Even the Student Council Has Its Holes! ‒ Episode 4
This week's opening skit shows that while Even the Student Council Has Its Holes! is rarely gut-bustingly funny, it still possesses its own comfortable style of humor. Each character plays their part. Arisu came up with the suggestion box idea for duplicitous and practical reasons. Komaro is a blind devotee to the sanctity of the suggestion box. Tan's online-poisoned persona extols the superiority of short-form video brainrot. Ume provides the everyman's reaction to this silliness. And there are multiple instances of characters suffering grievous injury. Hisako isn't there, but otherwise this is a good survey of the mode in which the series operates.
On that note, I've noticed that these sketches rarely involve the full cast, and I imagine that's intentional. The more characters involved in a scene, the more complicated that scene becomes, both in the drafting stage and in the ultimate viewing by the audience. Four, however, is a tried-and-true number for comedy series. Lucky Star has four main characters. Seinfeld has four main characters. It's an arrangement that allows just enough complexity without overwhelming the humor. Granted, I'm speaking off the cuff here, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were some actual literary theory behind why this number works.
The cafeteria skit doesn't work quite as well for me. While I'll acknowledge that I lack the familiarity with obscure Japanese cuisine to properly appreciate how bizarre the one menu item is, the rest of the jokes aren't as punchy. Komaro being brought to tears by the lack of a flag on her omurice was silly enough to be cute, and I like her being too short to return her food tray. Tan fumbling his tomato feels like a missed opportunity for a sakuga flex. And for me, the most important detail in the Arisu punchline was how the animators drew the individual strands of hair on the nape of her neck. That kind of verisimilitude continues to elevate Student Council Holes above its more pedestrian peers in horniness.
Not content to rest on its ecchi anime laurels, the series also makes a sincere go at the girls band genre with a beautifully rendered singer-songwriter ditty from Koki. As an avowed fan of music anime starring teen girls with personality problems, I'll readily cop to being pandered to, which extends to Koki's character design. The short hair with her roots showing is a strong look, and the anatomy-obsessed animators give her collarbones you could rest a drinking glass on. I also recognized Yū Kobayashi's voice as soon as she spoke, and I love her deeper timbre. However, before Ume can become too charmed by Koki's outwardly cool demeanor, the rest of the music club arrives and exposes her (and themselves) for their other extracurricular activities on school grounds. It's a ridiculous enough punchline, punctuated well by the vibrator slowly rolling off the futon.
For the next sketch, I estimated about fifty-fifty odds whether or not we'd actually see Komaro pee herself. Given the mangaka's roots in fetish material and Komaro's roots specifically as the main vehicle for that, I was surprised when the conclusion allowed her the dignity of offscreen bladder relief. Its inclusion wouldn't have made me think less of the series (Onimai remains a recent favorite of mine, after all), but I do think it's interesting to note that Student Council Holes isn't trying to be abject in its perversions. There are still allusions to the spectacle of ryona, yet it's careful not to go too far into that direction. It strikes that balance between Muchimaro's predilections and mass appeal.
Speaking of mass appeal, this episode's “money shot” is the finished ending animation, which is a colorful and lively collage of everyday scenes featuring the show's cast. I knew the current opening sequence had to be a temporary one, but I had thought the old ED felt in line with what I've come to expect, so this is a very pleasant surprise. The storyboards and direction for the ending are credited to the mononymous Sora, who is not an animator I'm familiar with, but the results speak for themselves. Ryo Imamura also serves as the chief animation director here, and the buttery smooth character acting makes each member of the cast come alive.
The epilogue is a cute scene capitalizing on Hisako's easily flustered nature and setting the stage for a hot springs episode next time. In retrospect, this episode is rather light on the nudity, so it makes sense that they'd be conserving their nipples for next week. The low angle shot that provides a glimpse of Komaro's bra under her shirt is at least technically impressive and satisfyingly lascivious. And once again, I like that Ume displays a sincere sense of propriety in response to Satomi's prodding, while the girls (and Tan) let their minds wander to dirtier places. I can guess which side the onsen adventures will be biased towards.
Rating:
Even the Student Council Has Its Holes! is currently streaming on OceanVeil.
Sylvia is on Bluesky for all of your posting needs. She loves hole. And yes, she is reusing that joke from her Dorohedoro reviews. You can also catch her chatting about trash and treasure alike on This Week in Anime.
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