Student Council's Discretion

Introducing our Student Council President!
"I am well aware that this Student Council is my harem."
—Ken Sugisaki

At Hekiyou Academy, the Student Council is selected by what amounts to a popularity contest. As such, the Council mostly consists of attractive girls, though there is one man among them - Ken Sugisaki. His lofty, crazy and yet somehow attainable goal? To turn the four girls of the Student Council into his harem. So begins Student Council's Discretion ("Seitokai no Ichizon").

Based on a series of light novels, the series received an anime adaptation in the fall of 2009. A second season was announced in March of 2011. Both seasons have been licensed and released by Sentai Filmworks.

There is also an DS game where the player can get a chance to make the harem for Ken themselves.

Now with a character sheet.

Tropes used in Student Council's Discretion include:
  • Absurdly Powerful Student Council -- Though in practice, they function more like an elite club.
  • Accidental Pervert: Ken ends up with Mafuyu's panties in one episode, apparently she lost them during the school festival somehow.
    • Every game that Elise wants to play with Ken turns out to be very perverted two or three seconds in.
  • Adult Child -- Kurimu is eighteen years old but has a maturity rivaled surpassed by Lilicia's little sister, Elise.
  • Aesop Amnesia -- Possibly played with: After seeing their own promotional video, the cast promises to actually do their jobs and become better people. One scene later, everything is back to normal, much to Ken's confusion.
  • Beach Episode -- Does it still count as a beach episode if the cast is in swimsuits the whole time but never leaves the Student Council room?
  • Beautiful All Along -- So much that when Minatsu let her hair down, Ken didn't recognize her and was completely awe-struck at the beauty of this unknown girl.
    • And before anyone gets the wrong idea Minatsu is already cute the way she is usually.
    • Minatsu doesn't recognize Mafuyu without her ribbon, despite being sisters.
  • Beware the Nice Ones -- Mafuyu, of all people, is this. Usually played for comedy, but it also happens in a more serious part of the show: when Ken's bully in junior high school says that Ken was a freak pervert asshole and a two-timing bastard, Mafuyu surprisingly slams the said bully in the face with her bag. It gets even more awesome when you realized at that time the other members were present, including the Hot-Blooded Tsundere Minatsu, but the shy Mafuyu who usually stays behind the scenes and is afraid of boys actually becomes the first one that loses her cool and sticks up for Ken.
  • Bishounen -- Ken
  • Blank White Eyes -- Ken when driven to tears by yet another destroyed fantasy.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall -- the second line of the anime is "are we really animating this thing?"
    • Also the begining of the DS Game. Where the cast talk about the game itself.
  • Bromantic Foil -- Ken, upon proclaiming himself a protagonist in an Eroge, is told he's this instead.
  • Brother-Sister Incest -- Subverted twice when Ken was "two-timing". One of the girls was just his sister-in-law and in the end he decided for his childhood friend, too.
  • Building of Adventure -- With very few exceptions, the show takes place entirely inside the Student Council Room.
  • Bunny Ears Lawyer -- Ken. Although for the most part he acts like a perverted idiot, he actually does care about his fellow club mates and helps them out, not to mention he was able to join the club because he had the top scores in the school. Made even more so in episode 3 when asked if the rumors that he was two-timing during junior high were true, he calmly answered yes instead of denying it, causing the reporter to eventally give up publishing it.
  • But Not Too Foreign -- Lilicia.
  • Catch Phrase -- "This is not a harem, it's the student council!"
  • Chekhov's Gag -- Remember when Minatsu tried a wedding dress from the Theatre Club in Episode 1? Well it's later mentioned again in the last episode when it is revealed that Minatsu's dream is to become a bride. Cue Ken's reaction...
    • Minatsu brings up a good point though: Why the hell is that still back there?
  • Chick Magnet -- So far there are only 2 female characters in this show that are not interested in Ken. It is also worthy of mention that one of the two never actually met Ken directly.
  • Chivalrous Pervert -- It's implied that at least some of Ken's behavior is an act. He's shown himself quite willing to get himself into bad situations to spare the rest of the council.
    • To clarify he does almost all of the paper work for the council just so he can create a good environment for the girls to hang out in.
  • Color Failure
  • Conversational Troping -- While Ken fancies himself as the protagonist of a harem series, it's brought up that the protagonist's best friend is often the one who's girl-crazy and thus doomed to fail. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
  • Cool Big Sis -- Chizuru.
  • Cooldown Hug -- Subverted with delightful viciousness by Chizuru:

Chizuru: Come here, Key-kun. (Hugs him) There there, it's okay.
Ken: (Weeping) Oh, Chizuru-san, I've been dirtied!!
Chizuru: (Keeping gentle tone of voice) Oh, don't worry, you've always been covered in filth to begin with...
Ken: (Literally cracks) Waaaahhh!!

Ken: Fine. Pokkoncho is obviously...
Kurimu: Obviously?
Ken: Uhh.....Oh yeah, did you all record that show from last night?
EVERYONE: WHAT'S POKKONCHO?!

    • But seriously WHAT THE HELL IS POKKONCHO?!
  • Drives Like Crazy -- Mahiru only drives once to take Ken home when he is sick, but wow does she fit the bill.
  • Duck Season! Rabbit Season! -- In the first episode where Kurimu is loudly approving requests with her stamp by saying shonin ("approved"), Ken stands behind a nearby blackboard and mutters pettanko ("flat-chest"). This continues for a few seconds, until Ken switches and mutters shonin and Kurimu reacts by saying Pettanko. Once her brain catches up, she starts crying into Chizuru's generously endowed chest...

Kurimu (Rolling on the ground like a baby) "Chizuru, I hate you!!"

  • Dude Looks Like a Lady: Nakameguro.
  • Dysfunction Junction -- Zany antics and laughter aside, everyone in the council aside from Kurimu has some deep seated personal trauma, be it bullying (Chizuru), a broken family (Minatsu and Mafuyu) or a broken heart (Ken).
    • It could probably be argued that Kurimu uses her position on the council to make up for her lack of physical development.
  • Eroge -- Knowing about these is surprisingly key to the entire plot.
  • Expy -- Ken, before joining the Student Council, was a slightly less insane Taichi Kurosu. Also, some fans think of him as K1.
  • Endless Game -- Lilcia and Elise have one of Shiritori. They both use the mono aluminum strategy, meaning every word past the first is an aluminum compound beginning with "mu". Color my head asploded.
  • Face Fault
  • Family-Unfriendly Aesop -- Parodied in-universe with Ken's speech that Kurimu really doesn't need to bother with fixing any of her flaws because being an energetic idiot makes her popular and attractive. It's taken to heart and freaks him and Chizuru out, so they put an end to that.
  • Fan Service -- Usually takes place in Ken's overactive imagination, with the exception of Episode 5, or when the girls are wearing swimsuits. Also again in the game.
  • Flipping the Table
  • Gamer Chick -- Mafuyu, who spends quite a lot of her time in the show on her PSP or updating some gaming wiki (and she gets really upset when Ken asks her to drop the latter in favor of getting back to work).
  • Gratuitous English -- Just one the most funny since it's Ken saying it.
      • Ken : OH MY GOD!
    • In the anime
      • Kirumu : Get out
  • Harem Seeker -- Sugisaki Ken, and proud of it. He really wants this harem, enough for an academically average boy like him to study hard enough to get the grades necessary to get into the council.
    • According to the manga, academically he was actually second-from-last among the school's 700 students, but studied really hard to get the "blue chip" seat on the council.
  • Hey, It's That Voice! -- Chizuru has the same voice as the oldest of the Seven Stakes of Purgatory, Lucifer.
  • Hidden Depths -- Akaba Chizuru: Loving big sister? Cunning and sadistic seductress? Cute and fluffy sheep impersonator? Which one is she, really?
    • Don't forget to add "global mover and shaker". She had a freaking million-dollar check (actually, ¥100,008,049) in her possession!
  • Highly-Visible Ninja -- Ken's speech on public morals is not taken well at first. Lampshaded in the same breath though.
  • Hikikomori -- Mafuyu, who is both a gaming-obsessed shut-in and one of the more popular students in her class. Somehow.
    • The latter's partially lampshaded in that she was asked to wear a tiny outfit in public, but was too socially inept to realize she was supposed to be embarrassed while wearing it. This got her enough notoriety with the student body that she won a spot on the council.
  • Hime Cut -- Chizuru.
  • Hot Teacher -- Student Council Advisor Magiru Satori. Seriously: a black choker, a miniskirt and Zettai Ryouiki with visible garters? Hekiyou Academy seems to have a very loose staff dress code. Then again, Satori-sensei apparently doesn't teach any classes anyway.
  • Homoerotic Subtext -- The main point of Mafuyu´s delusions, but in episode 12 it becomes "real" along with Nakameguro!
  • Hypocritical Humor -- Minatsu lectures Ken about not being able to recognize her with her hair in a different style, and a few episodes later they go by train to Tokyo. When Mafuyu takes her ribbon off, Minatsu is unable to tell it's her own sister.
  • Idiot Hair -- Kurimu
    • In episode 6, after finding out that the Shiina sisters are transferring to a school on the mainland, Chirizu is playing with Kurimu's ahoge. Kurimu sits up quickly and suddenly has about eight sticking out of various spots on her head.

Ken: The ahoge multiplied!

  • I Know Mortal Kombat -- Ken claims reading Fist of the North Star allowed him to catch kunai.
  • Imagine Spotting -- Kurimu is not only able to see Ken's eroge-like fantasies, she can pull it off the screen. Also, it runs on a floppy disc.
    • Not just any floppy disc, but an ancient 5 1/4" floppy disc!
  • Inner Monologue: Ken narrates his Inner Monologue when he has been banished to the other side of the room for talking. It confuses the girls to no end.
  • Kawaiiko -- Mafuyu, sweet Mafuyu.
  • Konami Code -- Shows up in the strangest of places -- as the title for the second ending theme.
  • Kunai Catch -- Ken has mad skills, see I Know Mortal Kombat for details.
  • Kuudere -- Ken comments that Chizuru's coldness will just make her sweetness more intense. She agrees: when she liked one guy, she filled his locker with reams of paper with the words "I love you" written over and over and over. Intense.
  • Les Yay -- Several instances between Kurimu and Chizuru, like in episode two when Chizuru turns Kurimu into her pet, mindslave thing... yeah... I'll Be in My Bunk
    • In the Light Novels when making a radio show Kurimu makes Minatsu and Mafuyu read a Yuri script on air. Ken was pleased with this.
  • Lolicon: Ken is accused of being this when he brings Lilcia to this student council room.
  • Lucky Charms Title -- Lampshaded, of all things. When the Portmanteau Series Nickname SeiZon is considered, so is the idea of adding a little decorative star in there.
  • Meaningful Name -- The name of each of the girls in the Council corresponds to the season in which Ken met them in; they are as follows: Sakurano (Cherry-Blossom-Field) Kurimu = Spring. Shiina Minatsu (Deep-Summer) = Summer. Akaba (Red-Leaves) Chizuru = Autumn. Shiina Mafuyu (True Winter) = Winter. These are significant as they represent the times in the previous year of Ken's life when meeting each of them gradually helped him out of suicidal self pity and depression.
  • Meganekko -- Chizuru, part-time as she only wears glasses when doing extended reading/writing. Nakameguro offers a male variant in Mafuyu's fantasies.
    • He also wears them when he appears outside of Mafuyu's mind. In fact, he looks exactly the same!
  • Modesty Bedsheet -- Mafuyu...seriously just look at it with your own eyes.

OH PLEASE HAVE MY CHILDREN, MAFUYU-CHAN!!

    • Chizuru also has one when she wakes up from sleeping on the train in episode 7. It looks like she's wearing a dress, really.
  • Moe -- In-Universe. Kurimu is so moe it hurts apparently.

(referring to Kurimu) Entire cast: Dangerously moe...

Ken: This is why I didn't want to be animated.
Kurimu: An anime that actually works by featuring only one room exists only on Sunday evenings!

    • Later, on their trip to Tokyo in Episode 7, the council is shown triumphantly arriving in Tokyo in the morning. After the scene cut, the council is sitting around a table that night in the hotel.

Kurimu: Why? What happened to walking around Tokyo? Odaiba? Shizuya?
Ken: There's no way we'd go to places like that. This is the Heikyou Academy Student Council, you know?

  • Not a Morning Person -- Chizuru, whose Cuteness Proximity towards Kurimu actually increases when she is half-conscious in the morning. She doesn't seem to become evil until she's awake, just clingy.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity -- Elise accuses Ken of this when discussing her trip to the student council, to spy on them, with her sister at the end of the episode.
  • Ojou -- Lilicia, the Newspaper Club President. Voiced by none other than Mamiko Noto. Chizuru also qualifies to a lesser extent with her (usually) ladylike speech patterns.
  • Older Than They Look -- Kurimu is actually an 18 year old senior at her school, and yet looks younger than Mafuyu.
  • Only Sane Man -- While Ken does not normally fullfil the qualifications of this trope, when the student council runs a radio show he plays this trope to the T so that he would be safe for radio. He breaks down when one part has Minatsu and Mafuyu read a Yuri script on air.
  • Only Six Faces -- Well, not even six, really. I mean, there's only about a dozen different people shown. But the girls all seem to have the same face.
  • One Teacher School -- Do we even see any other teachers?
  • Otaku -- Each member of the council, aside from Kurimu, embodies a different fanboy/fangirl stereotype, namely:
  • Panty Shot -- Kurimu in the Manga, Mafuyu in the anime.
  • Pettanko -- In the penultimate episode, Minatsu asks Kurimu, "President, where's the pettanko?" i.e. "Where's the flat (stamp)?" Trauma ensues.
  • Petting Zoo People -- Chizuru once she adopts her "~mokyu" verbal tic.
  • Playing Doctor -- Subverted most strangely by Lilicia's little sister Elise, who's wise beyond her years.
  • Princess Curls -- Lilcia and Elise.
  • Proud to Be a Geek -- Ken is not shy about being a fan of H-Games.
    • Neither is Mafuyu about her obvious gaming addiction.
      • Does Mafuyu even realize she's a geek?
  • Rapunzel Hair -- Chizuru's and Mafuyu's hair goes well past their waist.
  • Rummage Sale Reject -- The girls' school uniforms are pretty odd, but alright...but as for the guys? Can you say "magenta-and-black plaid slacks"? Honestly, it works on a miniskirt, but who had the bright idea to put this pattern on any pair of pants?
  • School Festival -- The festival in question doesn't show until episode 10, but deciding on its theme is the major round-table discussion for episode six.
    • In the game, the scene is depending on your decision before. Seeing Chizuru and Kurimu wearing in a bunny dress while doing a race or helping Minatsu in a "Horse" Battle
  • Sentai -- After deciding that the school festival theme of the year is "Hot Bloodedness", the council goes into a Sentai tangent, including trying to decide their colors. A reference to Tentai Senshi Sunred even makes it in.
  • Serious Business-- Elise's cat's cradle patterns. Somehow she shows the entire cosmos using a piece of string.

Ken: I can see it! The sky's tears!
Elise: Cat's cradle is so much fun!
Ken: It's too much fun! It's beyond the fun any human can enjoy!

  • Shaped Like Itself -- Mafuyu won't forget about Sugisaki-senpai until the day Mafuyu forgets about senpai!
  • Shipper on Deck -- Elise, Lilicia's sister, ships Ken/Lilicia.
  • Ship Tease -- The famous Episode 11, seriously this episode only exists to tease all Ken/Mafuyu shippers.
  • Shiritori -- Ken and Elise, Lilicia's little sister, play a round when she invades the council room in episode eight. This gets annoying for Ken when Elise keeps ending up at the names of rival light novel publishers.
  • Shout-Out -- Here we go: Within the first episode alone, there are nods to Suzumiya Haruhi, Lucky Star, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, K-On!, Dragon Ball Z and Dragonball Evolution... the Student Council knows their fellow fictions, several of these are in the space of 2 minutes before the title sequence.
  • Sibling Yin-Yang -- The Shiina siblings. Minatsu is the outspoken, tomboyish one. Mafuyu is the petite, quiet one.
  • Sidetracked by the Analogy -- Kurimu and word problems don't mix. Takeshi's story is more complex than the arithmetic in it.
  • Sleep Learning -- Chizuru is seen using it on Kurimu, and the effects make themselves visible the next morning.
  • Something We Forgot -- At the end of episode five, Chizuru gets a look in her eye that says this. Turns out that Ken is still in that locker.
  • Stepford Smiler -- Recent chapters and episodes imply that Ken's happy-go-lucky persona is a defence mechanism to keep him from a severe emotional trauma from back in junior high, and not his actual personality.
  • Student Council President -- Kurimu, though she's a bit airheaded for someone in a position of leadership, and as revealed in episode 2, a bit lacking as well in the matters of academics.
  • Stupid Sexy Flanders -- Nakameguro.
  • Take That -- "Let's add an orb around the star!!" "...evolution." "Don't mention that one!!"
  • Tall, Dark and Bishoujo -- Chizuru, who also has Rapunzel Hair.
  • Tear Jerker -- Chizuru's reconciliation with her Poisonous Friend from junior high in Episode 9.
  • Telepathy -- At one point in the manga Minatsu can read Ken's thoughts and Ken thinks it's a good thing because it shows how close they are.
  • The Atoner -- After Ken´s two-timing hurt his sister-in-law, not only did he not defend himself against his classmates' bullying, he even asked for it.
    • In truth, he didn't two time at all - it was mostly due to his misplaced guilty conscience. His stepsister went into depression when Ken, who she was in love with, started dating his childhood friend. The couple broke up when Ken spent more time taking care of his stepsister. He couldn't make both happy. Each of the girls in the student council saved him during his first year of high school. Joining the student council is his way of showing his gratitude toward them with the belief he can keep everyone happy this time.
  • The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything -- Lampshaded with Mahiru, who refuses to teach. Although... she was never really given a chance to. She has about thirty seconds of screen time total so far.
  • The Tease -- Chizuru
  • Third Person Person -- Mafuyu thinks Mafuyu should always refer to Mafuyu in the third person.
    • She takes this Up to Eleven when she is pretending to have amnesia, to create a Tear Jerker play, she still refers to herself in the third person while asking what her name is.
  • Token Mini-Moe -- Kurimu, who ironically is older than Mafuyu, the youngest of the group.
  • Trademark Favorite Food -- Kurimu and her usa-maru. Which are so sweet most people wonder how she can eat so many. They also apparently "taste like happiness."
    • On a side note, the name "usa maru" could come from the mangaka Usamaru Furuya, who wrote and illustrated a manga called "Happiness". Shout-Out? Maybe.
  • Tranquil Fury -- Oh Crap every female member of the Student Council when Ken is playing with Elise and her games turn out...weird at best.
  • Trickster Archetype -- Chizuru, yet again.
  • Troperiffic -- This show is out to use every. single. trope. possible. And some that aren't. It's obvious during the first episode.
  • Tsundere -- Minatsu. Lampshaded approximately four seconds in, even before she really does anything tsunderelike.
    • Lilicia may also qualify.
    • Mafuyu has a tsundere blog. I-it's not like she's updating it because she l-likes it, dummy.
  • Unresolved Sexual Tension -- Too bad Ken, even though one of the girls has actually confessed to you she still has no intention of having sex with you.
  • Verbal Tic -- The cast randomly assigns each other one, and runs with it. Chizuru's "Mokyu~" stands out the most.
  • Victorious Childhood Friend -- At first played straight and then brutally subverted: In middle school Ken was in a Love Triangle with his sister-in-law and his childhood friend. His childhood friend won, but the relationship did not end well... at least for Ken.
    • He starts dating her again in the novels. A bit of a Base Breaker for the English speaking fandom at least.
  • White-Haired Pretty Boy -- Nakameguro, an imaginary a Cute Shotaro Boy Mafuyu constantly ships with Ken.
  • Who Would Want to Watch Us?? -- At one point, the cast tries to write a novel of their own "adventures", even though they are characters in a book. This quickly turns into a Hostile Show Takeover. Everyone has wildly divergent ideas of what they want the story to be.
  • Wingding Eyes -- During episode four's K-ON! segment, Kurimu gets yen-sign eyes when she thinks of the student council band becoming rich via character songs.
  • Wrong Genre Savvy -- Ken, who believes himself to be in one of his eroge.
  • Yandere -- Non romantically. Chizuru's old friend Kanade was jealous of how she fit in and got along with everyone and tried to bully her into submissions. She wanted to be her only friend.
    • It has been stated Mafuyu has a blog centered around her acting like this.
  • Yaoi Fangirl -- Mafuyu, who has a passion for seeing Ken and almost any other male in bromance.
  • Yuri Fan -- Ken and Chizuru.
  • Zettai Ryouiki -- Every one of the girls wear Grade A as part of their uniform, with Minatsu getting a SS grade due to her additional Twin Tails Tsundere status.
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