*Warning, there will be spoilers*
There was a time where my younger self would think this moment would never come. A full circle moment back to watching the late 2000's OVAs produced by PrimeTime muted on YouTube? C'mon. Browsing through WorldCat over the years showed only one library still had this in the States, and I wasn't sure where this was in the field of collectibles. The answer when I looked recently? Not as much as the later volumes that got published in the States. So deciding to buy this while in class (to be fair, those lectures were DRY) seemed like a wise move. Thank you, Abe Books!
Hey, Class President (also known as Seitokaichou ni Chuukoku) was my favorite out of the PrimeTime OVAs I eventually watched to review for my blog. I liked how the OVA was able to balance the perspectives of Kokusai and Chiga attempting to contextualize their feelings for each other against the backdrop of their minimal student council duties, how they meet with judo club, and a mysterious stranger (who honestly may not be that mysterious) on the loose. Tomokazu Sugita's performance as Chiga also made me understand why he's gotten other comedic roles in his work (Gintoki and Kyon, specifically). I liked how he played his dynamic with Kousuke Toriumi, who would later play the seme to Hikaru Midorikawa's uke in Koisuru Bokun (question: Has Midorikawa been seme in BL?). The animation was nice to look at, too, so it all worked out.
I'd say the first volume excelled in Monchi balancing both her leads' perspectives, and her art has a nice shininess and shading to it, but the plot is ultimately what held Hey, Class President's starter volume back. For as much talk about how Kokusai attracts the attention of older men who prey on him, there doesn't seem to be a motive as to why. Is it because he's desirable? Is it because he's childish? We only get the answer of his fledging maturity and it kind of being played for laughs. As a sixteen year old, this would have been fine. As a twenty five year old, it isn't. The initial dialogue also only serves the purpose of moving the story along without allowing us into the characters' inner worlds. Maybe if Monchi had started the series with establishing how the two met, it'd make their eventual connection stronger?
Said connection does work, as Chiga vows to protect Kokusai from being taken advantage of, whereas Kokusai comes to terms with exploring his body sexually. But there's the underlying language in the translation where Kokusai is now "cured" after fooling around with Chiga that caused my eyebrows to raise. A pivotal plot point in the series is when Kokusai gets sexually assaulted by someone who breaks into his house (I applaud how Monchi drew this in the manga, because the anime staff went full throttle with the illusion). He feels disturbed by what happened to him in his sleep, but when Chiga touches him in a similar way, he doesn't feel as put off by it. We inadvertently brush past his trauma by having these two experiences take place on the same day, and it doesn't help when the other sex scenes read like Chiga taking advantage of Kokusai's innocence. Consent's present in a way, but also not really?
The OVA ended up cutting out two side characters beyond the leads's closest friends in judo, so my initial theory on who Kokusai's stalker is was wrong. We're introduced to Yamashiro, the former VP who is rumored to harbor a crush on Kokusai to the point where he may have attempted to assault him. There seems to be a sense of forced politeness to this character, so I'm intrigued by how Monchi will develop him. I do think having these interactions helped give the stalker subplot backdrop since in the OVA, it felt like it was just plopped down on center stage without having reasoning. Here, it's tied into Kokusai getting taken advantage of.
It's also fun to see the characters bumble and get embarrassed. Monchi has a nice style to flushed faces and body language to this. Outside of some queerphobia latent in the subgenre, there was one moment where Kondou teases Chiga about his past dating experience. Kokusai is the first person who he's gotten flustered over, whereas the young women he'd been with in the past were just flings. This unfortunately reinforces the sexism queer media has towards women (ironic given the target audience for BL manga), but shows women as disposable objects for men to test on before they get into a serious relationship. Even if someone isn't queer themselves, does getting with someone who is the same gender as them mean they've matured? This is the question that scene proposes, and it's honestly an offensive one. Making my mind reach back to that One Internet Story I read as a teen. Luke and Ferris, IYKYK.
While this first volume wasn't the best thing I ever read and I won't be holding on to it (sending a blessing to the New Jersey business who had it for around its initial asking price, though), coming back to a BL franchise that helped shape aspects of my queer identity was still fun. The giddiness I felt when opening this package was something I wasn't expecting, and I have to applaud Digital Manga Publishing for how they incorporated the original Shinshokan spine into their cover design. There are other BL titles I'd recommend to readers who want to get into the genre, but for those who've been through this subgenre's ups and downs over the decades, Hey, Class President is a fine jaunt into its past. It also would be a solid choice for the collector. Those later volumes are a commitment. I'll page through them in my own way.