| Cromartie
High School Vol-1 (2004)
Animation Production: Production I.G.
Released by: ADV
Films
Episodes: 1-8
Running Time: 100 minutes
By Jeffrey
Couto
Introduction
I’d like to start this review with a
simple bold statement, Cromartie High School is my
top pick as best new release of 2005. I know we’re
only one month into 2005, but barring any surprise releases
or licensing announcements for Mazinger-Z, Daimos, Gaiking
(any 1970’s super robot show will do), or live action
tokusatsu hero series this show is it for me.
From the day I received this advanced copy
of the first volume to the time I finished watching it I was
taken aback by its complete and utterly devastating awesomeness!
I’m shocked I’ve never heard of this series until
now! Let’s go right into it and learn more about what
makes Cromartie High School Japan Hero’s most anticipated
anime release of 2005!
Story
"Poor Kamiyama! Somehow he has been enrolled
in Cromartie High School, the infamous school for delinquents.
When your classmates are the meanest, toughest (and often
dumbest) students around, you do what you can to fit in. But
when you add a 400-pound gorilla, a robot with an attitude,
and a macho brute that bears a striking resemblance to a world
famous celebrity, it makes blending much more difficult. So
put on your best tough-guy swagger and get a lesson in insanity
from the hilarious losers of Cromartie High."-- ADV
Film's Cromartie High School Page
Review
This volume in ADV Films' release of Cromartie
High School features the first eight episodes in the series,
including:
Episode 1
Welcome to Cromartie High, a place where only the worse of
the worse are sent and the only way to survive is to be tough!
Newcomer Kamiyama better show everyone how tough he is by
telling them how tough he is! However, when everyone begins
bragging about how badass they are and what nicknames they’ve
been given by those who fear them he better shape up and carefully
craft his debut!
Episode 2
There is something strange about the charismatic and well
spoken punk known as Mechazawa. Will anyone be able to figure
out why this strange kid is different from everyone else…?
Episode 3
Just what song is that? The one you were just humming!? Looks
like in order to find out the entire school will need to be
recruited. Maybe, just maybe we’ll be able to figure
out where this melody originates from.
Episode 4
Noboru Yamaguchi, he’s the strong silent type and one
of the toughest guys around, but deep inside him a strange
conflict is brewing. Just what is it that he really desires!?
The comedy bug has bitten him hard, so it might just be a
matter of time until he dedicates himself fully to the art
of comedy!
Episode 5
Yataka Takenouchi commands the 1st year guys, and he's respected
even by the Year 3 guys. However despite his strenght and
courageous leadership he has one crucial weakness...he is
very prone to motion sickness when inside a moving vehicle.
This is all the more tragic when we learn that he loves to
travel. Will he be able to survive a school field trip and
the taxi ride from hell!?
Episode 6
Takeshi Hokuto has conquered 18 high schools using his father's
bureucratic powers to expel or do away with anyone who opposes
him. Will he be able to conquer the guuys at Cromartie? He
might be in for a surprise as this school does not fall under
his father's power grip, not to mention these Cromartie High
students are not too bright.
Episode 7
Noboru Yamaguchi despises Pootan, a mindless comedy series
on TV that generally enjoys high TV ratings. The only way
to remedy this situation is for him to debut his own brand
of comedy on television, but to do this he must find a partner,
and this is where his opponent "Honey Boy" comes
in. However when he learns that Honey Boy actually likes Pootan
it throws our silent comedy master into a state of disbelief.
He must now find the true inner comedy genius that lies deep
inside Pootan!
Episode 8
Time for physical exams! Are the doctor's prepared for Mechazawa...?
Then it's time to celebrate Freddie's birthday, but the festivities
may die too soon as the group of young men try to decide on
whether to have an all out match to determine who the strongest
is amongst them!
A couple of weeks back I received a rather
large package in the mail. It’s shape was unusual and
it’s arrival unexpected. When I opened it what looked
like an LP record was inside. The cover, which featured several
anime-style high school students and a robot seemed strange
enough, but the title was fitting given the imagery, Cromartie
High School. My first thought was that this was another in
the long and proud line of high school brawling/fighting anime
series that have been released in Japan over the past 30 years.
This is a popular genre, but not one that I typically jump
right into, that being said the packaging was odd enough that
it caught my interest and drove me to check out it the next
day.
A hundred minutes after I hit the play button
I was not only amazed by the whole concept and execution of
the program, but also in disbelief at how unique and refreshing
it was from anything I’ve seen in years! I don’t
think any anime works outside of Rumiko Takahashi’s
masterpiece, Urusei Yatsura, have made me laugh this much
or entertained me to such a high degree with bizarre situations
and plots like Cromartie High School managed to do.
The overall style and execution very much
relied on a rich collection of visual gags, melodramatic dialogue,
weird situations and a strange universe where anything seemed
possible. I would say the best way to describe how this show
feels and comes across is by describing it as "wonderfully
bizarre". This is a tricky style of humor to pull off
in any medium, specially anime, since the animators and writers
sometimes get too carried away with making things weird for
the sake of being weird (which traditionally brings about
flat results), but somehow the creative team here manages
to avoid this problem.
This is not to say that some of the happenings
within each story and the plot elements that push the narrative
don’t seem random at times, but unlike other titles
in the market that aim for this type of humor, they are consistent
from one story to the next. This continuity of style and overall
feel of the bizarre comedic elements that make up Cromartie
High School add up to a unique beast onto itself that few
could possibly match in terms of originality and sheer entertainment
value. In many ways it seemed to work in the same manner that
Urusei Yatsura works from episode to episode with wacky or
peculiar characters and plots.
The characters were adequate and varied, with
a multitude of personalities, motivations, and visual designs.
There’s the main character, Kamiyama, who is by far
the most balanced of the cast in terms of mental state and
presence, there’s also Hayashida, who is completely
bald except for a small purple puff of hair in the middle
of his head that moves independently from him and acts almost
as an entirely separate entity from. Mechazawa is the robot
of the group and one of the toughest kids in school, but no
one seems to realize that he’s not human; Yamaguchi
is the leader of one of the school’s caught in the fight
against Cromartie High, but secretly dreams of a career in
the comedy business. Then there's Freddy an older dude who's
still going to school and riding his horse all over the place.
It’s an interesting set of characters
to be sure and surprisingly enough they work extremely well
together. During these episodes there really didn’t
wasn’t too much done in the area of character development,
but this early on into the story, especially for a show like
this, that’s not a real problem. Instead the focus is
on the introduction of the various characters that we see
highlighted in the opening theme. With each chapter we meet
someone new or catch the first glimpse of a character who
will be introduced in an upcoming story.
The stories themselves had some healthy variety
to them and stroke me as rather unique within the world of
anime. From a plot completely focused on finding out what
the source of a melody is through mass humming, to one completely
focused on determining why no one acknowledges Mechazawa’s
mechanical nature, to the exploration of how a conflict between
being a badass and making people laugh can affect your psyche,
there is something here that is sure to appeal to all anime
fans.
In terms of production the show is very well
animated with a smooth frame rate and diverse color palette
that is evenly divided between bright pastels and more muted
greys. There are some nice visual effects also thrown into
the mix, but nothing particularly noteworthy. The music and
voice acting were as good as could be hoped for, but nothing
that was really ear-catching.
On the DVD front this disc is a solid basic
package from the guuys at ADV Films. Extras on the disc included
clean copies of the opening and ending themes, cultural notes
and comments, original TV warnings, previews for other ADV
releases, credits listings and a preview of volume 2. Inside
the DVD case a small booklet can be found with additional
cultural notes and character information. The DVD itself featured
a good looking transfer of the original series with no real
noticeable issues that I could detect. The Dolby Digital audio
came through beautifully, with no noticeable problems.
Final
Thoughts
Love it, Love it, absolutely positevely love
Cromartie High School!!
If you’re in search of anime comedy
or something that is very out of the ordinary look no further,
this is the title you’ve been waiting for.
Jeffrey
Couto |
