Series: Best Student Council 1 looked at the typical anime high school setting in a slightly different way. Financed by a wealthy businessman whose daughter, Kanade, essentially runs the place as the President of the powerful Student Council; having more say in the way the place is run than the principle or teachers with the help of the council's membership. The main focus of the series in the initial volume was to showcase a new student, Rino Rando, who had lost her mother, her home, and all of her belongings as the result of a series of tragedies that beset her. There was a bit of foreshadowing that this was all planned but nothing to substantiate any darker plots that could arise later. In any case, Rino finds a mysterious benefactor who sends her to the prestigious private prep school and it is soon clear that she is clueless and clumsy on the scale that many such protagonists are in anime these days. She also has what appears to be a gimmicky limitation in the form of a hand puppet named Pucchan on her right hand that serves as either a way to serve as her own second personality (a tougher, more aggressive type at that) or simply for comic relief as it's an all girl school and his personality is clearly male. If this sounds kind of strange, you haven't seen anything yet.

Okay, the episodes for the volume were 1) Dear Mr. Poppit, 2) Gushing Youth, 3) "Payapaya" in the Best Dormitory, 4) A Brilliantly Clever Approach and 5) A Beautiful Battle. The episodes initially set up the premise of the show in a perfunctory manner, showing the main players in their element, with Rino befriended by one of the wallflowers of the cast, Ayu, to become best pals. Not having anyplace to stay, she falls into a runoff election for a spot on the council, failing to understand the politics this creates as the spots are coveted by all, especially the reigning representative from the class Rino is assigned to (who has held the spot for a long time). Rino surprises everyone, herself included, and wins the election, moving up the ladder of power quickly as she then wins a selected spot in the inner circle of the council as well. The dynamics of the rise to power confuses almost everyone, making a number of gals jealous since they have worked for years trying to get half the recognition Rino appeared to have fallen into, adding Cinderella-like aspects to the story.

The episodes all centered on some mini-crisis of sorts but the inconsistent manner in which Pucchan was handled bugged me almost from the very beginning. Some of the time, the second string characters find the puppet odd, pointing it out to the audience in a strange manner (like they are letting us in on something) and other times, the puppet is treated just like a regular person; with a mind of his own and pretty much attached to Rino for his own convenience even as he beats up bullies and the like. The stories dealing with the various squads of the student council, acting as much like political satire as anything else, had some brief moments of clarity that I truly enjoyed but it was almost like some great ideas were quickly tossed around and acted upon to make the show at lightning speed rather than properly fleshed out. I understand that the show was geared towards young females but in my experience, they aren't stupid and the result is a dumbed down set of episodes that had potential to pull off something decent but left me hanging instead. The minor threads that ran through the first four episodes, almost like the fifth was the start of the "real" show, were truncated too and while I applaud taking chances, I only do so when they are followed through on; which didn't happen here. If you are a fan of Shojo series in general and want to see everything on the market, by all means consider this one worthy of a Rent It status but don't say I didn't warn you about the limitations that the two dimensional characters and settings offered up.

Picture: Best Student Council 1 was presented in the same 1.33:1 ratio full frame color that it was shot in by director Yoshiaki Iwasaki for release on television in Japan a few years back. It was brightly colored and lightly drawn as expected for this type of shojo offering, though the use of static shots and camera pans made me think it was made on a lower than average budget. Adding in the lack of detail in many scenes, especially on the character's faces and during the movement parts of the show, made it seem like a second tier title to me in several ways. I didn't see any compression artifacts but there were some issues arising from the way some scenes displayed parallel lines that caught my eye at times, making it an okay transfer at best.

Sound: The audio was presented in 2.0 Dolby Digital with the usual choices of the original Japanese vocals or the newly created English language dub from the folks at ADV Films. I tend to prefer the original tracks but this was a case where the dub seemed superior in many ways. I'm not just talking about the special effects and music having more bass, sparkle, or "punch" either, I mean the whole deal; complete with appropriate female voice actresses that seemed to be having a good time. Whether or not this is a trend with ADV is not known to me (I've seen precious few of their more recent releases, even though I'm a local to the company) but I appreciate it nonetheless. There wasn't a lot of separation on the tracks and the dynamic range wasn't that of a high end show but perhaps ADV director Christine Auten made it a labor of love, working with what she had the best way possible. Whatever the case, it was a decent dub that she can be largely proud of.

Extras: The five episodes crowded out any room for extras so all that were included were the usual trailers, a clean opening & closing, some artwork, and a small sheet of Pucchan stickers for the kids.

Final Thoughts: Best Student Council 1 was nothing special in many ways but it did manage to provide a smile or two for me. I know getting to see a lot of anime might give me the appearance of being jaded or too critical (unlike some other anime reviewing websites, we don't suck ass to get more stuff, cheating the consumer in the process for personal gain) but there really wasn't a lot to get into this time. Had some of the deeper themes been better worked out, I'm sure it would have added a lot more fun and maybe later volumes will do just that since the initial volume in many series start off slowly but unless something changes really quickly, all of the efforts by Ms. Auten won't save this from the "could've been fun" grouping it looks headed for. Check it out for yourselves if you like shojo titles but don't look for anything special or you'll likely be disappointed.

If you enjoy anime, take a look at some of the recommendations by DVD Talk's twisted cast of reviewers in their Best Of Anime 2003, Best Of Anime 2004, Best of Anime 2005, and Best of Anime 2006 articles or their regular column Anime Talk.