Medaka Box

Medaka Box
File:Medaka Box Volume 1.JPG Cover of the Japanese edition of volume 1 published by Shueisha
めだかボックス (Medaka Bokkusu)
Genre	Action, School Life, Comedy
Manga
Written by	Nisio Isin
Illustrated by	Akira Akatsuki
Published by	Shueisha
Magazine	Weekly Shōnen Jump
Demographic	Shōnen
Original run	May 2009 – present
Volumes	3

Medaka Box (めだかボックス, Medaka Bokkusu) is an ongoing Japanese manga written by Nisio Isin and illustrated by Akira Akatsuki. The series follows the student council, originally Medaka Kurokami and Zenkichi Hitoyoshi, during their various adventures to honor suggestions presented by academy members in order to better the academy.

Medaka Box is serialized in the Japanese magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump, published by Shueisha since May 2009. As of December 2009, Shueisha has compiled its chapters into 3 bound volumes.

Plot

Medaka Kurokami, the recently elected student council president of Hakoniwa Academy, has instituted a suggestion box in order to collect suggestions and improvements from fellow academy students. Together with Zenkichi Hitoyoshi, she solves problems, from finding lost dogs to cleaning up club buildings and even fixing personalities. During the course of the series, Kouki Akune and Mogana Kikaijima are recruited to the student council to help improve the school. Soon, the student council discovery the existence of The Flask, a project hosted by the Hakoniwa principal in order to experiment on extremely talented student dubbed Abnormals. The goal of the project is to find a trial that will create Abnormals from normal people. However, once a trial is found, the students of Hakoniwa Academy will be forced to endure the vicious trial which will result in the death of most of the students. The Student Council then enter the secret under the base to stop The Flask project from succeeding.

Characters

Medaka Kurokami (黒神 めだか, Kurokami Medaka)

The female protagonist of the series. She is a well rounded academic student, passing every class and club she has participated in with seemingly inhuman results. When the series begins, she has just been elected the new student council president by an unheard-of margin of 98% of the total votes, even though she is still only a first-year student. Medaka institutes a suggestion box in which students can drop suggestions for various tasks that the students feel would improve the academy. Medaka planned on just her and Zenkichi Hitoyoshi running the student council, but as the story continues, Medaka recruits more people to fill the council positions. Her personality is one of helping others, and she determines to finish any task handed to her. For every task she completes, Medaka buys a vase with flowers. She one day hopes to have completed so many suggestions that she fills the entire academy with blooming flowers. She has an older brother whom she despises but at the same time holds some degree of begrudging respect for.

Zenkichi Hitoyoshi (人吉 善吉, Hitoyoshi Zenkichi)

The male protagonist and childhood friend of Medaka. He joins the Student Council in order to protect Medaka. Zenkichi always shows enthusiasm toward Medaka’s cause for helping others and will punish anyone who opposes that cause. He has admitted that he loves Medaka but feels that it is going to be a long road before he tells her these feelings directly. He is noted to be a not particularly special individual on his own, but he has shown on occasion an innate ability to summon immense strength, endurance, and determination if he's fighting for something he believes in. In an ironic twist, Zenkichi is revealed to be a master of Savate, having honed his skill to such an extent that he possesses an almost impenetrable defense. According to Zenkichi, he learned this style because he fears fighting and uses it to disarm opponents and take away their desire to fight.

Hansode Shiranui (不知火 半袖, Shiranui Hansode)

The comic relief character of the series. Even though she is the smallest of the main characters, Shiranui has a very large appetite. She has a knack for finding clandestine information with ease, knowing about most things that would seem to be vague details. Shiranui habors a hidden resentment against Medaka and claims she has no friends and unlike the other Abnormals, does not desire them. Her grandfather is the school's principal.

Manga

No.	Japanese release date	Japanese ISBN
1	October 2, 2009	978-4-08-874776-7
2	December 4, 2009	978-4-08-874778-1
3	February 4, 2010	978-4-08-874799-6