Onigase Harigane, officer in the school Disciplinary Committee AKA School Police, goes after the Student Council for their brazen uniform violations. Akune, Kikaijima and Zenkichi all relent, but Medaka refuses to change. Onigase tries to trick her with a fake suggestion box request, but Medaka foils her by jumping in a pool with all her clothes on. Onigase follows her in, and must borrow a revealing spare uniform from Medaka. Later, Zenkichi and Onigase accidentally get handcuffed together, and then to Medaka, and the three end up helping half the school out on the way to HQ. Zenkichi and Medaka deal with a pair of delinquents that had defied Onigase’s justice.
Color us pleasantly surprised with the introduction of the spunky, no-nonsense officer Onigase to the rapidly-expanding cast of supporting characters in Medaka Box. While initially a rigid wet blanket, who lives only to enforce the rules, a day of obsering how Medaka ticks leads her to bend a little. We like her personality and energy, and her tendency to change her voice from cold and scolding to warm and friendly at the tip of a hat. She exhibits good chemistry with Zenkichi, and even she is not immune to Medaka’s seemingly infinite charms. Thankfully, the handcuff bit never descended into fanservicey farce, and rather served as a kind of “tour” of Medaka’s generosity and popularity for the pink-haired policegirl.
Onigase doesn’t fit the mold of a villain-of-the-week, because like so many other ne’r-do-wells on this series, she has a change of heart and a humanizing moment after her experiences with the student council. The other potential villains of the week, “MetalWood”, don’t last long, as their wooden and metal bats are shattered by the Medaka/Zenkichi duo, who use their legs when they can’t use their arms. While we liked Onigase, we’re not looking forward to her chairman, Unzen, who is another one of those ten-year-old prodigys who is in high school for some reason, and breaks his PSVita (or whatever) for no reason.
Rating: 6 (Good)
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