Review: ‘Medaka Kuroiwa Is Impervious To My Charms’

Medaka Kuroiwa Is Impervious to My Charms is a fun show with a simple concept and a decent amount of fan service.

Here’s the plot: Mona, the queen bee around which all follow, is adored by every boy in her school except for Medaka, a new student who barely acknowledges her. When she tries to flirt with him, he gives her an incredibly nasty look. This drives Mona nuts, not able to comprehend this turn of events. She tries to seduce him by accidentally flashing her panties or popping her shirt open, which usually results in her feeling embarrassed over going too far or annoyed that he is still resisting. The boys, angry that he is resisting their queen, confront Medaka and he reveals that he is a monk in training and he was told to resist girls. Every time he is making that face he is doing his meditative mantra to resist her charms.

I chuckled a decent amount in this show. Mona’s inner dialogue of plotting to get Medaka’s attention and her inevitable failure is hilarious, matching her frustrated but cute facial expressions. She isn’t quite as spoiled as you would think based on this concept. She is simply so used to boys acting a certain way she is confused. I think she simply cannot comprehend it and feels this is what she must do. I did find using her for fanservice was a little over the top and didn’t add that much for me, but they at least were tangentially connected to the plot.

Medaka we do not get a lot of information yet, only hearing his thoughts at the end of the episode, so how good of a back-and-forth he will give Mona we do not know. He did get one good one earlier about not talking to him unless she needs to. But that was before we learned the truth about how he feels about her. I hope we see more of that instead of just looking stoic because it created better reactions from Mona.

My biggest worry is how long can this concept work? I read that there are girls who show up and either flirt with Medaka or are helping Mona out. That definitely will expand plot and character possibilities. I have to admit seeing Mona getting jealous sounds really cute to watch. The boys who now know Medaka’s secret could also add a level of fun if they “taunt” the two of them. It is clear that these two will start to have real feelings for each other over time, and that could lead to some fun inner monologue jokes, and make it a more complex situation.

Overall, Medaka Kuroiwa Is Impervious to My Charms isn’t a deep show but it was fun to watch. Mona is a cute character and her being flustered makes her overly ridiculous. I hope she isn’t flashing too much more. If it expands to more character beats and avoids getting too one note, this could make for a solid fun watch for the year.

Medaka Kuroiwa Is Impervious to My Charms airs January 6 on Crunchyroll.