Seitokai no Ichizon - It's Not Your Harem!

"Harem" has carried a stigma with it for a long time. "Light Novel" is the same, same with "slice of life", and so has "Studio DEEN." So believe it or not, Seitokai no Ichizon is a light novel harem slice of life by Studio DEEN that I consider one of the most well made comedy anime out there. The thing that I don't get is how it was so massively overlooked when inferior shows have been turned into franchises.

STORY: 7/10

Picture your standard harem school life series. Now imagine if the male lead was a hyperactive pervert who asserts that his club is his harem. That's basically what you get from Seitokai no Ichizon.

This is just scratching the surface, mind you, but it's the CliffsNotes version. The plot is, like every piece of slice of life, barely even a thing. It's mostly just the characters chatting, going off on wild tangents where they can start a conversation on event planning and in less than a minute they're talking about Kurimu's body issues. There are a few episodes where things get a little more serious, but mostly it's just absurdist comedy with only the most barebones sense of continuity. That said, there's actually an interesting story in Sugisaki's past that you get little bits of information from time to time. It's really quite serious and honestly very touching. I don't want to spoil it, but suffice to say that there's more to Ken than just being a pervert. Just be aware that these serious scenes are transitioned to from comedic scenes so quickly that you're likely to get whiplash.

But the speed is what I think is Seitokai no Ichizon's best area, and one that I think makes the series what it is. The comedy is so fast-paced that you barely have time to process all the jokes that are being tossed at you. That's why I think it works so well, though. It gives it a really unique feel. Example: At one point, they manage to work in seven different jokes over the course of 30 seconds, and each one is funny.

Premise: 2/2
Pacing: 2/2
Immersion: 1/2
Setting: 1/2
Theme: 1/1
Complexity: 0/1

ART: 5.5/10

Average scores for the animation. There's nothing really special about it. Outside of tossing a few absurd gags in the background, the composition isn't really doing much. This is DEEN, not Shaft, so when the series is mostly dialogue taking place in one mundane location (with occasional trips to other places) they aren't going to be doing much with it.

I'd say at least the student council room looks like it's fairly well lived-in and not abandoned, and the character animation never looks too far off that it gets distracting. For what it's worth, the art does enhance the comedy of scenes from time to time.

Ultimately, nobody really expected Seitokai no Ichizon to take off as a smash hit, and that's pretty obvious from all angles. The budget it has makes it look like a late-90s to early 2000s anime when believe it or not this show came out in 2009.

General Presence: 1/2
Visual Design: 1/2
Backgrounds: 1/2
Animation: 1/2
Attention to Detail: 1/1
Visual Effects: 0.5/1

SOUND: 7/10

I'm not sure how the light novels would compare to the anime, actually. A large part of the charm comes from the voice actors and how well they get in their roles, how fast they can manage to talk to match the director's pace and comedic timing. One of the main reasons I watched the series in the first place was for Honda Mariko, who I absolutely adored in Nichijou, but the rest of the cast do very good jobs as well, with Kondou's role as Sugisaki nearly overshadowing the others he does so well. The staff really had a good time with the series.

Music is okay. It's not the kind of thing that I'd go out and listen to, but I think that if I were to hear it somewhere else that I'd recognize the tunes. Whoever was in charge of sound mixing did a good job, knowing that the voice acting is so good that even little things in the background (such as a certain sheep) should be clear in comparison to the music.

Voice Acting: 4/4
Music: 2/4
Sound Effects: 1/2

CHARACTERS: 7/10

It sort of is indicative of how far you can go simply by telling good jokes, as well as having a small cast of characters who are almost always talking, doesn't it? I really like the characters in Seitokai no Ichizon. While I think a lot of it may have something to do with the voice actors nailing their roles, I do feel that they had plenty to work with. It's true that just about every character has one trait that gets more focus, such as Kurimu's childishness or Mafuyu being a nerd, but it's balanced out with other traits. Usually they're balanced out in a mixture of positives and negatives - Chizuru is coolheaded and mature but also manipulative and intimidating.

The characters are harem archetypes, obviously. It wouldn't really work out as a parody if they tried to be too subversive. Yes, you can do a quick rundown: tsundere, loli, mature, shy, ojou. But they aren't really defined by their archetypes, if that makes sense. Strangely, even for a simple anime about a pervert trying to make the student council his harem, you learn quite a bit about how they all have some hidden layers under their skin.

It's a rare case of one of those series where every girl is best girl, at that. Although my personal favorite is Minatsu.

Presence: 1.5/2
Personality: 1.5/2
Complexity: 1.5/2
Memorability: 1/2
Development: 0.5/1
Pathos: 1/1

FINAL JUDGMENT : 9/10

I'll end by saying that Seitokai no Ichizon is one of my personal favorite anime, but it's definitely not for everyone. I doubt it will ever be anything more than a cult classic. Being a purely comedy series, the whole thing can be ruined if the jokes don't make you laugh. It makes a lot of meta jabs at harem and light novel series, especially ones from after the Haruhi boom. Like I've said before, the key factor in any comedy is whether or not it makes you laugh. As well as that, the key factor in any slice-of-life (or just any series in general) is how much you care for the cast. I'm almost certain that many would argue with me, but Seitokai no Ichizon's comedy knocks it out of the park. Not only that, but it goes above and beyond the standard slice of life comedy series by managing to have a serious and actually very touching plot happening in the backburner throughout all the episodes.

Pros:

+Consistently strong, fast-paced comedy
+Good cast of characters who lend themselves surprisingly well to the occasional drama
+Great voice acting, the staff all feel very passionate

Cons:
-Nothing special in terms of production values
-Many elements may be up to personal preference
-Goes from comedic to serious and back in a heartbeat, at least once an episode and sometimes zig-zags

Season 2 is a different story, since it goes through a change of studio and the whole thing has some very subtle changes that I think make Seitokai S2 worthy of a look at it as a different series compared to S1. But that's a story for another day. For now, today's student council...

Finito!