Prison School was without a doubt a surprise for a lot of viewers, even if I'm sure some of you fans of the manga were waiting for it (that was not my case).
Produced by J.C. Staff, a studio well-known for adapting mediocre light novels and for their bad deeds against reputed visual novels, their relatively poor artistic sense in comparison with competiting studios, and their more or less tight budget (generally more than less), Prison School's adaptation was kind of disappointing even before we could watch it. I myself didn't plan to see more than the first episode, and talking with some blinded fans of the manga beforehand didn't encourage me to review my position (don't ask me why, it's not even anticonformism but more something like disgust regarding their circlejerk for which I was insensible).
Finally, the first trailer came out and, stunned by the care given to the visuals, I was very decided to watch at least the beginning. Anyway, let's talk about the anime in itself.
For those who discovered Prison School for the first time (like me), some might have been a bit perplexed at the beginning, but quickly, without even liking that much this exagerated, distasteful ecchi side, everyone seemed to go along with the entertaining plot. To the point it became hard to wait for next week's episode, the suspense being definitely present, and sometimes unbearable. If what I'm saying is giving you hope to find again a good thriller series like Death Note, it's not a coincidence, I guess.
The manga plays a lot with parody. It parodies ecchi (some think so at least) by using it in a shameless and absolutely commercial manner, until it becomes, like I already said earlier, distasteful and taxing. But the adaptation goes further, until even mimicking the sonorities of Hollywood blockbuster movies' soundtracks, which award it, as an anime, a certain singularity, a really dramatic or even epic side. It also parodies thrillers like Death Note, or maybe even Prison Break (which I didn't see, so I'm only imagining), and from this absurd blend of absurd, erotism, pinch situations and friendship in a prison-school environment (?!) is born a funny mess in where each situation — and that is less true for their solution which seemed very well-thought and logical — seems to come from another world so much improbable they are.
What is excellent in the end is definitely how the main characters succeeds to find their way out of the worst dead-ends, in a manner much more composed and believable than all the unbelievable shit that fall upon them. And it is, in a way, exhilarating, like a good Death Note, even if more original.
Honestly, I couldn't wait for the end of the broadcasting so I started reading the manga after episode 4. Which made me realize some flaws inherent to the anime, which may not be noticeable or bugging when you only experienced this one. I don't really consider them like cons, or maybe yes I do, but I think it could have been way more awesome if this part would have had a better treatment.
AS AN ADAPTATION
The problem is the pacing. A flaw that I seem to often notice in recent anime adaptations like Parasyte, Seven Deadly Sins, Magi or even Hunter x Hunter 2011, and which seems be something like a new trend or a commercial approach allowing to adapt more, while keeping a low number of episode which avoid fillers and also permit a constantly good animation quality all the way to the end without costing buckets (and all this by satsifying the general public, traumatized by Naruto fillers and One Piece's catastrophic recent episodes). I complain so much about those pacing issues these times that I feel obligated to talk about it, for once I make a review. Maybe I'll convince you, reader, and you'll finally understand why filler is, in itself, not a bad thing, and can be an intelligent way to give additional value to the adaptation, while saving money and time (for the long-running franchises at least).
It's when I read Prison School's manga that the parodying side of Death Note came to my eyes : the dark tones from some scenes, the camera angles and the internal monologues in pinch situations, the keikakus (it means plan). And it's very well done in the manga. And Death Note anime is very impressive too, because it adapts perfectly this psychological tension, while being very dynamic (it could have been slower and more boring like Monster — I like Monster), and the pacing doesn't feel too much rushed, the thought processes are well rendered and believably timed.
One of the loss which come from the very fast pacing in the anime is unfortunately the intensity of the best psychological scenes (those with Hana, mainly), it goes fast, too fast, I personally found it difficult to feel worried about Kiyoshi's recurrent incredible and desperate situations. I'm not an expert, nor a scriptwriter, but I think that some added lines of introspective monologue, or silent stills to show the awkwardness and difficulty of the moment, even filler, would have helped to add a bit of hesitating emotions, and even some intensity, to those scenes.
In fact, to put it simply, the anime's director gave us an external point of view of the scene, the one of a spectator, when the manga gave me a more "in Kiyoshi" feeling, which felt much more tense and desperate and made me worry about the next actions, "what should he do, he's risking his social life right now, poor Kiyoshi".
The "external viewer" point of view that the director put in place isn't in my opinion very appropriate because the jokes aren't so well-thought in themselves (it's just the level of absurdity that is amazing), so seen from outside it just looks like some retarded chain of quickly happening dumb actions commited by the characters, when from an internal point of view, more introspective, everything at stake seem much more important and heavy. It's too bad, in my sense.
The other flaw in this anime is also, in my opinion, directly due to the fast-pacing. And it's much more to the core of the anime, so it's plain wrong. The problem when you go so fast, it's that the gags don't have the time to take properly effect. A big part of the comedy in this anime is absurd, but really some "what the fuck did I just watch?!" kind of absurd. The thing is, as a manga, Prison School give the reader one or two gag per chapter, so you can digest them with a laugh before reading the next chapter. But in the anime, and I have to precise beforehand that it adapted more or less 80 chapters in 12 episodes (didn't count exactly), the events and unbelievably ridiculous actions come one after another in pack of ten, the viewer don't have any time to integrate the joke, so it could have sink in.
It's not a secret that for some jokes, the timing is very important. In Prison School, the joke that is supposed to make you laugh after 5 seconds, not because your brain is slow and that one is very subtle, but more because you really need 5 good seconds the realize the immensity of the ridiculousness of what just happened before your eyes, this awesome stupidity is sweeped away by the next one that comes only 3 seconds after and for which you will do your best to understand to follow the story, to finally sacrifice the comic potential of the situation. And I also think that's too bad.
In conclusion, the anime place itself in the grandstand, rather than wanting to be involved to understand what happens in the field, with the players, it's a shame but it is nevertheless a very good anime, granted with a good soundtrack and a stunning visual work, there's a lot of things that happens in the plot that will keep you from getting bored even if some joke, while staying always astounding, are less impacting than they could have been. And maybe you will succeed better than me at involving yourself in the characters through the anime, a thing I couldn't do with the pacing imposed on me by J.C. Staff.
And for those who loved the first season, you have to know that it is only the beginning and the sequel will be even better, the psycho-erotic frenzy really takes off at episodes 11-12, and a lot of the following event are equal or worth more than those, some reminding me a lot the deviant but intimate perversion of manga like Nozoki Ana.
