Review of Student Council's Discretion Level 2
Seikotai no Ichizon Lv 2: A Closing Chapter On 5 Amazing Characters I will come out and say as someone that's watched both seasons that Seikotai no Ichizon had the most interestingly diverse lead cast of characters. From the beginning stretching back to the first season, it was a fun ride seeing their adventures over these past two seasons. You had Ken the hopeless harem junkie Vice President, Kurimu the childish Student Council President, Chizuru the dark and sadistic Secretary, Minatsu the athletic and ambitious VP, and her BL video game loving sister Mafuyu the Treasurer. You throw these five together and you have a half-hourof pure hilarity every week.
It is unfortunate to say this but despite the cast of characters being amazing, I don't think AIC ended it on the strongest of notes. While I can say that this was still a good series, it didn't capture the same magic the original series did. The first season of Seikotai no Ichizon wasn't only brilliantly written from a comedy perspective, but there were moments in that series where we experienced Ken's heartfelt interactions with each one of them at one time or another. Lv 2 seemed to be lacking in that department. I'm not sure if it was due to only having nine episodes to work with (excluding episode 0), but the series felt as though it had a lack of great character interaction toward the end.
It was pretty evident what this series lacked and it was the writing. One thing that the original Seikotai no Ichizon series was able to do was not only write great laugh-out-loud, crazy comical moments, but also able to connect the audience to Ken's character and the importance the four other student council members meaning to him. Studio Deen was able to capture both of those styles perfectly while not letting the comedy or the drama outdo each other. While AIC did do a commendable job of capturing each character's personality, it really felt like the chemistry was a bit off between the Student Council members and in particular, with Ken. I was really disappointed with how they ended the series because it felt as though Ken's connection with the Student Council was more distant than it was in the original series and AIC seemed to try and dump all of it in the last 5 minutes of the show. As I said earlier, it felt REALLY rushed and in comparison to the first season, didn't seem to capture that same chemistry between the characters.
Perhaps it was due to legality, but I also found the sketch writing to be a little odd. One thing that made the original series so great was it's pop culture references, in particular to other anime series. This series, on the other hand, took a different route and didn't reference "other" animes per se, but rather itself. It treated itself like it was a popular anime/manga and would occasionally reference that in the series. While I do give AIC some credit for trying something different than it's predecessor, I didn't necessarily like that angle. It didn't make for as funny of moments and it took away the feel that Seikotai no Ichizon is its own entity. It's not every day that you see an anime try and break the 4th wall, but to be honest, I wish they wouldn't have.
If there is one thing the writers did do pretty well, it was the introduction of new characters and the rollover of existing side characters. Satori, Lilica, and Elise made a return from last season and I found the additions of Asuka, Ringo, and Luna to be welcome additions in their own right. I did get a good impression that if this series does continue, AIC did do a nice job of setting up Asuka, Ringo, Luna, and Lilica to be potential Student Council members if the series decided to take that route. Considering the personalities of those characters, I think that would make a pretty interesting series if AIC does decide to go that route.
As for the production values, I can only say it was good, but not great. There were some minor changes in the animation from the first series, but they weren't very noticeable. I can't really say they were better or worse. The music and for the most part, the voice acting is about the same with a casting change with a few characters. Although, even with a few minor casting changes, it did throw off the chemistry slightly. The original VAs had such great chemistry together and while the changes weren't "terrible", they were still noticeable and made it a little difficult to adapt. I can't really fault it too much since the VA changes were to just Chizuru and Mafuyu, but like I said, it did mess up the chemistry between the VAs a little bit.
Overall, I cannot say that this season was bad. It was still an okay series in my book, but when you put the Seitokai no Ichizon name on something, you're competing with an already established franchise that is considered one of the better anime comedies to come out in the last 5 years. AIC just couldn't match what Studio Deen was able to do in 2009 and as a result, seemed to put out a lackluster conclusion to a great anime comedy. A fair anime in its own right, but unable to live up to its predecessor.