Rating (Out of 5): ~3-3.5
Publisher: VIZ Media (Shojo Beat)
Volumes: 16+
Spoilers?: Minor-ish.
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.
