Suugaku Joshi Gakuen

Sine, cosine, Mentaiko!

Kazuki Sato absolutely loathes Mathematics. He has just transferred school, only to realize that it's actually an all-girls school specializing in Mathematics. OVERALL HILARITY ENSUES.

Suugaku Joshi Gakuen (lit. Math Girls Academy) is an on-going live-action TV series by NTV. It is directed by Yuto Kawai and written by Masahiro Yamaura. Its pilot episode aired on January 11, 2012.

It follows the current predicament of Kazuki Sato getting stuck in a school filled with math-crazed cute little girls and the quest of Nina Machida to become the next Math Boss as she searches for her elder sister who disappeared shortly after becoming the Math Boss.

Well, he does suck at Math, but he slowly appreciates the subject after Nina saved him from a lot of trouble by the power of Math. He's still reviled at how the school works, though.

Here are the tropes used in this show:

• The Ace: Nina.
• Agent Scully: Mami Shibuya
• Alpha Bitch; Sayuri, before Nina defeated her.
• Attention Whore: Tomoko and Sayuri.
• Big Eater: The Gluttony Girls.
• Born in the Wrong Century: A possible reason why a Math genius like Nina is a Walking Techbane.
• Butt-Monkey: Poor Kazuki always gets blamed for almost anything.
• Catchphrase: Nina has the above quote. Kazuki has, "What the hell is this school?"
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Almost everyone. In fact, Mami Shibuya is the Cloudcuckoolander among all of them.
• Missing Big Sister: The reason for Nina's quest to be the Math Boss
• Deadpan Snarker: Nina.
• Defeat Means Friendship: A lot of Nina's battles end up like this.
• Dynamic Entry: Nina does this Tarzan-style.
• Forgotten Childhood Friend: Sayuri to her Rival Tomoko.
• Gambit Roulette: When the homeroom teacher decides to change the seat plan, Yuri tries to double her chances of getting seated next to Kazuki by placing the lottery numbers in such a way that odd numbers, even numbers, and prime numbers are grouped in separate boxes. It fails.
• Good with Numbers: The school runs on this trope.
• Gratuitous English: Lots of them, as expected of a show involving Math.
• Groupie Brigade: Mami and Nina both have their respective fan clubs inside the school.
• Manipulative Bitch: Iroha, the leader of the Morality Squad. She toned down later, though.
• Math Is An Awesome Power: Why, it can save an Unlucky Everydude from Accidental Pervert moments and some other shenanigans.
• Idol Singer: The whole cast are composed of these. In-universe, Tomoko uses this image to great effect.
• Improbably Female Cast
• Les Yay: Sayuri towards Nina. Likes she cares about it, though.
• Logical Fallacies: Sayuri's scheme to have Nina and Kazuki kicked out of school involves accusing Kazuki of peeping through her skirt, to which Nina comes to her defense. A Math battle revealed that it is impossible for Kazuki to see Sayuri's panties because he had to crouch to do so, and the witnesses can't claim they saw him do it because the wall below the window of the building floor they're on blocks their view downstairs.
• Measuring the Marigolds: Nina's quiz battle often involve this.
• Monty Hall Problem: Featured in Episode 8.
• Only Sane Man: Kazuki.
• Power Trio
  • The Id: Kazuki
  • The Ego: Sayuri
  • The Superego: Nina
• Rock Beats Laser: Gloriously featured in Nina's first difficult Math battle against tech-savvy challengers. Sometimes, you just have to think hard instead of relying on your gadgets to solve everything.
• Running Gag: Nina's battles are all punishment games so far.
• Serious Business: Well, Math of course.
• Shown Their Work: Apparently, the International Math Olympiad had a hand in making this show possible, so expect some Math solutions as you watch this.
• Stalker with a Crush: Yuri towards Kazuki, though Sayuri warns him that she really gets around.
• Theme Naming: Several characters are named after major roads and theme parks in Japan, such as Mami Shibuya, Tomoko Harajuku, and Aki Daiba.
• Third-Person Person: Nina occasionally refers to herself by her name.
• This! Is! SPARTA!: Sayuri from Episode 6 onwards.
• Token Mini-Moe: Nina's Groupie Brigade. Their actors are as young as 12 years old when most of the cast are around their teens.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Nina's Mentaiko bread.
• Wacky Homeroom
• Walking Techbane: The entire reason why Nina doesn't use a phone, a computer, or any kind of technology at all is that it breaks as soon as she touches them!
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Awesome?: Because Mathematics is SERIOUS FUCKING BUSINESS.
• Xanatos Gambit: Iroha tries to pull off the Prisoner's Dilemma Gambit *
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner's_dilemma
  to have Kazuki and Sayuri suspended from school for breaking one of the school's glass windows. Both of them did not confess. It ultimately fails when Nina admits that she was the one who broke it trying to pull off her signature Tarzan-style Dynamic Entry.
• Zettai Ryouiki: Sayuri with black socks, Tomoko with frilly white socks.

edited 12th Mar '12 11:02:23 PM by judasmartel