You know what? I've been getting Anime Network on Free On Demand for weeks now and I haven't even once thought of reviewing any series from that... mostly because I didn't like the English Dubs. However this time out I have a series which changes that... and is a present topic of review manga-wise so it fits both ways. No information on the DVD since this is not the DVD review, but I think we can get through this fine... anyway it means I can review an episode a week, so that's something positive. So let's begin.

Episode 1
Meet Takashi Kamiyama. He's got himself a bit of a problem.
Seems he went out of his way to enroll in this high school, Cromartie High, only it seems he didn't do an inch of work to evaluate his soon to be new high school and he's going to regret it. Sure, sure, according to the flashback story in the manga he was compelled to do it... but maybe he should have did his homework on the joint regardless of the compelling reason to go there.
Why is Cromartie High such a problem? Well, that's the case because Cromartie High is the "dumping ground" of every reject, lowlife, scum and leftover tough guy character from every school series that ever was and is now only seen in reruns and DVD collections.
Anyway it seemed that something wasn't right about that school. Now it could have been the large group of punks he sits in class with, it could have been the atmosphere of the first day of school, or maybe it was the large dude that ate all his pencils... something about the school just didn't seem right to him.
So how did he end up here? How did he become a part of this school (past the aforementioned thing about him enrolling)... according to the Anime... you need to read the manga. No, really, it tells you that you have to

read the manga... would I lie?

Anyway he then tries to fit in by taking the seven rules of the High School Debut System.
Bizarre floating old man speaking in a booming cryptic voice included only for the Anime.
And yes, this is one of those times you should probably start at Rule #7 before doing anything before that.
After that it's time to find the toughest guy in school... how Kamiyama ends up being said guy...
Maybe it's his story of the bad thing he did which... yes... means another trip back to Cromartie High School GN 1 since they ain't showing you that in the anime either. Guess that cuts down on stuff to animate if they keep telling you to get the manga and read it. I didn't like that, by the way.

Then we meet the triad of strangeness.
"Freddie", who looks as if he's a long lost secondary character from a Chuck Norris movie of old... until somebody told me it might be THE Freddy Mercury... of course since I know nothing about music I gave said associate a rather blank stare and looked dreadfully unaware. Of course I am aware that Freddie's appearance in the manga is longer than this, and involves an attempt to gauge Freddie's bloodtype, but let's move on. Next is the gorilla of nobody's dreams who doesn't even have enough time in his appearance in this episode to prove he's smart by fetching a banana hanging from the ceiling. And finally the robot who everyone sees as human, Mechazawa, who ends the episode... with an appearance of about 30 seconds, same as the gorilla.

Along the way the entire bus trip slash taxi ride sequence seems to have vanished amongst other things... maybe it'll appear later. That and the whole thing with Kamiyama being the "errand boy". Oh, well.
Best to break this down now, before somebody tell you you'll have to read the manga to see that.

Cromartie High School Breakdown Episode 1
What's

Hot? - Now if you remember my review of the manga I put it against Azumanga Daioh and said I liked Azumanga Daioh better... guess what? If I take Cromartie High's English dub and compare it to the English dub of Azumanga Daioh? Cromartie High School comes out on top.
In a complete role reversal I suddenly find myself approving more of the English dub of this series than Azumanga Daioh. While Azumanga Daioh's English dub is hard to listen to, since a lot of the voice actresses just don't do right by their characters (start at Chiyo and Yukari and move your way through the whole cast), the same can't be said here.

I honestly liked the work the all male cast turns in here. It's listenable, really, and they seem to put in some effort to make their characters really stand out which is something I wish they put in that kind of effort with Azumanga Daioh's dub, then I wouldn‘t cringe so much when watching it on Free On Demand.
Of course I could just be baised since I heard the Japanese sub of Azumanga Daioh before the dub, but only heard the English dub of Cromartie... but I only heard the English dub of Marmalade Boy and didn't like it. Ditto with Slayers which is also on Free on Demand.
Regardless, I'm going to add Cromartie High to the list of English dubs I recommend because I think it‘s worth recommending, and since there are so few English dubs that are worth recommending we could use a few more and I think Cromartie fits that to a T.

Now onto the series itself. Now that I've seen the Anime and put that and the Manga together I have a better respect for it. I think now, after comparing both, you should most certainly try it out. It's solid, and it's got merits. And, heck, considering it's #1 comedy in Japan and the winner of the

Kodansha Manga Award so what else does it need to be considered tough enough anyway!

What's Not? - Nothing. Not even the whole thing of telling you to read the manga over and over. It's good. It's really, truly, honestly good... but yeah, the whole tell me to read the manga thing isn't good.
If I really wanted to read the manga? Guess what! I'd be reading the manga! Not watching this!
And the shortening of some scenes just to cram as much into Episode 1 as possible didn't work for me either. They could have just stretched the content of this episode into two episodes, I'm in no big hurry here you know! I can wait! Hopefully Episode 2 doesn't have this rushed feel to it.

Moments to Remember? - It has it's moments. Yes. But I can't say since this is only a 20 or so minute review and that'll reveal too much. Too bad you'll have to have a copy of the manga at your side for the full effect since it looks like you'll need to constantly refer back to the manga again and again during viewing.

What to Ignore? - Let's see... we're missing several whole sequences and only two can be blamed on the gag of "read the manga to learn more", the other parts don‘t even have that going for them. If anything I wish they took their time with the episodes, and mostly hope this isn't the result of extensive editing, but somehow I feel I'm missing something from this episode and it‘s probably not editing‘s fault.
Then again maybe it's just me. Who knows.

Overall? - It's the start of a long road of reviews, and a long wait too since the episodes are going to be dolled out one... after another... after another. Yes, the reviews will be consistent but slow as well.
Next week we'll have the review of Cromartie High Episode 2, so keep an eye out for it!