Seitokai Yakuindomo* OVA

Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes. After that who cares?... He is a mile away and you have his shoes!

Man vs Female Logic
Seitokai Yakuindomo is a ribaldry, or blue comedy. The anime focuses on the life of high school students, where the main character is a guy. Surrounded by girls, Tsuda tries to enjoy his high school life. However, do not even compare Seitokai Yakuindomo with banal harem anime. Seitokai Yakuindomo is very similar to South Park; both have humor that can be described as ‘this is too much,’ but there is still something special about them, which makes it ... like a forbidden fruit.

Story
There is no story. Everything, story wise, has been mentioned long time ago in the first season. From the first season, it continues to be that kind of a show, where character dialogues play a very important role. Indeed, what else would you expect from a school that has been ‘all-girls’ for a long time and now these girls see a boy and can talk to him for the first time. Of course, it will be a number of perverted dialogues from the side of the girls and Tsuda will need to cope with it.

Overall
All in all, it is that trash comedy that you will not want to discuss with your friends, but there is still something that makes you want to watch it. So if you like blue and trash comedies, make sure to watch this anime from the very first season.

There once was a time when I enjoyed this kind of comedy, unfortunately, this OVA series dragged itself out for so long that my tastes in comedy have long since changed.

The whole series ran from May 16, 2014, to Sep 17, 2020. That's a long-ass time!

These OVAs were apparently released as bonuses for manga releases and other such special events. This really was not ideal from an anime viewer perspective as I just kept putting it off until they finally finished the planned run.

Let also clear the misunderstandings after the 6th episode is where the movie takes place and counts as the 20th and 21st ... episode. The OVA's here continue the second season like the 1st season's OVA's did.

The shorts are fine but if you did not like the first season I do not know why you are still here. Maybe like me, you have a pathological need to finish what you started. In which case I send my condolences as this is a mediocre comedy at best.

One would expect that after GoHands' much more impressive adaptation of Seitokai Yakuindomo's second season, the OVA will be ready to blow everything out the water. Right? Right?

Wrong.

Whatever significant change the second season brought upon the franchise is immediately watered down by how lackluster and forgettable SYD* OVA is, not only in terms of story but also in its production values. It's pretty surprising as well to see it be ranked higher than the second season itself, as the OVA shows nothing that poses anything groundbreaking for the franchise, not that it had sort of ability to begin with.

So, aside from addressing immediately how inferior ... this OVA is in comparison to the second season's story, what are the good points that one can address from watching this?

Save for the fact that it remains a good mix of anime-original content and faithful reliance on the manga, the only notable change is with its minor change in the character design. It might not be noticeable, but the characters' eyes are slightly wider, and will probably its current art style for future installments, basing from the SYD Movie trailer. Most of the episodes exist just to please fans of the manga to see these jokes get animated, but I honestly can't see how a setup to a sex joke with just a different punchline will be more effective.

Animation took a small dip down, and gone are the CG indicators of Suzu's head or the over-the-top perspectives one might have seen from the second season's first episode. Although nothing remarkable, the OVA episodes seem to have settled in less motion mirroring that of the first season and its previous OVA. Animation was never a problem in SYD, but seeing it veer away from its predecessor's playful dynamics are kind of alienating.

In terms of characters, Tsuda and Tsuda's harem itself remain a static cast which exist to give the sex-joke-of-the-week. I don't have to say at this point which character made it more enjoyable to me, as the humor in this OVA is at an all-time low, even when compared to its first season. We have a few good Uomi moments here and there, and an introduction of Eiryou's Student Council Vice President and straight man, but nothing comes across as superior than anything SYD has provided thus far.

Again, if you hated SYD's first season from the beginning, you won't remain interested for its successors for long, yet I can't recommend this to fellow SYD followers either. The franchise is getting stale after 40 episodes of rinsing and repeating, and if the upcoming movie doesn't break this standard there's no saving this franchise from being a mediocre comedy.