Review of Cromartie High School: Vol.1 - Cromartian Rhapsody

Introduction

The High School offers plenty of opportunity for anime storytelling, and it`s a rare series that goes by without the familiar school building or those chiming bells at some point or another. It`s also a perfect venue for the comedy, with hordes of rampant hormonal teens perfect fodder for relationship mayhem and unexpected pratfalls. Quite recently, I got to look at the latest such show debuting in the UK, School Rumble, and was suitably tickled. It was enough for me to take another shot at the genre, and ADV`s Cromartie High School beckoned. The thing that impressed me about School Rumble was how the episodes were broken up into what amounted to comedy sketches, and despite the half hour running length; there was a distinct absence of filler. Cromartie High School goes the whole hog, and keeps its episodes at a bite sized 12 minutes each. Coming from Production IG, the company that brought us Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex, and Otogi Zoshi, a school comedy would be the last thing you would expect.

There is no romance in this school comedy, as Cromartie High School is a school for delinquents, and delinquents alone. There`s only the one character stereotype here, and they all compete to see who can be the most delinquent of them all. That`s except for Takahashi Kamiyama, a regular, hard-working student who finds himself in the wrong school. Now he must find his inner antisocial to fit in, although in a school full of hardcases, the wimpiest of them all earns some unexpected respect. Street thugs and brutes abound in this school, battling for supremacy against all the other delinquent high schools in the area, among them a boy with an emotive purple Mohican, a luckless thug who gets no respect due to his lack of a nickname, a bruiser laid low by motion sickness, a robot, a massive gorilla, and Freddie Mercury… On a horse…

This first volume of four from ADV comes with 8 episodes.

Video

Cromartie High School gets a fair 4:3 regular transfer, which is free of significant artefacts, while remaining clear and sharp throughout. It`s a very stylised pencil sketch type anime, heavy on the character definition but not all that animated. In fact one of the characters remarks on the lack of motion at one point. It`s understandable given that it is a comedy more suited to wordplay and verbal gags. The approach of style over dynamism works just fine for Cromartie High School.

Audio

You get a choice between DD 5.1 English and DD 2.0 Japanese, with optional translated subtitles or signs. Given the amount of on screen captions that need translating, they`re practically obligatory on the English track, but the way they are implemented, overlaying the original text, is well done.

The running gag with the Japanese dialogue is that that in a school of delinquents, the losers all speak a formalised form of Japanese that is polite and clean to the point that the thugs exercise self-censorship when it comes to overly aggressive language. That`s lost in the English dub, which to be fair would sound a little too daft with a similar spin. That does mean that there is an extra, if minor level of profanity in the English track. While the surround does have a little extra presence, it isn`t all that big a leap from the stereo. Either way, Japanese as always remains my language of choice when it comes to anime.

Features

This series` packaging is a joy if you`re a fan of classic vinyl. Take a look at that Amaray cover, and the volume`s name. The vinyl influence extends to the disc`s label art, as well as the animated menus, featuring a turntable undergoing occasional abuse.

Inside the case you`ll find an eight-page booklet, offering interviews with the creators, character bios, behind the scenes notes, and more.

On the disc, the usual suspects apply as for most anime titles. You`ll find the clean credit sequences, comprising the opening and three of the end credits. There are two of the original Japanese TV warnings, and trailers for Full Metal Panic: Fumoffu, Get Backers, Madlax and Elfen Lied. There is also a preview for volume 2.

More substantial are the Cultural Notes and Comments, 20 pages in all, which offer insight into the jokes and gags that have a distinctly Japanese perspective in the show, and could use a little extra translation to really be appreciated.

Conclusion

I wasn`t all too sure what to expect from Cromartie High School, but following School Rumble I had high hopes for some academia-bound mayhem. Then I made the mistake of looking at a comment on IMDB, which described the show as Monty Python-esque. Not being a fan of all things Python, my heart sank. Until I realised that for Americans, any comedy that doesn`t conform to the narrow sitcom stereotypes of their prime time television, is automatically an heir to the legacy of Mawnty Piethawn. By then the damage had been done, and hype had infected me. I sat down in front of the television, daring Cromartie to make me laugh, which is surely the wrong way to approach these things. It therefore took a good few episodes for the show to click with me.

There is an anime stereotype of hard-cases going to a new school, in order to rule the roost through sheer toughness alone. The delinquent is a character that thrives in these school anime, and I`m instantly put in mind of shows like Tenjho Tenge and Ikki Tousen. But what happens when there is no one else in the school but delinquents? Cromartie High School is one such institution, which takes the dregs of society and throws them together. The tone of the show becomes apparent when it becomes clear that such delinquents will accept the least delinquent as the strongest among them, as the rabbit daring to live among the lions. Yes, it`s one of those topsy-turvy shows that turns all convention on its head, and throws in all that is unexpected. Kamiyama is the new kid on the block, the rabbit among the lions, the sheep in wolf`s clothing, and the star of the show, whose letters home to mother narrate the chaos that ensues. Among the friends he makes are Akira Maeda, a genuine hardcase who just can`t get any respect, due to his lack of a tough nickname, Shinjiro Hayashida, whose Mohican haircut is the most animated thing on the show, indicating his mood, gestures, and thoughts, Yukata Takenouchi, the toughest kid in the year, leader of the school gang, and with a motion sickness Achilles Heel. Other Cromartie pupils include a giant gorilla, a robot named Mechazawa who has no idea he is a robot. And Freddie Mercury. Straight from the `80s, with red braces and moustache is the lead singer of Queen, or a close facsimile, and although he never says a word, his presence is certainly felt in these episodes. As you would expect, there are rival schools of delinquency, and among their students is Takeuchi Noboru, an afro wielding tough guy who has secret dreams of hitting it big on the comedy scene, and who analyses and criticises each comment for comic potential. It turns out that Kamiyama is his chief rival when it comes to donating gags to a radio show, but how can two delinquents reveal their inner japesters, without losing that tough veneer?

The episodes are short and sweet, focussing on whatever bizarre oddities that may occur. One episode revolves around a tune that Hayashida can`t get out of his head, yet cannot put a name to. The whole school gets involved trying to figure it out. A school trip causes problems for Takenouchi`s delicate stomach, and then a taxi ride into the wilderness when a rival school kidnaps Maeda only makes matters worse. A new student, Takeshi Hokuto transfers in to take control of the school, as convention dictates, but he winds up at the wrong school, and has to build a tower of lies to get out of it. Noboru has a hard time understanding why a TV show called Pootan is so funny, and then a doctor has to administer medical exams to the students. He can refer Mechazawa to an electronics store, and he can just about handle Freddie, but the gorilla is going too far.

Cromartie High School is daft and surreal, which can be the making of a hit show. It can also be the death knell if no one gets the jokes. I initially fell victim to the hype surrounding the show, and naturally it couldn`t live up to that. But, while I did sit relatively humourless at the start of the disc, I was chuckling relentlessly by the time the disc ended, which indicates that Cromartie High School is a taste that is easy to acquire. The disc has splendid presentation, with excellent menu design, a nice supplementary booklet, and extras that mean that very few of the jokes get lost in translation. It`s well worth looking up if you are in the mood for some animated insanity.