Joshikousei: Girl's High

I found this anime way back in around 2019 or 2020 because of misty cronexia(Is that how it's spelled?) and it very quickly became my favourite comedy(Right up there with Grand blue and Konosuba). Although I'm a guy who has no idea what being a girl is like, I loved the humor, loved the characters and loved the setting. I remember almost tearing up while listening to the ending song of the last episode because I was sad that it was ending (Ed song is also one of my all time favourites) and I still haven't finished the manga till today because I don't want ... to see it end.
Maybe it's finally time to finish it for real.

In the end the humor might not appeal to everyone but if it does hit you the right way, then you might fall in love with this anime as much as I have.

What you see, is what you get...

Joshikousei: Girl's High is what you really get when you get an Arms anime adaptation with an all girls cast in school with the typical ecchi hijinks that entails to it and LA could as EASILY have let this review out like that buuut might as well continue. Shall we?

With Joshikousei: Girl's High being a very "comedic hijinks" anime well let's start there, well this is an Arms anime so right off the bat, the ecchi shows itself with the typical chest and boob shots and of course the anime uses this as comedy mostly in the main cast ... in undress or "costumes" one way or another, again Arms anime. But for the most part the comedy revolves around the characters jabbing at one another...most of the time the comedy falling flat as the execution and buildup towards most of the"comedic hijinks" are planned out that you can see it projected a mile away. So to this end, did LA even laugh "at all" in this anime...nope. Already falling behind huh -sigh-.

The characters of Joshikousei: Girl's High have a bit of development to them and LA has at least two favourite characters, one out of default the other genuine. First is Eriko Takahashi voiced Hitomi Nabatame, the ditz of the group but has times of genius, she has her moments another words but generally is paired with Yuuichirou Odagiri voiced by Mitsuaki Madono her highschool homeroom teacher...who's also a narcissistic and is generally the buttmonkey outside of Eriko's group. Next is Akari Kouda voiced by Satsuki Yukino, the "comedic one" of the group, wanting to be actress one and has a fetish of wearing "wacky costumes" which becomes a running gag throughout the anime, Yuma Suzuki voiced by Masumi Asano is the usual tomboyish girl of the group and has beef with her little sister which does become one of the ONLY serious plotlines in the entire anime. Ikue Ogawa voiced by Sawa Ishige is the naive loli of the group and is generally a satellite character to our next character Kyoko Himeji voiced by Kyouko Hikami the most sane of the group and because of that she is one LA's more genuine favourite characters in the anime with Ayano Satou voiced by Mamiko Noto being the typical shy girl of the group but actually having a boyfriend with a LOONG name in which Ayano says it OFTEN as a running gag, she's also subjected to the buttmonkey status to the rets of the group thanks to her having a boyfriend as a result, guess why LA likes Ayano?...no not because of her glasses!?, she's the buttmonkey to the rest of the group of course and thus LA can feel sorry for her more or less. So overall the characters are slim pickings in terms of good characterization but what there is, the few episodes that dedicates itself to it's characters are minimal as Joshikousei: Girl's High seems to focus on comedy over it's characters in this regard.

The animation done by Arms is...expected from them, even early on in the mid-2000's (this was made in 2006). Arms animation is rather basic, even with it's fanservice of all things, with bland typical character designs (sure school girls so), bland typical backgrounding with the only thing LA could give Arms some grace would be it's comical animation because you know, "comedic ecchi anime". Overall Arms' animation was typical even in 2006, quality not withstanding because it WAS the mid-2000's (to counter this though, when this anime came out, animes like School rumble and Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu were out, soooooo)

The voice cast was expected especially with the characters that were presented, LA WILL some grace at least as most of the voice actors did decently well with the characters they were given, especially from Kyouko Hikami as Himeji, Satsuki Yoshino as Kouda and Masumi Asano as Yuma and Mamiko Noto as Ayano. So decent voice cast overall, being a bit better in the animation department with what source material they were given after all.

LA heard the author of Joshikousei: Girl's High, Towa Oshima being inspired by her own school experiences and with this anime, surely SOME of her experiences were exaggerated to a certain extent for comedy but LA can "kinda" get behind this statement mainly with the clique of the main cast, the fanservice parts and all...questionable at least.

Joshikousei: Girl's High has it's MAJOR problems with it, namely the anime entirely focused on comedy over character thus leading to bland characterization towards most of the cast, ok production value from Arms namely the animation even in 2006 when it was released and the biggest complaint LA being the comedy is extremely predictable thus lost any chance of LA laughing even once as to how projected it is. But with it's flaws, Joshikousei: Girl's High has SOME good points namely what characters that have development, namely Yuma, Ayano and Himeji gives us the littlest bit of investment to them and the voice cast did "ok" and uhhh...that's it...hehe.

Joshikousei: Girl's High is the best definition of an anime of "What you see is what you get" when your reading the synopsis of this anime, or a better statement would be..."exactly what it says on the tin". Joshikousei: Girl's High is your typical ecchi all girls cast school anime you'd see in the early to late 2000's anime you'd see and from Arms no less, with the only "claim to fame" Joshikousei: Girl's High has gotten being that it's ED getting memetic to the point of it being parodied in other animes...

Sometimes in life you come across a piece of media that really makes you rethink your stance on every other piece of media you've consumed. For me, that piece of media is 'Joshikousei: Girl's High'. From just the name and cover art alone, my expectations were already reasonably low, although, I'm not sure if anything could have prepared me for this dumpster fire of an anime. This anime couldn't just leave it at being a painfully mediocre comedy, they had to go the whole mile. If I could compare this anime to anything, it would probably be like getting swamp ass with white pants on. ... It's not worth covering specific points about this show because everything is within the range of extremely forgettable to offensively terrible. I have a new appreciation for life now.