Classroom ☆ Crisis – 13 [END]
It’s a blast from the past!
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When we last left our characters, the race was on! Nagisa had been kidnapped, and his friends were too many steps behind. They were helpless to watch as he was knocked out cold and stuffed into a fast spaceship with the controls set to DOOM! His assistant, the able bodied Angelina was shot in the back, and her condition did not look good. Then top all this off with: the only pilot with enough skill to save him, has come face to face with her own fears! It was quite the cliffhanger. |
Safe as Houses
Saito: “Ya’ll suck. Seconds? Seconded. Motion carries. Ya’ll suck!”
How are they ever going to sort this out? Open with….a boardroom meeting? Oh….well. I guess the aforementioned DOOM isn’t that bad….Oh, Nagisa’s spaceship is still on a collision course with an asteroid, Iris still has cold feet, and the X-3 is still being tested and has to be used for a demonstration to convince the CEO of the company not to oust A-TEC. So the pressure is on, without a doubt. Only…well. Yeah.
The rest of the episode plays off just as scripted. Just so. Everything all lined up Obstacles met One-Two-Three. Iris was able to collect herself with the help of Mizuki, who carries a torch for Nagisa large enough to be seen in the Kuiper Belt. Large enough to maybe have Iris’ fear be of secondary nature to the need to rescue her man. I kinda didn’t like that aspect much. But the ace pilot was able to get her groove on and launch. Her team right on spec.
And what a launch it was. I actually liked this aspect. They “borrowed” the first generation fast rocket chassis from the museum, bridging the gap between the past and the present. Just as that realization sinks in, the rest of the companies board members are starkly reminded of the companies’ glory days. More importantly they are reminded of how far away they are getting from what made that glory shine. When innovation was king, and selling weapons wasn’t even a gleam in Nagisa’ brother’s eye. For about two or three minutes I was reminded of exactly what caught my attention when this show was coming out. But more on that later.
The rest was pretty much by the book. In space, the day was saved, on the Martian firmament, the day was also saved. But not in quite the way they planned. This was another aspect I enjoyed. That is was never about the rockets. It was never about A-TEC or it’s students. The resource in question was Saito himself. His brains and raw talent with rockets. That’s what Professor Jimmie signed on for. That’s who the students followed, and ultimately that’s who everyone was banking on. Good thing they saved Nagisa, as he had the most of any of them invested. It’s almost enough to make me want to forgive them….Almost….
Nagisa: BOOYAH! You can call me CEO now! Beacthes!
Well, it’s no great secret that I didn’t care much for about half of this program; started around episode seven, and with but a few rises here and there, it just started to go down. I felt the show was strongest when it concentrated it’s efforts on the main characters. Saito, Nagisa, and Angelina were gold stars from the start, and that was well serviced with plenty of support from Mizuki and Iris and the rest of the A-TEC gang. When they explored the world with these guys, I was paying attention and enjoying it.
The amount of civil politics they had in episode four was a good measure. The amount of corporate politics in episode six was enough to sell the major, behind the scenes, plot. Letting those two facets take more of the stage shifted focus, and shifted it in such a way that I don’t think they ever got back. Psycho brother just made it look painfully amateurish with an exclamation point. Now, I’m one to always let a story tell itself, and am happy to give it room to do so. I try not to dismiss a show because it starts to, and continues to be, about something I might not have an initial interest in. I’m sitting comfortably, please begin…tell me what you are about.
And in the end, that’s the biggest of two problems I have with Classroom☆Crisis. For the first, I didn’t see them give me a good handle on what the show is about. Was the major theme exploration; if not of space than of character? Is it about the evils of civil and corporate politics when it comes to innovation and the pursuit of it? I felt a bunch of half measures for all of them, without hearing the tune they would play if given half the chance. Instead they drop anvils on us. I gave it room, and what I found was not only the author’s fingerprints all over the script, but I could almost see the dogeared pages of Screenwriting 101 clutched in hand. It was all Just So…Good start, landing not stuck.
…what this show needs is a love triangle…
For the second part, it wasn’t only about the overabundance of the politics, but how they brought that to bear. I’ve already covered how ham-fisted most of it felt when placed in the narrative, but add to that some of the great moments they just left behind. The big corporate take-over and asteroid belt imbroglio in days past that left Iris an amnesiac, just kinda fell away. It’s upshot being a little bait and switch maneuver on the classic first girl leg of the love triangle. The story needed that as much as it need the political clown car doing laps most of the tail end of the second act. It felt forced, but by the book at the same time. The single blooming romance worked…shoving a triangle in during the final bit just cheapens all three characters.
But, if there is anything I can take away from the series, in addition to some nice character design, and the brief Call of Rockets, it is the sense of innovation and technical skill the cast represented. That aspect is tough to anime and make exciting…doesn’t mean it can’t be done. But an appreciation for engineers and what they are capable of is a welcome sight no matter what. I hope it can be of inspiration for another story in a similar vein, and also for people in real life.
Thanks to all the commenters and lurkers for following the posts! Come see me in the Fall! I’ll give C☆C a 6/10 with most of those points off for all my gripes listed above.
But these guys are all 10s in my book!
Thanks for Watching!
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: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I wouldn’t go nearly as low as you. I thought there were some iffy things, but they stayed consistent with them and that actually made some things better for me.
One thing that kinda irked me was “What’s the point of all this rocket design?” They just strapped a friggin’ van onto the rocket and go? And then they strap on some old ass rocket to another one, and go? Why bother? Next time just put a shipping crate on.
But the Iris and Mizuki being rivals for Nagisa, I can buy that. I can buy that more than Mizuki’s initial falling for Nagisa, actually.
I thought the show was bright and pretty and not badly done. It did get a little politicky, but eh, shows almost never do what you want them to. Not super great, but not bad.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
I’m gonna set off to Neptune with me Milk Crates and Duct Tape! Yahooooo!
I can buy Iris and Mizuki being rivals, they even planted early seeds for that. But too much of the malarky was going by to get a solid bead on it. As zztop mentions in a comment, about the rockets…both those and the love rivalry feel more like an afterthought.
Overall, the show felt like a first draft….
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Here, have a KSP – The Anime instead.
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
Head writer Fumiaki Maruto admitted in an interview Classroom’s story was his first attempt at writing human drama, after the trendy drama of White Album 2 and Saekano’s comedy.
The anime director further explained the story was supposed to depict “the tragedy of being a student and a salaryman with a light touch.” The scifi elements were to make the drama more interesting, and the rocket invention was to tie in to the “creative work”* theme prevalent in Maruto’s writings.
*Maruto tends to romanticise artistic creativity and rejects corporatism in his writings, as can be seen through A-Tec’s struggles and the coldness of Kirishina Co.’s activities.
https://fantasticmemes.wordpress.com/2015/09/14/art-love-and-politics-in-the-works-of-fumiaki-maruto-white-album-2-saekano-classroom-crisis/
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Thanks for the link. I don’t know if they got their platonic ideas across exactly as the planned. It’s fine to go for human drama, but I felt that he bowdlerized it to the point of abusurdity. He should have brought more of WA2’s and Seakano’s structure to this one.
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 105 comments
Ya know, his name is Kaito right?
In the end class crisis was a very pleasant show. I think the shows most prominent theme was idealism vs pragmatism. Seeing Kaito act like a business man and not actually Nagisa chase after his dreams was q nice vulmination of these values. Now that man child can act mostly like an adult!
That love triangle BS they stuck at the end was really weak. Mizuki and [redacted] had such a nice relationship that a third wheel is not the way to go. But the last few scenes were so blatantly “LETS SEQUEL THIS SHOW” so I kinda get what they’re going for. Other than that, this series really… Stuck the Landing! (Har)
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Ah well, I can edit the and make you look like you’re picking on something that ain’t there. Or I could take it on the chin. I’ll go with the last one and point out you misspelled culmination…
I can see that as a theme, Idealism vs. Pragmatism, but for the heavy handed approach it works just fine. Doesn’t seem like the most major of sticking points…
I cannot for the life of me see why they stuck that rivalry in there. I guess they wanted Iris to be happy as well, in her own way?
I didn’t really get sequel off the last few scenes. It felt just like the denouement it should have felt like. As for landing? I’ll amend my statement: It stuck the landing like Iris on Cold Wood…JK…
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
I found this show disappointing, with wasted potential. The political and boardroom intrigue were poorly done and took time away from what I wanted–seeing the A-TEC students building a game changing rocket. There could have been drama enough with the board of directors deciding to terminate A-TEC due to constant budget overruns with little to show without bringing in all the nefarious dealings. Heck, even the decision to concentrate on weapons manufacturing made sense in terms of income. So that could have been introduced without any need for nasty dealings.
All the politics both political and corporate took time away from the A-TEC students who I wanted to see more of. They were such a potentially interesting bunch that other than the core group we saw too little of.
I agree that the love triangle was unnecessary. There may have been hints of it earlier in the show, but it came across as something that came out of left field. And the whole last episode was everything happened that way because it had to happen that way, like the story was on rails. The only unpredictable thing was Saito and the A-TEC students forming their own rocket corporation. Now, a show focusing on their building a rocket and the problems along the way I’d like to see, as long as it doesn’t throw in a bunch of unnecessary, nefarious politics. And there could be drama in the form of a race of them against their former corporate bosses to build a rocket that could reach the resources of the outer Solar System with them starting from behind since they have to do everything from scratch now.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Oh, what could have been?! I’m right there with you. They wouldn’t even have had to have scrapped alot of the story points they built. Well a few would have been good. As I said, the Iris/Nagisa backstory didn’t go much of anywhere, and the weapons/war vs. fast rockets could have been the major foreground with the civil and corporate politics boiling along in the back. Nagisa himself could have handled that facet, with questions about which group he would pay his loyalty to in the end. Hell, that would have been a good angle for Angelina to shine.
Oh, my, I’ll just stop right there….
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
See, to me they had a payoff of the Nagisa / Iris backstory, and that’s what also made the love triangle be not out of left field.
Could they have done a lot of other things with the story? Sure. But I don’t know if they wasted a lot of time with the stuff they did. And I really don’t think the direction they did was that bad. Honestly, “Plucky students build a better mousetrap under trying circumstances” is not a particularly novel idea. And usually it’s some club or something that’s completely unrealistic. I think the setup here actually worked well for doing something different, with the corporate tie-in and the fight for resources making that part of the success story actually somewhat realistic. So too were the machinations, in that they felt they needed to get Kaito out of his comfortable little lab in order to have him get an interest in working on the automatons. And all of that was the backdrop for Nagisa’s ambitions.
Could a different story have been better? Maybe. Would it have been anything new? Not the way you guys are talking about it. Perhaps the show I’d compare it to setup-wise is Robotics;Notes, and for me, Classroom Crisis was a lot more successful than Robotics;Notes.
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
Oh, I loved this series so much, that final episode was so cool. I never thought that Nagisa would have thought to create his own company with A-TEC, but that is probably the best thing for all of them, and it was a slap in the face to the elder brother.
Iris and Nagisa’s reunion was so good as well and tearful. Though it was rather messed up by the dreadfully unneeded love triangle (I’ve heard that the main guy behind this series just has to have one, and I can see that they were correct).
Nagisa and Sera both really shined in this last episode, and there is hints a sequel and that the father may be called in. Honestly, I thought that the father was dead considering that we never hear or see from him in the entire series, not even in flashback where he was hidden from the audience. I wonder why Nagisa wanted to become CEO but never even mentioned the dad, who would have been the biggest blockade to anything that he wanted to do.
Well, I was so pleasantly surprised by this series and I loved it, and if they do have a sequel, I’ll definitely be there.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Oh, my constant Irene! I’ve always counted on you loving this show for all it’s worth. Thank you for providing the counter-point, the past seven or so weeks, to my angry old man.
Stupid Stupid! Love Triangle! Normally I would be like a deer to a salt lick for a love triangle. But this show has turned me stomach to them for awhile.
I really felt the shine was artificial in most respects, pretty contrived when you get down to it. I honestly avoided talking about the Dad and the CEO shenanigans. But, yeah those elements were there.
I would place a ton of conditions on watching an S2 of this. If they go back to that family based drama, and have it underscore the competition between old company and new. If they avoid the civil politics, then I would watch it unreserved. They would also have to treat Mars and Space as more than just an afterthought….
But, that’s me two cents…
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
A nice ending to an unexpectedly fun and interesting series. I went into Classroom Crisis on a whim and found myself liking it more than I thought I would. Nagisa was grating to deal with at start but luckily since he began cooling down, it was a lot more tolerable seeing him onscreen.
Glad to see A-TEC managed an alternative through Nagisa and Kaito for its survival because either way, Kazuhisa had the upper given that everyone was still on his turf. He royally got screwed by Nagisa with that resignation letter. I’d like to see what he’d do in retaliation.
Overall, the show managed to keep me entertained with its story and characters. The finale was so open-ended it screamed “To be continued” and if another season does come around, I’d watch it. Especially when Kazuhisa mentioned it wasn’t yet time for his father to step in. The intimidation was felt with that one.
POWUH: iLurker with 7 comments
That love triangle thing at the end feels like a tacky afterthought, and frankly it didn’t add much — rather, it detracted from what could have been a nice ending. I’m all for the revelation of the real Nagisa Kiryu being addressed in the next season(?), but shoving Iris into a contrived romantic triangle feels like another unnecessary ingredient thrown in by some cook who’s not exactly sure what he wanted to make.
CC tried to do too many things in many directions at once, but in the end could only manage to limp home. It’s not a total loss though. I still liked the plot, the art and some of the characters. And there were times when the show delivered the goods. I just wish the show’s creators were able to handle this better :(.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Yep. Thank you for reminding me! I forgot to give Lay-Duce credit. They made a great looking show taking advantage of really good character design and delivering a nice technical package. The show was never bad to look at. I hope they can deliver on something that “sticks the landing” next time.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
I’m with IreneSharda, absolutely loved the second half. The beginning episodes didn’t really catch my attention, it seemed like some directionless slice-of-life painted as sci-fi drama, but the whole “A-TEC is being dismantled” didn’t really seem to go anywhere.
My interest only started getting piqued around episode 6 or thereabouts. I enjoyed the family dynamics, the corporate struggle mixed in, the Naisa/Iris backstory as well as the love triangle. Guess I’m one of the outliers here. Prior to that it felt a little run-of-the-mill to me.
Second Highway on Robotic;Notes, they had very similar premise and feel, except R;N kept it the same all the way to the end and it bored me. To be honest, I only watched it to the end because I got to see Nae all grown up.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
We are from total-opposite land! But that is what it is…
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
Variety is the spice of life!