Well, we finally hit Nagisa’s big “betrayal,” and it honestly felt kinda underwhelming. He didn’t actively help A-TEC, but his move here was more an incidental betrayal of convenience than a strong dramatic choice between friends and revenge. But I guess that’s somewhat reflective of Classroom Crisis’ fundamental strengths and weaknesses – it’s very strong when it comes to building these characters and putting them in a room together, but its ability to tell a tightly composed story isn’t the sharpest. I’d figured that was likely due to the need to add a bunch of nonsense anime diversions like the beach episode, but maybe this writer just isn’t as good with plotting as he is with writing people. Either way, this episode still worked nicely when it leaned into the show’s strengths, so I’m still fairly confident everything will turn out well in the end.
You can check out my full writeup over at ANN, or my notes below!
We get a recap for the first time. Things are getting serious!
One week to the general election
And now it’s a day before. Nagisa’s been up to his schemes
Nagisa has apparently destroyed the labor candidate, as his brother wished
Furubayashi, the Seimin candidate, has apparently switched over to the labor Oozora party. WELP
The show is playing in topics that are a little too lofty for its audience, so it has to over-explain each turn, which hurts
Nagisa enjoying his victory speech to his brother
Episode 9: “Joyless Victory”
Not the most exciting Lelouch-style table-turning, but I guess that’s life
Angelina telling all of A-TEC about Nagisa’s plan. They’re overtelling here, too. The story could stand to be a bit more subtle about these character bits, like it normally is
Now back to Furubayashi, the original Seimin candidate, meeting with Nagisa a week ago
Nagisa simply uses the 1.5 billion as leverage, meaning he won’t get it back for A-TEC
Furubayashi is a career politician. His party is less important to him than his position
Right, the union boss fed secrets to Nagisa before
Nagisa stops by the garage, feeling conflicted. Runs into Kaito
Nagisa playing the villain. He wants Kaito to yell at him
“I’m not going to censure you, because if I did that you’d be saved. But I was disappointed. And sad.” Brutal
Nagisa trying to convince himself he doesn’t feel bad about A-TEC disbanding
“Then betray us brimming with confidence. Don’t look at me like you’re about to cry.”
“You don’t even believe that you can make yourself happy, do you?”
“It’s too late. No one can stop this anymore.”
And Yuji, Nagisa’s brother-boss, is done. Next up is Kazuhisa, the CEO
One interesting thing about this episode, for me, is that it really convinced me of how truly important the “classroom and work” dichotomy of the show actually is to the characterization and character development.
I know in previous writeups you’ve thrown around the idea that the “classroom” half was just necessary pandering they had to pay lip service to, in order to tell the story they really wanted to tell, and something the writers wanted to put behind them ASAP. But after this episode (and looking back in retrospect) I’m seeing it as a much stronger and more core thematic choice, especially from the moment in the big confrontation this episode where Kaito basically says “I’m not saying this as your employee, I’m saying this as your teacher.”
They’ve played up that cross-tension of roles before, but it never really struck me before just how very important that tension is to the dynamic. Nagisa being, simultaneously, both the superior Kaito has to fight, and the student he feels a responsibility to nurture. Kaito being, simultaneously, both the obstinate underling Nagisa has to work around, and the teacher/mentor figure that Nagisa never really had.
Even all the character development with Nagisa in a lowly role preparing for the school festival, I don’t think could have had the same punch if it was just a more one-sided “normal boss learning to get along better with his employees” in a different setting. You mention how childish Nagisa is in many ways, and it’s a very astute observation. In a similar sense, the “classroom” half of things is giving him a delayed window into the chance to actually, sort-of be the child that he never got the chance to healthily be, even if only briefly.