Gakuen Ouji

Status: Ongoing
Also known as: Gakuen Prince

Joshi High - a former all-female school that recently became co-ed, and at first glance, every man's dream. Due to strict lifestyle girls are forced to live, their lust towards men has grown to its peak and they throw themselves over any guy that enters through the school gates like starved animals... literally, starved animals.

Sadly for our main protagonist Mizutani Azusa, that seems to be the case. Being a bishie has never been harder when an army of fangirls are ready to rape you on your first day at school. Desperate for a way out, he does the only thing he can think of: he uses friendless megane girl Okitsu Rise as his shield and tells the whole school she's his girlfriend!

Art - 9.3 / 10.0
Say whatever you want about Azusa, but the boy is hot. This mangaka sure knows how to draw her bishies: say goodbye to the stick-like, femboys you've ever known and say hello to toned, tall ikemen that spend the majority of the series half-naked. And some facial expressions are just drawn perfectly. And the way the jokes are pulled off in this manga are awesome; the art is just the right balance between sparkly and non-sparkly. Because, as you know, sparkliness is what shoujo comedy is all about. (Half of it, anyway.)


Plot - 9.6 / 10.0
So here's the deal: either you're squealing right now in unison with me, or you're giving me a man-are-you-crazy-look whilst reading. Or you haven't read this manga at all, which you should do the second you exit this page, and make up your mind what you think about it.

Somebody at Baka-Updates called this manga a 'hit or miss' manga, and I agree to 100%. This kind of series isn't something for everybody. Also, all the readers seem to have different perceptions of it. Some of it love the delicious drama and eat it right up, sparkly or non-sparkly; others find the entire thing hilarious and laugh their way even through the serious panels. Yet again others find themselves disgusted by the set-up and refuse to read any further.

If you haven't read it yet, you'll probably find it's a combination of all three. You just have to see which side you prefer.

....Still got a hard time choosing?

As for me, I love the plot. Really. It's as ridiculous as it can possibly become, sometimes -- but exaggerations be damned, it's a shoujo. I get a handful of reality every single day, and as much as I love it applied to two-dimensional, black-and-white figures with too-big-eyes and always-perfect-hair, some exaggerations are allowed. After all, we're talking about the genre where it's a common occurence that gorgeous celebrity guys appear at your school and fall in love with you out of all girls fawning over him, and where it's considered normal that you trip over your own feet and have your first kiss with your archenemy (and soon-to-be love of your life). That's just shoujo, people. Get used to it.

Also, it isn't that unrealistic, if you think about it. Remember that whole Dionysus party thing in Ancient Greece? Where all these cooped up women who were forced to abide by the strict rules of society let loose and tore apart wild animals with their bare hands and ate them raw? Yeah, it's sort of like that, in a modern version. Besides, I used to have an idol-like guy at my high school. If the girls hadn't been half as oversexed as they already were there, it wouldn't have surprised me if they pulled off some stunts depicted in the manga. (Then, of course, there are some things that are just plain crazy, but yeah.) /rant

My musings about the realism of this series aside, I think the plot twists are pretty damn good here. It keeps me hanging, wondering what is going to happen next. I just wish it could proceed forward a little bit faster and more naturally, because the pace they're going at right now is Shounen Jump-esque. We have long arcs depicting one single day, and then the days suddenly fly by and you don't even know how long time has passed. But other than that, I think it's awesome.


Characters - 9.4 / 10.0
It's like the series itself: either you hate 'em or you love 'em. There's really no in-between. As for me, I love the protagonists. Mizutani is neither your stereotypical moron, happy-go-lucky guy or bad guy. He's just a guy, with all his faults and good sides, and that's what makes him so special. The same goes for the girl, Okitsu: she's strong, but in a different way than your usual shoujo heroines. (Although she does have a healthy dose of tsundere à strong heroines...) The dynamic between them is remarkable.

However, there are some characters that just don't make sense - the villains are too two-dimensional, too evil. There's no motif, no anything. I know there are just plain sadistic people in this world, but somehow it just feels like an excuse to throw the protagonists into scenarios where they can either a) show off skin or b) have moments of lublub.

Romance - 8.6 / 10.0
Well, it's definitely not your stereotypical light-hearted first-love shoujo, that's all I can say. As this manga leans towards the smuttier kind, it's also leaning towards a more rough, violent kind of romance à Kyou Koi wo Hajimemasu. The good part is that it's not your fave bishie doing the nasty shit, but nonetheless, there are quite a few scenes that will just outright awaken your disgust or incredulity. Even so, the protagonists themselves have really cute moments. I think the romance is developed at a natural pace (I know I put so much emphasis on this, but I hate love-at-first-sight stories), and you can relate to it somehow, despite its unnatural set-up.

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To be honest, I don't really know whether I should recommend this or not. Gakuen Ouji in my opinion is brilliant - plotholes galore in some areas, too much ecchi in some others, but brilliant nonetheless - but if you're the conservative kind, you're better off sticking to your innocent male leads like Ren in Strobe Edge or Kazehaya in Kimi ni Todoke. But if you enjoyed Kyou Koi wo Hajimemasu, or would like a more sexified version of Toradora! with a bunch of crazy fangirls, then go ahead. You'll enjoy this one. I know at least I did.

Overall Rating: 9.5 / 10.0

Credits for scans: Esthetique and NOIR