92 were impressed!
5 were not interested in the farce
3 found most characters unlikable
Once again, I’ve put off reviewing something I read a few months ago. I wasn’t ruminating on Prison School or anything, just distracted by real life. Prison School was an enjoyable read that had a much longer run than I initially anticipated. It may have been the perfect comedy to enjoy while I was bedridden with CoronaFlu. The series garnered quite the reputation and when it finished a few years back it thoroughly received the ire of its readership for what was considered a rather lackluster ending.
Frankly, I don’t really understand what all the fuss is about but then again maybe people for some reason interpreted Prison School as anything other than a farce. If you took the series seriously as some sort of drama or something I suppose I could see being upset by the ultimate end of the series, but to me at least, the entire series was a comedy farce and ending pointlessly on a vulgar joke was a fitting and perfect end for it in my eyes. Many characters got more closure to their storylines than I would have been led to believe by the fandom, but it does leave a lot to the imagination. Of course, being able to binge the whole series in a week makes me dull to the pains of reading a weekly or monthly serialized work. I know all to well how perspective can change when you’re slow-dripped something you care about.
Author Hiramoto Akira’s art is what drew me to Prison School. Years ago, I would see panels from the manga or magazine covers featuring his soft yet darkly shaded unusual realism. I enjoyed his plotlines and ability to bring threads sometimes dozens of chapters apart together in payoff that almost always surprises the reader. I thought plot threads could be a little long and drawn out at times but having read nothing remotely like Prison School before I really can’t complain. The series is filled with memorable meme panels that can be reposted for decades to come (though I don’t see them much these days).
Prison School was a strange one and it certainly isn’t everybody’s cup of tea. Fairweather fans and tourists of Otaku culture would likely be horrified by the series. If you want the strange saga of an innocent girl who just loves Sumo, a “Submissive and his Queen”, a man who loves “The Three Kingdoms” a little too much, or some of the best Yuri ever printed to paper then maybe give it a read.
