seriously, the rather somber and serious nature of some of the last few episodes felt very much out of place. For something was all about randomness and silliness this was a strange course to take. It's a bit ironic that these episodes were actually the best ones in the series, which makes you wonder how much better it could have been as a whole if it had worked on developing the plot to lead up to them.
Among Ichizon's characters, only Sugisaki Ken stands out in any way. With most harem type shows the male lead is usually the dullest and most uninteresting character in the show. Not so in Ken's case as he manages to carry the series by himself. Pretty much the only times I really laughed was because of something he said or did. The various girls of the council all have their own quirks but they all miss the same thing, actual personality. Sure they were all adorable and cute to look at but each of them had two or three personality traits that were just used over and over making each of them less substantive than cotton candy.
Artistically I found the characters to be very pretty and the styles and costumes were appealing. However because the series is set in a rather dull and plain club room that means there is little in the way of backgrounds and that makes the show as a whole to seem more drab and uninteresting than it really should have been. So while I found the art and animation to be very good, its setting brings it down much as it did with the story.
What I did find refreshing was an almost totally fresh faced seiyuu cast. In a time when the same dozen or so actors are reused ad nauseum it is really nice to hear some new blood. That being said the performances really aren’t that strong and in the end sound just like what we are used to hearing already. The music is fluffy and cute and not all that interesting. Though some of the ending remixes were funny, particularly the one from episode 11.
Ichizon in the end is disposable anime. Its worth a few laughs and then meant to be throw away. I doubt that anyone in a couple of years will even remember this show even existed. Its a real shame since as I said before, I really wanted to like it. While I don’t think it’s really terrible and maybe overall not quite as bad as I rated it, it was so boring and unenjoyable that it was painful to complete. If you are fairly new to anime or haven’t seen more than a couple hundred shows you might find this to be pretty good. For the more experienced viewer though, Seitokai no Ichizon is likely to be a disappointment.
