More streaming reviews! This time we’re covering the summer season’s one reasonably-sized hopeful for me, Classroom Crisis. Honestly, even this show isn’t without its flaws (the third episode in particular was relentlessly unfunny, in spite of actually covering some pretty compelling narrative territory), but in a famine like this season, you take what sustenance you can get. There’s also plenty of good here, from the fun cast to the compelling core drama of dreams versus business realities, so I’m hoping the show leans on its strengths, and doesn’t just become a sort of genre-standard “underdog team wins the big game” sort of thing now that A-TEC are on the ropes. We’ll have to see where it goes!
You can check out my 1-3 post over at ANN, or see my episode three-specific notes below!
The new management is starting by slashing their budget 70%
Nagisa Kiryu being yelled at by his brother-CEO. But what Kiryu’s known for is saving departments, so…
“If you don’t understand what I’m saying, you have no right to do business.” He’s right. Sera Kaito’s a total dreamer, but even if you want to accomplish great things, you still have to engage with the realities of business
The students working hard to manage work and school. It’s a unique dynamic
Ugh, “old lady” jokes
Angelina from accounting
“I’m a teacher first, an employee second.” The writing/humor this episode is weak, but the concept remains strong – no one here is “wrong”
Angela points out that he’s kind of a slave-driver. He’s not a conventionally good boss
They’re being moved to the Kirishina Memorial Building, which was itself shut down. A nice metaphor there
“Stop depending on money all the time! Use your creativity!”
And they lose half the team
“For better or for worse, you’re special.”
“All I want is to go on pursuing my dreams.” oh Sera
And yep, Kiryu’s moves are designed to keep A-TEC alive
The third episode felt really weak to me but the overall story still feels really compelling. Most of the characters actually seem realistic (for anime at least) and more importantly to me at least, they all seem to have agency and aren’t just set pieces for the protagonist to work around.
My reading of the ‘students working late’ portion of episode 3 was that Sera’s real failing was not even thinking about this issue. He didn’t directly encourage staying overnight or anything, but he tacitly let students do this and also created an environment where it was normal (and even where it was seen as necessary, cf ‘how else are we going to get this done’). This is, well, extremely stereotypical behavior in ‘go go go’ environments, something that management has to specifically watch out for provided that they even think of it. Which Sera didn’t.