Cromartie High School

(ADV Manga, 2005-2006)
™ and © 2001 Eiji Nonaka
Black and white graphic novel series; read right to left.

Regular guy Takashi has somehow become enrolled in the toughest high school in Japan. The student body includes a nameless gorilla, a primitive–looking robot named Mechazawa (who doesn’t seem aware that he is a robot), and a shirtless Western man in his 30s everyone calls “Freddy” (though I’m sure the publisher would like me to point out for legal reasons that he, is in fact, not the late Freddie Mercury from the band Queen).

This is the manga equivalent of the Airplane! movies; for a second, it may look like an authentic, deadly earnest, honor–among–punks high–school fighting saga. It’s just the backdrop for serene surrealism. It uses the Azumanga Daioh format of lots of very short episodes to recount the supposed adventures of young would–be toughs who never actually get around to fighting each other—let alone anyone else. The results are as hilarious as they are bizarre. In a market inundated with the tried and trite, Cromartie High is an unexpected pleasure and treasure.

— S.A. Bennett

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#3

August, 2005
Cover Price: $10.95
1 copy available for $34.99

Eiji Nonaka