Daniel continues to reflect upon politics in Manabi. Many Western viewers latch on analogies with the 1923 Beer Putsch and Hitler's famous speech, even though they know that the swastika is reversed. Daniel uses the Great Leap forward instead:

Regardless of whether or not that reference was intended, the scene as a whole isn’t a bad comment on the Great Leap Forward: like Manabi’s plan to rearrange the furniture, it was an unhelpful misdirection of effort (to put it very mildly). Thankfully, Manabi’s plan isn’t put into action, though it plays a part in making Mikan cry; if we adopt the slogan of another story closely related to Manabi Straight in genre, ‘Cute Is Justice’, as a moral statement (and when in Manabi Straight is anyone cute ever really in the wrong?), then making Mikan cry is obviously some kind of ultimate injustice.

You’ll note that once Mikan starts crying the others, convicted of their guilt, return to work.

The sharp and overt politics of Manabi Straight set the series apart from other moeblob shows. The intense conflict allows to highlight the characters the way pastel colors of Azumanga were incapable of doing.