Medaka Box

Medaka Box (めだかボックス) 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 April 2010, Shueisha has compiled its chapters into 4 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 Plan, supervised by the Hakoniwa principal in order to experiment on extremely talented student dubbed Abnormals. The goal of the project is to find a way to mass produce geniuses. However, once a method 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 enters the secret base under the school to stop the project.

Student Council

 * Medaka Kurokami (黒神 めだか)
 * The female protagonist of the series and Student Council President. Beautiful and well endowed, which she has no shame in showing off whenever possible, Medaka is an excellent academic student, placing first in the national test. In addition to her academic achievements, she has excelled in various other areas, such as calligraphy and sports, and obtain 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. She also has an older sister whom she looks up to and loves deeply.


 * Medaka grew up in a family of four: her father, older sister, and older brother. Her mother died giving birth to her; members of the Kurokami Company coldly said her mother existed only to give birth to her. Because of her abnormal abilities, she quickly matured and was selected to be part of the Flask Project. However, she ran away after being confronted with the realization that life has no meaning. This was when she met Zenkichi Hitoyoshi for the first time. Medaka, with the only way she was taught, talked in an arrogant tone with him, but much to her surprise, Zenkichi did nothing but smile. When Medaka asked him what the point of her life was, he smiled and replied, "I'm sure you were born to make the people around you happy." Thus, Medaka was reborn and the unbreakable bond between Zenkichi and Medaka begun.


 * The bond between Zenkichi and Medaka can be described as childhood friends. Medaka was incredibly lonely as a child due to her skills. In middle school, Medaka had a classmate whom she tried to help but failed to do so. Her failure to do so ended in the death of another classmate. As a result, Medaka was emotionally scarred. In hopes of protecting her, Zenkichi vowed to prevent anyone similar from getting close to her again. According to Medaka, she and Zenkichi have been together since they were two years old. It is only in Chapter 35, while Zenkichi is fighting Munakata, that Medaka confesses her love for Zenkichi to the other Student Council members. In chapter 36, when Zenkichi falls to Munakata, Medaka breaks down in tears. After Medaka was brainwashed, it was due to this bond between Medaka and Zenkichi that he was able to undo the brainwashing and return her to her normal self.


 * Medaka's Abnormality is her ability to control all her muscles, which basically means she has no reflexes. However, during her fight with Shigusa, she seemingly regains her reflexes.


 * Zenkichi Hitoyoshi (人吉 善吉)
 * The male protagonist, childhood friend of Medaka, and the Student Council General Affairs Manager. 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. It is later revealed that he is the one who reformed Medaka into her current personality. It is implied he has feelings for her.


 * Zenkichi is noted to be a "normal" individual, one with no special abilities. Medaka's brother, Maguro, takes special interest in him because no matter how much he's discouraged or fails, he stands back up. Zenkichi has vowed to protect Medaka ever since she was emotionally scarred after failing to help a classmate in middle school. In order to become stronger, he has undertaken Maguro's hellish training sessions along with Medaka. 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. He also studied on how to disassemble guns, just in case something ever happened to Medaka. Though this display of skill, the Flask Plan is very interested in him believing him to have the potential to become an Abnormal.


 * The relationship between Shiranui and Zenkichi is interesting, to say the least. Their classmates comment negatively on how they interact with each other, but one could technically call them friends. Shiranui has commented that she is only friends with him when she is in the mood. Ironically, Shiranui's grandfather notes that Zenkichi is probably the only person who can get along with Shiranui.


 * Little is known about Zenkichi's past except that he has been with Medaka since they were two years old.


 * Zenkichi is considered to be a "normal", possessing no special abilities.


 * Kouki Akune
 * The Student Council Secretary. Originally part of the Judo club, Akune has been infatuated with Medaka since middle school. Because of this, he hates Zenkichi for being able to spend so much time with his beloved. Within the high school, he is known as "Judo's Prince." However, in middle school he was a violent delinquient with the nickname "Destroyer." The reason for his change is apparently because of Medaka. He joins the Student Council after losing a Judo match to Zenkichi. He still loves Medaka to the point of obsession, though not as much as Maguro Kurokami. Both he and Kikaijima are considered to be 'specials', above average, but not quite abnormal.


 * Mogana Kikaijima
 * The Student Council Treasurer. She was originally the ace of the swim team, befriending Yakushima (swim club's captain), and Tanegashima (swim club's vice captain). All three had an incredible obsession with money for personal reasons. When Kikaijima was a child, her father left because the family was in debt, and her mother became sick from working herself in to the ground. All the people that Kikaijima had thought were friends left her because her family had no money. Kikaijima believed that "anyone would be sad if they lost their wallet, but if we died, nobody would care." Medaka corrects her by saying that if they died, she would be sad for them. She later is recruited as the treasurer, and is the only member of the group who is paid for her job.


 * She has an incredible lung capacity which allows her to do ultrasound shrieks, similar to bats and dolphins who use sound to judge distance. She can also focus her voice as a sound canon and destroy physical objects.

Enforcers

 * Harigane Onigase


 * Yobuko

Class 13
Project Name: Monster Child
 * Myouri Unzen

A high school junior at only ten years old. He is a child prodigy and the leader of the school Enforcers Squad. He is known to go overboard in his methods to bring about justice, but his motto is "Justice is nothing if you don't go overboard!!. Unlike Medaka who loves people and thinks they are good inside, Myouri hates people and believes they are evil by nature. He also seems to be quite perverted for his young age, and possess a fetish for big breasted women.

Project name: Last Carpet
 * Kei Munakata

A senior of Class 13. From the day he turned five, he's harbored incredibly powerful homicidal impulses, driving him on to kill anyone and everyone he looks at. Despite this, he knows killing is wrong and learns how to use hidden weapons as a way to keep people at a distance so he wouldn't hurt them. His weapons range from his bare hands to explosives. After losing a fight to Zenkichi, his impulses have died down and he has gained a great deal more control.

Project name: Hard Wrapping
 * Shigusa Takachiho

The strongest of class 13. His abnormality is his heightened reflexes. Because his reflexes allow him to automatically dodge anything, he has never gotten hurt until he fought with Medaka. Shigusa is very perceptive and quickly determined Medaka's abnormality. Because their abnormalities were polar opposites, they were each other's worst enemy. In the end, Medaka came out victorious because Shigusa's muscles could no longer keep up with his reflexes.

Project name: Best Pain
 * Itami Koga

Originally a very normal high school girl, she desired an abnormal lifestyle and pleaded with Youka Naze to make her life abnormal. They became "best" friends ever since. As a result of Youka's experiments, Itami turned into a super-human with incredible recovery abilities. However, Kouki Akune determined her weakness during their fight. Youka revealed that she took out everything unnecessary for Itami to become a super-human. However, she left Itami's pain system intact. Kouki realized that because Itami was originally human, her super-human strength puts excessive tension on her muscles. Without her pain system, Itami would have no way of knowing when her muscles were at their limit. To defeat her, Kouki utilized a pinning move that drained all of Itami's energy.

Project name: Black White
 * Youka Naze

The researcher for class 13. Youka Naze's real name is Kurokami Kujira. Because she was bored with her life in the Kurokami family, she ran away and erased her memories of the past. She does not appear to be interested in the flask plan but joined class 13 because she wanted to continue her scientific experiments. Her abnormality appears to be analysis, similar to her brother.

Project name: Create
 * Oudo Miyakonojou

Self-proclaimed king of the world. He takes a special interest in Medaka right from the start and wishes for her to be his wife. His abnormality can be described as mind-control because he is able to send electromagnetic waves into his opponent's brain. He utilizes this technique to brainwash Medaka.

Project name: Rabbit Labyrinth
 * Mizou Yukuhashi

Project name: Death Watch
 * Gunki Itoshima

Project name: Free World
 * Otome Yunomae

Project name: Love
 * Hamaya Hyakuchou

Project name: Trick or Treatment
 * Yutori Chikuzen

Project name: Star Master
 * Yamami Tsurumisaki

Project name: Dental Shoes
 * Shouko Kamimine

Others

 * Hansode Shiranui (不知火 半袖)
 * The comic relief character of the series. Even though she is the smallest of the main characters, Shiranui has a very large appetite and is constantly seen eating. She has a knack for finding clandestine information with ease, knowing about most things that would seem to be vague details. Normally, she is a very cheerful girl but she is shown to have a dark side. 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. The only person who can get along with her and somewhat control her is Zenkichi.


 * Nekomi Nabeshima


 * Myouga Unzen


 * Misogi Kumagawa

A young man who was once the Student Council President of his Middle School. He's a nihilist who believes that there is no point to life or reason to be born. A person who absorbed all the negative aspects of the people he met, he failed at everything and lost to everyone at everything. A negative person by nature who could kill a person just as easily as he could breathe. He thinks nothing of the lives of the people around him and could take them away easily. Despite the immensely negative personality he possesses, he has a purely positive look about him and has always been seen smiling.

Medaka attempted to sympathize with him and reform him, like she had done to her other classmates. But Misogi proved to be beyond her influence. Though it hasn't been explicitly shown, it is known that he killed one of his classmates in front of Medaka. Leading her to attack him in a fit of rage, resulting him leaving the school. Upon realizing that she couldn't help him, which went against everything she believed herself to be capable of, she was left emotionally scarred. The scar has still not yet healed, as this day she still berates herself over not being able to do anything positive for him.

As a child, he was tested for any Abnormalities, but was believed to be Normal. It is now believed that his Abnormality stems from his negative outlook, and on its own is far too great to be detected or measured. Much to Medaka and Zenkichi's horror, Misogi has recently transferred into Hakoniwa Academy