Koukousei Kazoku
High School Family: Kokosei Kazoku

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- Overall (6/10):
High School Family is definitely a hidden gem if you are searching for a good slice-of-life comedy. Yes, if you see the overall points of 6/10, you may not believe me, but even with its flaws it is way more complex and funny than you think at first look… Just like I made this mistake at the beginning! So give it a chance!
But before that, let’s talk about the details.

- Story (6/10):
What is High School Family anyway? A boy starts to go to high school. Very basic, nothing special. But this time, his whole family, his 40+ years old Dad and Mom, his ... almost 10 years old little sister and even his goddamn cat! Is going as well!
Okay, this stupid madness will scare away a lot of people. It almost got me as well. However, as time goes by, we get a well-written love story, hilarious sports drama, funny twists, gang fights, David vs Goliath shogi championships and and and! The list goes on and on, and believe me or not, these story parts are really good! Nevertheless, the absurd comedy added sometimes 1-3 plus points, but also destroyed an almost perfect written story a lot of time. So it swung between a 4 and an 8 all the time.

- Art (3/10):
On top of that, the biggest weak point, which may drive away a potential reader, is the terrible art style. It is very simple, very basic and somehow ugly. I needed at least 10-20 chapters to get used to it. And even if it became better with the time, including backgrounds and paneling, it was sometimes still very off or abstract. For visual media, that’s a hard pill to take. But it is worth it!

- Characters (8/10):
And that’s due to the cast of this manga! It has a lot of characters, and a lot of the comedy manga fail exactly because of that. They are including more and more running gags, forcing a laugh out of you by at least one of them. But at the end, none of them has even a tiny bit of backstory or proper reasons. High School Family does not make this mistake. Every new character, be it a running gag or not, still has their own story, their own developments. Sometimes just 1-2, and sometimes over 10-20 or 30 chapters long. Meanwhile the MC’s, the High School Family, don’t come short either… At least almost. The mother and the cat are barely there. They have a few moments / chapters, but that’s all. There are side characters with way bigger impact. And the, call it true MC, boy is often outshined by his father or little sister. For a manga, with shounen as the main demographic, it misses the target. While for an older reader the comedy could be too crazy.

- Enjoyment (7/10):
In the end I have to say, I recommend this manga! I had a lot of fun, because of the great sport aspects, the well-written romance, good character developments and of course the outstanding crazy comedy which hits sometimes out of nowhere, but also misses completely probably too often. It is hard to get used to the art, yes. And the premise sounds stupid, also correct. But as I said, even with its flaws, it is a hidden gem of all these slice-of-life comedies, so give it a chance. If you join this madness, you will enjoy it!

So, ten chapters in, and nobody gave Koukousei Kazoku a proper review here on MAL? Well then, guess I'll do it, cuz i think it's really a great series and should be praised a little more than a "Fine" metascore.

So, Let's start with the story, as it's the first in partial ratings. Not much to say there cause it's a gag manga with no particular plot, but i can tell you that almost every chapter is really wholesome pack of heartwarming and absurd character interactions. Overall 8/10 for really well mixed wholesome absurdity

Second comes the art: It's pretty simple, but the almost childish ... drawings really add to the overall atmosphere of chaos. Solid 8/10 for me

Now about the characters: Here we have the titular family (Middle-aged salaryman, the housewife, little daughter, a cat and our protagonist) and people at school (the cliches you know from most of school-based anime and manga). Chemistry between the family is really good (making it believable even in this bizarre setting) and their unusual interactions with rest of the cast are really fun to follow. They're definitely great

As for the enjoyment: I laugh hard at every new chapter, and the heartwarming bits really manage to land, I honestly think 9/10 won't be an overstatement about how fun this series is

Overall it's 9/10 for the amount of laughs i got out of it, and how it can drop some little serious bits between them. I think you really should give this one a chance if you like absurdly wholesome series

It starts off as a one-shot goof that's not out of place in a Far Side comic, with pretty rough art, then gets comfortable with its concept and flourishes into a pretty funny and heartfelt gag manga. I enjoyed the little storylines for each of the family members (even the cat!) that were fun mini-arcs from week to week. The art got better along the way as well, so my main complaint vanished!

Then...it ended more abruptly than I've ever seen a series of this length cease. Basically zero setup for the final chapter as it skips a year and a half into the future! No ... resolution to any of the arcs! I get that it's a gag manga and the ongoing story doesn't matter so much, but that's what made this special in the first place. Really sucked the air out of my recommendation, unfortunately, despite being a fun and creative little series.