A Protest is Always Best Done in a Kigurumi

One day, you are suddenly faced with the dilemma of losing the very heritage and tradition that keeps your entire team together. Do you protest to the authorities? Will you try to rally the common folk to your cause?

Or... wear a kigurumi and do both?

"The higher-ups have decided to tear down the Sakura dorm sometime this year."

The Sakura dorm, while it may be a special place for Sorata and the rest of the gang, was already standing on shaky ground since the beginning. But the final nail in the coffin, was the closure and eventual demolition notice that was issued by the campus authorities just right after winter break.

"Do you realize that they will ask you first where you got that information?"

The official reason? The notice says that the dorm was already structurally compromised due to its age. However, according to Ryuunosuke's hacked information, the actual reason was to force one of its residents, the cat kigurumi girl eccentric art genius Shiina Mashiro, to move out of Sakura dorm to a more "appropriate environment for her talents".

Initially, each dorm resident had a different opinion on the situation. But despite their personal take on the issue, all of its residents agreed to a protest. An official petition was made, in hopes that they could stop the campus authorities from tearing the Sakura dorm down. All they needed to do, was gather the support of at least two-thirds of their school's student body.

"We can file an official complaint against the notice with your assistance!"

Because of the weird reputation of the dorm, however, this did not work quite well. The struggle to gain even a few signatures from students was felt even as early as day one. This is made even worse by the fact that the dorm was just too detached from the rest of the school's students to actually care about its closure.

"I call it, the Kigurumi Grand Strategy: Forest Critters Were Always Watching!"

Misaki, perhaps recalling back the gleeful of the school festival a few months back, prepared an alternative strategy to mitigate this disadvantage. Yes, you guessed it already, to wear kigurumi. This time, it's not just them; as the entire gang will be donning them as well.

The kigurumi would thus be worn specifically for the objective of increasing the impact of their presence, hopefully getting more student signatures than what they normally would.

"Please cooperate with us!"

"If you wear a kigurumi with me, then I'll stop bothering them!"

During the first afternoon of executing this plan, only Misaki was the one wearing a kigurumi. This was then followed by Nanami, who was guilt-tripped and tricked into wearing one. The rest followed soon after, both in support of Nanami's hapless situation, and Misaki's unshakable resolve.

Sorata wore the white cat kigurumi, while Nanami appropriately wears the tiger kigurumi. 

Misaki and Mashiro stuck to the very same kigurumi they wore during the school festival, the black cat kigurumi and the bear kigurumi.

Jin, unfortunately, had to wear the oddly specific tuna kigurumi.

As for Ryuunosuke, he was cooped up in his room, as usual, so no protest kigurumi for him.

"We all hope this would make everyone less suspicious of support us!"

Against all odds, it actually worked! To a degree. The kigurumi itself never really was going to be the primary selling point anyway, but it did definitely help in garnering the needed attention to boost their chances of finding willing students. Even, if it was just for a bit.

"Still don't get it? Everyone in this hall is now on our side."

So what did happen in the end? After a flurry and whirlwind of emotions, planning, regret, and reconciliation, the graduating seniors Misaki and Jin masterfully pulled out one last move to make sure that the Sakura dorm will never be torn down.

As we have concluded during the last kigurumi adventure of the Sakura dorm residents, The Pet Girl of Sakura-sou (さくら荘のペットな彼女) was quite a notable drama/slice-of-life series. While we specifically pointed out the social struggles of students aspiring for careers related to digital creators before, we would like to point out this time the more basic vibrance of the world the series is set in.

One of the hallmarks of a good series is when the world doesn't just revolve solely on the perspective of the protagonists. Especially within a school setting, where there are hundreds, if not thousands, more students that are just like them; up and about doing their own thing. This show manages to show frequently the side of other classmates and close friends. It even directly moves on with the natural course of having new dormmates as the older ones graduate towards the end of the show.

But whatever your take is with the series, we can all at least conclude that Misaki's bear kigurumi will always be an eye popping experience for those seeing it for the first time in its actual (non-ending theme song) context.