Prison School

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It sucks - 9/10
This is a perfect review of the series.

Manga is pretty much on point until it passes roughly ~80% of work. Most of the read is extremely enjoyable, fun, exciting, intense, erotic, feel-good experience that I had pleasure of familiarizing myself with for (almost) three days, before the work started showing signs of injury on better part of last day. Crazy adventures, situations, troubles, laughs and disasters our cast goes through in their lives is pretty much the definition of youth everyone would like to experience, maybe, to their own risk. Then, sadly, two things happen.

1) Prolongation
2) Bad ending

First, it draws out, ... for a while, then, as many already said, worst ending happens, essentially enraging everyone and justly so. Why? Because it's not a proper ending, you can't even call it one. To be frank, it's so silly (in a bad way) I'm not even taking it as a genuine conclusion. It's just not believable whatsoever and it should be disregarded as such. That is not to say I'm attempting to delude myself into not accepting Akira Hiramoto's decision-making. It's there, yes, yet it can always be altered, buuuuuuuuuuut, that's the writer's duty, not mine.
Anyway, the ending itself is completely irrelevant in my eyes and I'd like to mention that if there was a reconstruction of aforementioned remaining 20% (to the better, of course), more precisely when the story started dragging, it would be 11/10 in a heart beat, that's how amazing the manga was. I shall mention several concise spoilers at the bottom of this text for few who wish to understand exactly why people dislike it so much without indulging into reading it all.

Now, I shall briefly display all volumes' ratings:

arc 1 - 10/10 - vol 1. - vol 9. <-- anime adaptation(ch. 1-88)

arc 2 - 10/10 - vol 10.- vol 17.<-- a 'would be' s2 (ch. 89-166)

arc 3 - 10/10 - vol 18.- vol.22.<-- best part of manga (ch. 167-218)
arc 3 - 6/10 - vol 23. & vol24.<-- starts dragging (ch. 219-238)
arc 3 - 7/10 - vol 25. <-- a false glimpse of hope (ch. 239-248)

arc 4 - 6/10 - vol 26. & vol27.<-- full standstill (ch. 249-268)
arc 4 - 1/10 - vol 28. <-- a complete catastrophe (ch. 269-277)

(22*10)+(6*2)+7+(6*2)+1/28=9.0 = 9/10

So, overall, we can conclude it's a great series, though, when ending is included, it ruins all work invested, and severely cripples established impression and rightly so.

Lastly, I shall now mention what I was dying to mention this whole time, and my overall perception on the whole thing. Those of you who do not wish to be spoiled and wish to read/continue reading the manga, which I still firmly believe it's worthy of such an action, please cease to feast your eyes on this God-given gift of content, and derail your attention elsewhere.

!CAUTION!WARNING! Spoilers ahead !CAUTION!WARNING!

Basically, while digesting from vol. 26 ahead there were so many errors it's not even worth hairsplitting every detail. I'll just mention 'no-no' moments which pop into my mind as I'm writing.
Mari vanishes without explanation and she's essentially never touched upon again, even though she's one of the main characters. Mari mentions she's dropping from school around end. No explanation. She was my favorite character and for some of you as well. Let that sink in.
None of the boys or girls are confirmed to end up together, it's simply left vague and unclear. Only pair that is successful out of all people is with Risa and that disgusting slob Andre.
No epic last scene wet t-shirt event or no full cast happily hanging around some sort of barbeque, beach or whatever.
Oh and the whole Chairman arc was unnecessary filler, if you just had him appear towards the climax of cavalry battle, it would take away nothing from the experience.

Most importantly, who does Kiyoshi end up with? It's what everyone wonders, right? When it comes to Mari, it's just discontinued like it never existed. Kiyoshi rejects Hana at very end and successfully confesses love to and is accepted by Chiyo but in such a repulsive, rushed and forced fashion it feels crappy, like a punch to the gut. To be honest, it was clear whoever Kiyoshi ends up with wasn't gonna satisfy everyone because the writer himself couldn't decide, nor care. Obviously, he would end up with one of them and whoever shipped one of the other two would be left, at least, pouting at the result, which is an okay, acceptable solution. Hell, I'd even be okay with harem ending. But even after that, KiyoshixChiyo also failed, because, well, because Kiyoshi wore Hana's panties, and that was too much for Chiyo. And, then, Chiyo becomes man-hater - the End. This... This, this was just sacrilege. After delaying this finale for two volumes just to not deliver it properly at all, it's better to scrap the whole thing and wish for a better end. Manga felt like it needed two-three more volumes at the very least though preferably, say, five volumes and a better, not forced, but smooth and satisfying finish which it failed to deliver.

tl;dr
kiyoshi x mari - no ending
kiyoshi x hana - no, at last moment (awfully unveiled)
kiyoshi x chiyo - yes, at last moment (awfully unveiled), and then no, wtf
gakuto x mitsuko - no ending
shingo x anzu - no ending
joe x satou - no ending
andre x risa - yay, who cares

This review WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS. It will be discussing the very big drop-off of humor and story that happened towards the end, as well as the horrendous ending that the readers received. I will, even with that being said, try and not spoil much. Just don't read the overall score, but honestly, I think I'd save your time if you do read it.

So I was going to just talk about the story, but I wrote too much about it. I'll use the format the reviewer gives me and try and make it as compact as possible.

Art: Really good. I mean, ... duh. That's kind of the appeal of the entire story. Just lots of nudity; well drawn nudity. I'll be giving that a 9. Not only that, but it manages to always capture the scenes perfectly, which in this absurd manga, you have to give credit where it's due; it does the job, and it does it right.

Character: The characters are great... except they're not, really. They're odd. Kiyoshi, for example; he's a good kid, but he's also extremely contradictory in the actions he takes. I get that everything is exaggerated, but it doesn't work sometimes. The exaggerations are taken too far occasionally, and it ends up messing up with the character and what they REALLY would've done in specific situations. I'll be giving it a 7.

Story: Bad. Oh man it's bad. Well, it's good til about halfway through. We have the comedy we wanted and the jokes aren't used over and over again at this point. Hana's pissing thing was funny until the whole "under-the-infirmary-bed" thing, then it started running dry, no pun intended. It was bland, dull humor; the jokes were all re-used by the end of the story, and the only "haha, what comedy!" moments we had was the ending. It wasn't even funny, either. I'm all for shock humor but that ending was actually just a punch in the gut. It's as if the author didn't give a singular shit about the story they spent 4 years writing and drawing. Why Hiramoto? Just why? That ending was the equivalent of being dragged through shit for a month, waiting in agony to see what doomed future Chiyo and Kiyoshi will have, and then you just pull that stupid shit? Not only that, but you get rid of literally every character in the meanwhile as well. You should've just killed everyone, that would've actually been somewhat funny. I'm giving it a 4. If I had to rate only half the story, I would give it an 8. It was actually hilarious until the half-way point.

Enjoyment: 8. Yes, as much as I hated the ending to the story, I can't deny that the story itself was full of comedy, for at least most of it. Did I wish I never even read this cursed story? Yeah, kinda, honestly. Did I anyways? Yep. Did I laugh my ass off, for at LEAST the majority of the time I spent reading it? Guilty as charged. Therefor I can't bring it in me to give this anything lower than an 8.

Overall: 6. The story is the main shit-factor of this manga. "Oh, but it's a comedy ecchi/basically hentai story! How can you expect there to be actual story?"

Here's a tip, Hiramoto. I'm just a starting writer so maybe I'm being real cocky, or maybe I'm just plain wrong, but the number one thing you DON'T do in a story is lie to the reader. Don't make us think that there's a reward at the end if you're just going to leave some image of you laughing in the face of every single idiot who read the book til the end.

That ending was an insult, honestly. It's like the readers-enjoyment equivalent of being blue-balled, then subsequently punched in the balls, then being mocked for not being able to take the hit. And I hate that I can't give the story a lower score, because it was actually REALLY GOOD for the first half; in the end, however, it just turned into a story that ran completely out of steam and had to be "ended" because... well, who the hell knows. Maybe Hiramoto got sick of what he was writing? Maybe he hates all men, and wanted to prove some type of point in the sick world he made? Man, who the actual hell knows.

This is becoming too ranty, so I'm going to stop it here. Overall rating 6. Be careful with your expectations of the ending. Maybe April 2018 will give us something.

Prison school, a downhill chronicle.

This manga is the perfect example of what happens when the author runs out of ideas and begins experimenting with useless plot twists, destroying the character development and the whole story in the process. I am disappointed, the ending rambles and feels forced. Also, it will give you the impression it was incorrectly planned and misplaced. Perhaps Prison School lost the main essence in the middle of the manga, and the editor wanted to conclude it as quickly as possible. A shame because the story in the first arc is marvelous, creative, exciting, and amusing. The mangaka created a diamond, ... and we finished with a piece of coal burning in the sunset.

When I started reading this manga, I was amazed by the characters and the plot idea. The story setting is perfect. Furthermore, the author combined many smart concepts such as school life, girls, boys, jokes, mixed them in jail and make a hilarious and fantastic ecchi comedy with adult content that isn’t repulsive for the average mature readers. Immediately, I found myself identified with Meiko, yes Meiko (I am a bit like her in several ways). The other characters such as the boys are great. Seeing these poor guys falling into a deeper hole after every chapter without exit was enjoyable. Each new situation/plan added a new climax with lots of humoristic turns, unexpected developments, and original theme. Prison School was unique doing that.

However, as the manga advances (middle of the manga), the characters went down the cliff from heaven to hell and died in the process. This disjuncture destroyed Kyoshi personality, and all his background is flushed out. What is left is a story without a sense that starts being repulsive and incoherent if we compare Kyoshi’s reasons from the first chapters. Sadly, the writer builds a weird plot repeatedly. In the end, we are tired of the same events that begin in the half of the story. In addition, the manga introduces some useless threads such as Mari’s dad or the science fiction ending of the cavalry arch to name some.

For some readers and I can include myself, the manga has some disgusting parts but after all Prison School is an ecchi manga. However, the writing level of the first half cannot be compared to the stupid concept of the other half. Thus, leads me to question if the author decided to follow a different perspective where the background of all the characters was burned in the magazine’s annual BBQ without any explanation. The manga should be balanced and focus on the boys, but in some chapter, you will feel they became puppets and stopped being the main characters. One example, the part where you cannot figure where Shingo is because he disappears for some chapters and better not to talk about Andre and Joh. The other characters such as Hana lost their shine. Furthermore, Hana’s incoherent behavior at the end is unexplained. Please, do not come to say that it is implicit (jealous) and it is a psychological mind game because it is not. It is the perfect example of how all the unnecessary plot additions destroyed a character, and it leads to nonsense where you cannot appreciate her traits anymore (check: frog chapter). About Meiko, although I liked her story, I am biased because I feel very related to her. All the mess exaggerated the character’s personality to the point that we cannot understand them anymore and their decisions are very awkward and do not fit with their attributes or the main plot itself.

On the other hand, the biggest mistake was saturating the story with additional events and not following the basic “jail idea” of the first half. Leaving the boys as secondary characters is disastrous, and at the end, we will feel some of their actions forced and silly. Lucky for us, they just animated the first chapters and those are the best ones. The manga in some point broke from being an interesting ecchi comedy to a yayoi experiment then turned to porn and ended as trash. Hey, I know it is ecchi. However, there is a difference between ecchi and porn. The author forces the boundary several times.

Lastly, the ending. It is vulgar, unacceptable. It is idiotic and lacks imagination; it is not coherent. Maybe the storyteller wanted to test something untypical, but a mangaka shouldn’t be mocking the readers with an absurd finale. I don’t need spoiling anyone so I will save all the comments about it.

The art and the dynamics of each panel are excellent. You can feel the story in all the panels, and it leads you to keep reading. The first volumes will hook the reader because the art is very detailed and the structure of the page. Sadly, the main plot died in the mid part of the manga, and the art became irrelevant in the end. Honestly, I read it because I wanted to know the ending but I feel empty and angry after finishing the manga a masterpiece ended as a piece of trash because the manga imploded with a story that lost the real Prison School meaning.