Mikagura School Suite

Episode 4

Mikagura School Suite is a series in search of a happy medium. It wants to be a colorful explosion of crazy ideas, but it also wants to have some semblance of a plot. Last week's episode leaned a bit too far towards the orderly end of the spectrum, but it seems to have regained its balance here. The story is still moving forward, but it's doing so with as much energy and quirkiness as it can muster.

In order to get ready for the big tournament, Eruna starts training with the kids from the drama club. They seem to spend more time doing improv skits than they do learning new techniques, but the training routine somehow pays off. Eruna runs into an old acquaintance in her first battle and manages to pull off a convincing victory. In between all the jokes and artsy action sequences, we learn a little bit about Akama, the president of the drama club. It turns out that he's hiding some personal problems beneath his calm exterior, but it's nothing that Eruna can't accidentally solve in a two-minute conversation.

Eruna's training sessions with the drama club are more of a comedic interlude than a serious plot point, but they feel more in line with the show's overall attitude as a result. Mikagura School Suite has all but abandoned its serious foreshadowing in favor of moment-to-moment wackiness, and it's better off for doing so. Any action series can drop ominous hints about upcoming conflicts, but few can replicate this show's blindingly peppy atmosphere. Passing off goofy improv routines as genuine battle training is exactly the sort of thing it needs to do in order to capitalize on that strength.

Akama's character development doesn't work quite as well, unfortunately. It's not that it's particularly misguided; the desire to mask parts of his personality is actually a credible flaw for the president of the drama club. The trouble is that there's not nearly enough time in this episode to do anything worthwhile with that idea. With the first-year tournament soaking up most of the attention, Akama's subplot is more of an outline than an actual story arc. We learn what his problem is, we see how it affects his social life, Eruna tells him not to worry about it, and suddenly he's perfectly fine. The bones are there, but there's no meat on them.

Akama's side story may take the express train to resolution town, but at least it saves enough time for one of the show's best fight scenes thus far. Eruna takes on another member of the calligraphy club, and some pretty creative attacks fly back and forth. The stampede of animated horse sketches is a neat idea, and Eruna's way of dealing with it is very much in character. Most importantly, the quality control department finally decided to show up this week. The scene is as ambitious in its direction as anything we've seen in previous episodes, but the characters manage to stay on model in just about every shot. It's a definite improvement over previous efforts, and hopefully a good sign for the remainder of the series.

Mikagura School Suite continues to be a stylish and lighthearted piece of brain candy, enjoyable and disposable in equal measure. I don't see it doing anything particularly deep or clever in the immediate future, but I'm looking forward to seeing what kinds of absurd techniques the other clubs have in store. Some sharper writing certainly wouldn't hurt, though.

Rating: B

Mikagura School Suite is currently streaming on Funimation.

Paul Jensen is a freelance writer and editor. You can follow more of his anime-related ramblings on Twitter.