Best Student Council Review: A Goofy All-Girls School Comedy Hiding a Ghost Story in a Hand Puppet

I came to Best Student Council sideways. I knew the anime by reputation — a loud, candy-colored all-girls school comedy — and I assumed the manga would be a throwaway tie-in. It mostly is. But it has one thing I keep thinking about: a girl who talks to a hand puppet, and the slow reveal of what that puppet actually is. The first time I understood it, the whole silly premise rearranged itself in my head. That's the part of this manga worth writing about.

Quick Take

• A short 3-volume manga spin-off of the Gokujou Seitokai anime, about an orphan who joins an all-girls academy ruled by an absurdly over-powered student council
• The comedy is broad and the cast is large, but the emotional core is one quiet thread — Rino and her puppet, Pucchan
• Light, comedic, mostly safe — ageRating: T (Teen)

Story Overview

Rino Rando is an orphan. Her mother, Chieri, is dead, and Rino has been getting by on her own, exchanging letters with a mysterious pen pal she only knows as "Mr. Poppit." On Poppit's recommendation she transfers into Miyagami Private Academy, a sprawling all-girls school — and almost immediately she's pulled into the Best Student Council.

The council isn't a normal student government. It's the highest authority on campus, outranking the actual faculty, and it's organized like a paramilitary outfit, with assault, covert, and vehicle divisions. Rino, who has no special skills at all, becomes its secretary. Her one constant companion is Pucchan, a ventriloquist's hand puppet she carries everywhere and treats as a real friend — and who, strangely, seems to talk back.

The series runs on two engines. On the surface, it's an ensemble comedy about the council's over-the-top operations and the personalities packed into it. Underneath, it's slowly building toward two reveals: who "Mr. Poppit" really is, and what Pucchan really is. Both answers tie back to Rino's mother and to why council president Kanade Jinguji took such a specific interest in bringing this ordinary girl close.

Characters

Rino Rando — The orphaned newcomer and the council's secretary. Her ordinariness in a cast of specialists is the comic engine, but the real story is that she's been carrying grief her whole life without fully understanding the shape of it. She doesn't know the truth about Pucchan; the reader watches her not-knowing.

Pucchan — The hand puppet Rino calls her only friend. The series treats it as a running gag for a long time, until it reveals that Pucchan holds the consciousness and memory of Tetsuya Rando — Rino's older brother, who died when she was very small. His awareness was placed into the puppet, and he can only speak when someone's hand is inside it. He's been quietly watching over his sister the whole time.

Kanade Jinguji — Founder and director of Miyagami Academy and president of the Best Student Council, heir to the Jinguji conglomerate. She's the one who recruited Rino, and she's secretly "Mr. Poppit," the pen pal. She brings Rino into the council specifically to keep her close and protect her, a promise tied to Rino's mother.

The council ensemble — Nanaho Kinjo, Kuon Ginga, Mayura Ichikawa, and the rest of the divisions. Each is a distinct comedic archetype with a specialized role, and the manga is at its liveliest when it lets two or three of them bounce off each other.

What I Love About It

The puppet. I went in expecting Pucchan to be a one-note gag — the weird girl who won't put down her doll — and for a long stretch the manga lets you think that's all it is. Then it tells you: Pucchan is Tetsuya, Rino's dead brother, his mind poured into a puppet so he can stay near the little sister he left behind. He can only speak when a hand is inside him. Rino doesn't know.

What I love is how that reveal reaches backward. Every gag where Rino chats with her puppet, every moment she insists Pucchan is her real friend, stops being a quirk and becomes a kid who never let go of her family talking to the one piece of it she has left — without realizing she's right that it's really him. The comedy framing makes the gut-punch land harder, not softer. A straight drama would have signaled the sadness from page one. Here it ambushes you, because you spent volumes laughing at the exact thing that turns out to be the saddest object in the story.

Memorable Scene ⚠️ Spoiler Warning

The reveal of Pucchan's identity is the moment the whole thing pivots. Learning that the puppet carries Tetsuya — the brother Rino lost as a small child — recolors her entire relationship with it. She has been talking to her dead brother the whole time and didn't know; he has been answering, unable to tell her. The mechanic that he can only speak with a hand inside the puppet turns an ordinary gag prop into something unbearably tender. It's the scene that justifies the manga's existence beyond the anime.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• A genuinely affecting central thread — Rino, Pucchan, and the brother hidden inside
• Short and complete at 3 volumes; it never overstays
• The over-the-top student-council premise is good-natured fun
• The comedy makes the emotional reveal hit harder by contrast

Cons

• It's a compressed tie-in; the large ensemble gets thin treatment versus the anime
• Outside the Pucchan thread, the plot is light and episodic
• The manga reworks some anime material, so it isn't a clean substitute for either
• This won't work for everyone — if loud ensemble school comedy isn't your thing, the three volumes may feel slight despite the one strong idea at the center

Is Best Student Council Worth Reading?

If you want the Gokujou Seitokai story in a short, complete form and you care about the Rino-and-Pucchan thread, yes — that one idea is worth the three volumes. If you're after deep plotting or a definitive version of the whole cast, the anime serves the ensemble better. The manga's value is its tight, sad little heart.

Official English Translation Status

There's no licensed English edition of the Best Student Council manga. The anime was released on DVD in North America by ADV Films back in 2007, but the manga by Mosuke Mattaku was never localized. If you want to read it, the Japanese print release is the only legitimate option.

Where to Buy

No English release yet. That just means you find it before everyone else does. The Japanese print edition is the only legitimate way to read the manga right now.

Find the Japanese edition on Amazon.co.jp →

---

This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.