Student Cultural Society

The Student Cultural Society (文化研究部), is a club at Yamaboshi High that studies and reports on the cultures of countries around the world, though Taichi implies they rarely ever do any work, instead choosing to goof around most of the time. This is largely attributed to their advisor, Gotou, never checking up on them. The StuCS's current president is Iori and its vice president is Inaba.

Members
The Cultural Club's members are as vastly different from each other as the cultures they research. This is due in part to Yamaboshi High's standard that all students must participate in a club. Even so, the StuCS are considered to be a particularly close knit group and most of their peers agree that there is rarely dissatisfaction amongst their ranks. Apparently, none of the members originally wanted to be a part of the Cultural Club, but were placed in it due to various reasons.

The original five members eventually decide to retire from the club during their third year in order to focus on their exams. By this point, three boys, including Katou Takumi, and two girls join the StuCS, preventing it from being disbanded.

Yaegashi Taichi
Taichi originally wanted to join a "Professional Wrestling Study club", however the club did not exist. As a result, the school placed him in the Cultural Club.

Nagase Iori (President)
Iori could not decide which club she wanted, liking all of them equally. In the end, she decided to make her homeroom teacher, Gotou, randomly choose for her. As a result, Iori was placed in the Student Cultural Society by mere chance. Due to her bold personality, she was chosen as the club's president, though she never acts like one and the members sometimes forget that she is the president.

Inaba Himeko (Vice-President)
Inaba originally joined the Computer Club, however, she left due to an argument with the club's president. As a result, Inaba wound up establishing her own club, which grew into the Student Cultural Society, becoming its vice president. Inaba usually ends up making most of the decisions in the club and outsiders often mistaken her for the club's president.

Aoki Yoshifumi
Aoki wanted to join a supposed "Players Club"; however, to his disappointment, Yamaboshi High did not have such a thing. Ultimately, he was forced into the Student Cultural Society.

Kiriyama Yui
Yui wanted to join a "Fancy Club" due to her fascination with cute things; however, it did not have enough interested members. As a result, the school placed her in the Student Cultural Society.

Enjouji Shino
Shino joins the Cultural club during the Clip Time arc. Shino becomes the Vice-President in Precious Time.

Uwa Chihiro
Chihiro ends up joining the StuCS at Yui's request during the Clip Time arc. He initially wanted to join the Karate Club, but left because he was dissatisfied with the skill level of the other members. Chihiro becomes president of the club in Precious Time.

Katou Takumi
Takumi is a first year who joins the Student Cultural Society in Precious Time. Initially, he did not understand the purpose of the StuCS, nor had any desire of joining, but was inspired to by Shino, Chihiro, and Iori.

Relationships

 * Gotou Ryuuzen: Gotou is the advisor for the Student Cultural Society but never acts like one and gives the club a great amount of freedom to do as they please. The only occasions where Gotou tells the club to do something is when he is worried about his reputation with the other teachers or in order to make his job easier.
 * Katori Jouji: Katori Jouji claims that the StuCS is quite unique. He gave examples of how each member (except for Aoki) has done something amazing which stood out and affected the school: Inaba with her scoop photo and leadership skills, Iori, for being the school's "Number One Beauty" and for her popularity amongst the other students, Yui for winning the Sports Festival and her involvement during the "Love Boom", Taichi's speech in class and also for his involvement during the "Love Boom", and Shino and Chihiro's speech to motivate the class for the Sports Festival are some of the accomplishments of the club. He also knows that the club has considerable power over the rest of the students. After finding out that the StuCS are related to the phenomenons, he becomes suspicious of the club and demands they share what they know about Heartseed.
 * Heartseed: Heartseed has repeatedly said that the StuCS are not ordinary. It would not be until the events of Asu Random I that the StuCS would understand what Heartseed meant. Heartseed claims that the phenomenons have been around for a long time, but it was not until he encountered the StuCS that Heartseed witnessed something unusual. First, the phenomenons usually only last for one to two weeks, but for the StuCS, their Personality Exchange went on for almost a month. Second, groups only experience one phenomenon, but the StuCS encountered six different phenomenons by the events of Asu Random I. Lastly, the outcomes of each phenomenon were very different from others. Usually, for Personality Exchange, the groups break apart by the end of the first week due to the pressures of the phenomenon. Not only did the StuCS endure the phenomenon, they lasted longer than any other group. Additionally, the StuCS decided to continue on with their normal daily lives, overcame traumas, and even had a bit of fun along the way. This is completely different from when the Track and Field club experienced the phenomenon. The Track and Field club not only skipped class and trapped themselves in their clubroom, they began to turn on one another. The Personality Exchange for the Track and Field team should have been easier considering that all five of them were girls and did not have to worry about problems with opposite genders. The members could not act as each other and could not handle their fellow members knowing their secrets. Ultimately, what makes the StuCS so unique in Heartseed's eyes is that the phenomenons ended up strengthening the bonds between its members rather than destroy them. In the Isolation Dimension, most people who are experiencing phenomenon ended up having an argument which may end up being violent. The only exception is the Student Council.
 * Track and Field Club: The two clubs are shown to be on good terms due to Kurihara Yukina and Oosawa Misaki being friends with the StuCS. The Track and Field Club allowed the members of the StuCS to join them at their marathon and barbeque party at the beginning of their 1st school year. In Asu Random I, the Track and Field Club asked the StuCS for help, but only Kurihara and Oosawa directly interacted with the StuCS. After Oosawa lost her memories, the rest of the club, except Kurihara, turned against the StuCS, believing that they were the cause of Oosawa's memory lost.

Trivia

 * The clubroom's door sign is simply the club's name messily scribbled on a piece of printer paper and taped to the front door.
 * The club publishes a monthly article called Cultural Research News, which Yui admits is just random news and gossip that the members find interesting and not necessarily about culture at all.
 * The original, Japanese shortening of the club name, Bunka kenkyū-bu (文化研究部), is Bun-Ken (文研). It is a pun on the word Bunken (文献), which means "Literature." The StuCS write about culture.
 * Beside the clubroom, there is an empty storeroom where Chihiro in Nise Random used to eavesdrop on the second year members and asked Inaba to strip in Taichi's appearance.
 * The original five members are called the Pentagon (五角形), a name given by Shino.
 * Interestingly, in the novel text, the way each of the five original members refer to themselves is unique. Taichi uses the Kanji for "ore" (俺), while Aoki uses the Katakana for "ore" (オレ). For the girls, Yui uses "atashi" written in Hiragana (あたし), Iori uses "watashi" (わたし), and Inaba uses "atashi" but written in Katakana (アタシ). These different ways of writing "I" subtlety reflect each of their personalities.
 * The building their clubroom is in appears to be quite old since it is not earthquake resistant and even leaks during heavy rain.