500https://i.ur.com/6nof8o5.png Set in a future where the birth rate decline in Japan forces schools to shrink and close and people to work earlier a pattern not exactly new as the countryside there dwindles now as third spaces are closed all over the world and as city planning fails to care etc the idea of community amongst the young is stressed. Even here the community risks being and at times is superseded by the big and the shiny and the new and engulfed by other things cliques and common apathy as life goes on and they find other things to occupy their time. It takes work to make people care when so much acts to stop it. Community is often revered but it is and has never been easy to create yet alone maintain. It requires work. To quote Le Guin as while she is talking about love here the same applies to wider community building love doesnt just sit there like a stone it has to be made like bread remade all the time made new. Manabi Straight understands this and through it remains optimistic. The structure of the shows staff where directorial responsibilities are split is also interesting given what it is and the show is full of visual inventiveness and populated layouts with an utterly stellar OP and completely lovely ED both more experimental and creative thsn the norm and each respectively reflective of the shows themes in their own way. The ED reflects wonderfully the togetherness and wholesome cuteness that good cgdct shows can have. As our characters work together to clean up their student council office in inventive claymation. https://v.animethemes.moe/ManabiStraightED1. The OP continues the obvious theme of friendship with inventive camera angles and digital camera style effects making it feel personal with a fitting underlying sense of rebellion. https://youtu.be/H6awTUeilTs?si=DI2BannT02e3rJes Student Councils are often seen by students as lame and reflective of the larger structure of the school and they can be and students are generally cruel but so is the society above them. Manabi Straight aims to be more studentled which is good. Maybe Im naive in hoping we get kinder as a species and can see the benefits of things actually functioning more grassroots in balancing community and individualism a la The Dispossessed and maybe Im silly for getting this out of a moe show but Im tired arent we all? At least in Manabi Straight they manage through their gargantuan effort energy I probably dont have rebellion and the right uniting projects to eventually rekindle community spirit not just at a smaller scale with the council group but throughout the school as they work to fix their crumbling infrastructure together. The show still isnt perfect it can be melodramatic and cheesy in the ways you might expect and some things irk me. Continuing the notion suggested by the headteacher that community at this scale is a privilege only for students formed from the proximity and lower responsibility of youth is a sad one though in our exploitative societal system and probably in Japan especially with its work culture its not exactly unrealistic even if unintentionally a tad defeatist. However as the girls say its actually just the beginning and the excellent ending shows an admittedly mild act of rebellion to keep them going. Community and change are not mutually exclusive. Momo carries on a passion Mikan explores Manabis job feels so very her and wont be short of socialising. Forward GO. 500https://pbs.tw.com/media/EDJV4M3XoAEHW4R.jpg