Gakuen Handsome

I watched this at 1am and actually cried laughing. The art is terrible, the story is terrible, the characters make no sense, and I love it. This is the best parody of those generic school yaoi/BL dramas that could ever be conceived. Everyone looks like they were drawn by a not-artistically-gifted 6th grader that just got into anime. The main character has no eyes and his 7 year old sister remembers playing with one of the MCs friends from 7 years ago. They blow up like 3 buildings. A guy dies and comes back to life. In ... the ending song the characters distort into oblivion in time to the music. I felt like I was suffering some kind of trauma-induced shock while watching it.

TLDR: Gakuen Handsome needs to be put in the art museum where it belongs.

To be clear: this is yaoi SATIRE. Unless you've been a weeb since the days of newgrounds, you're not going to get this.



ART:
Imagine every thirteen year old's deviant art account when they started watching anime. That is the art of this show. And it was intended. The pointy chins, the yaoi hands- all intended. Literally every possible thing is wrong with the art, shading, proportions, perspective, everything. The characters are exaggerated versions of BL art style and the main character has no face which makes it fairly quirky


SOUND:
Pretty good actually. Goes to show that the animators actually do know what they're doing. And ... that (again) the horrible art is intended.


CHARACTER:
Every trope and stereotype exists in this show. Every line is either super rapey or absolutely stock. It's a perfect parody.


ENJOYMENT:
As someone who grew up on anime, this show brought me into a nostalgic state of when I started started trying to create my own images on MS paint. I laughed to the point of tears while watching this show. I've read quite a few cringeworthy BL manga and I can say that this short animation portrays all the faults you can find there with the perfect satirical touch.


OVERALL:
The type of viewers who will like enjoy this definitely had unironically enjoyed a doujin or something that was probably not much better than this.

*SKIP TO THE BOTTOM TO READ TO SOMETHING YOU SHOULD KNOW BEFORE WATCHING*

~ Story (9) ~

Each short, three and a half minute, episode explores a new character in this wonder parody harem. There are episodes about a man who can fly using the rotation powers of his spatulas, invitations to go romantically peeing together, fashionable wearing of sumo wrestler underwear (fundoshi), death by cat cafe and many other ridiculous things. Not much else to say but that each episode will leave you thinking both, "wtf did i just watch" and "i need more".

~ Art (10) ~

To me, aspects of an anime like art, music, ... plot, etc. should be scored based on if they help the anime or not. That doesn't necessarily mean it has to be good quality. That's why, once again, I will say I'm not joking or exaggerating when I give this a 10. The art is what makes the show for me. It's on the level of shitty drawings by a 10 year-old on Deviant Art. I'm no artist but I'm sure I could do better. But that's not what I care about. The art makes me laugh so hard, I cry. Every. Damn. Episode. I will never forget the iconic first forty seconds of the show when the main character walks into the classroom and his teacher turn around with a chin so long, it easily hangs to his nipples. I laughed for a good ten minutes, something anime has never done to me. Sure I've had my fair share of comedy in plenty of anime, but this one really takes the cake.

~ Sound (9) ~

The first time I saw the OP, I thought I was watching something pretty weird but then I saw the ED and the OP seemed pretty tame after that. This category kinda speaks for itself. If you google the ED for this, you'll see what I mean (or you could just watching the show lol). A hilarious ending to a hilarious show. They couldn't have picked a more perfect ED.

~ Character (9) ~

This is where the whole "parody" thing is most prominent, in my opinion. They have the uptight class president, the delinquent and team captain, the childhood friend and the serious guy with a soft spot. A lot of the characters represented tropes you'd see in other shounen ai. It's healthy to watch a good parody once in a while and this one is perfect. I know this fits more into the "art" section, but the character designs were also pretty clever. They chose the most common cliche designs for male characters.

~ Enjoyment (10) ~

This is easily the funniest anime I've ever seen. The enjoyment category is what really matters when you are watching a comedy and I give this one a 10. It keeps you entertained and just when it can't get any weirder, it finds a way in the most hilarious way possible.

~ Overall (9) ~

This anime tried something brave and unique I've never seen in comedy/parody anime. I applaud the creators for that. The three and a half minute episodes were appropriate for a show that would certainly get tired out otherwise. They did not stick with the orthodox way of presenting humor and thought outside of the box. You could tell that they were having a lot of fun with this one and it made it feel more genuine and refreshing.

*IMPORTANT: If you didn't already know or didn't read before, this is a PARODY and is not to be taken SERIOUSLY. It parodies common cliches and tropes found in shounen ai, romance and school anime. If you have not seen enough anime, this might not be as funny to you as it is to others. I'm not saying that if you're new to anime, you're going to hate it but I think it is highly likely you will enjoy less*