The last volume of Prison School raised my review bar. There will be slight spoilers for the previous volume, so if you haven’t read it yet, I will encourage you to abandon this review and do so post haste. Go on… get. POST. HASTE.
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032 - I'm back mother fuckers! Yeah, I know it's been a while, and I won't be offering any apologies... okay, sorry! Anyway, if you don't follow my reviews on the site, then that's probably for the best for this episode because I'm going to cover the things I've been reviewing, both the good and the bad!
Comic Books and Manga covered in this episode:
This volume of Prison School changed me. I didn’t come out of it the same way I went into it, and for the first time in reading the series, I became nervous about where the story would lead the ending. Mostly due to this being the best volume of the entire series thus far. With practically every volume the bar is raised, but with the ninth, it makes me re-evaluate all of the perfect scores I’ve given this series. Hell, it makes me re-evaluate every score I’ve ever given because has anything been as amazing as this volume? And if and when you read this volume, I want you to come back here and re-read this paragraph because you’ll probably think I’m a goddamn madman for saying that.
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What continues to be amazing about Prison School is how it rotates the gags throughout the series. In some volumes, the gags are all sex related or themed like the S&M volume. There is of course always multiple themes and layers to the story, but in this particular volume one gag/theme stood out… urine.
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019 - This week is an audio-only podcast, but looking at the low amount of views I might just be doing an audio podcast going forward. I'm sick as hell this week and not in a rock'n'roll kinda way. Also, I'm shaking things up by talking about Bendis signing to DC and Disney attempting to buy Fox. I ran long and reviewed three books as well.
Comics/manga covered on this episode:
Prison School continues to be possibly the greatest manga I’ve ever read. Its ridiculousness seems to know no bounds as it finds new ways to put the characters in perverted settings based on misunderstandings. That isn’t to say that this volume is perfect, but it is damn close.
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I lost track of how many times I stopped to laugh while reading Prison School vol. 6. It was somewhere after ten or eleven I know that much. There were subsequent pages that made me laugh; there were long con gags that made me laugh. Overall, there was a new level of humor added to the series with this volume.
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Find out why Yen Press’ Prison School made our “Best of 2016” list.
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I have been waiting for this volume for what seems like forever. I pre-ordered it and got it on the day of release and unfortunately had to wait an extra day to read it and now review it. It was worth the wait. I’ve read a lot in the past few months… okay, I read a lot in general, but in the past few months, nothing has satisfied my reading appetite. Some left me hungry for more, while others were an undesirable meal leaving me craving a story that had some meat on it. Damn, am I hungry? Are you hungry? Ready to take a big ole’ bite of… butt… or something?
Read MoreHey, when I upload a new theme or uproot the site completely I like to celebrate with a cosplay posting. Not really, I just found this and couldn't resist sharing Katinka Cosplay's (photos by Photosnxs) brilliant recreation of Meiko Shiraki, the vice principal from Prison School. Which is a manga that I've reviewed (Vol. 1, Vol. 2 & 3 and Vol. 4) and also an anime that we've discussed on Super-S: Anime Podcast.
Read MoreIf you’ve been following my reviews for Prison School and still haven’t checked it out, then I don’t know why you’d be back to read this review. If you need one last thing to convince you to read this fantastic series… then this is the volume that will convince you. If you watched the anime, then me put volume 4 in perspective for you. It has two of the best comedy sequences contained within this one volume. As we learned in volume 3, the boys were set up to fail, but upon learning this have launched a defense to save them from expulsion. This requires a distraction involving the Vice President. They devise a plan to arm wrestle here and figure that they can stall for ten minutes… they’re wrong of course, but there’s not one, but two incredible bits of comedy during this sequence.
The first is between Kiyoshi and the Vice President and sets the stage for the second gag. It’s a gag with layers. What’s also really funny about this entire sequence is that all of the guys feel the need to take their shirts off and show off the muscle they’ve built while working at the school. The second gag involves Andre and his nipple. It is hilarious because he and the Vice President trade position over and over. She can’t get over something disgusting about him and he gets weak when she yells and spits at him for being disgusting. All the while Gackt is installing the free software that should recover the documents. It doesn’t work and they lose hope.
At least for a while. Gackt goes crazy which is just really, really funny. For his last meal he orders deep fried grasshoppers and the Vice President not only catches them, but cooks them as well. Kiyoshi comes up with a plan to stall for more time for them which works… because he’s an ass man and there’s no such thing as a bad ass man. Again, another great bit of humor and perversion.
The final and funniest and yet strangest sequence involves Hana who has remembered the incident in the nurse’s office. On the guys last night, when they need to get the documents, Hana strikes against Kiyoshi. He uses this to his advantage for the most part, but much like with Andre and the Vice President they trade positions of advantage. The sequence and the outcome… are both shocking, hilarious and probably nothing like I’ve seen in a manga or anime before.
What is just truly great about this series time and time again, is the fact that the story and storytelling are wonderful with or without the fan service. The scene with Hana doesn’t technically have genuine fan service and even if it were censored, it would still be an incredible scene between these two characters. The fan service really exists to make the story funny. Without it, this would just be a really serious prison escape story set in high school. And it would be wonderful just as that because of the meticulous planning with the plot and the attention to detail. Even more so this story stands out to me time and time again because no character is left undeveloped. Sure, some of them are at different points in their development, but for a cast of characters this large that’s still incredible. Everyone grows, every has changed from the beginning of the story to this point and nowhere is that highlighted more than when Gackt lists all of the embarrassing things he’s done. As he puts it though, it was all worth it to find friends he feels that he belongs with. I was choked up and that brings me to Akira Hiramoto’s artwork.
This scene… this scene between these boys on the cusp of becoming adults is extremely touching. It shows you that for all the fan service, for all the gags and gross-out humor, that there is so much goddamn heart to this story. Hiramoto’s range of skills is on full display this volume. From action, to every evolution of humor, to the heart and soul of our characters. Even the Vice President at one point seems to think she’ll miss our peeping toms. Of course you’ll gather as much for yourself between panty shots and nipple slips. Oh, and the fan service is incredible. It’s not that I don’t appreciate it. In fact, I think I’m completely spoiled on this series to the point that if fan service isn’t handled with this level of detail and care that I just won’t waste my time with it. Hiramoto is one of the few manga artists that has a style that stands out as being original and unique. He is one of the few that I will follow until the end of their career.
At this point if you’re not willing to check out this manga then I don’t know why you’re reading the review. Hopefully this review will get you to read it but if not I’ll be back for the next volume. If you are following the manga or maybe you watched the anime, then we’re one volume away from venturing into new territory. I’m excited about that. Knowing what’s coming in the manga hasn’t made it less enjoyable, but knowing there’s something new makes reading it all worthwhile at this point. That and these thick ass books look great next to each other on a book shelf. I know I recommend a lot of stuff to read. You can go broke reading everything that comes from this site and I understand that. But you will not regret picking up Prison School. It is the one favor I can give you to recommend this series. And I will tell you this, I’m spending my money on it. I’ve never gotten a review copy and instead have purchased and pre-ordered every volume I could. Hopefully that means something to you because it does to me.
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Prison School – Vol. 4 Creator: Akira Hiramoto Publisher: Yen Press Price: $20.00 Format: TPB; Print/Digital
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