Hammer Session! in High School

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tl;dr: A patchwork sequel that has some solid highs but also some major lows.

This manga is a sequel to the original series that very much relies on the reader having knowledge of the original in order to make sense, so make sure to read the original before reading this. Beyond that, it essentially just a jumble of different things thrown together, for better or worse. The first third involves Yuu using his swindler abilities to worm himself into a high school in order to help out Mizuki, however since it would be too difficult to do so as a teacher, he instead joins her class ... as a student. The issues with the school stem from the rigid hierarchy the students have, so Yuu has to give a Hammer Session to the entire school to break it apart. It’s ultimately just one multiphase Hammer Session, but it’s written pretty well and flows nicely and ultimately works out pretty well. It does feel kind of bizarre how Yuu can just become a student though and thus how he acts feels kind of off at times.

The second third is completely disconnected from the first third and involves Yuu and Mizuki serving as teachers at an elite girls only high school. The school doesn’t have any problems at all, which the principal considers a problem in and of itself as the girls are very sheltered and he’s worried about what’ll happen to them after graduation. Thus, Yuu comes up with the plan of showing the girls the horrors of the outside world by having three of the most popular girls at school fall in love with him and then making a show of him four timing them (as Mizuki is also included). This is also ultimately a single multiphase Hammer Session, though it’s lacking in substance to a degree because it isn’t really focused all that strongly on conveying a moral to the students. Rather, it’s mostly just Yuu using his swindler abilities to get girls to fall in love with him, which gave off major The World God Only Knows vibes. Still, it was decently well written and pretty amusing so it was solid enough.

The final third goes back to the school from the first third, where due to various circumstances Yuu goes from student to principal. It kind of felt like it was getting too extreme at this point. Not like how the first series did in terms of it getting too dark, as it remains pretty lighthearted throughout. Rather, the plans that Yuu implements are a bit too absurd and the lessons he’s trying to convey don’t really flow well so it just feels nonsensical. This arc also tries to give more background to Yuu and to progress his romance with Mizuki, but it felt like it was too little too late and like it wasn’t handled all that well. Just in general, the writing here felt like it was the worst in all of Hammer Session, which makes it a pretty disappointing point to end on.

The art overall I felt was a reasonable improvement over the first in terms of style and quality to the point that I would consider the art pretty good at this point.