Sakigake!! Cromartie Koukou
Cromartie High School

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Cromartie High remains as one of my favorite manga/anime of all time, top 5 material easily. Though I’m surely not breaking any new ground by saying that. You can travel across the web, or attend any anime convention and find plenty of others with that same opinion. As I always say with my write ups, namely when it’s for my personal favorites since they tend to be comedy/shounen/motivational series, ‘Comedy is subjective’! If someone has a sense of humor that doesn’t align with a series, then their mileage will inevitably vary. This too isn’t a groundbreaking take ... either, however I bring all this up because I find it absolutely preposterous that despite the anime getting the acclimation across the world that it rightfully deserves, the manga does not nearly get the same amount of appraisal. So I’m here today to convince you that, although you can’t go wrong in either way you decide to engage with the series, the manga is infinitely the superior option. For it’s a funnier and much more complete package than its anime adaptation. And hell, I’ll even toss in a personal side-quest just for you toots, to also answer why this STILL manages to be one of my personal all time favorite series ever all these years later.
Okay, I’ll be honest I went a little harder than I intended to with that introduction. Not in regards to my love for the series, for I’ll get into that later. But in regards to how well others, aside from myself, treat the source material. Let’s not beat around the bush though, the manga itself is far from unpopular. According to stats taken from various sources it had a whopping “4.5 million copies in circulation, won the 26th Kodansha Manga Award for the shōnen category in 2002, and it was one of the Jury Recommended Works in the Manga Division at the 7th Japan Media Arts Festival in 2003.”- (Kodansha Manga Award, n.d.). So yeah, saying that this manga doesn’t get the praise it deserves is pretty frickin far-fetched now that I think about it. Especially given everything it’s spawned in its wake such as both an anime and live action adaptation of it exists. But what exactly does it excel in so well that made it so beloved and why do I consider the manga the superior format?
Wow, maybe that should’ve been my opening paragraph instead. Definitely a more substantive thesis if you ask me. Anyways, firstly a brief synopsis, even though it really doesn’t need one at this point. A smart boy named Kamiyama finds himself enlisted “no no trust me, this word is much more appropriate than ‘enrolled’.” in the most badass school of delinquents and hijinks ensues. Given that this is source material, we’re given more of what makes the series so good. And that’s the main reason I decided to pick up the manga in the first place, with a measly yet golden assortment of only ten episodes I thought it was absolutely criminal how short it was. So thank god the manga has 338.3 chapters plus a short lived official spin-off focusing on the teachers, to make up for the adaption’s short length. And as expected it has everything that it’s anime counterpart has in spades but it also contains aspects worth praising that are unique to the manga alone such as the art, the use of multimedia, the amount of unpredictable plots/situations, the genius paneling that lends itself exceptionally perfect to its comedic timing, lore, plenty of insight into Nonaka himself, and the vast array of characters that are unforgettable. I’ll be touching upon each of these in my write-up.
The artwork lends itself exquisitely to the jokes and situations characters find themselves. Initially though not as concrete, the characters have a broad build, a stoic face, eccentric features across their face/head, and have the super angular yet thick character outlines that gets even more refined as the series progresses. Not only that, but many of the characters share the same ‘copy & paste’ tough guy sort of face, EVEN Maeda’s own mom! Nightmares from her aside, I found the illustrations themselves to not only enhance the jokes and hilarity of the situations themselves, but gorgeous to look at as well, especially in pages dedicated to a character portrait. I specifically remember a chapter introductory page with Kamiyama on it, poised by a motorbike-erized mechazawa “don’t ask” that I was enamored by. Not only did I feel like I was looking at a poster for a Dean Martin film, but it was then that I got the feeling that Nonaka was heavily inspired by 1950’s western pop-art and comics. As the series goes on, the individual characters begin to lose the same face look and develop concrete visual designs. It’s as if Nonaka saw the cover of GTA: Chinatown wars and went, “lol, that’d make for a funny chapter” and base the look off of that going forward. Anyways, I often feel as if the art-style is the most overlooked aspect of the manga, for not only do I find it aesthetically pleasing, but also extremely varied.
This varied artstyle not only comes from the “less human characters” like freddie, mechazawa, banchou-chan, ara-chan, and masked-takenouchi, but from the volume covers themselves. Seriously, these are all gorgeous and uniquely stylized. Volume one looking like a communist propaganda poster with an eye-grabbing color contrast of red, white and yellow. Volume 4 and 5 are unabashedly influenced/parodying warhol’s style with the former being a blue freddie shredding a guitar with nonaka like hair, and the latter literally being a can of soup, oops I mean soup can-erized mechazawa “don’t ask”. Hell the cover of volume 13 being a human masked takenouchi taking porky pig’s spot at the end of a melody melodies “that’s all folks” closing card is what inspired me to cosplay as him. This is also far from the only time Cromartie high utilizes real life images, as it also uses it as a means to open up or close a volume with a hilarious scenario. What I’m trying to get at is that the visual component of this series is often pigeon-holed as “stoic and stiff” and while that rings some truth in the anime, aside from the di-gi-charat cameo, in contrast the manga is actually so much more. Which is golden since this is a book we’re talking about. Each volume is uniquely illustrated, most of which exhibit a unique artistic technique or style that I find mesmerizing to look at, with the final volume and thirteen being my personal favorites, but you can’t go wrong with any of them.
Another aspect that the manga dunks over the anime is the insight on Nonaka himself. Throughout the series we’re given an insight into the man that I’m sure I’m not the only one who related to, who created this very series. These ‘bonus’ chapters are not only hilarious on their own, but also gives insight into the environment and work behind maintaining relevance on such a popular series. All the glitter is not gold however, as funny as they are they also paint the manga-industry in a realistic, stressful light. However Nonaka demonstrates not only in these chapters, but by creating Cromartie as a whole that even when hard times come your way it’s not only important to see these as experiences to learn and grow from, but also to look on the brightside. We often fixate on the negatives in times of distress, however it’s at those times that we should look on the positives and make the most out of our time in these circumstances.
This theme is mostly at play in these Nonaka centric bonus chapters. As I’m certain, getting the news that his series wasn’t hitting high marks with readers, or that it was getting canned were not all sunshine and roses. But despite that, he turned those very scenarios into some of my favorite chapters, in which despite the darkness he was still able to find a light at the end of the tunnel and humor throughout. So all I can say is, despite the odds being stacked against him and his creation, he still managed to come out on top.
Anyways enough wanking off Nonaka, as I’m sure that’s something he’d dismiss entirely. The last aspects I’d like to focus on are the vast amount of characters, situations, and lore exempt from the anime. Listen, I’ve said it 100 times and I’ll say it 100 more, comedy is subjective. And ultimately, Cromartie’s sense of humor just so happens to tick all my boxes. Situations such as Takenouchi’s time in America, Kamiyama’s backstory, the Sumo-Club, Planet of the frickn Apes, and even a bunch a chapters where we’re actually introduced into the staff at cromartie! And that’s not even including the spin-off written by Nonaka that came out in 2018 (which is also something I can’t recommend enough). Basically, if you loved the sense of humor of the show and were curious about the lore (or if you didn’t give a crap about the lore for a comedy series until reading this) than you’re slapping yourself in the face by not reading it. I literally could not stop myself from putting down the series because of how much fun I was having reading each chapter. And I’m aware that some people may need a break every now and then with gag humor, but I am not that person. The more obtuse, ridiculous, and nonsensical the better, so I never tired of this series' gags. There’s also so many chapters that I can choose any page at random and instantly make my day 10x better just by having a hearty laugh reading it, it’s the pinnacle of timeless. Whether it’s a unique spin on the boke-tsukkomi routine, juxtaposition between character designs and actions, the utter insanity of the predicaments they find themselves in, a running gag, deadpan humor, or even introducing a new character who feels like they’ve been with us the whole time, this manga nails every comedic style in comes in contact with. In my opinion, (well duh).
Cromartie High remains as one of my favorite manga/anime of all time, top 5 material easily. Though I’m surely not breaking any new ground by saying that. But what exactly does it excel in so well that made it so beloved and why do I consider the manga the superior format? Well instead of summarizing everything I’ve gushed about up until now, simply put, it’s funny! And is much more layered than people give the series credit for, or hell, how it may seem on the surface to others who equally enjoy the series as much as me. I dunno about that though, for I have mechazawa on my bboy sweats, a plush mechazawa, and a HUGE cromartie high poster on my wall, anyways I’m not autistic I swear, I just have a very childish sense of humor and a deep appreciation for media that can make me feel warm at any given moment, I promise!

Despite this being a comedy manga about really dumb badasses partaking in nonsensical jokes, written by someone whose music tastes would probably make him friends with Araki, I couldn't help but being occasionally reminded of Blue Spring while reading it.

It starts off really well with a lot of unexplained hilarious incidents, things like the school having a mute Freddie (Mercury) character, but that sentiment wears off along the way as, at 17 volumes, Cromartie just missed its chance to end. Over-repetition of jokes, more and more additions to the cast, plot points that are completely forgotten (whatever happened to the sumo club guys?), there was ... even an entire volume dedicated to a planet of the apes rip-off!
I really commend the author for managing to make 17 fucking volumes of gags in a setting with absolutely no plot and no sense of GETTING ANYWHERE. That shit's hard. But at the same time, there was a lot of boring stuff (lol) along the way.

When I was in the first half of this series I wrote "The wide cast of characters in tandem with the nonsensical nature of this manga allows for some good joke variety. I mean, I can read almost a full volume of this in a row and not get tired, unlike other comedy series which, no matter how good they are, keep repeating the same jokes with only a handful of different characters." I suppose I was thinking of The Way Of The Househusband as a comparison. In truth I generally am not a big fan of comedy.
But the thing is, while that was true at the beginning, I'm not so sure it held up towards the end. It did start to feel like the same jokes were repeating over and over again, especially when it came to Fujimoto. Somehow the mascot trick still worked even at that point and Banchou-san was a delight, but it didn't save the series.

Overall, I quite enjoyed the uniqueness of Cromartie High School. The occasional jokes that left you wondering "hold up, is this meant to be a comment at the series itself?", and other meta moments were great (loved the story about the second masked guy showing up!). The decision to completely ditch the main plot in the first handful of chapters was very powerful. And the chapters about the author himself always brought a fun change of setting.

I'd say it's worth checking out!

Cromartie Koukou is a high-school in Tokyo with loose entrance requirements. How loose? A gorilla (an actual simian primate) and a middle aged man (that resembles a certain deceased rock-star) are students there. Not even the worst students mind you; Cromartie has a collection of the dumbest and most hardcore delinquents in all of Tokyo.

A good premise for a gag manga, but where is the straight guy? Enter Kamiyama, a painfully mainstream character that makes the dubious choice to attend Cromartie. The mangaka, Eiji Nonaka, has created a good setting and takes advantage of both his premise and ... his inspired drawing, to deliver the comedy.

Cromartie students try to further cement their school's status as the most badass, gorillas keep filling the classrooms, aliens invade, and no one knows where the teachers are. Amidst all this chaos, Kamiyama approaches each situation with a cool head and tries to set his fellow classmates in order.

If you are into comedy you are going to laugh hard, and if you are into absurd comedy you are going to love it. I always looked forward for the last page of the chapter for the mangaka to deliver the punchline along with some excellently drawn reactions.

It's all fun and laughter for the first chapters, but after a while the humor's quality and the number of laughs decreases. When the number of chapters reach triple digits, the quality has reached a low level and for the next 100+ chapters the manga is just running of fumes, delivering a single dry chuckle every few chapters.

My suggestion is to start reading the manga, but whenever you enter a 10-chapter dry spell, just drop it. It is not going to pick up the pace for you ever again. If I had dropped it at around chapter 110 I would have given it an 8. I persevered until chapter 223, so 6.0/10.