You know, I don’t blame you if you believe that school these days suck judging by the standards of society that we live in today. No, I am not saying that I am anti-school. What I am saying is that there are many lessons that you will find later in life that are not learnt from school textbooks. In addition, those who have graduated and are steadily into the working life (yes, all you ‘old’ people out there like me) will look back and realize that school do not really teach the necessary things that would really prepare us for life. Like filing our taxes. Or doing banking. Or how to buy a house and/or a car. Or even the most simplest of task that everybody has to do once they leave school: How to fill in a proper resume. Yes. When you think how much school didn’t teach us about such life skills, we are forced to learn the hard way and in turn it makes us the more bitter than ever. Rinse and repeat cycle. Who the heck wants to know when Alexander the Great died?! How the f*ck will that apply in real life? Impressing your kids is not one of them…
But we are not here to talk about that. But from that opening paragraph, it has got to do with this anime, Denpa Kyoushi. The main character was once renowned as a genius physicist till he one day decided to just gave up everything and become an otaku-cum-NEET. Yeah, anime is more interesting than boring physics, right?! Unfortunately he can’t live that way of life forever because one day he is being scouted to teach a group of students, each with their own issues. You could connect the dots now as we see how an unconventional teacher, what more an otaku fanatic, teaches his students the proper way of life that is not learnt in your usual classroom. Life lessons they’ll never forget and perhaps while teaching his students, he might learn something or two for himself.
Episode 1
Junichirou Kagami is a hardcore otaku and is taking pleasure with his number one blog site when his sister, Suzune fed up of him being a NEET, threatens to beat him up to get a job. Despite this YD syndrome (Yaritai koto shika Dekinai AKA Yearn to Do), she has had it with his lazy bum attitude and has already arranged an interview as a teaching job at his alma matter. Though he is unmotivated when he is in the interview, the principal is more than happy to accept him despite his otaku background. You see, Kagami was once a genius in the physics and science field and wrote an outstanding article many years back. But now he has no interest in all that except his anime blog. Kagami skips the rest of the interview since he heard somebody humming his favourite Magical Cannon Girl Bura-Kura theme song. It only lasts for 90 seconds so he needs to be quick to find her. He finds Minako Kanou practising at the rooftop and her aspiration is to become a seiyuu. However he tells her off for taking this seiyuu thing likely so she punches his face! Already unmotivated to face his first day in class, what are the odds Minako would be in his class? Yeah… Kagami gets an idea for everyone to introduce themselves. They should log on and play this online game and anyone who is able to beat him will automatic get full score for next week’s quiz. Everyone starts taking out their handheld. Kagami observes and can tell the groupings of the class. Especially Minako who is a loner. Later during recess at the rooftop, Kagami confronts Minako and can tell she is being bullied by her classmates led by Miho Kitou. Why does she not fight back considering she was bold enough to punch him in the face. She also knows about his background as a revered researcher. He answers he did had the theory to prove he could make a door to anywhere and even sent it to some magazine. He was turned down since he was still in college. And now he is not interested in science anymore. Minako doesn’t fight back because she wants to be a hero too.
That night after saving her from a stalker, Kagami shows her the school’s underground site that makes her a target. She explains she used to be a delinquent hanging out with Miho’s group. She was ostracized when she wanted out. When she was lost, she found inspiration from words on the internet that belonged to Bura-Kura. If there are no heroes in real life, then become one. So if she becomes a seiyuu, she can become a real hero. Next day, Miho makes Minako drink a drink mixed with chalk. It affected her vocals. Kagami knows it is time for him to act. When Miho and co hang out outside a store and discussing about Kagami suspecting them earlier, Kagami then dumps powder over them! He calls himself Justice Man who teaches bullies preying on weak girls a lesson. He broadcast this to the internet and reveals the underground site was made by him and his fellow otakus. After he graduated and forgot about it, others messed and ruined it. Miho claims they’re just doing this to get Minako’s attention and not bullying her. They’re right. This isn’t bullying. Kagami cites the penal codes for bona fide crimes. The girls are left crying after being made to feel what it is like to be the one at the end of the receiving stick. Though Minako is not pleased Kagami handled this for her, he reminds her that every hero has a sidekick to help out. Heroes might be lonely but that doesn’t mean they have to always fight alone. I guess a big thank you is in order.
Episode 2
Thanks to work, Kagami is sad his blog has dropped from its number 1 spot! No motivation to teach! The chalk feels so heavy… On a rare day Suzune accompanies him to Akihabara to get his usual anime stuffs, Kagami spots a customer trying to steal a merchandise. He stops and warns him to think about it but he screams Kagami as the pervert and makes his run. Kagami chases after him and unmasks the culprit. Turns out to be Yukino Kuribayashi, the class rep of his teaching class. She is blaming his lack of teaching that causes her grades to fall and thus she is stealing to take out steam. He scolds her back by doing so means reducing the company’s profitability and since some director is putting his work on the line, this could lead him to resign forever. She might be venting out her problems but it will screw somebody’s life. Easy for him to say since he does what he wants. The conversation is cut short when Suzune gets the wrong idea he is harassing her and takes him away. Now that Minako and Miho are back to being best friends, it’s surprising to see Miho treating Kagami very well and even makes him her bento. But the first sign of problem arises when pictures of Kagami molesting disguised Yukino is circulated over the internet. At that ambiguous position, it seemed like Kagami was trying to molest her when he was just trying to whisper to her to change her mind and not cause an incident.
He is summoned by the principal for an answer but does not reveal what actually happened. Because of this, he will be expelled. Yukino starts feeling bad and confronts Kagami why has he not told the truth that she tried to steal. Although Kagami points out Yukino’s face is not visible in the photo, the real reason is that he wants to quit teaching so he can concentrate on his blog. Suzune is certainly not pleased with this. After getting a job and now he is going to get fired? She is going to march down to the principal’s house to tell the truth. But Kagami’s smooth operator that he did this to save the student’s future by quitting has her changed her mind. Everyone gathers at the auditorium to hear Kagami’s last words. Some find it hard for him to quit. He stays silent until it is the right time to begin his ‘lecture’. He talks about rules and following them. They aren’t made for you but for people who made them. He is telling them to fight for their future and reality. He shows proof by downloading a rare item for them all for the online game that he just made. Despite the game has rules, it is up to them how they want to play it. Make reality accept their rules. He leaves with his head held high as the students chant his name. Outside, he is met by Koyomi Hiiragi. As the chairperson of Hiiragi Academy, she is here to recruit him.
Episode 3
Koyomi’s intention is to transform Japan via education and not based on economics or industries. She is seeking amusing people like him to be part of that transformation. Suzune learns about this offer and is surprised. Although she goes to Icho Academy, Hiiragi Academy is its sister academy for students with special skills unlike the former which is open to any ordinary students. On the day Kagami is supposed to give his answer, he is missing! Suzune vows to Koyomi that she will bring him back. He has gone off to Akihabara for his usual spree. Koyomi decides to play a cat and mouse game and has her agents and police team cordon off the area. It is ironic that despite their training, they can still lose this guy or somehow Kagami can give them the slip. What are the chances there is another guy that looks exactly like him at Akihabara?! Once he realizes he is being tailed, he hides in a maid café and starts hacking into their system! OMG! This otaku guy can bring down their system!!! He is finally caught by Suzune who was waiting for him at a Bura-Kura autograph event. Kagami declines Koyomi’s offer and not even Suzune’s beating would change his mind. So they bring him to Icho first where Koyomi plans to have him teach here before assigning him to Hiiragi. At the gates, there is Makina Momozono, the strict student council president and disciplinary member. She doesn’t like Kagami a bit because of his NEET background. I suppose Kagami is agreeing with her so he doesn’t have to teach. When Kiriko Shikishima is on her way out and accidentally bumps into her, Kagami learns that this familiar girl is being expelled on grounds for having a part time job. Where? At a maid café. This irks Kagami as he now gets up and wants to cancel Kiriko’s expulsion. Does he have the right? Yes. Because from this moment he is a teacher of this school. That escalated quickly. He calls Makina a failure and will show her the proper maid dignity.
Episode 4
Makina thought she knew all about those English maids. How wrong she is. Now, if she lets him teach her that, it means she acknowledges him as a teacher. She takes up the challenge to learn and so everybody is down here at Kagami’s favourite maid café. He is a frequent member that he has a platinum status. So this is where he blows all his money? Minami Kitayama may be petite but she’s the manager around. Yes, she is 17 years old. In order to truly learn the true dignity of a maid, Makina is forced to work as one. What better way than firsthand experience. Even Suzune is made to don a maid outfit. Kiriko is absolutely natural in her role and Makina uses this silly excuse to call it quits. But when Kagami tells her how does it feel to expel someone who can do something she can’t, she gets back into the game. Though Makina is still shy, Kagami has her observe Minami who is a pro at changing her character to serve each and unique customer. Like that masochistic guy who loves being mistreated. Makina does considerably well then. So when Kagami wants to know her reason for expelling Kiriko and not say because it was the rules, Makina talks about the image of the school she needs to protect. After all, a maid café is still a maid café. Society looks down upon them. In that case, shouldn’t they just change their view? Kagami has already setup by Twitting for people to gather at the building. He is going to make Kiriko do the real changing. Kagami knows Kiriko’s secret identity as the Cutter Girl. An anonymous maid uploaded her moves so sharp that it cuts, Kagami recognized her moves at work and knew she was the legendary maid despite the video never showed her face. Kiriko explains her desire to make others happy as a maid. Kagami will let her go out and sing on the stage but Makina stands in her way. She will reconsider her expulsion and thus to stop this nonsense of making a fool out of herself. Don’t let that otaku ruin your life. Kiriko gives the damning verdict that it is not getting kicked out of school that scares her the most. It is losing her way of life. Kiriko goes out to sing and mesmerizes everyone. In no time, she has amassed 10 million global views! So if Makina expels her now, wouldn’t that lower the school’s image? Makina wonders why Koyomi is siding Kagami. Because he is an amusing person and managed to bring back Kiriko’s amusing self after meeting him. He will be the person who will show how amazing Japan can be.
Episode 5
Kagami returns to his anime life but Suzune won’t let him. He has a teaching job, remember? Kiriko’s expulsion is cancelled but she would like him to keep her identity a secret. Unfortunately after yesterday’s public stint, the entire knows about her. A car almost comes crashing at them. It was kicked by Seijurou Nanami. He beats up anything that stands in this way. Including this innocent kid who accidentally bumped into him. Remember kids, keep your eyes on the road and not on your phone. At first Kagami doesn’t want to get involved but when he sees his Sergeant Saunders phone strap, he wants them to cut it out and look for its missing cannon accessory! WTF?! Suzune defends her brother before Seijurou can step on him. Although she calls her brother an idiot, at least he is proud of what he does unlike somebody who always uses violence to get what he wants. Koyomi stops the fight but she puts words in Kagami’s mouth that they will settle this fight in 3 days. There will be no rules so long you get the other to submit. She also makes him in charge of Suzune’s class since her class is smaller now. Half of the students were hospitalized by Seijurou’s brute. At the maid café, Kagami is surprised Kiriko’s friend is Minako. Minako knows a bit about Seijurou since they went to the same middle school. He was her underling during her delinquent days. His father was a pro baseball player and thought his son well. However he had many enemies and with the media writing bad stuffs about him, he was soon isolated and retired. He passed away due to illness and Seijurou changed after that. Seijurou was banned from playing baseball after he got violent in a game.
Seijurou remembers Koyomi paid off his debts and all his tuition fees in exchange to attend her academy. However he won’t be playing baseball and just want him to be a normal high school student. As she has bought him, he has no say in it. Seijurou is called to meet by Kagami. To his surprise, Minako is also here. Kagami suggests playing a game. This football video game? If he refuses, he will post embarrassing pictures of Minako on the internet! Not wanting that to happen, Minako stays at Seijurou’s play to help him get better at the game (she sponsored his new video game console too). It brings back painful memories of his dad’s last days and how after that he got violent if anything just stands in his way. So while Seijurou is hard practising, WTF is Kagami flirting with girls at the maid café? It makes Kiriko upset and jealous and wishes he would just explode! The match day is here. Seijurou stayed up for 2 nights straight to become a pro in the game. 45-0 score line! Sure, he is tired but has enough energy for 1 more game. However Kagami said they were never playing THE video game. He has his own team of football players ready to take him on.
Episode 6
Seijurou’s team will consist of football girls from Higashi Shinmei. Thinking Kagami has bribed the guys to side him, he decides to play dirty. Each time Kagami is going to get the ball, Seijurou pushes him down. Koyomi as the referee might not know the rules so she just let it slide. Or does she? However each time Seijurou does this, Kagami’s team scores a goal. By the time it is half time, Kagami’s team leads 3-0 and the girls are pleading to Seijurou they want to play real football and win this match. He has had it with this and wants to quit so Kagami teases him for being the ‘smart’ guy by quitting after losing his advantage. When he quotes his dad, Seijurou gets irked but gets back in the game. The score now is 5-0 in Kagami’s favour. The girls are physically weaker than the boys and Seijurou sucks in dribbling. Is there a way they can win this? Then Minako yells at him at what he is doing. Why is he trying to play real football? (Kagami texted her that Seijurou was throwing in the towel during half time). Remember what he has trained for. The girls now make short passes and when they kick a long ball, Seijurou runs and rams the ball into the goal! This kick and rush tactic is the most powerful move in a football video game. For it to be possible in real life, the player must run as fast as the ball and this requires an insane amount of strength, something that Kagami has been waiting for Seijurou to display. By using this tactic, Seijurou’s team manages to draw level 5-5. Finally, Seijurou rams through the guys like bowling pins to win the game 6-5.
Seijurou is going to make Kagami his slave when the girls admire and thank him. It seems Kagami were trying to get the girls to play this match (thus that misunderstood flirting at the maid café). The boys also admire Seijurou and want him to join their team. The ‘bribe’ turns out to be Kagami promising to show them an amazing player. Because some didn’t believe him, he had to wait outside their house late into the night till they gave in. Now they know they aren’t disappointed. Seijurou remembers he was isolated by his baseball teammates but now these guys want him to play with them. He also remembers his dad’s last words about an idiot will stand next to him sharing his same view. So all Kagami wants is just to see him play football? Well, this is part of Kagami’s plan to modify him into a perfect cyborg because he is like a real life video game character. Despite so, Seijurou admits defeat and will be his slave. Do as you wish. But Kagami tells him to stay the way he is. Minako is happy for Seijurou’s win. He now understands why she loves that otaku teacher but embarrassed by his uncalled statement, she chokes him out.
Episode 7
Suzune introduces her classmate Kanan Chinami to Kagami and wants his help to help her study in physics. She needs to score high in her weak subject if she is going to have a chance to go to the concert of her admired singer, You Red Pond. It was a deal made with her parents. But there is catch. Kanan doesn’t speak and communicates via mail! It is believed she was taunted of her voice and that traumatized her and vowed never to speak again. But Kagami thinks she has a legendary anime-like voice and takes up the challenge to make her speak. He remodels the science lab into a recording studio and wants her to speak into the microphone. She is not amused, especially when he is ranting about legendary voices, punching him before leaving. She is having a hard time studying at the library and here comes annoying Kagami. She takes her leave but finds the door cannot open. Kagami has remodelled it to open only via voice activation! No problem. She kicks it down! Kanan is not too amused that Kagami even visits her mom. Using Suzune to ‘translate’ on her behalf (which is just reading what she typed), Kagami tries to make a deal with her that if she ends up in the top 10, he’ll get to hear her voice as reward. She refuses. Is she sure about that? She wants to go to the concert and he is her only ticket to improve her scores. He adds that he will quit teaching if she fails to get in the top 10. Agreed. Kagami has taken to liberty to analyse the areas she is weak and even created an RPG game that develops harder questions when she gets better! However it is still too hard for her so Kagami creates another fantasy game for her. He collapses due to lack of sleep in creating this game. Kanan feels bad about this and is about to whisper an apology. However he stops her because he will only hear her voice once it’s done. He tells her his story of how he scored lowly on his first physics test and didn’t like the subject. But because he wanted to make an Anywhere Door, he had to know physics. Before Kanan takes her exam, she sees Kagami to tell him about her past. When her friends taunted her voice and at the verge of breaking down, all the mocking stopped. She realized everyone was hooked on You’s voice. That is why the singer became her saviour and someone she admires. Kagami sings a poor imitation of You’s song. Horrible, right? The point is, there are things that people like and don’t like. Although he sounds terrible, he still sings and has fun. Kanan is brought to tears. How can she cry silently? Surprising Kagami, she whispers her cute voice into his ear! OMG! So anime-like! Kagami is happy to hear it till he realizes he forgot to record it.
Episode 8
Kagami is not interested in Makina bugging him about a list of truant students that he needs to go visit their house and make them come to school. Instead, he goes to Akihabara to buy his favourite manga that is just out. He notices a girl, Sachiko Tanaka counting the number of people buying that manga as she reveals she is the author’s biggest fan as she has bought the first 100! Because this distracted her counting and she blames him, Kagami snaps when she thinks his love for the manga is not deep enough. Time for a quiz battle. Surprisingly Kagami beats her! She won’t acknowledge this and wants him to come over to her place where she’ll make him admit she is number one. Kagami is impressed with all the works and memorabilia of the series. Then he realizes all these are not on the market. Did she steal them? Sachiko reveals that she is that author herself, Kisaki Tenjouin! Kagami tries to go away thinking she is some deluded psycho but when she demonstrates drawing with her fingers, he believes and becomes awed. When Makina calls and bugs Kagami about the list and sends it to him, Kagami sees Sachiko’s name on the list. So this manga artist is his student? Or this is her relative that looks close like her? Then Sachiko gets a call that the deadline is tomorrow. Challenge accepted. Suzune is called and she is shocked to hear Kagami saying they are not siblings! Even more shocking when he is about to kiss her. Turns out he was just acting so she could put up her natural reaction for Sachiko’s material inspiration. Yeah, here comes another natural reaction from Suzune. Kagami is going to get beaten up… The duo help her complete her manuscript by morning. When Kagami needs some referencing, she points out her laptop has them. He accidentally enters a folder whereby there is a picture of Sachiko and Makina together at the entrance ceremony. After asking and confirming she is Sachiko, she declares she doesn’t have time for school or friends as she only devotes herself to draw and have her readers enjoy her work. Guess what? Kagami approves of it and hopes she stays this way! Now he can be assured his favourite manga will continue.
Then another calling from annoying Makina forcing Kagami to make sure Sachiko comes to school. She explains her past with her. They were in the same class for the first year. But then she started straying into manga and stopped coming to school. She blames her stupid hobby for not understanding the school. Who is she to call her hobby stupid? Is she an idiot too for not understanding manga? Kagami confronts Sachiko and will be bringing her to school. Makina is surprised when she turns up but it seems with Kagami narrating what Makina is doing, it seems Makina is the model of her research of her next manga. This is part of the plan to make Makina think Sachiko is more than a hassle to come to school as she is the only person who wants her so. Thus their ‘research’ includes invading her privacy, watching her at every moment. Including in the toilet! Makina sounds like she has had it when they even observing in her room. Surprisingly, Makina will be her model as much as she wants in exchange for her to turn up at school. Flashback shows when they first met at the entrance ceremony and became friends, Makina was really nonstop in trying to get her to like the school. Slowly, she stopped showing up. Sachiko has decided the school isn’t for her and not to force her ideals onto her. Kagami sides with Makina seeing it’s an otaku’s job to force their hobby onto others! Makina reveals she has made lots of changes to the school ever since she became student council president because she thought it would make her more interested and useful. Next day, the duo are in a face off. Sachiko claims she needs to understand the school better so she can no doubt realize it is a useless place for her. On the other hand, Makina needs to understand her manga hobby so that she would be certain it is a stupid hobby. And that is where Kagami comes in as their judge. The guy is caught in between…
Episode 9
In the online game of Ouroboros, Kagami and his partner, Luce just slew the mighty ancient dragon. Their reputation has soared among the gamers. But there is an event quest for tomorrow that needs a large group of 35 players. Don’t worry. Kagami knows where he can get more teammates. In class, Kagami is going to teach his class about war history instead of physics. Because life is a battle! So he has everyone log into Ouroboros. Yes, he even took the liberty to register and setup their avatar. He introduces them to Luce and I think the guys are willing to work with this cutie. To train them the basics of combat, Kagami has them try to land a hit on either one of them. If they do so, no homework for a month! Despite the great motivation, none could get near since they are amateurs rushing in without a plan. Even with Seijurou teaming up with Suzune, they still couldn’t touch the best Ouroboros RPG player. Though they had Sachiko as the backup element of surprise, Luce is always there to support him. With training over, Kagami has them fight their first mock battle with monsters. Thanks to the training, they find it easy and this gives them encouragement. Kagami then realizes something is wrong. He is short of 1 student! Thought you counted properly? That’s what he gets when he doesn’t even take class attendance properly. As pointed out by Sachiko, that student is another truant player on the list and even far worse case than her, Koutarou Araki. Kagami logs out so he can go convince him to come to school. At the student’s house, there is even an electronic lock outside his room! Not that a little hacking would help. But this is the least of his problems. To his surprise, this kid is Luce! You mean he is a cross-dresser who has locked himself inside all year long playing this RPG game?!
Episode 10
Both are shocked to discover each other’s identity. But the most important now is for Kagami to find his 35th player. He leaves Luce to help train the others while he goes find the final member. At the end of the day, the amateurs grow and level up so much that they feel confident of tomorrow’s event. When Kagami returns, the rest wonder if he has talked to Koutarou. He isn’t sure how to answer. Kiriko remembers coming from the same middle school with Koutarou but had not heard of him till graduation. Something about getting into trouble with other students before he stopped coming to school. When Kagami successfully registers his team for the event, they thought there were only 2 teams registered. Actually, other teams pulled out when they head Monsters Factory are going to be in. They are one of the pioneer teams of Ouroboros and have never lost any team events. Well, that record is going down today. Kagami’s final member is no other than Makina. He promised that she would get to talk to the truant students and convince them to attend class. When everyone notices Luce inactive, it means the person logged in but is away from the keyboard. Kagami will bring her back and wants the rest to hold out. After all that training, they had better. Kagami goes after Koutarou who is seen leaving the house. Otaku guys with no stamina is like watching a turtle chasing another turtle. Once he finally catches him, Koutarou divulges his past. He always liked girly things and started cross-dressing at a young age. This was confined inside his house and one day he got curious to go outside dressed like this. His friends recognized and teased him. Koutarou accidentally pushed one of them down the stairs. He was hospitalized and sorry wasn’t going to cut it. They called him gross. Since then, Koutarou became traumatized and locked himself in his room till he got an online invitation to play Ouroboros and met Kagami who wanted to pair up for his skills and in exchange he’ll get all the cute items he wants. Koutarou is afraid of history repeating itself and feel like that again so Kagami shows him how all his friends are fighting believing he will come back. Whether he is Luce or Koutarou, Kagami will always choose him because he is his partner. When the duo come back, the tide changes. Yeah, those Monsters Factory start losing like hell upon realizing who the great duo are. It’s like the rest were not needed and the training was all for this day just to hold out. In the end, Kagami’s team win big. But Koutarou is still worried. What if his classmates find out Koutarou and Luce are the same person?
Episode 11
Koutarou walks around town cross-dressed. Nobody notices. Till his old pals show up and harass him. Well, thank goodness that was only a dream. But this serves to only make him more recluse. He logs online but nobody is around (there is not point for students to log in after that one-time big event). Even in this digital town, Luce gets harassed by players who want to know her. Seijurou then shows up to beat them up. He was tricked by Kagami to settle his score with him since he got a good lecture from Luce during training. Since town area has no-fighting rules, the guards take him down and ban him for 24 hours with a warning of being banned the next time. Luce wonders why he cares about losing to her since he isn’t a gamer. Seijurou doesn’t like anyone looking down on him especially Kagami. Since Luce is Kagami’s equal, he can’t let his guard down either. Luce realizes he is honest unlike her deceptive self. Luce reveals her identity but Seijurou isn’t interested. Besides, isn’t it bad manners to bring offline matters online? And now Luce wants him to keep it a secret? Sachiko who has been tailing Seijurou heard this and it piques her interest in Koutarou. Next time Luce logs in, Sachiko confronts her and reveals she too knows her true identity. She wants to meet her in person and is already at her front door. The very girly look of Koutarou has Sachiko’s inspirations going wild. Then she takes him to town shopping for girly clothes. As usual, horny guys try to flirt with them and like the cowards they are, they are saved by Makina (prior to this, Sachiko called her). Makina brings her back to her place and treats her with great hospitality. Since Makina’s parents often work late, she often does the cooking for her little brother, Kazuya as well. Sachiko must love ketchup so much that she floods her entire dish with it… I think she should just drink from the ketchup bottle. Koutarou doesn’t understand why she is treating him so nice when they just met. Makina can’t say so Sachiko says on her behalf that Makina’s happiness comes from believing people will be happy if they go to school. Makina hopes Koutarou would come to school and they can come to school with him. If he still can’t bring himself to do that, come over to her place again. This makes Koutarou wonder if school is such a happy place like this.
Episode 12
Kagami invites everyone to a party to celebrate their Ouroboros victory. Luce fears meeting everyone at the offline party but of course they are friendly in meeting this cute chick. Kagami then introduces a few special guests. They are those bullies Koutarou fears. Before they can reveal his identify, Luce brings them away and begs them to keep quiet. They agree to it but still find this cross-dressing habit gross. That wasn’t what Kagami was looking for so he initiates another big main event. An all-out battle between him and Luce. If Kagami wins, he will reveal a juicy secret behind Luce. Kagami has Monsters Factory on his side while the other classmates side with Luce. Numbers wise, Luce’s team is definitely at a disadvantage. 34 against 218… Luce initiates a high defence barrier, Alamo as Kagami has his team break through. It isn’t long before the monsters start raiding the weakening castle. Kagami’s ultimate sword attack brings down Alamo. Kagami defeats Suzune and the rest all by himself and Luce is the only one left. Nothing can come in between them now. Kagami wants to know who Luce is because she is different from the one he knows. He doesn’t consider her his partner anymore and has her remember why she played this game in the first place. If she really thought she could be who she is here and to escape reality, then why did she create and avatar that resembles closely to her original self? After Luce stabs Kagami and wins the game, she blurts out that she is Luce and Koutarou, shocking all those who have listened. Kagami is fine with that because he doesn’t want Luce to ruin the person that she really is. Back in reality, Luce with confidence admits to everyone that she is Koutarou the truant. Although shocked, they gladly accept him.
Episode 13
There is an urgent email from Swiss researcher, Tim Berners Lynn. However Kagami ignores it. No problem. Here she is at his doorstep! Suzune learns their relationship. After Kagami published that article, it became a worldwide debate. At Geneva, CERM the world leader in particle physics where she works at felt challenged by his theory and assembled 1000 researchers to counter his argument. Kagami was even invited to watch how their experiments will prove it all wrong but it turns out Kagami’s theory was right. Even more insulting, Kagami wasn’t listening and playing his game the entire time! Tim offered him to work for her but he turned her down for some anime. This is even more insulting. Tim didn’t give up and continued ‘harassing’ him via emails, phone, telegrams, telefax, you name it she did it. With everything else failed, she decided to come to Japan personally. Since Kagami as usual is not interested, she saw that coming and announces she will be living at his place. Suzune is now upset that he turned down a cool job and beats him up. Tim learns Kagami is now a teacher and cannot believe it. Kagami thought Icho will be his refuge from her but she is already a foreign transfer student in his class thanks to Koyomi who finds this quite interesting. It gets even more worrying when she mentions Tim is living with him. This has our usual girls worried. Very worried. Especially the way she tries to convince him to come back to Geneva looks more like flirting.
They confront Suzune for answers and to put a long story short, Kagami might leave for Geneva. That’s a big no for them, right? Now they confront Tim to stop her harassment but she tells them off of his wasted talents being stuck in this school for he has the power to change the world. Surprisingly Makina stands up for Kagami (although most of it is just based on baseless confidence of him). If Tim can claim nobody should monopolize him, the same can be said to her. The only way to settle this is to challenge him. She has him write down a solution to some physics question before evening. He turns her down but after she mentions about the impossibility of magical girl transformation, he gets started right away! The rest realizes they have been played into her hands because even with a great mind like him, he’ll need a week to get an answer. When time is running out, Kagami gets a distress message of a student being bullied at the park. Right away he rushes there. On foot! By the time he arrives, time is up. The perpetrator is no other than Koyomi. She too made a bet with Tim. To see whether Kagami would continue finding his answer or rush to a student’s aid. With this outcome, looks like Kagami won’t be heading to Geneva. Rejoice! Tim leaves for Geneva alone and she might have to eventually because Kagami already texted the answer to her. She admits her loss now but still won’t give up on him.
Episode 14
Madoka Kuramochi has this strange ability of knowing the monetary value of everything. And this includes you as a human being. It is no wonder she is the school’s student council treasurer and with her estimation, not a single budget is wasted. Madoka even helped Kagami at a flea market when an unscrupulous seller is selling a damaged figurine at high price. In exchange, she wants him to be hers. Is she joking? Kagami runs and since Akihabara is his home ground, nobody could catch him. But he sees her being bullied by school clubs who are not satisfied she slashed their budget. She is about to be punched but Kagami saves her and a distraction allowed them to escape. Unfortunately the new game he bought with his hard earned cash is destroyed. Don’t worry. Madoka has a new one for him. She has several copies too. How? Her family runs a video game company and made this game! She explains that she just turned 16 today and it is her family’s funny tradition that she has to find a partner who will support the company. She heard about his great feats and that is why she chose him. However Kagami refuses saying she does not know anything about him and this will only lead to a bad ending. Kagami receives a big package outside his home. Madoka bursts out! This is a free trial to be his wife! Maid delivery service? I WANT THIS KIND OF ORDER TOO! I’m sure Kagami will have a hard time explaining this to Suzune (especially about Madoka wanting 11 kids to form a football team!) but surprisingly she allows Madoka to stay because she will soon learn his habit and quit. Even more surprising, she cleans well and even cooks well! Then she takes out a contract which is a marriage registration form. If he is satisfied with everything, please sign here. After all, she came to stay today so that he can assess her value.
When it is time for bath, Suzune locks her up in her room and guards it. Kagami takes a bath alone and is puzzled why Madoka is so good in housekeeping if her family runs a video game company. To his surprise, Madoka climbed out of the room to join him in the bath! He asks her a question that if she knows everything about him, she would have known this tactic will not work on him. Something is not right. She mentions her dream of marrying the guy she loves and make a game together. At this time Suzune heard voices and enters. Well, somehow it is Kagami’s fault too. Madoka is tied up in Suzune’s room. Madoka can tell she likes her brother a lot otherwise why would she have an obvious picture of him on her desk? Kagami does some research and finds what he is looking for. A huge American game company and the world’s biggest video game corporation, Activision Frigate is planning to buy Madoka’s family company at a value of 10 billion yen. Madoka reveals a secret condition to that deal. In order for the employees to remain, she must marry the company’s CEO. That is why she is well trained in housekeeping. Otherwise all staffs will be fired and replaced after the buyout. Madoka is sad there is a price on her life and thought she could make her dreams come true with him but alas it was not meant to be. But you know, it’s not over yet because Kagami is stepping in.
Episode 15
Kagami knows all about Activision Frigate’s CEO, Hell Gates. He is also the undisputed champion of King Halo, a game he created. Speaking of which, he is already here in Japan, acing at an arcade and wowing the crowd. Next morning, Madoka is shocked to see Gates inside the house. Isn’t the official announcement next week? He is trying to act dominant over her so Kagami pours water over his head and proclaims he is Madoka’s real fiancé. He even says she’d rather run away and marry him rather than marrying a guy who buys a company he doesn’t want. Gates challenges him to a duel. Kagami suggests they play the new King Halo 3 which officially comes out next month to be fair. If Kagami wins, the buyout and marriage will be cancelled but if Gates win, Kagami will never touch any games in his life anymore and will live under 24 hour surveillance in Gates’ American mansion! So Kagami’s first attempt is to borrow the game from Sachiko and then have Kiriko and Kanan to help play with him (do you believe they were fighting each other just to exclusively help him?!). Being the amateurs they are, not only they blunder all the way but end up fighting each other. But this is what Kagami is hoping for.
On match day, Gates is so freaking confident of his win. Even more so when he is easily taking out Kagami’s NPC team with ease. Oddly, Kagami is acting like an amateur like Kiriko and Kanan. Suddenly their guns vanished. Strangely, it seems a bug caused this to happen. As a game developer, there would be many bugs in an unreleased version. I feel this makes no sense that Kagami knows so much about it but what the heck. He uses the glitches to his advantage to wipe out Gates! Gates agrees to live up to his bargain but wants to challenge Kagami to King Halo 2, a game they are very familiar with and without bugs. Kagami at first refused since his goal has been achieved but Gates insists this is to see whether it was fluke or his skills are greatly superior. As the game starts, Gates finds himself cornered. He starts sweating when he realizes Kagami is toying with him and knows his every position. He did some bold and daring move but ultimately cannot best him. Kagami’s win again. Gates admits defeat and wonders why Kagami doesn’t join competitions if he is this good. To him, games are for mastering. Madoka thought Gates is being a sore loser but he is relieved that she is able to choose the right man. It makes him even more in love with her. Sure, he agreed to give up on the political marriage. But this doesn’t mean he has given up on her yet. Later Madoka tells Kagami how she met Gates. At some game show, he started badmouthing Japanese games so she lectured him. She also reveals why she fell in love with Kagami because she cannot see a price tag on him. This is the first time it ever happened. She is going to work hard so next time she will make him propose to her. That is her new goal.
Episode 16
Koyomi wants Kagami and his students to clean an abandoned boarding house. At first he disagrees but what made him wholeheartedly do it? Ah, there is a big library with lots of manga. Seijurou cheekily suggests burning it all to clean up so Kagami shoos everyone away to clean the other rooms while he himself tackles the library. How many years will it take for him to finish reading all the manga? When the glass breaks, cleaning tools go missing students notice something bumped into them, Suzune fears this place is haunted as the rumours say. She heard about a rumour about a student died here. Speaking of which, ghost girl whom I shall call as Yurei for convenience spooks the living lights out of Kagami. She is actually glad to see him because she hasn’t talked to anybody for over a year! She needs his help in helping her pass on. He calls Koyomi that he wasn’t told about a ghost and knows he has been had in accepting this task. But why didn’t she get an exorcist but him to do the job? Because he is amusing. When Yurei mentions she is a fan of Kisaki’s manga and would like to meet her in person, no problem. Kagami just brings her to her. How come Suzune is the only one freaking out? Yurei isn’t so bad once you get to know her. But she has a request of Sachiko. There is a work she first serialized but never finished because the publisher closed down. She would like to see it. Sachiko actually ran back to her home to get it and let her have a look. Sachiko vowed never to let any human see this but since Yurei isn’t one technically, I guess it is okay. Kagami wants to see too but is pinned down by Seijurou. I guess you have to be dead only to read her work. Yeah, a work to die for? Once Yurei is done, she is happy and is ready to pass on. But nothing happens. Kagami knows what is going on.
Going back to the library, he knows her lingering attachment is not this pile of manga but the desk and manga drawing kit beneath it. When she read Kisaki’s works, she became inspired to draw but the bookshelf fell over her. So nobody cleaned this mess up or find her ever since?! However Yurei can’t draw as it draws a lot of strength. Even turning a page makes her tired. Sachiko gives her free lessons on how to draw and this gives her a lot of strength. But her advices are simple. Just use any pen to draw! Can’t draw? Just doodle anything interesting! When Sachiko starts feeling tired, Kagami shoos everyone out and warns them nobody is to come in until he says so. He then assists Yurei in drawing her first page. When he is close to passing out, Yurei realizes she has been sucking life force out of others. That is why she feels so much better. That is probably why this boarding house was abandoned. Before she could turn her guilt into regret, he tells her to just draw because he wants to read her manga. Morning comes, she manages to finish only a page. He reads it and interestingly it ends with a cliff-hanger. He can’t wait for the next page but Yurei is already so happy that she is ready to pass on. The first page was all she needed to share a feeling with the author she looked up to. She hopes to be his proper student. Is there a next time? Koyomi then reveals Yurei’s real name as Matome Nishikujo. Kagami agrees she is an interesting girl because she grabbed his heart with just one page.
Episode 17
Luce is wandering along in Ouroboros since Kagami has been expelled and banned from the game forever after that loss. Worried about him, Luce is advised to come to school to find out. This of course surprises everyone. But the most surprising is that Koutarou is dressed in a girl’s uniform. But thankfully his classmates accept him since he has always been dressed as a girl and it would be weird if he starts dressing as a guy. Even Makina is giving Koutarou a big hug for coming to school. Koutarou is so cute that guys from other classes start getting attracted in talking with him. This makes Kanan jealous because she is the school’s prettiest girl and ironically Koutarou is threatening to take away that position! She tries to be a clumsy girl but the other guys just ignore her crazy stunts. Yeah, maybe she has lost her charm ever since she started talking, eh? However Koutarou looks up to Kanan due to some accessory she has in Ouroboros and wants to call her his big sister. Kana is flattered and would gladly be one. While talking at the park, Koutarou mentions about the cute miko priestess outfit he saw on a poster and wants to work at the shrine. But with Makina enforcing the strict rules, can he do it? So they go plead to her. She was being stubborn as usual but after seeing Koutarou’s puppy dog eyes, she makes this an exception.
Makina is also working alongside Koutarou and Kanan as miko priestess with an excuse to keep an eye on them. Their duty is to sell charms. Guys flock to Koutarou’s side to buy them. Kanan tries to hold in her jealousy. Then the biggest problem of all: Koutarou needs to go to the toilet. Men’s or women’s? So Kanan decides to accompany Koutarou to the female toilet and Makina mans the stall alone. Her worst nightmare comes true when Kagami is here. She changes her hairstyle and voice to avoid being recognized. Although he does have his suspicions eventually he believes he is mistaken and leaves after buying a charm. But now he stumbles into Kanan and Koutarou. They are about to reveal Makina is here but she texts a deadly warning… Better keep your mouth shut if you know what is good for you. Next day at school, Kagami hogs the broadcast for his own show but furious Makina beats him up. Kagami thought she had loosened up the rules after letting Koutarou worked part time. This makes him compare Makina with that miko priestess who is calmer and more mature. She should learn from her. Makina’s face becomes so red as she continues to beat him up. Later Kagami hangs out with Koutarou to play a game at the video arcade. Koutarou mentions the reason he turned up in school is because he wanted to be by his side in real life too. Kagami gives him the charm. Suzune bugged him to get him one because since he got the courage to come to school, they should give him support by wishing him good luck.
Episode 18
Kagami is such a happy person greeting everybody in school. What gives? Ah, I see he is showing off his super rare card, Glorious Dragon that he got. Nobody cares… He gets what he deserved for flaunting too much because that Makina b*tch confiscates it. Wow. Kagami suddenly in depression. Makina notices Kazuya depressed. Apparently this is the umpteenth time he lost his card battle game with his friend, Kenji. When he sees Glorious Dragon that Makina accidentally brought back, he wants to borrow it but of course she won’t. Next day, Makina couldn’t find the card and has a good idea who took it. Look no further. Kazuya ‘borrowed’ it to challenge Kenji. That sly kid will accept the challenge if they play for keeps. Thinking he has Glorious Dragon he would be okay, Kazuya accepts. Kagami writes an apology letter to Makina. But she won’t give back the card and doesn’t say why. This only makes him grumpier. So grouchy, do you think he has time to care for this student’s love problem? Joe Odawara has a girl he likes but gets intense nose bleed when he talks to them. Kagami isn’t interested in playing his cupid till he learns his crush is Makina! Somebody likes that girl?! Oh yeah. The perfect revenge… Kagami calls Koutarou to help out. Because he looks close to Makina when his hairstyle is tied up like hers. Since Odawara doesn’t nose bleed since technically Koutarou is a guy, this means Koutarou will be Odawara’s practice to confess to Makina. So they’re going on a date? Don’t worry. Kagami even created a Makina simulator for Koutarou to act like that demon! Wait. He got a simulator programme?! Koutarou is sure acting great like the devil but he is confused since he knows Makina is a different person at home. Kagami thinks that act is only a trap. I think Kagami is the only one enjoying this.
Makina is going to give Kazuya a stern lecture but can she after seeing Kazuya’s sad face after he lost? Odawara is going to have a mock confession to Koutarou. So he has to kiss his shoes if he wants to go out with her? Kagami is alarmed when the real Makina is here and sees his silly programme. Not harsh enough? He thinks he is done for but she will let him off today if he helps her out. I think the simulator worked well because Odawara sees the real Makina and is going to confess. By kissing her shoes! Naturally it is just freaking creepy as he kicks him. I hope his masochistic side doesn’t awake. Kagami learns about Kazuya’s case as Makina pleads for Kagami to avenge for him. However Kagami refuses. He lost as a gamer and if he has any pride, earn it back via the game. The best he could do is train him. And you thought a one night intensive training would do the trick, no? Wrong! Kazuya lost his challenge. But he doesn’t give up. Each time Kazuya loses, it is more training from Kagami to get better. So much so, Kenji is just sick that he would just return Glorious Dragon to get him off his back. However Kazuya won’t have it that way. He will earn it back the right way with his gamer’s pride. Here is another problem cropping up. Koutarou is on the run because Odawara prefers to date him than Makina! Holy sh*t! Didn’t see this coming! Good thing he isn’t a masochist, but he is in for yaoi!!! It’s a topsy-turvy world after all since the cross-dresser is a straight guy. Koutarou wants Kagami’s help to get him out of this mess but that otaku is too happy to care about it since Kazuya won and got back his Glorious Dragon. You’re on your own.
Episode 19
Kagami is forced to accompany Makina patrolling the shopping area since there are reports of gangs hanging around. His job is to persuade students to go home. This is not limited to only their school students. What a pain. So he goes nudge this girl, Taki Komiya but she doesn’t listen. Makina does it better but Taki talks back. She claims this video arcade is her ‘school’. Kagami manages to convince Makina to patrol other areas while he handles her. He hangs out with her as she brings him around town which is her ‘school’ because she learns different things from different shops. Hey. A hall to learn bad English?! You mean, bad Engrish? Haha! When Kagami notices a gang watching them, Taki takes him and run. A random guy bugs Kagami for money so Taki beats him up. When the gang arrives, Kagami is shocked that she is actually their gang leader and did this for fun. These boys are homeless and don’t attend school just like her. She recruited such kids into her gang, Black Oracle Neo. When random guy wants to get his revenge on Taki, he gets knocked out by Minako. Long time no see. Minako wants to talk to her but Taki won’t listen and goes away. She explains to Kagami that this was the gang’s former leader before she quit. Minako wanted to disband the gang but Taki was against it and instead made the group bigger by gathering kids with nowhere to go. Taki’s sister was a former member too and asked her to take care of her but as seen, she won’t listen.
Next day, Kagami receives a mysterious letter containing 2 tickets to the concert of a famous idol unit, 5th Queens. Since Suzune is a big fan of them, she forces him to take her along. At the concert, he thought he saw Taki among the crowd. Once it is over, Kagami gets a call from Taki’s sister, Nagare to meet and talk. Kagami is surprised that she is the centre of 5th Queens. She has a request for him to ask Taki to leave the gang since she heard from Minako. Kagami isn’t interested since his policy is to let anyone do whatever they want if they will it. Nagare feels the gang is dangerous but that is when Taki interjects would big sister leave the show business if she told her if it was dangerous too? She is trying to say everyone has a place they belong to and she came here in support of her. Kagami believes now is a good time to quit the gang since the Black Oracle she wants to revive no longer exists. She knows it too but not existing isn’t a good enough reason for her to stop. Kagami likes that sentence and will join her gang! And since Nagare cannot explain why the need to stop her, he will take Taki’s side. Kagami hangs out with the gang comfortably. He even suggests making their own hangout. He hears Taki talking about her past with Nagare. It is not that she hates her as they used to hang time together. But Nagare wanted to become an idol and it wasn’t Taki’s thing as she prefers to hang out in town. Next day, Suzune is alarmed that Nagare is missing since she is watching her live interview and she has not turned up. Well, what do you know? She is right outside your doorstep! Taking heed on Kagami’s advice to do what she wants, she won’t leave until he agrees to convince Taki to leave the gang. This isn’t just for her but herself too. If Taki continues to remain, she will quit being an idol.
Episode 20
Kagami will hear her out but first he needs to arrange things. He has the Icho broadcasting club setup a live stream of Nagare’s supposed live performance so as not to disappoint fans who are waiting. The makeshift event is successful so Nagare has Kagami to thank for as she reveals a never-revealed-before story. Yeah, everybody has that. Nagare believes Taki is supposed to be an idol instead of her. On a day Nagare was supposed to have an audition, she came down with an acute appendicitis. After her successful surgery, she gets a call from her manager that she is successful and will begin lessons next week. It seems Taki has auditioned on her behalf. Of course Nagare felt bad and went to personally decline. This was what the manager told her. He knew an imposter was auditioning as Nagare. Although she looked the same, she lacked something: Boobs! OMG! Is he serious?! Despite Taki’s performance was outstanding, she told him that Nagare will be even better and in exchange to take her in. The manager agreed to this gamble because if Nagare doesn’t live up to his expectations, he will fire her. To take responsibility for this, Taki leave show business forever. Nagare has been improving herself ever since to live up to Taki’s expectations till she got her big break as 5th Queens’ centre. It all boils down to Nagare viewing Taki more talented than her. She feels guilty for stealing her place.
Later after Nagare finishes her work, Kagami calls her to meet him at some abandoned factory that is now used as an event stage. She is shocked when he makes her look like Taki. Even her friends are fooled that she is her. I don’t understand about this event in which they need to sing the Family Rangers theme song for a time slot. Taki has been challenged for that spot and they need to face off in a singing competition in which the one who scores higher will be the champion. Votes are via email. Taki has defended this spot for 2 years! At the end of Moemi, the current challenger’s turn, she goes off stage to display her b*tchiness to ‘Taki’ that she is a loser since she scored perfect. Nagare gets motivated to go onstage but she is doing this because she badmouthed her sister. But the trouble when you think too much, Nagare starts to have cold feet. What if she is not as good as Taki? Now it’s time for Kagami to give his usual lecture. Something about Taki was her stand in during her audition and now it is her turn. Enough talking, time to sing. Everyone is of course being a jerk thinking she cannot tops tonight’s perfect score and are ready to go home. Till they hear her awesome loud voice without using a microphone. Then she starts singing and has everyone in awed. Yeah, even that Moemi girl is trembling! In the end, she also gets a perfect score. As per rules, if the score is even, the defending champion wins. This means ‘Taki’ defended her spot. Kagami passes her in this audition and once again Nagare has him to thank for. Now she can face Taki. As she goes to change, somebody kidnaps her. Kagami is wondering why she is taking so long. Oh you know how long women take to change, right? 5 minutes only, please…
Episode 21
When the real Taki comes by explaining she had a team meeting because the guy who attacked Kagami, Toshihiko Takeda was plotting revenge, Kagami knew something is wrong. He looks for Nagare in the dressing room but she is not there. He finds her being dragged by Takeda and his gang into their car. They can’t call the police as this will tarnish Nagare’s image. Leave it to Kagami to come up with his plan. Because those guys don’t watch TV, they don’t understand why Nagare fans start taking photos of spotting her and then post it on their social media. This allows Kagami to trace them to their hideout. Taki refuses any backup and barges in first only to be subdued. The sisters are going to be recorded as part of their heinous scheme when here comes in Kagami, Seijurou and Minako to the rescue… As Family Rangers! Seijurou and Minako use their brute force to beat up the gang while Kagami uses his tear gas spray. But Takeda takes Nagare and run. He thinks he still has his guys outnumbering Kagami and Taki. Kagami has some special stainless steel whip trap that backlashes back at Takeda when he tries to cut him down. He is still spouting threats till everyone realizes a large crowd of fans are gathering outside. Kagami has posted there will be an after party here. No sudden moves if you know what is good for you. Kagami even surprises everyone by knowing their names. Because who in the world uses their parent’s car to kidnap? Traceable. In a great show of friendship, the gang members leave Takeda. Thanks, it was fun. Still, Takeda remains unsatisfied and thinks he could pull back one by punching Taki. Although he just scratched her, it is a bad move because Nagare turns into a menacing dragon and beats the crap out of him! Holy cow! The strongest character! Nobody touches her sister! And everyone outside is awed at this awesome fight scene. Eventually it really did become an after party. The sisters reconcile and Nagare surprisingly asking to join Black Oracle since now she understands their origins. With Minako talking about Kagami’s lectures that makes all of them friends, it gives Taki the motivation that she wants to enrol in his school next year. However he disagrees and should stay a street girl or she will lose her personality! Besides, he doesn’t need another weirdo in his class. Just kidding. Come whenever she is ready. And Nagare too wants to enrol at Icho. I believe Kagami’s good intention to invite gangless loiters to join Black Oracle. Unfortunately Makina isn’t too happy a teacher is doing such a thing. Better run if you know what is good for you.
Episode 22
I think Tim calls Kagami in the middle of the night just to spite him that he is still doing his teaching job. And then it hit Kagami. He may be neglecting his anime because he missed last week’s manga magazine and his figurines are dusty! He seems down and is quite obvious to his students. Then he sees on TV, Tim and her team revealing they are close in creating the Anywhere Door. While ‘drinking’ out his sorrows, he is met with former classmate, Yamato Toune. She shared the same interest in building the Anywhere Door with him. Now she works for KEC. That is the Japan’s equivalent to CERM and is in competition to create the Anywhere Door. KEC? I thought I saw KFC! It took her 6 years and now the project is official, she wants him to be the project leader. So this guy follows her to KEC’s lab. Wow. It’s like in those spy movies where the underground base is accessible via tunnel. And the underground city has its own daylight! OMG! So sci-fi?! To Kagami’s liking? Yeah, it was worth the 6 years. Vending machines loaded with his favourite drink and researches looking up to him like an idol, what is there not to like? Suddenly there is trouble when the reactor overloads. It doesn’t take a genius to tell something bad will happen if it is not shutdown. Yeah, they’ll lose something too. And then Kagami starts weaving his magic fingers on the keyboard like as though he created the damn thing to diffuse everything in seconds! OMG! Even if they pulled out terms from the air, they sure can fool me with it. Everyone celebrates like they’ve averted the biggest disaster ever. They should be. Kagami the hero! Suzune has been looking for her brother and couldn’t find her. Even asking his students, they haven’t seen him all day. Where could that guy be? Yamato tries to convince Kagami to quit his boring job and join them. However Kagami needs time to think. Despite everything she said was true, he can’t agree to say yes. To his surprise, Koyomi pops up. Heck, she might own or even funded this place. It seems she knows why he is hesitating. It is because he doesn’t need the Anywhere Door. He doesn’t need to build it anymore. That is why he hesitated to accept her invitation. In reverse roles, she starts his lecture this time and fires him as Icho’s teacher since he doesn’t understand what it means to be a teacher. Till then, feel free to concentrate in building that door.
Episode 23
Freed from his teaching job, I guess he takes up Koyomi’s offer. See how happy everybody is? He gets into his grove to help work out some formulas or key in some bunch of data. I don’t know. Looks complicated. Suzune still looking for her brother fears he might be in an accident. Then Koyomi pulls up to tell her he is alright. What? That’s it? Care to elaborate? You’re making her even more worrying. Yamato then brings a little kid as intern, Reiko Mukyou. Wait. A top secret lab accepting interns? Normally they don’t but it seemed some high authority authorised this. Reiko is here because Yomi told her to and from the looks of it she is bored with everything. Kagami is incensed that she doesn’t like manga and makes her read the entire volume of that Doraemon parody. When Kagami falls asleep on the job, he wakes up to find Reiko continuing it for him. Seems she has finished the entire volume and found it interesting so she will help make Anywhere Door. You see, it is her special ability to be able to do anything after observing once. He questions her goal but she says she has none and was here just because Yomi told her to. In fact, she is a first year student at Icho. She is happy to find such interesting things. Then Kagami puts the pieces together. Yomi = Koyomi. Reiko wants Kagami to show her more interesting stuffs. Yamato won’t let her but Reiko wins after calling her and old aunty.
I can hardly believe this is a top secret facility since the place is built for Kagami’s presence as there is an anime store nearby! And so the duo enjoy their anime shopping. Reiko is so happy with all the interesting things, she wants Kagami to be her master. She then explains her past where she was always stuck in some lab where the scientists did experiments to test her ability. But she got bored as the results were always the same. That is when Koyomi popped up and promised her to introduce her to something more interesting if she is willing to become Icho’s student. However Kagami makes Reiko go back to her room, making her cry. Didn’t she say she will follow his orders? She wonders if she had made him mad somehow. The alert is sounded as somebody is trying to hack into their system. A top facility being hacked and nobody can do anything about this? WTF is this security?! You would have guessed it is Tim and CERN trying to hack in. Seems she is angry that Kagami joined KEC instead of CERM. Revenge story? Seems Koyomi had a hand in telling her. Well, top scientists are not top hackers so are they doomed? Here comes Reiko to do all the necessary stuffs that make it look so f*cking easy. There. Hacking over. A kid saved them. Reiko thought she is going to get scolded by Kagami for disobeying orders by staying in her room. However he passes her. Because the lesson is that to truly enjoy what is interesting is to listen and follow your own heart. Had she listened to him and stayed in her room, they would have been goners. Wasn’t that amusing? Tears of sorrow become tears of joy. Yeah, that was amusing.
Episode 24
Makina is mad that Kagami didn’t turn up for classes, she complains to Koyomi for him to be fired. She already did. Why the shock face? Suzune and co try to tail Koyomi thinking she would lead them to where Kagami is. Conveniently there is a cab waiting outside the school gates for them? Due to lack of space, Seijurou has to sit out but his wallet could. Sly girls… Since KEC’s secret base is underground, Koyomi easily loses them in the tunnel. But there is a problem in KEC. Reiko has hijacked the entire lab and shut everyone out! An hour ago, she was told somebody is going to pick her up back to school. She didn’t want that and started sulking. Amazingly she hacked the system to make everybody think the lab is going to self destruct (seriously?) so when everyone gathers outside, she locked them out and will not let them back in until they acknowledge her as their official fellow scientist. I can’t believe a little girl is doing this… Of course Kagami the master hacks back but he goes in alone to face her. Reiko is surprised when he asks her to step on him. This is a ploy to show the rest that Reiko overpowered him with her martial arts and took him hostage. Why is he doing this? Because it is more amusing to be on her side and he doesn’t want to be left out of the fun in locking out the entire facility! True YD in play! This has Reiko start thinking that is why he keeps finding amusing things after another. Therefore she changes her mind and wants to go back to school so she could find her own amusing thing. However what Reiko says next has Kagami start thinking too. Because she claims his amusement is here. Kagami reflects on all that he has done and the way he has felt for them. It is then he realized what Koyomi meant for him to be a teacher. He will also go back to school but warns he will make school obsolete. He is going to turn every student into a YD that they will voluntarily quit school! This will be his education policy. This is what Koyomi is looking for and rehires him. On the way back, Kagami knows Koyomi had a hand in everything that has happened so far, like he walked right into the palm of her hands.
You think Suzune is going to beat up her brother when she finds him back home watching TV. But instead she hugs him and starts crying how worried she was. But she got over that soon since she has to study for her exams. It gave Kagami an idea as he whisks away to work on his computer. The next day, the entire school is shocked to see the kind of questions out on the exam. Makina and the teachers come streaming in to complain to Koyomi about the exam uproar that lots of students scored perfect! Not just Kagami’s class but the entire school! Now exams will be worthless. Last night Kagami created an app that allows students to predict what kind of questions will come out based on certain variables keyed in that includes teachers’ behaviour. It is 90% accurate. Kagami makes his flashy speech atop the clock tower. Everyone had to study for tests that had nothing to do with their future. With his app, they can now control their exam results and thus concentrate in studying what they think they need for their future. Therefore the school takes no responsibility for their future and they are full responsible for that themselves. That is why they are free to do anything they want. One day they may find somebody so amusing it changes their lives. The world is filled with amusing things and they don’t have a second to waste on things they don’t enjoy. The teachers want to stop him but surprisingly Makina stops them because it is too late. Every damn student is cheering Kagami’s name. The biggest education rally ever? Koyomi notes this is Kagami’s policy to turn everybody in Japan into YD. Yeah, hundred millions of YD for Japan’s future! It will be amusing to see that…
Just (Y)Do It!
Can you imagine this? The freaking entire Japan turned into YD! Every darn Japanese would be doing just what they want! Now, that might sound tempting but without a set of rules and laws to follow, I can only imagine anarchy. Chaos. Disorder. Sure, it is good to have everyone to do what they always desired instead of following routine and protocol. But even the truest form of democracy isn’t really democratic and the truest form of freedom isn’t all that free either. So you get what I’m saying? It is not the question of how long Kagami will take to make every Japanese into a YD but if they can turn into one. Because as you know with Japan a nation being famous for all its dedicated researches, innovations and technologies, what would the consequences be if Japan actually loses all of that intellect. Don’t you know Japan is responsible for 78% of the world’s SHiT today since 1952? That is Super Hi Technology for your information! Sure, professors and scientists can claim they have been a YD by doing their research ever since and forever more. But why bother when nobody is going to appreciate your work? Might as well hang up your tools and hang loose, baby!
I am sure Kagami’s intentions are noble but I can only think that with everyone being a YD, it will be more of dystopia instead of utopia simply because we are human beings. We tend to stray towards bad things. Because it is more amusing, can I say that? Hey, I always wanted to be a porn star! I am exercising my YD rights! I am sure you can already imagine the nightmare if everyone in Japan turned into an otaku, what more a YD. And I am sure that many students will certainly want to quit school and abuse this YD thing. And you know what? Kagami is not responsible for you turning into a degenerate! Because he already said in his ‘disclaimer’ how they themselves are responsible for their OWN future. Kagami can do what he wants because he is talented and a genius. But are you?
Before I go on ranting sarcastically on the possible of the entire world being YD, let me just get back to this anime. Yeah, I guess I am not YD in this sense… Anyway, to sum up my overall sentiments of this anime, it just feels passable. I wanted to put this as mediocre but that will be too cruel since I did enjoy bits and parts of the series despite many of them are just plain silly. Some of the lectures Kagami preaches can be quite insightful and interesting but it is sad that by the time I reached here, I would have forgotten most of them and the fact that ‘everybody is going to be a YD’ is the most memorable thing that will leave an impression on me.
To gauge how silly things are, let me put into perspective some of the settings that are just freaking ridiculous and probably that is why it makes some of the funny stuffs funny. Like that weird chase of Koyomi’s agents chasing just an otaku guy around Akihabara. They can actually lose him? If that ridiculousness is already mild, wait till you learn about that top secret facility of KEC. I don’t know what it is top secret from because when CERN can even hack into its freaking system, it says a lot. What the heck is it even connected to the outside world for?! Why does it even have foreigners manning food stalls in that artificial underground city? Do scientists here have a life except doing their dedicated research? And who in their right mind would have approved an anime centre right smack there???!!! So much about being top secret when you even have foreigners working there… Yeah… Don’t even get me started about Reiko hacking the entire lab…
Even more insulting is how Kagami who is such an awesome programmer that he can create games and simulations in one night! ONE FREAKING NIGHT! And that ‘exam cheater’ app? OMG. I don’t think it is even half a day. How the heck does he have data on teacher’s behaviour and past questions? Is he God?! Even a diehard otaku can’t do that? So is this YD thing a fancy name for his superhero power? So he can actually do it but it is just that he is the reluctant hero? He’d rather not show off his skills or something? I know he is a genius physicist but that was ages ago. Despite he is a young man in his early twenties, I still find it all impossible that he could do all that. Perhaps that is why he is a genius. He might not have touched physics for a long time but he is still able to do all that sh*t with ease. Like as though every damn physics lessons have been downloaded and stored in his brain. Yeah, I guess I’ll never understand since I’m not a genius. Therefore, from a dumb guy’s point of view, all his amazing feats just look ridiculous. In a funny way.
With quite a number of characters, each will have their own screen time and episode in focus so that Kagami could weave his magic and make them realize whatever the heck is wrong with them in the first place. But that is mostly about it for many of such characters. If you want more depth than that, then you will be sorely disappointed. Because from what I noticed, the first half of the series seems to be ‘accumulating’ so called regular students under Kagami’s wing. You know, characters like Kiriko, Seijurou, Kanan, Sachiko and even Koutarou are, well, just there. After their personal issue is solved, they’ll just tag along (I suppose for gratitude) with not much importance. It makes Kagami look like he has a bunch of ‘followers’ instead of being a loner. Unless you have other characters that are somewhat related like that gang member case, then recurrence for them is likely. But even so, they don’t really make much of an impact. Then in the series’ second half, from the opening credits animation you could guess what kind of characters would be appearing. Yeah, spoilers. But most of them appear for an arc and never to be heard off again. Except maybe for Tim but she is just there for a split second to further move the plot for the final arc and that is about it.
Kagami at first may be turning into a hateful main character because of his first attempt to solve a bully issue in an unconventional way, he looks very much like a bully himself! I believe he wanted to let the bullies have a taste of their own medicine and the only way to fight fire is with fire. But then the way he executed it just leaves a bad aftertaste in one’s mouth. Sure, he is unconventional and not really a qualified teacher. But still… After a while, you will get used to his brand of antics and somewhat accept them as it is. Because he is an otaku. Because he is the main character. Otaku character + Main character role = Everything will work out just fine in the end. Besides, it is quite ironic that this guy calls almost every character by their nicknames and very rarely by their actual names only when necessary. I guess this is why first impressions count and do make an impact. Because otherwise you’ll be stuck with an undesirable nickname like Face Punch for Minako. Heh… And this guy even has got the cheek to tell Reiko not to give him any weird nicknames… How is that for a taste of your own medicine?
It is strange for me to even think of hoping to see some kind of harem Kagami gets because how inappropriate it would be for a teacher to have his harem mostly consisting of high school girls! No doubt that most of them are grateful for his help for making them turn over a new leaf and for the better but I have a feeling that some goes even more than that. Especially during that time when Kanan and Kiriko were just fighting over him so they could be the one to exclusively help out. I know, it’s insane. When you have a street gang girl and even an idol expressing their intentions to enrol in the school he teaches, what does that say? This guy is such a ladies’ man that he got a ghost girl, a money face girl, a trap, an ex-bully and even a genius loli following closely to him. Can the same be said about his fellow researcher? Despite Suzune being the violent sister, perhaps this is her way to show her love? You know those pictures on her desk… Oh Kagami, I’m so jealous that you are like a main anime character who always gets the girl in the end. Good thing or not, his first love will always be anime and manga. No time for 3D relationship? Because it is more amusing that way! I think.
If Kagami is unconventional and interesting in his own way, then the most mysterious of the lot goes to Koyomi. There is more than meets the eye to this young chairperson of Icho. Just like Kagami, she is also unconventional in her methods as she seeks unconventional people to teach unconventional ways to her students. I know she wants to make Japan a more interesting place but I feel at this rate she isn’t going to even cover Akihabara. We need more people like Kagami! Just saying… Making her even more mysterious is the fact that it is like she knows everything and knows to take the right action at the right time. Like as though she is reading off the script? Is she God? Because she is one of the very few characters to not get a focused episode for herself, it would be interesting to see more of what she truly is. Either it would be amusing or disappointing. But for now in our eyes, she is the ever omniscient and ever smiling enigmatic character.
I thought it would turn into a running joke because Suzune’s trademark and role in the initial episodes seem to be threatening to beat up her baka aniki with her baseball bat. Slowly, she ditches that but her annoying sister act still maintains. But not as annoying as b*tch girl Makina whose righteousness to keep everything up to her moral standards just makes her feel annoying. It is ironic that she is such a by-the-book girl that Koyomi allowed her to stay in her school. I mean, Koyomi can do what she wants, right? So Makina isn’t all that bad and has her flaws too. Eventually if you can’t beat them, join them. Not too sure if she has accepted Kagami’s ways but she isn’t hell bent in stopping him anymore.
One thing that stands out as a bad sore thumb in the series is the drawing and art. I believe I don’t have such high and refined taste but I am personally able to tell that the artwork is not up to standard. Because in some episodes, the animation quality is so drastically pathetic that you can obvious how low the effort has been put in. Sometimes I feel like as though the artists went on some strike and they let the interns do the job for them just to finish it before the deadline. Or heck, they might have employed the entire artwork department with only amateurs and interns! Adding salt to injury, if the design and quality of the main and supporting characters are just barely at passing level, wait till you notice those extra minor unimportant characters in the background. Even worse. Sad to say, a passable anime has been bogged down by what anime and manga should have been known best for: Their artwork. And I am pretty sure that they are not trying a unique art style because the characters are definitely your typical today’s standard Japanese anime style. It is just bad quality with lacking effort, that’s all.
Now, I don’t have any issues regarding the voice acting department as they are quite standard except for this one: Rena Matsui, the voice behind Suzune sounds like a total amateur! To be fair, this is her first and only anime role so far. I found out that she was (yes, formerly by now) part of that idol group SKE48 (another one of those spin off units from AKB48) but even that I would assume her voice would be better. So okay, having a nice singing voice doesn’t really translate into nice voice acting skills. I wonder if she was a centre or just at the sides in her big unit. Anyway, hearing Suzune the first time and for every other time, I couldn’t help feel that there is some sort of unpolished amateur-like feature in her voice. There is also that nervousness in it. Maybe she sounds like that. Either way, it just doesn’t fit the character even if this was intentional to make Suzune sound different than your typical anime sister.
The rest of the familiar seiyuus include Hiroshi Kamiya as Kagami, Ayane Sakura as Sachiko, Hana Kanazawa as Reiko and even Aya Hirano as Yamato. Yes, after all these years not hearing her much in many animes, my first thoughts in hearing Yamato’s voice was that it could be Aya Hirano behind it. Spot on. Maybe she sounded a bit like Fairy Tail’s Lucy? The most surprising one is Aki Toyosaki as Koutarou. OMG. That was her behind the cross-dresser? I could have never guessed. The rest of the other casts are Saori Oonishi as Makina (Hisako in Shokugeki No Souma), Azusa Tadakoro as Kiriko (Kotori in Gokukoku No Brynhildr), Rina Hidaka as Kanan (Enju in Black Bullet), Yoshimasa Hosoya as Seijurou (Reiner in Shingeki No Kyojin), Suzuko Mimori as Koyomi (Sherlock in Tantei Opera Milky Holmes), Sora Amamya as Minako (titular character in Akame Ga Kill), Ayahi Takagi as Tim (Chris in Senki Zesshou Symphogear), Mao as Madoka (Renge in Seikai Seifuku: Bouryaku No Zvezda), Daisuke Namikawa as Gates (Rock in Black Lagoon), Risa Taneda as Matome (Yukina in Strike The Blood), Risae Matsuda as Taki (Azuna Kuzuha in Dance With Devils) and Satsumi Matsuda as Nagare (Bur in Koukaku No Pandora).
The first opening theme, Youthful Dreamer by TrySail isn’t that bad although it sounds like your typical genki idol song. So is the first ending theme, Dreamin by Tokyo Performance Doll albeit it is a slightly slower anime idol pop. But come the second opening theme, I feel this one doesn’t live up to its predecessor’s hype despite it is another idol-like song. Vivid Brilliant Door by Sphere even though is an idol group made out of famous seiyuus, they still can’t save this song. Especially with a lazy chorus line that simply goes “La la la la la la la la la…”. I’m not sure if they’re trying to match the laziness in the animation quality. Heck, even so, it won’t be as bad as that. Completing the idol-like themes for the series, My Only One by 9nine is the second ending theme. Rather okay but not to my liking either.
Overall, whatever lots of things said true in Kagami’s lecture, it must always be remembered that this is still anime and part of fantasy. Because in reality there is no way such an eccentric person would be allowed to do what he wants like the way Kagami does it. This anime only serves as a little motivation for you to think thoroughly what you should be doing with your life and it might as well be something you prefer instead of something you don’t want. Otherwise, if you can stand the silly plots, weak side and supporting characters and the most atrocious of all, the drawing and animation, this anime could be the lesson you might need that school never taught you at all. With bad education policies, systems and unqualified teachers compounded with the attitude of students, it is no wonder mankind’s intellect is going on a downward spiral especially with the advent of social media. Then you can just blame it all on everything and everybody except yourself. That is the YD spirit! Or not… Kagami won’t be around to give his lecture or clean your sh*t up when that happens. Because he would have made the Anywhere Door to run away from it all!
Chua Tek Ming~*Anime Power*~ !LiVe FoR AnImE, aNiMe FoR LiFe! 