Classroom ☆ Crisis – 06
This episode: Dirty Laundry…
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It looks like this is the newest leg in the Saito v Nagisa “Who Will Back Down First” Relay. But the course proved to be much more interesting this time around as we got into the young business prodigies background. |
“When your back’s against the wall…”
You shave my back, and I’ll…wait….what?
I’ll start of with my nitpicks. “You’re down and out, and that’s when you really start getting innovative”. They’ve been saying this for quite some time, so I don’t really know why they had to take the “shovel meet head” approach for the shows opening scene. That and I have a beef against the writing for making Kana Asumi’s character be the one to deliver, for the second time in her already sparse work, the “I told you so”, line to Saito. You’ve got a cool character and an awesome VA…use ’em! Luckily I believe they turned the shovel opening into something interesting. Using Kana Asumi in a better manner for this series? Ah if wishes where horses….
But the main draw of the story was digging into Nagisa’s background, something that has been subject to a great amount of speculation. Actually, for me, the grand draw was the manner in which they choose to present it. Though I was critical about how they presented that aforementioned shovel, it did serve a purpose. They used that to give us the role reversal. Nagisa giving Saito the business, and vice versa with the scene change. This ties right into the layered approach they had for Nagisa’s background reveal.
“You’ve got the taste-buds of a kid…”
Pack Lunches and Pub Grub
I have to admit, I’m a sucker for this narrative device. It can work in prose, but it is so well suited to a visual medium. I do have that nitpick with it, and that is part of a larger nitpick I have with Yuuji Kiryuu’s character in general, but I don’t think it totally diminishes this storytelling approach. They could have done without it, as the reactions speak volumes.
We start with Mizuki issuing the challenge to Nagisa, playing into his pride and sense of duty to himself. Stop complaining and pass the damn tests. We also get a more subtle form of challenge when we go from the school to the izakaya (pub) with Saito and the former Chief of A-TEC, Seigou. He also makes a play, but this instance it works with Saito’s curiosity and natural sense of decency. Stop looking for enemies…
…love the use of cups and people here….
The hook is beautiful, as both Mizuki and Seigou have a trade to make with Nagisa and Saito respectively; those two being more similar than they let on. For Mizuki it’s offering help with homework, thou she has to make that discovery as she goes, but she starts wanting to know more about him and keeps pushing the trade. For Seigou, it’s a talk he’s been wanting to have with Saito for quite some time, and he wants Saito to be ready to face this one particular challenge, the trade off being making the rocket nerd a better man…
So, we have one big reveal, but with four different characters, and their distinct reactions to the information given and received. Nagisa and Seigou are twinned in a way, as they relate the same tale, both with a sense of distance and both very needful to tell it. My goodness I love how Nagisa willingly used his own business 101 logic against himself to push his story further. We know that life ain’t easy for a boy named…Shore….Beach…..Sand! Yeah, the had kickass bastard girl Sands in GoT.
Then they branch this part in that Seigou perhaps understands considerably more than Nagisa does about himself. It seems that Nagisa is in the dark about who his mother is and the business dealings that are going on, at least in part. He knows that he’s in the middle of a faction war in the company, but is still making inroads to who is pulling what srings. Mizuki and Saito are twinned in their outrage at the story, but, they too, branch off in how close they want to be to Nagisa as a result. Mizuki has gone from helpful person, to committed friend, even if Nagisa can’t see it…But that connects back, as Saito should go from enemy to big brother, even if he can’t see it…
At the end of the discussions, it looks like both Mizuki and Saito are going to have quite a lot to do with Nagisa’s development, both as a character, and more importantly, as a person. He’s already getting close to the rest of the A-TEC team as they finally pitched in for his all-nighter to pass those exams. This is only going to earn more ire from Iris, as she feels she has been left behind in favor of him. She may have that cool exterior, but she isn’t immune to jealousy, no matter how cute Mizuki thinks it is. But then, Iris has a bit more to offer the story…
“What was that…?”
They gave us the tidbit that she was amnesiac last episode, and that she went into Saito and Mizuki’s family care soon after what-ever trauma caused that to happen. This is a heavy bit of trauma right here, suggesting she was on the scene to witness it. Given that they are playing off family bloodlines, and how heavily the twinned reactions came this episode, that leaves me with a few clues to go on. I’m betting she’s part of the Kirishima bloodline to some degree, and has gotten caught up in the intrigue. I’ll be anxious to see this unfold…
Let’s Hear it for Yuna!
Just give her one focus episode! Is that too much to ask?! Or one with her and Angelina and “pant pant pant”….
Well, I really wish they would pull back on selling Yuuji as an SAO Kawahara Villain, at least until they develop him a bit more cause now he’s just one note. We finally got some connective tissue with his older brother, Kazuhisa, the current CEO. So I’m waiting to see how that pays off. But like I mention in jest, they’ve got some Game of Thrones style, Stocks and Bastards, plotting going on, and they are playing for keeps in questing for the Rocket Throne. That stinger at the end gives us some insight that Kirashima is almost (just work with me…) like Westeros, and that with Nagisa’s bloodline, he might just be Mars’ version of a more closed off, revenge driven, but no less handsome, Jon Snow. All we need now is Red God Blood Magic and Dragon Eggs! But I’d settle for an Accounting Priestess and Rocket Ships….
Next Time
Because I think both are pretty darn hot…
About skylion
All around nerd that enjoys just about any anime genre. I love history, politics, public policy, the sciences, literature, arts...pretty much anything can make me geeky...except sports. Follow me @theskylion
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Whoa, skylion! Take another look at the header! This is supposed to be the post for episode 6!
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
LOL! That is a first for that particular type of mistake. I know I’ve forgotten the Read More tag at least twice, maybe three times?
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
I’m not so sure on that. I think it was pretty well indicated that Nagisa knows exactly who his mother is. He was an adolescent when she died, not a baby. He had to know her name and his own. In fact, I think that may have been why he used his mother’s ancestor’s quote earlier to Saito, as a clue in to that later on.
Also, I think he knows exactly who is pulling the strings, or at least has a good idea. He wouldn’t be trying to take his brothers down if that weren’t the case. Also, there was that comment about how the Kiryuus are trying to systematically take out the other family that they were partnered with (sorry, I can’t remember the name >_<). Nagisa just happens to be part of that.
Was she really jealous and feeling left out? I honestly didn’t see much change from her usual expression. She seemed her usual self. However, her ending scene with her memory was really dark in an episode full of dark elements. She’s more than likely a member of Nagisa’s mother’s family’s bodyguards. Probably a branch family of some kind.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Oh, I’ll give you points for pointing out the clue in Nagisa using that quote. But in looking back, it seems like he used it more to goad Saito on. But as for him being in the dark. Nagisa went from saying that Yuuji hates him for his bloodlines, Mizuki asks for clarification, and Nagisa claims he doesn’t know. That follows right on the cut to Seigou and Saito, with Saito shocked at the reveal.
They did quite good on the back and forth between those two scenes, so I’m left with the impression that Nagisa might be suspicious, but he doesn’t know for certain. He strikes me as the guy that knows that the fastest stroke often goes astray.
..and yeah, I got jealousy off of Iris. In as much as you can get anything off a kuudere character. But why else would she have waited so long? Mizuki’s reaction just scream “you’re so cute when you’re jealous” tropes.
As for her family origins? I can only repeat how they played on twinning the backgroud information to it’s characters and their reactions. That leads me to her beings something similar to Nagisa, yet still different. I have no clue where you got the bodyguard thing.
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
But he lived with his mother until her death. I forget when they said he was taken in by the Kiryuus but I think it was 7 or 8, somewhere in that range. If he lived with his mother that long, he knows her name. Also, he knows of Iris’ past, and that’s because Iris’ family has a connection to his mothers and lived in the same area as them. So, to me it’s impossible that he can’t know what was going on. And even if he somehow didn’t, you can’t tell me that with his resources he couldn’t have found out, or his brothers wouldn’t have told him. They hated him, they would have rubbed in his face every time they got that he was an outsider, and why. Also, that comment to Mizuki during the tutoring about the Kiryuus trying to wipe out pretty much all evidence of the Shinomiyas, really clinched it. He knows that he is part of the Kiryuus trying to get rid of all traces of their founding partner and his legacy, which includes A-TEC.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I’m going to run with both our ideas in mind…I
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
That was a very interesting and sad backstory for Nagisa, and it explains why his brother is such a bully.
Also, for the guy to be such a genius in business and never having really had much of a formal education? Yeah, he’s totally a prodigy.
I’m glad that he’s starting to get along with the class and especially Mizuki, was really cool. I do think that Sera however is being pretty pigheaded. He’s heard everything he has about Nagisa, and he really thinks that it’s Nagisa trying to take A-Tec down? I mean, seriously dude? If Nagisa wasn’t there, your little department would have been shut down even sooner. And you don’t think that Nagisa is getting his orders from someone? You think he’s trying to do this on his own? Come on!
Even if Nagisa wasn’t there, the brother would just send someone else.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Yeah, Saito is being very pigheaded I would agree. But do you blame him? He’s young still yet, and hot-headed to boot. He can’t really focus his anger on the top two Kiryuu brothers. Nagisa is directly in front of him, is younger, and hating on the kid is Saito playing right on par for that particular course. It’s not like Nagisa does much to engender any other feelings in most people.
As for A-TEC, I think Saito still see’s himself as it’s head, and is blind to pretty much everything else. Nagisa is a hurdle, nothing more. Seigou is trying to help Saito pull head from arse…that takes a lot of time and effort.
Saito needs time to put two and two together…
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
NAGISA, I’M SO SORRY FOR DOUBTING YOU!!!!!ヽ(´□｀。)ﾉ
(*runs up to give him bear hug*)
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
It’s always a “you got to get their side of the story” thing. He got to me so much with his attitude I wasn’t even inclined to consider it.
Side note: Congrats on 1000 comments! Welcome to the Thousand club! Here’s your complimentary club member cigar!!
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
…is Nagisa the bear hug type? I’m not going to you what to do, but I do advise caution. He’s a prickly pear that one…
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
Lol, he reminds me of a character from another series who wasn’t into hugs either. He took hugs, but there was a strict “three-second” rule. 😛
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
…that reminds me of Peter Capaldi’s Doctor…
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Nagisa may rule in the business world but he basically grovels in the dirt before the big guns of the academic sector. It goes without saying the students enjoyed every waking moment of the reversal. I was honestly glad to see him suffer with his polar opposite that obligates him to put in effort. It actually makes him seem human.
So thanks to his father’s extramarital affair, no matter how you look at it, Nagisa has a higher claim to being the company’s CEO. Pardon me as I don’t know why I’m mixing monarchy customs with modern day corporate elections. His backstory yields some sympathy but I’m hardly able to overlook his insufferable attitude the first time he came along. It’s grating to see how certain events could rot a person to the point they’ll look like complete coldhearted assholes until you see or hear what led to that. However, it’s done enough to lessen the animosity toward him and in turn add it to his bastard brother Yuuji who deserves every ill fate possible.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
EDIT: Sorry if you followed a link in e-mail and didn’t get to this. I had to delete the original…cause I guess I have to make more mistakes on this post?
Well,the writers are, so…
I believe people have agency, and are responsible for their choices. So yeah, Nagisa gets sympathy for having a crummy past, but that’s it. The rest is all on him.
…and yeah, I’m sorry to overstate this. But I hate how they portray Yuuji. I mean, if we have sympathy for Nagisa and understand why he’s such a heel, where is the same sympathy and understanding for Yuuji?
We have “being abused = understandable jerkhole” By that feeling, Yuuji should be a character that has suffered more abuse cause he’s a bigger jerkhole and we should have more sympathy for him. But the writer’s haven’t shown us a wiff of that yet. So for now I’m casting him as a badly written character among well written ones. He has agency as well, but it’s not as well built as it is for Nagisa.
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
well, like you said before, Yuuji’s only job is to be the mid-level villain. And the story really isn’t about him, so he doesn’t get really in character development. As good as the writers are, they are not that good. They can’t give development to everybody. Yuuji’s like pretty much most villains, he’s evil because he’s a jerk, end of story. Like the sorcerers in Arslan who are evil and will probably get no explanation as to why, Yuuji is the same. We still don’t even have an explanation as to why the Kiryuus hate the Shinomiyas so much, especially since they used to be partners and formed this corporation together.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
…uh, yeah. No. As a character his job is to transmit story and theme, and they choose a a bad way to do that. The most low hanging-kick-the-dog fruit around.
And what? Don’t need an explanation for the split between the two families? Billy Shakespeare at least gave us a prologue for the Montague and Capulet split. Diversifying business ain’t that…
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
If you want, you can think of his like most Disney villains. Evil because he’s evil and is jealous of the fact that some upstart bastard child can be better than him, a real son of Kiryuu. It’s a shallow backstory, but not really hard to think about.
And I do want an explanation for why the two families became so fractured. I mean, was it a case of jealousy? The fact that one couldn’t stand the other’s idealistic ideals? That the other thought that one put money above everything else? Or was it just simple greed? We really need to have more backstory.
Also, why exactly is this series taking place on Mars? I honestly forget they are even on a different planet most of the time.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
..oh that is soooo ironic, cause I don’t even want to think of Disney Villains…so I don’t mind things that are hard to think about…
Mars. IKR! For us, we get a lucky break as it looks like they are using some spaceships next episode!
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
I like Nagisa’s personality and really hope that part of him never changes, but then again, you know I like the arrogant, capable types. 😛
Actually, the fact that he doesn’t do well in school speaks even more about his genius in the fact that he can handle business so well even without it. He most likely had to learn everything by experience and the school of hard knocks (literally where his brothers were concerned) and I have to think that by not having him in school, his brothers and father had to have been trying to sabotage him. Even the crappiest fathers of rich families, have their children get the best education (see: Gangsta), so for them to have gone out of their way for him not to have one, tells me that they wanted him to fail, and once he did, they could cast him aside somewhere and still have his mother’s stock. They really don’t like the Shinomiyas.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
I think Nagisa does know who his mother was.
As for why Yuuji is being so rotten towards Nagisa and why Nagisa is continuously being set up for failure in the jobs he’s given. Let’s remember Nagisa’s mother owned 30% of the company stock. Who do you think will get control of that stock when he’s no longer a minor? Controlling 30% of the stock is going to give him a very big say in who’s on the board of directors and who’s the CEO. Heck, depending upon how much stock the Kiryuus have managed to retain, Nagisa might just be the biggest shareholder and be able to get himself named as the CEO.
That alone should be enough reason for Yuuji to hate him and keep trying to set him up for failure. If Nagisa is seen as a failure he won’t be able to influence the board of directors to name him CEO unless he owned more than 50% of the stock and we’ve been told he should only inherit 30%.
I want an episode where Yuna and Angelina go at each other hammer and tongs over the finances.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
…so far I’m giving myself a qualifying right to be wrong about Nagisa’s knowledge. I like being flexible.
Oh, hammer and tongs…yessss
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
Isn’t he already 18? Are 18 year-olds still minors in Japan?
I honestly think that Yuuji’s hatred just comes from who and what Nagisa is, being a bastard child that gets adopted and supposedly put on the same level as him. He’s jealous and feels threatened by him, and so takes it out on Nagisa. It’s why he takes issue with him calling him “brother”.
And also, I have a feeling that that was the reason Nagisa’s father adopted him in the first place. If Nagisa is a Kiryuu instead of a Shinomiya, then father would have access to his shares and he probably already has found a way to shift them over back when the boy was a kid. Yuujis’ tormenting of him and the fact that they were setting him up to fail, was a way to take Nagisa out of the game now that they were done with him.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
Japanese have a coming-of-age ceremony at 20. I assume that’s when they’re considered adults. But adulthood could come in stages. Here in the U.S. you’re no longer considered a minor at 18, but you still have to be 21 to legally buy alcohol. And until the 1970s you had to be 21 to vote, although you could join the military without your parents permission at 18 and potentially die for your country without having a say in who were the politicians who sent you to war.
It’s been said the Kiryuu father got the Shinomiya heir to be his lover because of her stock. But I imagine Nagisa will still inherit it. I would assume that when she died since he was a minor the stock was placed in a trust for him, but the trust was controlled by the Kiryuu father. Since he seems to be out of the picture now I suspect either the elder Kiryuu brother controls the trust or it’s controlled by a lawyer or someone else working with the elder brother.
If the Kiryuu’s already own the stock Nagisa’s mother had(and not just control it while he’s a minor) they would no longer have need of him. So why if they hate him so much (and we have to assume the older brother does, too, or he wouldn’t let the middle brother abuse him so much) why do they still pretend Nagisa’s part of the ruling family by letting him run any part of the business, even when it’s a setup to make him fail? Even if he’s not still considered a minor at 18, he’s been running parts of the business for a while now so some of that must have been when he was a minor. He could have been completely cut out up to now by saying since he’s a minor he can’t run part of the business. And that way when he does become an adult he’d have no idea of what’s going on with the business and wouldn’t be a threat to the other brothers’ power.
Somehow he’s still a threat to them and that as well as hatred towards him because he’s a living reminder of how their mother was betrayed has got to be behind their constant attempts to have him fail in the family business. The only way I can see him being a threat to them is that before long he’ll come into control of a substantial block of stock and will be able to demand and get a seat on the board of directors and will have considerable influence there because of his stock.
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
But wasn’t it inicated or presumed that the middle and maybe even the older brother were trying to get Nagisa killed in that whole ransom affair in the beginning? They had no idea that he would negotiate his way out, and the way Nagisa was questioning the Yuuji afterwards makes me think that he had some connection in it.so, I don’t think they are averse to him getting killed.
Also, they have been going out of their way to hide him by giving him the worst projects in backwoods areas, however he’s still become famous even before he was even 14. So, I don’t think they could get rid of him or push him under the rug since he has been acknowledged as a Kiryuu heir. They don’t want a scandal.
I do have an idea that his mother’s stocks still go to her son, but she put some sort of caveat in there that the father could only have them if Nagisa was made a full son and heir.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
Since he hasn’t failed at the other jobs they gave him they may have decided more drastic measures are needed. If they get him killed as presumably his only relatives they would get his stock.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I don’t see Angelina and Yuna on opposite sides. If anything, those two would team up to put the rest of those spendthrifts in their place.
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…in their place…yesssss
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
I see them on opposite sides and going at it with each other. Then they come to an accommodation and work together. Part of that may be putting the hammer down on the spendthrifts and part may be figuring out how to get the extra funds needed from the company to finish the rocket project.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Damn OVAs just write themselves…
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
Sounds to me like those would be some pretty good OVAs and not damn ones.