(Nitsuj): Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj, and welcome to the Furry Arc. Throughout the month of August I’ll be taking a look at animes where andromorphic animals or demihumans are the main focus. Since we’re focusing on animals it only makes sense that I bring in animals as well, so let’s welcome our first guest host, Yin-Yang.
*Yin-Yang walks through the door normally*
(Yin-Yang): Hello everyone.
(Nitsuj): What, no special ninja entrance this time?
(Yin-Yang): I’ve got to keep the audience on their toes. If I do a special entrance too many times it loses appeal.
(Nitsuj): So, I’ve heard you have an anime for us?
(Yin-Yang): Indeed. Since kids are going back to school soon, it only seems right to focus on a school-based anime, Seton Academy: Join the Pack. Based off the manga written by Bungo Yamashita in 2016, Seton Academy manages to do the one thing that a lot of mangas have a hard time doing, making people laugh while also educating them.
(Nitsuj: Doesn’t everyone say this is a rip off of Beastars?
(Yin-Yang): Yes, which is odd because Seton Academy came out a few months before Beastars and aside from animals bears no striking resemblance to Beastars in anyway. Personally, this series resembles My Gym Partner’s a Monkey more, only funnier.
(Nitsuj): At the start of 2020, the relatively unknown studio, Studio Gokumi, turned the manga into a hit anime making it one of the most popular animes during the winter season of 2020. Let’s get some early education in and take a look at Seton Academy: Join the Pack.
Opening and Ending
(Yin-Yang): Our opening is “Gakuen Soukan Zoo” sung by the VAs. It’s an okay opening that really does capture the zaniness and wild nature of this series. Each VA really stands out here as they each have a distinct voice.
(Nitsuj): The ending is “Okami Blues” by Hina Kino. This is one of the most adorable endings I’ve ever heard. Hina sings off key throughout the whole song like a grade schooler performing at a school play and that what makes it adorable. Despite singing off key she’s putting her feelings into the song and trying as best as she can to sing. It’s hard not to find it adorable and like it.
Episodes 1-4
(Nitsuj): So the anime starts off on a nice sunny spring day (Yin-Yang: With a 70% chance of hilarious hijinks). We go to Seton Academy’s opening ceremony an academy where animals come together to learn and grow (Yin-Yang: I find it a little sexist that the males are full on furries while the females are animal girls or demihumans if you wanna get PC. (Nitsuj): The anime knows its audience). We focus on the only male human student at school named Jin voiced by Haruki Ishiya who has a deep dislike for animals (which makes perfect sense to go to a school where you’re surrounded by the things you hate). Despite not liking animals, Jin does display a high level of knowledge about them (Yin-Yang: In order to defeat one’s enemy one must know the enemy inside and outside) like when he’s able to tame the school’s wild idiot, Ranka the wolf voiced by Hina Kino (who is hands down the best VA in this anime. She seriously brings Ranka’s character to life and is clearly having the most fun with this character. She does all of Ranka’s barks, growls, and noises). Ranka quickly takes a liking to Jin and wants him to join her pack, but Jin has no interest in that and tricks her to fetch a bone (scene here: https://youtu.be/-osX6MFuBBE). He then comes across Hino voiced by Yume Miyamoto (Rikka from SSSS.Gridman), the only female human in this school (geez, it’s like Noah’s Ark up in here. Take two of every animal. (Yin-Yang): I’m more curious about this world’s idea of what a zoo is). Jin and Hino quickly become friends with Jin obviously having a thing for her (Yin-Yang: Not sure if that can be contributed to puberty or the desire to mate with a member of your species), however, Ranka shows back up and scares Hino away as she’s come to see Jin as a member of her pack (the alpha male so to speak). Jin tells Ranka he doesn’t want to be a member of her pack as different species becoming friends is just impossible in his eyes (I beg to differ. (Yin-Yang): Same). Ranka on the other hand doesn’t think so as when she was little a human boy protected her from some bears. We find out later that the boy who protected her was Jin and he didn’t beat those bears he got mauled by them (it’s a child going up against 3 bear cubs. The chances of him winning are as good as the chances of the *insert football team name here* winning a super bowl) resulting in him developing a hatred of animals. The next day, Hino decides she wants to start a cooking club and Jin helps her out. As they bring supplies to the school, they see that Ranka joined a pack of horses where they treat her horribly (Yin-Yang: They do know that if she wanted to, she could beat them to a pulp right? I mean, if it was me, I’d a cut the bitch for even thinking she was above me). When the alpha horse Kuroe is about to whip her, Hino and Jin come to save her where Jin reveals that Kuroe is a not a horse, but a zebra and zebras are more closely related to donkeys than horses (and. . .he’s right). Kuroe doesn’t believe him (Yin-Yang: Bitch, you’re a zebra, you should know this), so Jin shows off her tail to everyone (fun fact, a horse’s tail is all fluffy. A donkey’s tail is only fluffy at the tip). Kuroe runs away embarrassed (scene here: https://youtu.be/2yNCSMPYFbw) and Ranka runs away to sulk where she gets found by Hino who gets attacked by bears. Ranka tries to help her but the odds are too much for her and Jin comes in to save Hino with bear mace. They of course wash it off quickly and gang up on Jin where Ranka tries once again to come to the rescue only to fail (Yin-Yang: She’s an embarrassment to the species). The two get saved by their teacher who is a tyrannosaurus rex (oh yeah, I forgot to mention, the teachers are all dinosaurs. (Yin-Yang): They were here since the beginning, so they would make the best teachers) and Jin along with Hino officially join Ranka’s pack where she marks them both as hers (scenes here: https://youtu.be/VZP8S4rb_0s and https://youtu.be/MkcJX58s4TI?t=34).
In episode 2 the cooking club gets a total of 3 new members. The first is Yukari voiced by Misaki Kuno (Serara from Log Horizon), a koala who’s tired of eating the same thing over and over again and is trying to find a dish she ate when she was younger (scene here: https://youtu.be/OtD1IWSwDv4. Oh boy, I know what it is. (Yin-Yang): Really, what? (Nitsuj): You don’t wanna know). Through Ranka’s bad cooking, we find out that the dish Yukari ate when she was younger was her mom’s poop (Yin-Yang: Oh God~). Yep, baby koalas are fed their mom’s poop in order to get the bacteria that will allow them to safely eat eucalyptus (fun fact, pandas do the same thing). The second member (or at least she says she’s not a member) is Kurumi voiced by Sora Tokui, a cat who uses her hypnotic purrs to control people (why do I get the feeling this is what all cats do to their owners to get what they want?). She tries to take over the club and turn it into the napping club, but that fails and she leaves saying she’ll never join the club even though her tail is straight up indicating that she’s happy being around them and having fun (Yin-Yang: So, she’s tsundere? (Nitsuj): Very). The final member is a sloth named Miyubi (who’s got a rockin’ bod for a sloth) voiced by Konomi Kohara (Chika from Kaguya-sama: Love is War) who keeps dying throughout the episode because of what she does or eats (scene here: https://youtu.be/brwVMweXDNM, I had no idea sloths lived such cursed lives). One joke with her that I like is that she likes sports and is trying to find one that she’s good at (Yin-Yang: *Chuckles* Okay, that actually got a chuckle out of me).
(Yin-Yang): The laughs continue in episode 3 as we meet Miko the student council president of the academy. She is a naked mole rat and an exhibitionist who hates to wear clothes (Nitsuj: To a naked mole rat there is nothing more perverted and humiliating than wearing clothes) and is taking a strong stance against students who are starting interspecies relationships. She believes that Jin is trying to start his own harem and sends the other rats to spy on him and expose his harem plan (if she only knew). Jin and Ranka get dragged into their own story as they get kidnapped by a bunch of lionesses (Nitsuj: Oh shoot, he really is making a harem) and bring them before the lion known as King (no, not the one from Tekken). King wants their help in helping him get the attention of an impala named Shiho who he seems to have a crush on (scene here: https://youtu.be/ghoIHD_rNYo. (Nitsuj): How the hell is that possible? You’re a lion, she’s an impala. You’re a carnivore. She’s a herbivore. Are you sure you’re not just hungry?). Jin and Ranka tell him to try talking to her by himself where each time he does he scares her away (he has a very intimidating aura). Some other lions trying to take King’s harem show up holding Shiho hostage and force him into a fight where he goes super sayian 3 on us, beats the other lions, and rips apart his mane forcing his harem to leave him (they only loved him for his mane. Shallow bitches). Shiho gets saved and he finally confesses his feelings and desire to be her partner (woah! Slow it down, you just met). Since she’s not in heat she says no and instead wants to start off as friends (scene here: https://youtu.be/vYJV45fiNK0). The funny thing is these two would go on to have their own little side story throughout the anime that not only could have worked as its own spin-off series, but is actually more entertaining than the main story (scenes here: https://youtu.be/ygOXvR70rtk, https://youtu.be/HtgyZhs4Z4I, https://youtu.be/V8b7ZGVXxk4, and https://youtu.be/bV_wybFw4FM). After hearing about this, Miko goes to confront Jin (scene here: https://youtu.be/anl-F9Z0TLM) and threatens to disband the cooking club unless Hino kicks out non-human members (Nitsuj: This is abuse of power. (Yin-Yang): Welcome to the animal kingdom). Ranka comes in where we see she saved some of the rats from Kurumi who was just playing with them (and no doubt going to eat them) and she reconsiders her position. She decides to allow the cooking club to continue but will be checking in periodically to make sure nothing indecent is happening (Nitsuj: Said the girl who walks around in her underwear).
In episode 4 the carnivores are at war with each other. Now that King is no longer. . .the king, the carnivores are fighting to decide who the new ruler of the school will be. While this is going on, Ranka’s older sister, Ferril, shows up and she’s huge (Nitsuj: That’s a lot of wolf for me to handle). Ranka and Ferril grew up in a cold environment and Ferril wanting to keep Ranka warm gave Ranka her fur coat. Thanks to Bergmann’s rule (bigger animals will be found in cold environments. Therefore, the colder the environment the bigger the animal) Ferril’s body grew in order to adapt to the cold so she could survive while Ranka remained small and cute (scene here: https://youtu.be/vzN7v5J81b8. (Nitsuj): Huh, so that explains your height. (Yin-Yang): The Cincinnati of my world would be equivalent to the Phoenix of this world. It was hot all year around, so I grew to average height). Anyway, Ferril loves to dote on Ranka (Nitsuj: Can you blame her? She’s cute and adorable) and came from another school to bring Ranka into her pack. Ranka refuses saying that she’s already started a pack with Jin (Nitsuj: By force, mind you), so Ferril tries to make Jin join her pack by licking him, but Ranka stops her. Just when it seems like the two sisters are about to fight, Ranka threatens to hate her big sis and this causes Ferril to have a mental shutdown at the shock of being hated (scene here: https://youtu.be/MS9_5kN_7p8). In the second half of the episode we meet Yena a spotted hyena suffering from an identity crisis. Despite obviously being a female, Yena honestly believes that she’s a boy. When she was younger her family was poor, so all her clothes were hand me downs from her brother. This resulted in her getting picked on by other boy hyenas who actually thought she was a boy and constantly made fun of her face (it’s better than your ugly-ass faces). After Jin calls her a girl (scene here: https://youtu.be/xOxweYjeR90) she feels insulted and demands that Jin acknowledges her as a guy. Even going as far as trying to show Jin her dick (Nitsuj: Not gonna work) until Jin tells her that female hyenas have dicks as well (Nitsuj: It’s amazing how he knows more about the animals than the animals themselves. (Yin-Yang): It’s kinda sad really. To think we pour money into the education system). This makes her finally face the truth but still not sure if she can accept this (scene here: https://youtu.be/StSYY68pGng. (Nitsuj): You’re a girl! Just embrace it you oddball of a heckler).
Episodes 5-8
For episode 5 everyone is getting excited for field day and Ranka is determined to come in first place (Nitsuj: Impossible). Jin, Hino, and Yukari being the pessimistic bunch says they won’t participate leaving only Miyubi to train with her (scene here: https://youtu.be/iOyl_sampf8, they’re all gonna lose). The rest of the cooking club sees how hard Ranka and Miyubi are training with each other and decide to participate in field day as well. Field day arrives where Miyubi runs a fever. On the one hand this does make her more active (she’s talking normal! (Nitsuj): Witchcraft), but at the same time she’s putting herself at risk of dying (Nitsuj: For like the 30th time in this episode alone). The club has her rest promising to bring her victory, but it looks like that won’t be coming because of the annoying chimpanzees who keep cheating to win (and this is blatant cheating. How they didn’t get disqualified is beyond me. Scene here: https://youtu.be/7WF5X0XE6s4). The chimpanzees take a commanding lead of 150 points but the club has a chance to beat them in the final event, the athletic race, a race that’ll take them through the snowy mountains, the hot dessert, the cold water, the jungle, and an arm wrestling match for some reason. The club has Kuroe and the donkeys help them out in the race by having them run through the snowy mountains, Yukari wins an arm-wrestling match against a gorilla (question, how? (Nitsuj): It’s an urban myth that koalas have a grip strength of one ton. While this has not been proven in real life, many people still believe this urban myth. Sort of like how some people believe wolves aren’t endangered. (Yin-Yang): Like hell we aren’t), and Jin runs the dessert. When Hino goes to prepare for the swimming course, the chimpanzees knock her out (scene here: https://youtu.be/KtO9KieNrQw. (Nitsuj): Well, you know what time it is. . .) and Miyubi steps up for the club. Despite almost drowning a couple of times, Miyubi manages to reach the finish line (even the whole school cheers for her). This just leaves Ranka who runs through the forest at top speed to catch up to the chimpanzee leader where Ranka gives her the scare of a lifetime and wins the race earning the club the victory and first place trophy (scene here: https://youtu.be/pr_cTp6NOQ0, that’s how it’s done).
(Nitsuj): In episode 6 we get introduced to Meimei voiced by Yū Serizawa (Shera from How Not to Summon a Demon Lord), the endangered panda who is thinking about enrolling in the academy. The only problem is she’s a spoiled brat who believes that the world revolves around her and everyone should do what she wants and says (Yin-Yang: Such is the case with most pandas. Have you seen their commercials?). However, she meets her worst enemy in the form of Jin who will not bend to her will. After Meimei gets done eating some delicious dumplings she demands that Jin make more which he refuses to do calling her spoiled and everything (scene here: https://youtu.be/-CyGiwcnUgg). After bribing everyone, Jin agrees to make the dumplings but Meimei has to help. When she starts to throw a tantrum, Jin gives her the stare of death which she likes as apparently she’s a masochist and enjoys having Jin talk down to her (Yin-Yang: Guess we’ll add her to the masochist club along with Darkness from Konosuba, Virgo from Fairy Tail, and Sayuki from Hensuki). She finally makes the dumplings (scene here: https://youtu.be/rEFqPnv-TqA) and decides to enroll to join the cooking club (and get abused by Jin), but she’ll need to get everyone’s approval to join including Kurumi who doesn’t take a liking to her because she’s a stranger. In order to get Kurumi to come out of hiding they lock Meimei in a cage and she decides to stay in the cage until Kurumi is comfortable around her (just spray some catnip on you). Meimei stays in her cage all night until the next morning where Kurumi bought her a mole rat and even Jin came to check up on her at night and gave her a blanket (Yin-Yang: He is such a tsundere). With this, Meimei joins the cooking club and licks Jin’s mouth confusing him as the boss of the pack (scene here: https://youtu.be/YwLFBcoblh8).
Episode 7 has the return of Yena who has decided she wants to go all in on being female, but really doesn’t know how to be female. In order to become more feminine, she reaches out to the most feminine girl she knows, Hino (good choice). With the help of the cooking club, Yena erases all of her tomboy traits and becomes a proper female (Yin-Yang: Thus becoming another bland character lost in the shuffle). It doesn’t really last long as she goes back to her traits when she regurgitates food thus defeating everything she’s done (why, that’s what models and celebrities do all the time). Everyone just tells her to be herself (Yin-Yang: Yes. Just be a tomboy. You can still beat up people while wearing a skirt) and this seems to work just in time as some lions come around to pick a fight and they take a cute little honey badger named Anamitsu hostage. Anamitsu was saved by Ferril a few episodes back and now wants to join her pack. Ferril of course says no saying that she only needs Ranka in her pack (that and she’s a honey badger), so Anamitsu tries to fight Ranka to prove herself except Ranka keeps dodging her saying she has no reason to fight. The lions begin to pummel Anamitsu which has no effect on her thanks to her thick pelt (honey badger don’t give a fuck. Honey badger take a beating like it’s nothing). This gives Yena the motivation to return to her original self and she saves Anamitsu (scene here: https://youtu.be/PpjN0GbmFKk. (Yin-Yang): Did she really need to be saved?). With the lions out of the way, Anamitsu turns her attention to Ranka demanding a fight. Yena steps in saying she’ll fight Anamitsu and she accepts. Anamitsu’s shows her means of attack are blasting opponents with a stinky fluid (hmm~, hey Yin-Yang you wanna- (Yin-Yang): Yeah, I’m on it *Yin-Yang dives into the system and returns second laters*. Yep, skunks and honey badgers are related to each other). The wind carries the smell over to the others and causes Ranka to pass out which alerts Ferril who attacks Anamitsu and lets her feel pain for the first time in her life (scene here: https://youtu.be/18Zlwb3XVok). Once Ranka misinterprets Anamitsu as a member of Ferril’s pack she’s overjoyed to see her sister befriend other species and Ferril rolls with this to make her sister praise her (Yena’s female scenes: https://youtu.be/NDChvjuv0ts).
Episode 8 is a pretty good episode. In the episode, the main campus goes on a school trip to visit the academy’s seaside school. This is where all of the aquatic students study at and it’s actually a cool idea. It makes sense as the regular academy isn’t big enough to suit their needs, thus a seaside school is needed in order to accommodate them (Yin-Yang: This also opens up a lot of questions about other students such as birds and animals only active at night like bats, owls, and moles. Is there an academy in the mountains for bird students, is there a night school for specific creatures, or do they just have to bite the kunai and adapt? I doubt the anime will answer these questions, but it is something to think about). While at the academy, the cooking club befriends Kana a beluga whale who wants to join the synchronized swimming club at her academy. Sadly, the president of the club, Ruka (a bottlenose dolphin) won’t allow her to join because a beluga whale can’t keep up with a bottlenose dolphin (this is true). However, Kana is still determined to join them and the cooking club decides to help (scene here: https://youtu.be/UcsMjT6GGt0). Jin tells her she needs to use her real talent which is singing. Kana attempts to sing and kills Miyubi (scene here: https://youtu.be/tkJGPQzTb7Q, and she was doing so well at not dying these last few episodes). At night on the trip, Jin receives a visit from Ruka only it’s Ruka’s other side who is more emotional and kinder than Ruka’s more serious side (Yin-Yang: I had no idea dolphins were bipolar). She begs Jin to get Kana to stop trying to join the club saying that it’s just impossible for them to sync up with each other because they’re two different species and Ruka doesn’t want to give Kana false hope that she can join. However, Jin can’t help but be moved by Ranka’s faith in him, so he tells Kana to keep trying and points out that she’s singing the wrong way. Up until now Kana has been trying to sing with her throat which doesn’t work for whales and dolphins (in other words, she’s trying to sing like a human being, and she doesn’t need to). She instead needs to sing with her melon a structure in the brain (Yin-Yang: So she can sing by just thinking?). On the final day of the school trip, Kana performs in front of everyone with the cooking club attempting to synchronize with her swimming (Yin-Yang: Give them points for effort). Thankfully, her singing manages to resonate with Ruka and the rest of the synchronized swimming club that they felt compelled to dance to her singing and they sync up wonderfully with each other (scene here: https://youtu.be/mYH5WMmU4KM, different specifies be damned). At the end, Kana finally joins the club of her dreams and everyone leaves happy. We also get a fun little side story of a male giraffe hitting on Jin (Yin-Yang: What!? (Nitsuj): Yep, apparently among giraffes 90% of copulations occurs between two males. Making them one of the few animals out there that have homosexual relationships. Scene here: https://youtu.be/pW-CEpUvX9U).
Episodes 9-12
In the first part of episode 9 Meimei makes a new friend, a girl named Manako who’s a tarsier (the suicide animal). Manako is a huge fan of Meimei but every time she sees Meimei she tries to kill herself because of the stress (Yin-Yang: And tarsiers kill themselves whenever they’re stressed out. *Nitsuj looks in shock at Yin-Yang* Oh yeah, I know some animal facts). So Meimei with the help of Miyubi (Yin-Yang: One dies from suicide the other one dies from breathing. I feel like these two should be the best of friends) tries to help Manako fight against her instincts and not kill herself whenever she talks to Meimei. In the end they’re somewhat successful (scene here: https://youtu.be/yos49Da4Yp0). In the second half of the episode a typhoon has hit the school flooding the underground dorms. Because of this, students who live underground will be bunking with students who live in the dorms and Jin’s luck has him bunking with Miko (could be worse. It could have been the giraffe) who is thinking about stepping down as student council president. Miko has been paying close attention to Jin and the others and monitoring their activities (Yin-Yang: I’ll give those moles this, they would make good ninja underlings) where she believes that her way of thinking isn’t making the academy any better, but Jin and the others are. She thinks about offering the job to Jin (no, that is a terrible idea) but their talk gets interrupted by the other students who want to talk to Miko because they don’t get to see her all that much at school (you know, you really should consider moving the student council office above ground). Miko speaks to all the students where Jin admits that nobody could do her job as good as her and also points out that out of everyone at the academy she’s the one who engages in interspecies relationships the most (he’s right. Given her position she interacts with more species than Jin or the others combined). She’s so overjoyed by this discovery that she strips in front of Jin deciding to remain student council president. As Jin tries to get her to put her clothes back on (why do I feel like he should be doing the opposite?) the girls come by to check up on him where a misunderstanding ensues. Miko clears up the misunderstanding in Hino’s room and in order to make her comfortable, they all strip down to their underwear as well (scenes here: https://youtu.be/aXJeMv1bI7I and https://youtu.be/zfEG2BQOqEw). The episode ends with the arrival of red-haired girl at the academy (Yin-Yang: My ears are twitchy. A storm is coming).
(Yin-Yang): In episode 10, we find out that the red-haired girl is Anetani and she’s human. She came here for a school visit as she’s interested in joining the academy and it looks like she came at the right time as the school is preparing for the culture festival. She makes her way to the cooking club where Hino seems be extra friendly with her (Nitsuj: If she turns out to be a lesbian I am going to die of laughter). While the cooking club entertains Anetani, Jin tries to keep Ranka safe. Ranka has entered her heat cycle and has been locked up in her room. She makes the mistake of going outside and this alerts the male dogs and wolves (where’s big sis when you need her?). Jin manages to get her to safety where she asks Jin if he likes her to which he says he hates her (scene here: https://youtu.be/UKiq69uK0ao, mean). He goes to the cooking club where he realizes he might have gone too far and said something he didn’t truly mean (Nitsuj: But is too tsundere to apologize). Later that night, Ranka’s heat cycle ends, and she steps out where Jin’s words still ring in her head. She manages to come across Anetani cooking some caveman meat and the two talk about Ranka’s problem. Anetani tells Ranka to just dump Jin saying that humans are liars and cruel people who can’t be trusted (but, you’re a human). Ranka stands up for Jin saying he’s not like that (he kind of is) and the next day she confronts him where Jin says that yes, humans are liars and cruel people, so she shouldn’t take everything he says seriously. At first Ranka isn’t sure what Jin is saying, but Hino comes in and tells her that Jin doesn’t really hate her (Nitsuj: You’re too cute to be hated). Anetani leaves where we see her original school is Darwin’s Academy and she’s a member of the extinct alliance club who hate humans and want to wipe them out just like their species (again, Anetani is human. (Nitsuj): No, I think I know what she is. Let’s just say she’s technically human).
It’s time for the cultural festival in episode 11 as the cooking club is doing a café with Yena and Anetani helping out and fighting over Hino (scene here: https://youtu.be/oGKytfhxQ54, platonic love at its best). Meanwhile, the extinct alliance club arrives in disguise trying to eliminate the humans but each one gets taken down in a rather comedic way as some of them don’t know what humans look like (scene here: https://youtu.be/3DwXOe_qTXo. (Nitsuj): I also find it ironic that they didn’t invite Ranka to join them. She’s a Hokkaido wolf, she has more reason to hate humans than the other members of the club). Anetani knocks out Hino (scene here: https://youtu.be/kBpWiZM8jtg) and gets into a fight with Yena where Ranka shows up trying to convince Anetani to give up on revenge (Nitsuj: Yeah, it’s not our fault you went extinct) and then they all hear an ominous voice that quickly approaches them to end the episode.
In the final episode we meet the leader of the extinct alliance club Koorimoto a woolly mammoth (so small. (Nitsuj): Despite popular belief, the woolly mammoth was actually quite small. Granted there are records of tall ones but most of them were small. In fact, the African elephant is bigger by comparison. (Yin-Yang): She’s almost smaller than Ranka). We also find out that Anetani is a Neanderthal (Nitsuj: I thought as much). Despite Koorimoto’s small statue she is incredibly strong and manages to defeat King and Yena without a sweat (um Ferril or honey badger please help). Jin manages to convince Koorimoto to settle their differences in a boxing match where if she wins she can do whatever she wants to Jin, but if Ranka wins she lets Hino go (scene here: https://youtu.be/MtObtw-n1RA). The first-round begins where Ranka uses her speed to wear down Koorimoto (scene here: https://youtu.be/XXhUMrDYsE0, smart strategy). The second round doesn’t go so well as Koorimoto plays to Ranka’s insecurities and almost knocks out Ranka. Jin is prepared to throw in the towel (compassion for animals? So you do have a heart), but Ranka says no as she’s determined to save Jin and Hino. The final round doesn’t go much better for Ranka as she takes two hard punches (scene here: https://youtu.be/DGPKdNvbvRk) and even gets knocked out of the ring. Anetani tells Koorimoto to stop saying that’s enough but Koorimoto won’t listen until Anetani says they’re not friends anymore. This shocks Koorimoto to her core and gives Ranka the opening she needs to strike (Nitsuj: More like a love tap if you ask me) and put Koorimoto down for the 10 count. After the match, Ranka banishes Anetani from her pack and she makes up with Koorimoto to become friends again. In a show of good faith and friendship the cooking club invites the extinct alliance club over for club activities. We end the season on a cliffhanger with the arrival of Fabre Academy (aka the insects).
Final Thoughts
(Yin-Yang): Seton Academy was a good anime. It was funny, informative, and definitely a fun watch.
(Nitsuj): The characters are all good and each one has their own unique personality that distinguishes them from each other. Although I will say I wasn’t a big fan of Jin’s character. While I get he had a bad experience with animals in the past and the joke is he doesn’t like animals and is forced to be around them, the way he’s mean to every animal without reason makes him come across as an asshole instead of tsundere.
(Yin-Yang): Another major fault with the anime is that it doesn’t give us a lot of backstory about the world. Are Jin and Hino the only humans left in the world? Why are some animals sentient and others not? What about birds? Is there an academy for birds just like there’s an academy for aquatic animals and insects? These are questions a lot of people have asked and the anime never stops to answer them or make any hints at answering them.
(Nitsuj): The animation is nice and I did get a good laugh out of how the males are fully anthropomorphic creatures while the females are animal girls. This anime knows who its target audience is. The music is playful, but it can be repetitive at times. Like Yin-Yang said before this anime is very informative when it comes to animals. I learned a lot of new things about animals I didn’t know before. So, this anime not only delivered on the laughs, but it delivers on education in a fun way.
Final Score
(Nitsuj): The final score for Seton Academy is a 7/10
(Yin-Yang): I’m giving the anime a 6/10. I’m taking one point off due to a lot of questions I have about the world and other species.
(Nitsuj): This brings the final score of the anime to a 6.5/10. If you’re looking for a good laugh and want to learn more about animals than check this anime out. I also recommend watching it with friends as it’ll be a lot more fun and check out the manga as well as it does answer some of the questions we had while watching the anime. A second season has been promised and I’m looking forward to watching it.
(Yin-Yang): Until then, I’ll be checking out the manga to get my laughs.
(Nitsuj): Thanks for reading and don’t go anywhere as the Furry Arc continues next week. I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.