Best Student Council
"At Miyagami Private Academy, there is a group of beautiful girls, who have power and authority on par with the faculty members. Miyagami Academy Maximum Authority-Wielding Best Student Council. Or for short: Best Student Council!" |
Best Student Council - Gokujou Seitokai in Japanese - is the story of a down-on-her-luck parentally-abandoned girl named Rino Randou trying to make her way through life, or at least school. She enrolls at Miyagami Private Academy, an all-girls school, at the written recommendation of the shadowy "Mr. Poppit", assured that everything including room and board will be taken care of -- only to see that the apartment which had been provided for her had been burned down by a rampant arsonist. So, with only her clothes, luggage, a few yen, and her puppet - named Pucchan. to her name, Rino has only one option: Become a member of the student government in order to gain the free room and board at the school dorms afforded only to members of the Best Student Council.
For the most part, Best Student Council is quite episodic, and tends to focus on a single character per episode. Barring the beginning - which causes many people vague recollections of My-HiME., Best Student Council is a schoolyard comedy with drama at a few key moments. Don't expect too much seriousness out of a series that has a talking hand puppet as a major character, though.
The Japanese title is a contraction of the ending phrase of the narration: "Gokudai Kengen Hoyuu -- Saijoukyuu Seitokai".
Dubbed by ADV Films, and released in early 2007.
- Absurdly Powerful Student Council - This is a council with its own assault, covert and vehicles divisions!.
- Anime First
- The Atoner - Seina, who takes the mantle of head of the V Organization to make up for her feelings of guilt for feeling glad that Kanade and not her had the Junguuji power..
- Beware the Nice Ones - President Kanade is most of the time, calm, collected, and modest... until you call her a snobbish and arrogant woman.
- Big Fancy House - The Jinguuji compound, natch. Also, the student council dorms are more fancy apartment than dormatory.
- Black Helicopter - Used by Covert Ops in the Cooking Duel.
- Blank White Eyes
- Blind Without'Em - Hida Sayuri,
- Bottle Fairy - The school nurse apparently likes to go drunk on her days off.
- Broke Episode - When the budget is completely diverted to repairing the self-destructed dormitory.
- Circling Birdies - Rino, in episode 1. Combined with a Talking in Your Sleep trope.[1].
- Clingy Jealous Girl - Izumi Kaori, toward her position as Class Representative, and toward the Student Council President's affection.
- Color Failure - Happens to Kaori in the first episode, when she loses the election to Rino. Later happens to Rino when Pucchan is taken away from her, Ayumu even comments on this..
- Continuity Nod - Every character who appeared in a single episode shows up again in episode 25.
- Cooking Duel - A curry cooking duel, for which the loser would have their budget cut. Rino decides that Covert Ops' and Assault Squad's curry taste better when mixed together
- Curtains Match the Window - Most of the main characters. Cyndi is one notable exception, to help emphasize her half-foreign ancestry.
- Door Step Baby - Which prompts the girls to go out searching for the baby's mother AND Rein's father..
- Eloquent in My Native Tongue - Inverted with Cyndi. Throughout the series she speaks halting, two-or-three word Engrish sentences, with the penultimate episode revealing she actually has fluent Japanese, but her mother, who isn't eloquent, convinced her it was incorrect..[2]
- Evolving Credits - The faces of the two members of Covert are revealed in the episodes after they are introduced.
- In addition, the pre-credit intro evolves as well, adding members to the Student Council line-up after they join the council, Rino is added for episode 2, or as the Covert members are revealed.
- Expy - The Christmas Cake teacher and Bottle Fairy school nurse certainly seem similar to two other teachers we might be familiar with. This is really apparent by their interactions during their Character Focus episode.
- The Faceless - Seina and Kuon are the only members of Covert Ops whose faces are shown for the first half of the series.
- Friends All Along - Lance and Pucchan.
- Girl A: In the first episode, during the Class Rep election, names for Eiko and Biiko pop up on screen, as if they were normal characters being introduced... and they are never heard from again.
- Gratuitous English - Cyndi Manabe.
- Even more gratuitous is her mother who appears later in the series.
- Hachimaki - Episode 8, when Rino starts cramming.
- Heterosexual Life Partners - Both Kanade and Nanaho plus Sayuri and Rein qualify..
- Hey, It's That Voice! - Shimon, the guy everyone thinks Mayrua's dating in episode 7, is voiced by Kamina.
- Highly-Visible Ninja - Rino and Minamo dress up as these when they get attached to Covert. It almost blew the real Covert agent's cover.
- I Am Who? - The reveal at the end, showing the Jinguuji power, and that Rino has that power.
- Idiot Crows - Episode 8.
- Idol Singer - At one point, Ayumu is scouted to become one, and is pretty excited about it, until she learns what outfit her manager wants her to wear...
- Ill Girl - Minamo.
- Important Haircut - Episode 12.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy - The reason why Kaori doesn't take action against Rino.
- Japanese Honorifics: The student council talks to each other almost exclusively in yobisute, no honorifics. This is probably meant to evoke a Nakama. While Kanade, Kuon, and Nanaho are usually named by their office, they refer to each other by first name only.
- Joshikousei - Almost the entire cast, this is a girls school.
- Known Only By Their Nickname - "I am Pucchan, no more and no less."
- Landlady - Hisakawa Maachi.
- Maintain the Lie - named after the episode.
- Mega Corp - The Jinguji and Iwazakura Conglomerates.
- Meganekko - Hida Sayuri.
- The Mole - Ginga Kuon. Doesn't exactly become the mask, but close enough.
- New Transfer Student - Minamo
- Ninja - The members of Covert.
- Noblewoman's Laugh - From the rival school, the Kenran Gakuen Student Council President.
- Nonuniform Uniform - Minamo adds frills and ribbons to hers.
- Number Two - While the Student Council has two Vice Presidents, Kinjou Nanaho is the more senior of the two, being VP since the beginning.
- Old-Timey Bathing Suit - Kanade's preference, when she gives one out as a gift only Kaori will willingly wear it..
- The Ojou - Jinguuji Kanade.
- Parental Abandonment - The death of Rino's mother puts the story into motion, and as the series progresses, other characters are shown to fit this trope as well.
- The Pollyanna - Seina.
- Portmanteau Series Nickname - In universe, the abbreviation for the student council.
- Promotion to Parent - Kaori. Though in a lot of ways, Kanade also qualifies for Rando Rino.
- Romantic Two-Girl Friendship: Rino and Kanade
- Rule of Three - Tsunomoto Rein, who has a tendency to include three variations of a word or phrase in her sentences.
- Schoolgirl Lesbians - payapaya anyone?.
- School Newspaper Newshound: The newspaper club also cooperates with the Paparazzi club.
- Self-Destruct Mechanism - In a school dormitory, no less.
- Sinister Silhouettes - The two other members of Covert, who are eventually revealed in the credits. Only one of them seems sinister after that.
- Shaggy Dog Story - One episode starts out with Rino asking why they have an elementary school age manager for the council dorms, and why is she so good at cooking? Cue the stalking of Maachi's mysterious trips into town, where they eventually find out she's babysitting for Kaori, who had been Promoted to Parent. Which was really nice of Maachi and all, but why on earth do they have an elementary student as a dorm manager?
- Shout-Out: Pucchan's friend in episode 19 is named Lance Bean.
- Status Quo Is God - Invoked at the end of the series. All of the Best Student Council members that have graduated have become faculty, headed up by Executive Director Kanade. Rino remarks, "Somehow it doesn't feel like a new school year, does it?"
- The Stoic - Covert Squad member Kotoha Kutsugi. Frequently lampshaded in her Character Focus episode.
- Talking in Your Sleep - Rino, in episode 1, when Pucchan was trying to wake up Rino..
- That One Girl - Oume Ayumu, who doesn't even get named in the credits. Ironically, having Rino join the Student Council was "her" idea.
- She loses this status when she gets scouted to become an idol in episode 20. Should it also be pointed out she was always in the credits to begin with?.
- More traditional members of this trope are two classmates of Rino and Ayumu, fittingly named Eiko and Biiko, who have speaking parts for the first two episodes, and are never heard from again.
- The Thing That Goes Doink - Seen in the Dormitory bathhouse.
- Thundering Herd
- Training from Hell - For 12 hours, for a futsal battle, and entirely off screen.
- Translator Buddy - Pucchan does this for Cindy & Sunday in episode 17.
- Two-Teacher School - And one of said two is actually the school nurse.
- The Unintelligible - The 'Indian Helper' from the Cooking Duel episode who only ever says "Namaste".
- Verbal Tic - Landlady tends to say 'ehe' a lot, sometimes to the point of being The Unintelligible. Lampshaded in Episode 13.
- Wave Motion Gun - The 'Youth Cannon'.
- Whole-Episode Flashback - Episodes 12 - A dramatic Character Focus. and 13 - a hilarious How We Got Here.
- Yamato Nadeshiko: Kanade is sweet, kind, polite, and unbreakable.
- You Are Not Alone: How the council gets Rino out of her depression enough to succeed in her exams.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair