The Klutzy Class Monitor and the Girl with the Short Skirt

## Season 1

### Soundtrack

PonSuka's soundtrack is really good and really immerses you in the vibe of the anime. The opening track is a perfect upbeat rock anthem for a silly summer anime. It's such a good song and the animation is so inspired by older animes. It always hits every time I play a new episode every week.

On the other hand, the ED clearly has inferior animation. Well, it's not really animated. It's just a slideshow of painting-style areas around the school. Not much to say about it, really. I think the song's the real highlight, though. It's so underrated that at the time of writing the artists who made it only has 50k monthly listeners. The song is perfect, again, for the vibe of this anime. It's melancholic, upbeat, and always leaves you wanting more from the next episode. Tremendous.

### Thoughts

When I first watched the first few scenes of PonSuka, I didn't really take it seriously at all. It just seemed like another polar-opposite pairing anime with fan service sprinkled throughout. Then, the final few scenes played. Okay, from then on, I started taking this anime seriously. Every single episode throughout was paced incredibly well and had so many good moments, both emotionally and comedically. The "vibe" of this anime is just off the charts. It's like a summer TV anime created in the modern space. I think the weekly schedule really amplified that feeling, too.

Clearly, the main highlights of this anime are the main characters, Togo and Poem. First and foremost, Togo, the Klutz himself, is the most uniquely dense person I've ever seen in any piece of media. He's such an innocently dense person and it makes for so many incredibly funny moments. At the end, it even ties into his backstory and how much he yearns for human connection. Other than that, I also really enjoyed how him being a class monitor, being stuck-up and all was at odds with him developing a relationship with Poem. I loved how he struggled with it, feeling his heart beat faster, yearning for her touch and all that. Even better than that, his confession to Poem was excellent. It was incredibly out of the blue, so it really felt like it was from the deepest depths of his heart.

Poem is an excellently written character. She's supposed to be this almost tsundere, slightly delinquent adjacent character at the start. Then, the story opens up and we get to see more of her dynamics with her friends and family. God, her family makes for so many funny moments. Like, for example, why is their dad a retired rapper and all of his children are named after musical terms? That's really only something you see in "TV style" anime. It's so funny. Moving on from that, I also really enjoyed seeing her back and forth with Togo. It's so fun seeing them learn so much from each other. Finally, perhaps my only complaint of this review, which is her character depth. Despite literally everything else about her being explored, I didn't get to see much of her own inner character. At times, she almost felt like a side character. I don't know, maybe it's just me.

This anime draws you in with the main premise of the two main characters, but keeps you watching episode to episode by the incredibly endearing main characters. Let me tell you, I don't remember the name of a single one, but they left such an impact on me that I had to dedicate an entire paragraph to them. I'll just list them. Poem's friend group was somehow interesting, with the fujoshi girl and the class health representative girl. Their dynamic with every other character really pulled through for some really good moments. There's also the other klutzes, like the health representative and librarian. They were nice and did their job. I really enjoyed seeing their key character traits in every episode their in. Finally, there's the student council president and vice president. Man, they were so good. I loved watching their "one-sided love game" that they were playing in the later half of the season.

I thought the animation and the art style for PonSuka was really nice. It just felt like summer, which is the season where most(?) of the anime takes place in. The landscapes, background art, and set design were pretty good. I think my favorite aspect of the animation has to be the character design, though. Okay, maybe each and every one of the characters are based on a certain stereotype depicted in other animes, but the amount of uniqueness poured into each one really made them distinct. They felt really distinct from a lot of other animes' characters in the way they look and act. It's incredible, really.

That's all I have to write about PonSuka. It's not the most emotional anime in the world, but I really do feel like this anime's something special. It captures the feeling I would've felt if I'd been watching a show on TV when I was younger, except this time I'm watching on a laptop. Combined with the amazing characters, spectacular visuals, and the lighthearted plot, it's no surprise that I'm giving this anime a 9/10 Mid-Gem. It's not flawless, but it does what it does good in the best way possible. Watch it!