Most of this series rests on the comedy aspect. Parodies of various anime series and aspects of Japanese culture abound, and if you’ve been watching anime for the past few years, you should be able to keep up. The one that really sticks out in my mind is a very long salute to the Sentai genre where they all try to figure out what color ranger they would be and what kind of plot their supposed series would have. They also poke fun at genre archetypes. In one episode, they all attempt to write a novel of their lives in the student council, which all vary wildly based on their interests. There’s also a two-minute segment where the cast manages to make a joke about almost every drama archetype in existence. Since tropes are my thing, I really enjoyed how the writers played with them. The writers make sure nothing is safe here, and stretch out enough that everyone will have something to laugh at.
The series is not entirely episodic though, there is a bit of a plot involved, but it’s quite nonstandard. You see, all the character development that would usually take place in an anime series has already happened. You get the characters as they exist in the present. The story aspects, which usually take place in the first and last few minutes of each episode, trace back the characters and their pasts. Every girl gets a small piece of the story, and all four have suffered some kind of trauma. Sugisaki serves as the focal point that connects all the girls together. Once you finally get to the end of the series, the individual threads converge on him as they play what would have been the opening seconds of the series as the ending. What we would laugh off at the start is actually kind of a touching moment at the end. This is no deep plot, but it’s enough to nicely tie the series together as one collective work.
From an animation standpoint, the series is executed very well. I honestly have to say that I have never seen a locker portray so much emotion before, just wait for episode 5 to understand that. Given that the vast majority of the series takes place in one little room, the artists put a lot of detail into the design, but that doesn’t leave the few scene changes in the lurch. Also, since this is a parody series, there’s a lot of call for style shifts and costume changes, in addition to the change in uniform as the seasons pass. The voice acting is one of the areas where this series shines the most. All four women in the student council have rookie seiyus, and they nail their roles to the wall. Takahashi Kondo voices Sugisaki, and he really conveys the pervert quality to his speech and tone. The OP is your standard Jpop fare, while the ED is somewhat nonstandard. A lot of series like this have different EDs for each episode, and while Ichizon does that, it always uses the same tune, just different lyrics or inflection. Unfortunately, one or two of the rookie team can’t quite stand up to the task.
All things considered, Seitokai no Ichizon is a fairly standard series. The series doesn't manage to break any new ground within its genres, but it does everything well enough that I feel it warrants a look. It also manages to do it in such a way that it doesn’t grate on people who traditionally avoid its core genre, such as myself. It might be worth a look for you.
