Cromartie High School

Publisher
ADV
Director
Hiroaki Sakurai
Production
Kodansha, Production IG, TV Tokyo
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
26 episodes
Year
2003

Cromartie High School Volume 1: Cromartian Rhapsody

By noghri
21st Apr 06

Takashi Kamiyama has enrolled at Cromartie High, where every student is a delinquent. Kamiyama apparently is the only non-delinquent in the school and finds himself very intimidated. During the beginning of the first year at Cromartie a hierarchy is being developed and a lot of bragging and boasting is occurring. There are some people who are known to be tough, but others are unknown. At this point the leader of the class is due to be decided. Kamiyama finds himself volunteered to be one of three who will trial to find out who is the toughest in the class. The reasoning is that in a group of lions it is not the lions to be afraid of but rather the bunny who seems perfectly at peace, twisted logic, but it works for me. In this classroom scene rather reminiscent of GTO we find Kamiyama joined by Hayashida, the King of Idiots, Maeda the comedian, Mechazawa the robot student, who nobody realises is a robot, Takenouchi the one who's good at fighting but gets motion sickness, Hokuto, who wound up at the wrong school while trying to take over command of as many public schools as possible, the mysterious middle aged man called Freddie, who bears a striking resemblance to a certain diseaced rock singer, a Gorilla, and Destrade High rival Yamanouchi.

Thus begins the story that parodies every cliché of tough-guy anime that you've ever heard of - "Cromartie High School" or, as it's know as in Japan, "Sakigake!! Cromartie Koukou", which means simply "Charge!! Cromartie High".

What ADV says

Mild mannered student Takashi Koyaman finds himself enrolled at Cromartie High, where everybody is a delinquent! Logically, therefore, he must be the toughest in his class - by the rather twisted logic that only a really tough rabbit would lie down with lions. Thus begins a story that parodies every cliche of tough-guy anime that you've ever heard of... and some you haven't!

Review

The first thing that strikes me about Cromartie High School is the sheer weirdness, I’m a big fan or weirdness, but this takes it up a level. Cromartie is in fact an awesome show. it is so good that I really was surprised how much I enjoyed it. Cromartie is a show that executes it's strangeness in such a brilliant way that I cannot help but fall in love with it..

Kamiyama soon aspires to change things around Cromartie High, but finds that the local delinquents are not only strong, but most are just plain strange.
Perhaps now is a good time to issue a warning: It gets a lot more bizarre from here on in. From delinquents with a desire to eat pencils to an entire episode about trying to figure out the title of a song through its repeated humming, Cromartie High School is not a show for those who cannot appreciate strange senses of humour.

Another thing you should be mindful of is Cromartie's animation style. If you're one of those people who watches anime to see the pretty pictures move, you may find yourself at a loss, Cromartie has a fairly realistic animation style which ventures repeatedly into insanity. Yet, unlike any other show I've ever seen, the approach taken actually improves the feel of the show. From faces stretching for no reason, to ears appearing on a person a second later than they should, to hair, which seems to be alive and capable of independent movement, Cromartie's animation despite being completely individual, fits its own style perfectly.

The dub is good all round, but nothing to write home about. This is backed-up by a great soundtrack, albeit very quiet in the background.

Cromartie High School is probably one of my favourite shows to come out of Japan in the last couple of years, not the best, but definitely up there and completely contrasted to anything I have seen., the most similar thing is probably GTO.

There's no intensely deep plot here, but it is the first volume, primarily it is a series of episodes or sketches designed to be funny. Usually they succeed, sometimes however; you're left scratching your head. But the anime doesn't try to take itself seriously - it even anticipates that many of its viewers won't get it. For instance, in one episode, a wannabe comedian Yamaguchi, struggles to keep secret his greatest passion - writing comedy for late night radio.

He is the head of the rival school sits for hours trying to figure out what's so funny about the newest TV show that's got everyone talking. He immerses himself in the fan culture, buying all the DVDs and plushies, but by the end, he's still clueless.

Thoughts

The first time I watched it I just didn’t appreciate the efforts that have gone into producing the awkward feeling the show gives you. I had read the manga first and to be honest I wish I hadn’t, it seems to have reduced my ability to take the show for what it is, I find myself comparing it constantly to the manga. The manga is truly fantastic, but for those of you who haven’t read it, I recommend watching the anime first.

The Cromartie High's DVD insert warns viewers that they shouldn't think too deeply about this - take things at face value and you'll be entertained.

Each episode is about 12 minutes long and don’t follow any particular order or style. The DVD contains 8 episodes, or approximately 100 minutes of viewing time. While it's a little lacking at points, there is just no faults I can really find with it, especially upon second viewing.

The features on this DVD are well thought through, i especially like the cultural notes, this allows access to enjoy some of the jokes, which could have been missed if you were not familiar with some customs in Japanese culture.

R2 DVD Notes

Features: Japanese 2.0 Language English 5.1 Language English Subtitles Cultural Notes & Comments Clean Opening Animation Clean Closing Animation Original Japanese TV Warnings

Release information: ADV 17th April

Notes: Audio/Visual: The DVD offers either English or Japanese with English subtitles - no mixing and matching of language with subtitles. I altered between watching it in Japanese and in English, and found I didn't have much preference for one over the other. Both are clear. Visually, this feels like a manga that was animated with lots of pans and still shots rather than fluid animation. This at first feels a little off, but after watching this a second time, it really is what makes this works. Much of the colouring is bold with shadows hatched in rather than solidly coloured with darker colours. Packaging: The front cover shows Kamiyama with his two friends, Maeda and Hayashida against a black backdrop. Hovering over them is fellow classmate and robot, Mechazawa, and the edges are coloured to appear worn. The back shows a number of screenshots with the caption Is This The Real Life? Is This Just Fantasy? - the lyrics to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody which are fitting since Freddie appears in this anime. Inside is a helpful black and white booklet offering character bios of four Cromartie-High students, some explanations of characters and phrases that appear in the anime, and a brief blurb on adapting the Sakigake!! Cromartie High School manga to an anime by director, Hiroaki Sakurai. The menu screen has a record player spinning a record with a picture of the Cro-High kids in the background. The navigation is easily readable against the wood panelling background. Extras: The DVD includes the clean opening and closing sequences, the original Japanese piracy warnings which are done by characters in the show, and some cultural notes and comments, which are quite helpful in explaining some of the cultural gags included in the show.

-- noghri 21st Apr 06

Cromartie High School Images