Medaka Box Abnormal

After the defeat of Myouri Unzen at the hands of Medaka Kurokami and her Student Council, peace has returned to Hakoniwa Academy—at least, for a short while. Soon, Medaka, Zenkichi Hitoyoshi, Kouki Akune, and Mogana Kikaijima find themselves wrapped up in another sinister scheme, known as the "Flask Plan," led by the school's principal himself.

However, the council's first problem is to deal with a whole new group of superhuman students calling themselves the "Thirteen Party," led by the egotistical but powerful Oudo Miyakonojou. With the mysterious Flask Plan, Oudo's tyranny, and the resurfacing of an old enemy, the state of Hakoniwa Academy is far from tranquil, and Medaka and her companions have their hands full as things only get a lot more abnormal.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kurokami, Medaka Main

Toyosaki, Aki Japanese

Hitoyoshi, Zenkichi Main

Ono, Yuuki Japanese

Kikaijima, Mogana Main

Kayano, Ai Japanese

Kurokami, Maguro Main

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Akune, Kouki Main

Namikawa, Daisuke Japanese

Kumagawa, Misogi Supporting

Ogata, Megumi Japanese

Ajimu, Najimi Supporting

Mizuki, Nana Japanese

Shiranui, Hansode Supporting

Katou, Emiri Japanese

Naze, Youka Supporting

Sawashiro, Miyuki Japanese

Unzen, Myouri Supporting

Park, Romi Japanese

Itou, Yoshiyuki Producer

Beniya, Yoshikazu Producer

Saeki, Shouji Director, Episode Director, Script, Storyboard, Series Composition

Watanabe, Jun Sound Director

Reviews

Dec 29, 2012

SuiNoByakko

Recommended

Medaka Box Abnormal is the sequel to Medaka Box, so if you haven’t watched that, don’t bother with this anime. As a proper sequel, it picks up where the first season ended, however the main genre is very different than the first season. It turns the first season into a sort of lengthy introduction and puts emphasis on battles and “abnormalities” (strange inhuman abilities based on nature aspects) of individuals compared to the first season that focused on humour and SOL. Nearly every mainstream shounen does this, but this anime does it on a completely different level, what makes many people dislike it. But it ... isn’t serious and it never tries to be so it shouldn’t be taken seriously or people will be very let down.

That “light” feel is taken into the story as well with it being a bit cliché, while it raises very interesting questions. Is it right to be strong without doing anything for it? To Medaka and Zenkichi, two of the main characters, it’s something people shouldn’t even think about because getting stronger and suffering go hand in hand. Of course, they are bound to meet people that think otherwise. This is the first moment where people turn away from the show with rolling eyes. It’s because of how it’s handled. Surely, with Medaka being able to do inhuman deeds simply because she was born with it, she isn’t the right person to tell others that they have to suffer to get strong.

However, if you don’t turn away so fast, you’ll see that there’s much more to Medaka Box Abnormal than just hypocrisy. Here comes Zenkichi, the other lead character, who is the exact opposite of her talent wise. He might be strong, both physically and mentally, however it is mentioned, not once, that he got there by hard work and was very weak during his childhood. Unfortunately, the rest of the main characters don’t do the themes justice as most of them are “specials”; very talented people or abnormals. Of course, most of the time, they can’t rival the abnormals that are villains.

One of the biggest problems I had with the story was how all themes were presented. Medaka Box Abnormal sure deals with very interesting issues but they are usually solved by main characters simply stating their opinion, even though villains keep asking better and better questions. The difference between the “good” guys and the “bad” guys is nothing but the way they answer them. That wouldn’t be such a problem if the show didn’t portray the main character’s opinion as the right one and everything else as wrong and it goes as far as Medaka deciding what’s right for the rest of the world (that doesn’t make her think about it even for a bit).

Art doesn’t really help its case. It might look really strange and it’s difficult to get used to it but once I did, I fell in love with it. Animation is fluent and very well done. There’s lots of fanservice but it doesn’t feel overdone or annoying because it’s usually played for laughs.

While it might look like a huge mess, and it somewhat is, most of it is done supposedly to create a comedic effect. However, not everything looks like it’s trying to parody itself. Character interactions and presentation is probably the best part of the anime. While characters themselves aren’t something to remember, their relationships and feelings are delivered perfectly. You can see how they feel about what they say or about what is happening or simply know their nature by their actions. I found this to be the best part of Medaka Box Abnormal because to me it felt more real than most of SOLs I’ve finished and it made the anime more enjoyable.

Medaka Box Abnormal is definitely not a perfect anime. It’s difficult to like because it tries to jam too many genres together and never truly focuses on one. And even when it does (for a while) it usually overdoes it for bigger effect. However, if you do find something enjoyable about it, stick until the very end because it won’t go away easily. I recommend this anime only if you’re bored or open minded.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Dec 30, 2020

chaconzone

Mixed Feelings

I liked the first season a lot more.

I was optimistic in the first few episodes since the show had that new season smell; they were re-introducing us to characters, while also adding new stuff and building up to an overarching plot (Which is very different from the episodic nature of the first season). It was after the excitement wore off I realized we were left with a slow paced show that slogs through the battles.

It's not all bad, I enjoyed some of the fights, and the strategies they used, but it felt cheap when compared to the huge catalog of popular shonen anime ... that had done the same thing but better. Some of the character moments and motivations from the new characters were nice as well.

The last episode is somehow the best and also most disappointing episode. They introduce us to the most interesting characters with the coolest powers in the entire series. The kicker is that they are given this awesome origin story to give us context to a hypothetical season 3 that we will never get. This is the introduction to an arc that is said to be the best arc in the Manga, so I guess this is a great advertisement for the manga, but for anime only viewers, you simultaneously get a glimpse of what could've been, and a huge cliffhanger for your troubles.

I haven't read the Manga, so I can only judge the 2 seasons alone.
I loved the previous season because of the whimsical over the top nature of the plot, and the character development the focal character of each episode gets as Medaka "Reforms" them. I even liked the end of season 1 because the shonen battle climax doubles as an internal conflict for medaka, which I love since she's never get to reform herself. Season 2 has none of that, the reason they fight the baddies is because they are very very evil and have to be stopped, and it changes very little about our main characters.

If you watched season 1 and don't mind that shiranui is in this season even less, or that all the student council kids are just shonen battle anime characters now, then maybe you'll enjoy this season. But if you loved the episodic adventures that came from the suggestion box and are looking forward to more, then you might be disappointed.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Dec 28, 2012

Nasty001

Not Recommended

Now that this sequel has ended, so it's time to make a review of this thing and i gonna go straight to the point for every category of this anime, oh there maybe some spoilers that I may have placed:


Story: Good 7 .

Basically, it still has the same genre and it is still set in the same school with a very lame name," Sandbox Academy"- unless it is a daycare center, who the heck gives a school with a name like that? What's added here are lousy terminologies like Flask Plan, Abnormals and 13 party or Class 13. However unlike the previous season this one ... has more action in which the focus is no longer on Medaka (or at least for the most part) instead each member of the student council who were fighting along side her, has a piece of the action and a little bit of the drama. But what makes the action genre in which the group plans to destroy the so-called 'Flask Plan" of this anime good, is that the setting of the action sort of have a slight resemblance of Bruce Lee's "Game of Death" HAAAAAAAAYA!!!! But with a certain twist of course.


Art and sound: Mediocre 5.

Well, it is still the same art used from the previous season and it still has the same amount of fanservice. There are the usual seiyu's who did the voices of the protagonists and I don't give much of the damn about the seiyu's who did the voices of the antagonists, as for the opening theme....I hate it, the ending theme....I like it.


Character: Fair 6.

On Medaka, she is still this heroine who is sooo perfect that there is nothing she can't do and won't do thingy as usual, but, in this sequel she underwent the same unwritten rule that every protagonist have to undergo which is that a protagonist have to face such seemly difficult odds in which he/she is nearing defeat which the audience feels the protagonist's suffering and then the climax, the protagonist rose up in victory. Then again the ration of the protagonist nearing defeat in some difficult odds and rising up in victory was not well balance, in fact for Medaka to emerge victorious is seemly too obvious to the point that we the audience don't even felt her suffering and it easy for one to brush it aside.


Zenkichi Hitoyoshi- as usual he is still Medaka's Guard Dog and still serving as
Student Council General Affairs Manager, unlike in the previous episode here he was now kicking ass and exhibiting his special ability. As usual I'll never understand author, Nisio Isin as to why he as to insist that the character is a practitioner of Savate when his fighting style is no different that any other anime with a martial arts genre. What I like about him is Medaka having feelings for him and seeing him hugging her.

Mogana Kikaijima- The Student Council Treasurer, what's good about her was her reaching out to Yukuhashi which to me is cute, she probably the weakest among the group with only a sonic boom as her weapon and being able to breath like a fish (figure of speech). Since this anime has an ecchi genre and Medaka is the most ecchiest, she is more like the runner up of the ecchiest cast of this anime.

Kouki Akune- the "Destroyer" I like his nick name, I like the part that he goes fighting this cyborg chick Itami Koga, it is basically nice that he was able to display his fighting ability and be able to do as to what was expected of his reputation.

In the previous season of my review, I gave this category a low score, but having seen the other protagonist given their share of the lime light the score belongs to Medaka's subordinates.


Enjoyment: Good 7.

I admit, I do find the ecchi and the martial arts part of this anime good, frankly that's as good as it get, besides this sequel ended in a cliffhanger in which the last episode was about Misogi Kumagawa, Najima Aijimu and Saki.


Overall: Poor 3.

Ok, thought the story is good the action and ecchi are alright, the thing about this anime is that it has a lot of useless terminologies that were carelessly used by the author Nisio Isin, terminologies that complicates this anime and manga as a whole, in fact the said terminology "Abnormal" vs Normal vs Special doesn't actually categorize the students in fact even though the character's info mentioned that this character is an abnormal one would be surprise that the said character can be taken down by a protagonist who is normal. It is very disgusting that the author himself uses one conflicting terminology to explain another conflicting terminology. Frankly the author is simply banking on the the main protagonist's ability to be the student council's president as this girl who is the very essence of a perfect and domineering apex bully, of course there is the fanservice that comes with it, but overall with the cliffhanger, this sequel lacks a very good surprising climax .


Will there be another sequel? Well, it looks like it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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