Manga Review: Oresama Teacher, Volume 9, by Izumi Tsubaki

Rating (Out of 5): ~3-3.5

Publisher: VIZ Media (Shojo Beat)

Volumes: 16+

Spoilers?: Minor-ish.

Buy it here: Amazon.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Reads R to L (Japanese Style), for audiences rated teen. Mafuyu is the no-nonsense, take-charge and hard-hitting leader of her high school gang. But when she gets expelled for being a delinquent, her mother, fed up with her daughter’s wayward ways, sends Mafuyu to an isolated school far off in the country.

The yearly culture festival is coming up fast, and it’s a great chance for Midorigaoka Academy to shine. But disappearing students and rising tensions between the academy and nearby Kiyama High could turn the festival into a full-on disaster! Can a pack of delinquents save the day and the school?

Review:

This series is funny. It’s enjoyable. I like it. But I’m not loving it, the little things are all starting to collide and blur in my head, and there’s just a little too much going on with too little plot movement.

This volume continues the school festival plot line, ending the hallway disappearances, and starting and ending a delinquent riot. The delinquent bit had been hinted at, but I didn’t think too much of it. It was interesting, part of it was needed, but the ending seemed a bit too cheesy, and kind of made me wonder what the point was, probably because I just didn’t really know the guy behind it all, Bancho’s original second or whatever. Mostly, it was to make the Bancho the Bancho again (since he’d been kicked out of it by Mafuyu/Natsuo, although I can’t remember why that happened, nor did I remember it happening at all until I was reminded), and I’m okay with that. It needed to happen.

Also, it connected the plot where the student council president is trying to bring down the public morals club, or Mafuyu. We got to know one of the new characters a bit better in this volume, and that was alright. It was funny.

There are just too many characters, okay? I know I keep saying this, but it’s true. Not only are we now maybe getting to know the six new student council members, but we’re also supposed to remember who several of the delinquents are at Mafuyu’s current school, as well as the ones from her old school and the ones rivaling her old school, then there’s Saeki’s old classmate, and the main characters who I can’t even remember the names of a majority of the time. There’s just too many, and when I can’t remember their name, let alone even vaguely what role they play, I have a hard time caring and then remembering what happened with them.

Then there’s the fact that barely anything ever happens. We’ve been shown peeks of the student council for several volumes now, but very little of what the president is actually doing has been actually done. There are hints of things, little bits moved forward at a time, which I have to commemorate Tsubaki for doing all of these secret, subtle things behind all of the humor, but at this point I want the plot to get going already. I’ve been waiting for way too long, all of the little plot movements are starting to blur together, and I’m starting to get impatient.

So, overall: I like this series, I think it’s funny. But there’s too much. I will probably continue reading, but I’m not really in any hurry to get the next volume, and I might even be taking a break from the series for a while.