Classroom Crisis

Episode 7

Angelina's had a bit of a rough time in Classroom Crisis. In spite of being a finance expert and highly competent second-in-command to Nagisa, the show's largely relegated her to bad comic relief, pining for her boss, and setting up pratfalls. Her character deserves better, and fortunately, this week's Classroom Crisis goes a long way to fixing that. In the context of a space-hijacking, with two members of A-TEC's lives on the line, Angelina gets to kick butt, drink wine, and generally be a big damn hero.

This week opens with A-TEC in high spirits and on schedule, ready and raring to go as Nagisa performs a general inspection of their workshop. They're still short 1.5 billion for their engine, but everything else is going well. Off in space, things aren't quite as rosy, as a conference for prospective pilots has forced Angelina to play chaperone to Iris. Drinking off her problems causes the two of them to miss their flight home, and when the replacement flight they catch is hijacked in order to abduct the famous engineer Jason Li, things go from bad to worse.

This episode stuck to a pretty classic narrative formula, but the general hijacking template offered plenty of opportunities for characters to both shine individually and demonstrate how far their relationships have come. Nagisa in particular has shifted significantly throughout the series. Each new episode has slowly nudged him towards true camaraderie with A-TEC, as his relationships with Mizuki, Kaito, and the overall class have been fleshed out through both dedicated arcs and small conversations. Here, with Angelina and Iris in real danger, the show is able to lean on the careful groundwork it has laid. Not only does Nagisa act far more personable in his conversations with his classmates, but he even ends up relying on their expertise to carry out his plan. Nagisa plus A-TEC are a formidable team, and their interactions here, scattered with a couple of Nagisa's first genuine smiles of the entire series, formed a satisfying emotional payoff.

On the other end, Angelina and Iris's predicament allowed for a unique opportunity for Angelina to show off and trounce some thugs. There were a couple of brief but nicely choreographed fight scenes this week, with Angelina making great use of the inconsistent, apparently surface-based gravity in the ship to zip around and knock out her captors. Angelina's conversations with both Iris and Professor Li also helped add some texture to her character, finally escaping the tired and often insulting gags that have so far represented way too much of her screentime. And in the end, Iris and Angelina predictably end up establishing an awkward sort of friendship. Turns out all you have to do to break through Iris' shell is save her from an assassin's bullet or two.

Overall, this was another solid episode that offered a strong balance of immediate drama and relationship-building. Classroom Crisis has successfully built its characters into well-defined people with a set of shifting but emotionally charged relationships, and at this point, it's inherently satisfying to see Nagisa enjoying time spent with his unexpected friends. Classroom Crisis is chugging consistently along.

Rating: A-

Classroom Crisis is currently streaming on Crunchyroll and Viewster.

Nick writes about anime, storytelling, and the meaning of life at Wrong Every Time.