Meeting Date: 8/5/2017
Disclaimer: The Herald Anime Club discusses shows as they’re airing. Naturally, there will be spoilers for a given episode. You have been warned!
Mike Ferreira: Hello everyone, and welcome to the Herald Anime Club. I’m Mike Ferreira, and I’m joined by L.B. Bryant, Anthony Simpson, and (tentatively) Lydia Rivers
Anthony Simpson: Evening
L.B. Bryant: Hello
Mike Ferreira: Tonight, we’ll be discussing Classroom of the Elite, Episode 4: love’s a bitch, as is class
L.B. Bryant: Favorite moment from this episode was the introduction of a yuri element without it turning into cheap comedy fodder. I liked that little touch.
Mike Ferreira: Definitely. They actually handled it halfway decently, overall. That poor girl, though.
Anthony Simpson: That was an interesting touch. Even if it ended with the girl being rejected.
L.B. Bryant: Yeah, I just really liked how they handled it naturally and didn’t make a big deal out of it.
Mike Ferreira: Indeed. It was just kinda there.
Mike Ferreira: Though it was pretty heavily led into early on
L.B. Bryant: This is true
Anthony Simpson: I didn’t find the joke at the start of that part to be funny.
L.B. Bryant: Me either. I didn’t dislike it but it was just kind of a passing moment for me.
Mike Ferreira: Yeah.
Mike Ferreira: I wasn’t a fan there
Anthony Simpson: It just sort of happened and I was like welp.
Mike Ferreira: “That’s a thing now”
L.B. Bryant: So what did you all think of Kushida going back into ‘sweet’ mode after what we saw last week? It was hard for me to take her seriously re: wanting to help Sudo after seeing her dark side.
Anthony Simpson: She doesn’t want her dark side to be seen by others so she is going to keep that secret.
Mike Ferreira: I saw it as lazy writing
L.B. Bryant: I’m still holding out hope that they are building to something with her.
Anthony Simpson: It seems like of the cast from what we have seen so far are two-faced.
Mike Ferreira: The fact that she keeps the façade even when 100% alone with our listless lead felt, well… silly.
Mike Ferreira: Drop the fucking charade!
L.B. Bryant: That makes sense
Mike Ferreira: I mean.. fuck’s sake. We know, HE knows. It’s fucking insulting to go on putting the genie back in the bottle
Mike Ferreira: “I’m so WORRIED owo” Like fuck you are
Anthony Simpson: There isn’t anything wrong with having characters who are two faced if the writing can pull it off with good writing. I do agree here it doesn’t work all that well.
Mike Ferreira: They already laid her (metaphorically) bare – she’s just as self-serving as the rest – and our lead knows it. To keep concealing now, when it’s well established is just… pointless
Anthony Simpson: For example Gustavo “Gus” Fring from Breaking Bad is a perfect example of how to do it well.
Mike Ferreira: Yes!
Mike Ferreira: Thank you!
Mike Ferreira: Hell – I’d like to see her darker side come out a bit more – let us know the real character – that would be interesting!
Mike Ferreira: But NoOoOoOoOoOo! That would break our convenient plot contrivances
Mike Ferreira: All we get to know is the mask
Mike Ferreira: That smiling, dim caricature that she shows her gullible classmates
Mike Ferreira: Sorry – I ranted a bit
Anthony Simpson: Getting off of two face girl for a moment I wonder what’s up with that girl from class B trying to help with the investigation in regards to that fight.
Anthony Simpson: I wonder what her end game here is.
L.B. Bryant: I’m more curious about how she got so many points.
Anthony Simpson: My guess it has someone to do with the camera girl.
Anthony Simpson: Favors for people is my guess.
Anthony Simpson: I mean we saw two episodes ago the MC bought [test] questions, and he bought points from the teacher so that basketball dude doesn’t get thrown out.
Mike Ferreira: Indeed.
Mike Ferreira: She’s learned the system well
Mike Ferreira: And our lead inferred that she’s pretty deceptive, so she might be good at the long con
Anthony Simpson: My guess she is having people give her points to take care of issues they have.
Mike Ferreira: I’m thinking it’s a bit more insidious
Mike Ferreira: THe way her motivations were discussed were pretty roundly suspect
Anthony Simpson: That or she is blackmailing people to get more points.
Anthony Simpson: Which is what I think she is doing with camera girl, which would make sense since she doesn’t want to help clear basketball dude’s name.
Mike Ferreira: Yep
Mike Ferreira: She’s [probably] going to be shown as another shark in this tank in the next episode or two
Anthony Simpson: This is simply a guess, though if I had to bet money on it, I would say that camera girl is being blackmailed.
Mike Ferreira: That goes without question. Kind of hoping folks clue into this shit sooner than later though. The loser class loses because they play fair
Anthony Simpson: Did anybody else think it was weird that the school has some kind of pseudo hostess club on the school grounds?
Mike Ferreira: More creepy than weird, here
L.B. Bryant: At this point there’s very little about this school that surprises me, heh.
Anthony Simpson: It came out of no where. Though I did get a kick of “bad boy”.
Mike Ferreira: That was pretty hilarious
Mike Ferreira: I’m half expecting a coke party at some point, though – with tiny text at the bottom that reads “please do not inhale sugar”
Anthony Simpson: I guess having a pseudo hostess club isn’t far-fetched since the school does provide them with game stores and other places to fill their needs.
Mike Ferreira: Still a bit *weird* for a high school though
Mike Ferreira: This isn’t Ouran
Anthony Simpson: True.
Mike Ferreira: i can understand the cafeteria, the commissary, and even the shops – but host clubs seem a bit weird for that environment.
Anthony Simpson: My guess those in the better classes figure out how to get around the system or their families “convince” the school to look the other way.
Mike Ferreira: That or “karaoke” has suddenly become a code word :p
Anthony Simpson: And by convince I mean bribes, I mean “donations”.
Mike Ferreira: “By convince, I mean bribe. By bribe, I mean ‘donate’. By ‘donate’, I mean ‘sex’. By ‘sex’ I mean… wait. Who am I talking to?”
Mike Ferreira: Sorry – couldn’t resist the bad joke
L.B. Bryant: If we’re talking creepy, in my mind that honor belongs to the other members of the class making copies of Ayanokoji’s room key.
Mike Ferreira: Fully
L.B. Bryant: That was *super* weird to me.
Anthony Simpson: I mean this just speculation on my part, but considering that these students are considered to be future leaders of Japan it wouldn’t surprise me that there’s corruption going on behind the scenes with the school.
Mike Ferreira: Next thing you’ll tell me their stocking up on trash bags, duct tape, and sharp objects is weird
Mike Ferreira: Anthony: definitely. This is straight-up Randian Social Darwinism
Mike Ferreira: This shit’s not expected but basically encouraged as we’ve seen
Anthony Simpson: I mean the MC for god sakes bought points to save a student from failing and the teacher went along with it.
Mike Ferreira: Exactly
Anthony Simpson: I’m not going to get on my soap box about meritocracy in this show discussions.
Mike Ferreira: It’s the same meritocracy that fuels our own institutions. Whoever can sleaze and fuck their way to the top wins
Anthony Simpson: true.
Mike Ferreira: The intro quotes alone are pretty damn cynical if you take them at face value
L.B. Bryant: I like the intro quotes tbh
Mike Ferreira: They’re interesting.
Mike Ferreira: Next episode is me in a nutshell btw – “Hell is Other People.”
L.B. Bryant: lol
Mike Ferreira: But yeah… they’re great pieces from influential books
Anthony Simpson: Didn’t they quote Nietzsche in the first episode? I would say that is pretty cynical right now.
Mike Ferreira: Yep
Mike Ferreira: Episode 3 was Adam Smith
Mike Ferreira: Episode 2 was Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
Anthony Simpson: So I wanna touch on the Simuldub for episode 1, which came out last week. I think Funimation did a solid job so far. Justin Briner did a great job doing deadpan for the main dude. Everyone else I thought did a fine job. Script is pretty faithful to the Japanese.
L.B. Bryant: I plan on checking it out in the near future.
Anthony Simpson: I would have probably switched over to just watching the dub if I wasn’t watching it weekly for discussion.
Mike Ferreira: I’m curious, myself – I’ll likely have some impressions by next meeting
Mike Ferreira: Hrm.. any closing thoughts, before we sign off?
L.B. Bryant: This wasn’t the best episode of the series thus far but it still hasn’t turned me off from wanting to know what the secrets these students are hiding.
Anthony Simpson: I’m interested in seeing what happens next week.
Mike Ferreira: Agreed.
Mike Ferreira: Well, thanks for joining everyone – and remember: in this show’s world, greed is good
Anthony Simpson: I’m surprised they don’t have posters for Wall Street in each classroom.
Mike Ferreira: That’d be amazing
Anthony Simpson: I know that isn’t the point of the film but still.
Mike Ferreira: “Our founder, Gordon Gecko-sama”
Later…
Lydia Rivers: I swung negative. The storytellers aren’t skilled enough to handle this without turning me off with the cardboard contrivances
Lydia Rivers: Good characters can make up for it but there aren’t enough of those. If they can’t feature their characters and somehow manage to bore me with a plot this potentially interesting, bah
Mike Ferreira: Hear, hear.
