Prison School

Episode 5

Prison School wastes no time in ratcheting up the tension this week. As Vice President Meiko enters the bathroom stall in which our protagonist is supposedly suffering gastric distress, it seems all but certain that the lid will be blown off Kiyoshi and Gakuto's escape plan. However, much to Gakuto's surprise, she finds Kiyoshi sitting on the toilet, offering no indication that he's been off campus for several hours. Even after this big reveal, the show is good at keeping viewers in suspense. After all his neurotic friend sacrificed to buy him time, did Kiyoshi manage to purchase Gakuto's limited-edition Romance of the Three Kingdoms figurines? More importantly, will our hero be able to redeem himself in the eyes of Chiyo?

Just as we start to breathe a sigh of relief, President Mari confronts Kiyoshi and quickly pieces together the details of his escape. It's not surprising he got caught in the end; things can't go so smoothly for the boys, or they'd be out of prison within a week. As Kiyoshi probably should have guessed, the picture he let Chiyo snap with him ultimately proves to be his undoing.

As much fun as the breakout story was, the show can't be faulted for moving on. Still, what we're left with doesn't reach the same level of tension and suspension of disbelief as the two episodes that came before it. Loyalty is the primary theme of this week's Prison School. Kiyoshi accepts all the blame for the escape, never implicating Gakuto. Shingo, Joe and Andre feel betrayed because Kiyoshi never told them about his plans. Gakuto is stuck in the middle, trying to get the other boys to forgive Kiyoshi, but he's too afraid of ostracization to admit his own role in the affair.

Then there's Chiyo, who thinks she may have been too hasty in labeling Kiyoshi a pervert upon discovering her uniform in his bag during their date. She realizes she never gave Kiyoshi a chance to explain and wants to believe he didn't have perverse intentions in stealing her uniform. She's so committed to her ideal image of this boy she barely knows that she's willing to leave the school if Mari and Meiko bully him into "voluntarily" leaving. (It's noticeably incongruous that the student council admits they don't have the power to expel students despite having the authority to imprison them, but this world rarely makes any logical sense.)

Loyalty and truthfulness aren't always as black and white as these characters want them to be. For example, it wasn't that Kiyoshi didn't trust the other boys—he just wanted to limit his chances of being caught. Kiyoshi isn't perverted in the way Chiyo initially thinks, but as he revels in being hugged against her chest, he's not as innocent as she imagines him to be, either.

The world of Prison School is full of characters who want to see things in terms of "right and wrong" with no in-between. It's an intriguing theme to examine, particularly when you see the unflinchingly rigid Mari ponder her sister Chiyo's words. Mari considers anyone who's kind to crows a good person, and Chiyo has seen Kiyoshi help wayward baby crows back into their nest. This goes against Mari's view of Kiyoshi as an irredeemable pervert, and she struggles to come to terms with it. If there's going to be any significant character growth in this series, this episode nicely sets the stage for it.

Rating: B

Prison School is currently streaming on Funimation.

Amy is a YA fantasy author who has loved anime for two decades.