Gakuen Prince Volume 1

Written by Jd Banks

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Gakuen Prince: Volume 01By Jun YuzukiDel Rey MangaMen are from Mars and women are from Venus, with the stinging belief that men are the most sex hungry, panty-driven beings on Planet Earth. However, as uproarious as this belief may seem, there is one manga that bridges the flirtatious gap orbiting Mars and Venus. Gakuen Prince, a manga by Jun Yukuzi, captures the argumentative stereotype of horny teenaged boys, in an eyebrow-raising first volume. The only difference between our reality and Gakuen Prince’s reality, is that the boys are outnumbered by girls that are just as sex-driven.Set at the elite Joshi High, Gakuen Prince follows new transfer student, Azusa Mizutani, into his first day of school. There he learns how ugly girls can be both on the inside and out. Even the other males, all of which are in the socially elite S-class, fall into the female's mantra of womanizing, playing dumb, acting girly, or claiming chastity. Though warned, Azusa takes it upon himself to be different, and none-too-kindly bolts for his sexual freedom. Although the manga is surprisingly humorous for its almost R-rated nature, Gakuen Prince plays both eye-opener and dunce master at the same time. All of the characters—minus the main female character, Rise Okitsu—seem one-dimensional. Azusa, the leading male character, has no real background, but his naïve and laid-back personality gives any manga reader little regard for his past.

Rise Okitsu's past pops up only briefly. She shows signs of deep emotional scarring, making it evident that she's dealt with bullying before. With her thick glasses and pigtails, Rise tries to be invisible. Unfortunately, Azusa uses her as a means to save his own skin, causing a rift between Rise and the other girls in both the S-class and the common A-class. Though the pranks and bullying are rather childish, the reader can’t help but feel compelled to learn more about Rise. Why does she hide her face behind her ugly glasses? What happened in her past that made her a quiet nerd?

Given the set of characters in the story, Gakuen Prince pulls off something miraculous. The girls in Joshi High are depicted as being so horny, they actually jump the males. Whether it's pinning them down, coaxing them, or drugging them into sex, the girls have their way with the boys of Joshi High. As horrific as it sounds, I wonder if these types of stories exist, or, are really just figments of the author's imagination? Could a school that has such a disproportionate amount of boys be over-run by sex-hungry females? From the story’s point of view, it doesn’t matter. What matters is whether Rise Okitsu and Azusa Mizutani will survive in a sea of hormonally-charged high school girls.

Ironically, the ugly story base is heightened to the level of pseudo-mockery with its artistic quality. The eyes of the figures are drawn with depth that is hard to find in any average manga—or drawing, for that matter. Jun Yuzuki has a gift of depicting affect, from frowns and smiles to irritation and surprise. Such range in facial expressions is not a commonality in all manga.

Aside from the art, the humor within the entire manga is rather brutal. At the most climatic and traumatic parts of Gakuen Prince, the story tries to be comedic. It almost feels like Jun Yuzuki wants to say, “At least this will get a snicker” and in reality, such scarring events are not so laughable.

Still, any shortcomings of Gakuen Prince don’t outweigh its rawness and story appeal. The manga definitely puts a new spin on how rabid and sexually charged girls can be in confined spaces. Maybe Mars and Venus aren’t so different after all.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10

All in all: If you like a little reality check on bullying and some new perspective of boy-crazy girls in a zoo, definitely check out this manga.