Manga Review: Cromartie High School, Vol. 3 by Eiji Nonaka
Takashi Kamiyama is a mild-mannered fellow who wants to be a good student. But for…reasons, he finds himself enrolled at Cromartie High School, a den of delinquents and ne’er-do-wells. The other students certainly look like a tough bunch, and it’s hard to believe most of them are actually teenagers (especially the guy that looks exactly like Freddie Mercury), but it turns out that fighting isn’t their main activity. Having pointless conversations is!
This absurdist comedy manga is among other things a parody of the “delinquent” subgenre of shounen manga, where thuggish young men break school rules, swagger about the streets and constantly get into fights. As part of this, it has very “serious” character design and artwork–except when it doesn’t. The characters tend towards the quirky at minimum. For example, Kamiyama looks and is very mild-mannered, but is also quite ruthless in his own way and at one point becomes “Kingpin of Japan.”
This volume opens with Takenouchi, a genuine tough guy who has crippling motion sickness, stranded in America. He’s become the leader of an American gang with his right hand man being Mr. Mercury, who looks exactly like Freddie. Mr. Mercury disavows any knowledge of Freddie, or the band Queen, but Takenouchi is beginning to suspect Mr. Mercury is having him on.
Back in Japan, Masked Takenouchi, a former terrorist who was mistaken for the real Takenouchi and (almost) always wears a mask, turns over a new leaf and gets an honest job. Moreover, he learns the secret art of making pillows soft.
Mechazawa, who is unaware that’s he’s a robot, temporarily gets rebuilt into a motorcycle, Hokuto’s henchman fails to reveal his real name, and Hayashida’s attempt to form a baseball team ends with most of the characters in jail. And that’s just some of the silliness going on.
Like many gag series, there’s a certain amount of jokes that fall flat, but with the short chapters and rapid-fire delivery, there’ll be a good joke soon.
Content notes: There is a certain amount of violence, played for humor, some swearing, and several underage (not that you could tell by looking) characters smoke.
Recommended to high school and up readers who enjoy absurdism.
Here’s a clip from the anime adaptation:
