Perhaps it’s an indication of the overall quality of the Fall 2009 anime season that the show that seems to be attracting the most attention is one that irritates the heck out of me.

Seitokai no Ichizon (It’s Up To the Student Council) is rather reminiscent of Lucky Star with its cute high school girls, fast-paced anime in-jokes, and general lack of an overall story. On the other hand Lucky Star had much better artwork, bigger laughs and much more believable characters.

The premise is that the high school student council has 4 members elected in what amounts to a popularity contest, and one member selected by class rank. So the council ends up with 4 cute and somewhat ditsy girls, and one nerdy boy who is presumably book-smart.

Whatever potential this might have is spoiled for me by how obnoxious they make the hero. He’s an h-game aficionado who infuriates the girls by promising to make them his “harem.” They are so annoyed by his behavior that they don’t seem to notice that he is doing most of the council’s actual work. (The meetings consist mostly of nonsensical banter.)

Obviously he’s acting like a jerk to avoid getting close to any of the girls. I would be more interested in the show if I thought there was any chance that we would see this loser gradually get a clue, but it seems pretty clear that this is the sort of show that has no real story, just humorous sketches.

I enjoyed watching the characters of Lucky Star. Even when they were being silly they seemed like decent, likable kids who would probably turn out all right. The characters of Seitokai no Ichizon hardly seem human at all. It’s hard to imagine them growing up, or even having any sort of life outside the confines of the student council room.

This may not be the greatest anime season, but there are better shows out there. I’m going to discuss some of them over the next couple of weeks.