Kujibiki Unbalance
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"The kujibiki is fact. The kujibiki is fate." "And the kujibiki is final."
—Kasumi Kisaragi and Ritsuko Kettenkrad, Kujibiki Unbalance TV series.
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Kujibiki Unbalance originally started as a Show Within a Show within Genshiken. It is an intentional conglomeration of every anime genre and trope that the producers could cram in. Clips of it were animated for the original Genshiken series, and three complete episodes -- the first episode, a Clip Show, and the second-to-last episode -- were produced as an Omake on the Genshiken DVDs. They proved to be so wildly popular that the series was produced as its own standalone Anime series, which aired in the Fall 2006 season.
The series follows a slate of four candidates for the Absurdly Powerful Student Council at an Elaborate University High. The school where the action is set has an unusual tradition: both the admissions test and the student council elections are chosen by lottery ("kujibiki" in Japanese). At the beginning of each year, the entire student body is divided into slates of candidates, who compete with each other through an enormous Tournament Arc of wacky Cooking Duel competitions. Naturally, there's a Love Dodecahedron at work, including a Childhood Marriage Promise between the protagonist and the current Student Council President.
The remade series, this time a complete one, is similar, but with a different art style, different group of candidates and a different setup for them to succeed. Rather than many groups competing, the next student council has already been decided, but in order to prove themselves worthy they must complete tasks put to them by the current council. These range from finding the last missing member in the first episode, to things like protecting the president from a bomb threat (and that's just the second episode). The DVDs of the remade series, in a role reversal, contain 3 OVA episodes of Genshiken.
It has now been released as a manga too, with a bonus section... where the remaining Genshiken members discuss the new manga.
Compare with Getsumen to Heiki Mina, another Defictionalized Show Within a Show.
Tropes used in Kujibiki Unbalance include:
- Absurdly Powerful Student Council: Not the Trope Namer, but could be seen as Trope Codifier, even as it lampshades the whole concept.
- Against the Setting Sun
- Aliens and Monsters
- Alpha Bitch: Renko.
- Ancient Tradition: the Kujibiki.
- Anime Theme Song: (the opening credits are frighteningly catchy; the ending credits are a scream)
- Aspect Montage
- Audible Sharpness
- Bifauxnen
- Big Eater
- Bottomless Magazines
- Bottle Fairy
- But Not Too Foreign: Ritsuko Kubel Kettenkrad: half-German, half-Japanese.
- Character Exaggeration
- Cherry Blossoms: Seen in the first episodes of both the OAV and TV series.
- Childhood Marriage Promise: Chihiro and Ritsuko, though Ritsuko pretends not to remember.
- Chop Sockey
- Cliché Storm: (intentional and tongue-in-cheek)
- Cliff Hanger: (episode 25; thanks to it not being a real show, this ends up being a No Ending)
- Cloudcuckoolander: Tokino, both versions, just in different ways.
- Cooking Duel: (it's an entire series of Cooking Duels)
- Crash Into Hello
- Crowning Moment of Funny:Tokino sings karaoke.
- Cute Shotaro Boy: (Although, he is taller then all of the girls. Blame Generic Cuteness / Only Six Faces.)
- Cute Witch
- Defictionalization: When the concept was made into a Twelve-Episode Anime and a Manga.
- The Ditz: Tokino
- The Dragon: Ritsuko
- Dunno What's Going On, But...: Chihiro, oh so much.
- Elaborate University High: Rikkyuin Academy.
- Emotionless Girl: Several, Ritsuko being most prominent.
- Erotic Eating
- Face Fault
- Fan-Preferred Couple: Chihiro and Tokino are the Official Couple in both versions, but Ritsuko is more popular with the fictional and real-world fanbases (either paired with Chihiro or Kisaragi).
- Fan Service
- Flexible Tourney Rules: This is pretty much how Chihiro and crew are able to win their challenges.
- Gainaxing: (they win a web site Cooking Duel this way.)
- Genki Girl: (Both Tokinos, but particularly the 2nd one.)
- The Glomp
- Grand Finale: (or at least the setup for one)
- Grave Marking Scene: (for both Chihiro and Ritsuko.)
- Hidden Eyes: Ritsuko some of the time.
- Hot for Student
- Ho Yay (that is, a healthy dose of Les Yay)
- The Idiot From Osaka
- Idiot Hair: Nearly everyone in the OVA.
- Idol Singer: (completely subverted: the scene with Tokino singing karaoke is one of the funniest moments recorded on film)
- Innocent Innuendo
- Instant Web Hit: See the Gainaxing entry above.
- Kawaiiko
- Ki Attacks: Koyuki, in the TV series.
- Kid Samurai
- Limited Wardrobe: Partly justified since most of the series (OAV and TV) more or less take place at school.
- Little Miss Snarker: Renko
- Love Triangle: (particularly the re-imagined version)
- Magical Girl
- Manga Effects
- Medieval European Fantasy
- The Messiah
- Miracle Rally
- Moe Moe: Tokino and Koyuki, especially in the TV series.
- Mouth Cam
- The Neidermeyer
- Noblewoman's Laugh: Renko, oh so much.
- No Time to Think
- The Ojou
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You
- Ordinary High School Student: Chihiro
- OVA: (in real life)
- Parental Abandonment: We never see anyone's parents, and it's pretty clear that Chihiro just lives with his older sister.
- Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: Episode 25 (3) has the main characters giving up on the Kujibiki and going their separate ways, before reuniting by the end.
- Post Episode Trailer: (Notably, they only bothered animating any scenes for the trailer at the end of episode 1 - the other episodes have a generic animation of the characters and a live-action scene of Ritsuko's helmet on the beach.)
- Quivering Eyes
- Recap Episode: Most of the second OVA episode.
- The Rival: In the OVA, Renko is this to the new council.
- Role Playing Game Terms: (including explicitly "HP" and "MP")
- Sad Times Montage
- Schoolgirl Rival: (for The Ditz, of all characters)
- Serious Business: ("The kujibiki is absolute.")
- Shorttank: Renko.
- Single-Stroke Battle
- Snow Means Love
- Student Council President: Ritsuko (departing) and Chihiro (incoming).
- The Sweat Drop
- Tall, Dark and Bishoujo
- Team Spirit
- Ten-Minute Retirement
- Thundering Herd
- Tournament Arc: The entire point of the OAV episodes.
- Transformation Sequence: Yamada gets these, especially in the TV series.
- True Companions: The Rikkyuin student Council is expected to be this.
- Two-Teacher School
- The Unwanted Harem: Chihiro is the only boy in the incoming council, and the outgoing council he has to deal with is all girls. Plus there's his sister.
- Whoopi Epiphany Speech
- Widget Series: An Absurdly Powerful Student Council that has to battle supernatural forces and ninjas? Yeah, this qualifies.
- Yakuza: One of the foes in the TV series.
- Zettai Ryouiki: (Tokino, barely)
Tropes from the 2006 series:
- Ascended Extra: Renko and Koyuki
- Born Lucky: Tokino's quirk in this version. Chihiro, in contrast, is known for his terrible luck.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Koyuki.
- Cyborg: Yamada. It's never made explicit exactly what modifications Renko made to her, and it's treated as something of an Unusually Uninteresting Sight, with nobody finding it especially strange that Yamada can be rebuilt into various vehicles.
- Elevator School
- Expy: Chihiro in the 2006 series bears an uncanny resemblance to Negi Springfield; considering that the series is said to be created by "Yuu Kuroki" (an obvious dig at Ken Akamatsu), this may not be coincidental.
- Fridge Brilliance: This, along with the Continuity Reboot from the original version, are shout outs to the two Negima TV series.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: For the US releases of the DVDs, each volume's title is a reference to a different anime: "No Need for Chihiro", "Love Rikkyoin", and "The Melancholy of Ritsuko Kettenkrad". Appropriate given the series' origin.
- Also, in the show itself, each episode's title is a fortune ("Xth Lot/Kuji") , with a number of points at the end.
- Fan Service: YMMV on Renko in an unexpected Ms. Fanservice role (with gratuitous Panty Shots and all).
- Loophole Abuse: Koyuki's a candidate for the student council despite being an elementary school student, because she grabbed the lot. "The kujibiki is final."
- Animal Athlete Loophole: The dog that hangs around the student council room? The current Secretary.
- Love Is in the Air: Chihiro's sister Shinobu creates a Love Potion to win the affections of her brother; an accident has the potion cause this effect centering on either Shinobu herself (in the anime) or Chihiro (in the manga).
- Mad Scientist: Renko
- Mobile Suit Human: A large alien that lands near campus is revealed to be two tiny aliens.
- The Mole: This version's Izumi. She doesn't have the goggles, but is still a tough tomboy. And still on the side of the good guys.
- Mythology Gag: Several elements from the original series reappear in different forms, such as the aliens (now friendly), Alex (now the Student Council secretary and a dog) and Renko's dumb muscle (now a pair of robots she creates).
- The Napoleon: Renko (in both versions, but this one even has a gag about it).
- Ninja: In this version, Komaki.
- "On the Next...": Even the new KujiUn is still a Show Within a Show, as the characters from Genshiken are discussing the show's progress over the previews.
- The Other Darrin: Everyone is recast, with one exception. Kaoruko Yamada.
- Completely flipped in the English dub, where every character but one retains their actor from the OVA. The odd one out? Ritsuko.
- Poisonous Friend: Vice-President Kisaragi
- Power Glows: Koyuki's hair glows whenever she uses her powers.
- Psychic Powers: Koyuki.
- Ten Minutes in the Closet: When there's tension between Tokino and Chihiro, Renko invents some sort of washing machine funhouse and traps the two in there. It doesn't really work, but it was a good attempt.
- Ten-Minute Retirement: Chihiro at the end of #11.
- They Changed It, Now It Sucks: Deliberately invoked, as lampshaded by one of the next episode previews.
- Token Loli: Koyuki
- Twelve-Episode Anime
- The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask: Ritsuko