Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m hankering for some sumptuously scripted melodrama, and thus feel it’s past time for a return to Seiren Academy. When last we left off, it actually seemed like things were looking up for our luckless adolescents. After Nanako sent Saint-Juste into a rage by attempting to destroy her pills, the two reconciled by the bay, leading to Saint-Juste’s unexpected reappearance for finals week. Meanwhile, Kaoru’s hard love during Shinobu’s convalescence appears to have developed into a genuine friendship between them, with Kaoru now assisting Shinobu with her finals prep.
It’s all been such a healthy, productive turn of events that I have to imagine the other shoe is currently mid-descent, gaining calamitous speed as it plummets towards the earth. Given Miya-sama’s prior warnings against Nanako’s involvement, I’m guessing Nanako will soon have all the Sorority turning against her, and Shinobu’s loyalties harshly tested. Regardless, I am sure Dezaki will continue to festoon Ikeda’s delicious tale in all the finery it deserves, as our heroines spiral towards absolution or mutual destruction. Let’s get to it!
Episode 15
We open on a lovely establishing shot, an aerial pan down the city’s central, dividing river that luxuriates in practical aluminum lighting effects. Feels like modern anime still hasn’t found an appropriate equivalent for this enchanting effect
Given the events of the past episodes, even the bright sunlight here cannot allay the implications of this river – it is the dividing line between worlds, the wall established between Miya-sama and Saint-Juste
A perky melody carries us down to the shopping center, where Nanako and Tomoko are currently shopping for an apparent yacht ship engagement. From the lighting to the music to Tomoko’s presence, every element of this opening implies a return to cheerful normalcy
Tomoko states that one proposed dress looks too “Shichi-Go-San,” referencing an annual festival celebrating the growth of young children. Her joke echoes Nanako’s hopefully diminishing anxieties; at this point, it seems clear that Nanako can fend for herself among the titans of Seiren
I like the delicately painted shading of the ensuing montage; not quite the detail level of the actual postcard memories, but sort of a halfway point, furnishing still images with a sense of vitality that emphasizes their status as treasured moments
“Tomoko was helping me find a dress for the Sorority party.” Their outing emphasizes how the Sorority no longer divides them, and can even facilitate their time together
“This is the end of mid-term break” reflects Nanako. The composition echoes her sense of finality – we see her through the physical barrier of a chain-link fence, as the late-afternoon sun heralds the arrival of night
Apparently you need to rank in the top fifty students to remain a Sorority member
“I’m so grateful now that I wasn’t ‘Sorority Quality.’” Tomoko revels in her ordinary high school life. As Nanako has learned through both her own experience and the private lives of Seiren’s titans, there is rarely much joy in being considered “exceptional”
“You’ll be 43rd… no, 38th!” Thanks, Tomoko
“Fukiko; The Sea Rumbles.” Almost as intimidating a title as “A Tale of Double Suicide”
As usual, that tower and the chimes of the bells return us to Seiren Academy, a piece of visual punctuation as clear as a comma or semicolon
The students are presented as ghostly silhouettes as they flock towards the announcement board. Can definitely see the influence here for how Utena frames its crowds of spectators
Nanako and Shinobu make the grade, but their classmate Junko fails. These public reveals of academic placement have always seemed unnecessarily cruel to me, but they certainly feel appropriate for Seiren, where the active judgment of your peers is so emphasized
Apparently she’s actually a brilliant student, but had a high fever on the first day of midterms. The Sorority is truly ruthless; Miya-sama is basically the anti-Kaoru, preying on her subordinates in their moments of weakness rather than being their pillar of strength
“Nothing will happen again, or at least, I won’t let anything overwhelm me again.” Good luck with that, Nanako
“I think I am becoming, bit by bit, more fond of Seiren’s solemn buildings and foreboding trees.” Nice visual compliment to this reflection, as we pan down to Seiren’s reflection shimmering in the lake, emphasizing how these foreboding structures have come to possess their own charm
More shots of birds flying beyond the bars of the windows. Is Nanako simply becoming accustomed to the dimensions of her cage?
“It was as pitiless as the sentencing of a criminal.” As expected, Miya-sama delights in the public shaming of her subordinates, even when their “crime” is as innocent as Junko’s
The composition frames Junko as isolated in darkness, alone in the spotlight. The Sorority does not encourage community and collective goodwill – it’s rather the opposite, a cultivated den of ruthless rivals
“This is a disgrace.” Excellent composition placing Miya-sama in deep shadows, emphasizing her menace while positioning her as something like the voice of god, the judge calling out to Junko from the shadows. I’m reminded of the SEELE dressing-downs from Evangelion
“It’s unfortunate you couldn’t meet our standards for even one term.” Miya-sama in her vicious element
“Since it would be heartless to expel you so abruptly… you have one week to resign voluntarily.” Miya-sama even dangles one last hope of reconciliation before dropping the hammer. A true sadist
“Please vouch for me!” This seems to be the ultimate point of Miya-sama’s theatrics – to ensure none of these girls develop any sense of solidarity, any loyalty beyond their dedication to Miya-sama herself. Public “executions” like this emphasize how anyone who speaks out might be next, encouraging the girls to see each other as enemies
Of course, Nanako represents a spirit of compassion and mutual support that is utterly alien to Miya-sama’s philosophy. And even here, on Miya-sama’s grand stage, she challenges her authority by vouching for Junko
Miya-sama responds that “Sorority members are responsible for their own health as well.” Pretty much a direct rejection of Nanako’s after-school activities, as she’s worked desperately to support the health of Saint-Juste, Kaoru, and Shinobu
Miya-sama is overlaid with the shadow of the window’s bars as she refuses. She herself is the cage
“I wonder if you realize who arranged for YOUR admission?” Miya-sama moves on to open threats, seemingly implying she might move to attacking Nanako’s family situation, or reveal some hidden benefactor of Nanako’s
Shinobu is of course quick to suggest gestures of fealty Nanako might pursue to regain Miya-sama’s favor
Miya-sama’s threat prompts Nanako to consider if her prior assailants were right to accuse her, and that there might genuinely be some unknown supporter who ensured her entrance into the Sorority
Meanwhile Junko falls to pieces, and Miya-sama once again celebrates her own cruelty with a victory performance on the piano. Quite curious as to how the piano relates to her severed bond with Saint-Juste
Then we’re off to the yacht party. The direction does an excellent job of echoing Nanako’s mental disarray; we get too-close shots of waves and propellers, spinning compositions that seem intended to evoke seasickness, and panning shots accompanied by loud, abrasive laughter, as if all these predators are cackling at Junko’s expense
As expected, Nanako can think only of Junko’s absence
She now wonders if it was simply Miya-sama’s whim that earned her a place in the Sorority, a thought that shakes her general confidence in how she’s fitting in at Seiren. Has she made it this far on her own merits, or is she simply a tool in Miya-sama’s cruel games?
Miya-sama at last confronts her on the balcony, her face a black void
Surprisingly, Miya-sama reassures her that her selection was fair, and even apologizes for what happened. This is seemingly how she reigns in her more defiant subordinates – disrupting their confidence and then disarming them with alleged kindness, carefully gaslighting them into seeing her as their only source of salvation
“Won’t you forgive me?” Putting the onus on Nanako to forgive, and thus validate Miya-sama’s behavior
“Your hair is so soft. And you’re so pretty.” In moments like these, Miya-sama’s possessive adoration seems to echo Saint-Juste’s desperate longing
The parallels continue as the two take to the beach, echoing Nanako and Saint-Juste’s reconciliation from the preceding episode
And Nanako agrees, at last seeing some degrees of similarity between the two sisters
Even in this gentle moment, Miya-sama’s obsessive need for control leads her to tell Nanako not to write to her “brother” anymore. Does Miya-sama seek in these Sorority minions the closeness she lost with Saint-Juste?
After the cruise, Junko calls Nanako for a meetup, and reflects on the cruel duality of the Sorority. “Surely, I thought, their character had a goodness to match their beauty.”
“This is a flower that will never die. Thank you, for speaking up for me.” After an episode so preoccupied with earning Miya-sama’s favor through gifts like roses, Junko offers one earnest flower of thanks, a thrust of solidarity within this culture that seeks to divide them
Nanako reciprocates, saying she’s also against the Sorority’s awful behavior. Thus her brief era of feeling at peace within this world comes to an end, and her active rebellion against the Sorority’s dictates begins
And Done
Hell yeah, go for it Nanako! It seems like Miya-sama believed that getting closer to Nanako, and thus letting herself be humanized to a certain extent, would solidify Nanako’s loyalty to the Sorority. Instead, basically the opposite happened – seeing these cracks in Miya-sama’s facade helped Nanako realize that her rulership of the Sorority is indeed the arbitrary tyranny of a deeply flawed person, and that there was ultimately no substance to the fantasy that everyone at Seiren seems determined to uphold. Nanako may no longer be acclimating to the rules of Seiren, but that’s only because she has grown beyond them; the betrayal of Junko demonstrated the callous limits of Miya-sama’s philosophy, and now Nanako knows she must forge her own path.
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