SUMMARY
Meet Takashi Kamiyama, one of the biggest bad asses at the
rough and tumble Cromartie High! He is stronger, tougher, and
meaner than even the baddest of bad asses. All quake in
fear when he comes walking down the hallway.
Well, not really. Truth is, the reason he is at Cromartie
High is because of something he did in the manga, and he can handle
being burned with incense better than anyone else.
Surrounded by the biggest group of pencil chewing, bitch slapping,
strange looking mo-fo's in all of Japan, Kamiyama is more than a
little nervous about his future. He has to contend with
rival gang leader (and rival joke writer) Noboru Yamaguchi, although
he doesn't even know he exists. He has to deal with the fact that no
one seems to notice that the gang leader of Class 5, Mechazawa, is a
robot. Worst of all, he has to help his buddy Shinjiro Hayashida figure out the name of a
song he heard while peeing in the bathroom.
Just another eventful day at "Cromartie High School"
(Co Ed).
WIDESCREEN
REVIEW
STORY: Based off the manga by
Eiji Nonaka, this is one of the most off the wall anime titles to
come out since "Excel Saga"! Director Hiroaki
Sakurai along with the writing staff jam packs every episode with
strange visuals, over the top sight gags, and some damn funny dialogue.
You will laugh until your bladder explodes.
ACTING: Another great English dub by
ADV. Ben Pronsky and Ilich Guardiola as Kamiyama and Hayashida,
are a perfect comedic
team, playing off each others verbal cues with meticulous timing. Jay
Hickman as Mechazawa does have a soothing voice, oozing charm like
he was oozing oil. James Faulkner, John Gremillion, and Andy
McAvin all pitch in to give one hilarious batch of performances.
FAN SERVICE: Until I get a copy of the manga, I
have no idea what references there are, except for the ones they
point out. There are no females to be found, so nothing in the
bra and panty department.
CONCLUSION
The events covered in this review are done by delinquents.
Please do not attempt any of the following:
Dying your hair!
Shaving your eyebrows!
Riding a horse down the halls!
Oiling yourself!
Writing bad jokes!
Keeping quiet about a missing a button on a robots jacket.
Welcome to "Cromarte High School". Wimps need not
apply. To survive, you must be a total bad ass, or
at least be so quiet that everyone thinks you are. After all, if your at Cromarte, then
you are not a nice guy. On the first day of school, you gotta
prove your the toughest, either by telling everyone your cool
nickname or eating a box full of pencils.
Okay, maybe they really aren't so bad ass after all.
Cromarte High School is what would have happened if the people
who wrote "Excel Saga" had been given the job of adapting
"GTO" into an anime. While "bad high school
student" anime titles can be found everywhere, this is the
first time I have seen an entire show like this being done tongue in
cheek. For a bunch of macho guys, these fellows certainly aren't
that tough. There is very little fighting, and when there is,
it's always funny. That's right, in this anime, violence is
funny!
There is a lot going on here, with no real rhyme or reason.
It has eminently quotable dialogue, classic zingers, surrealistic
imagery, and plenty of slapstick. You will find so many visual
references to other anime titles, from Urusei Yatsura to GTO, that
you'll spend hours going back and watching everything over
again. Here's hoping that when the official release comes out,
they include some AD Vid notes!
Another thing that makes "Cromarte High School" so
entertaining is the acting. While the situations are inherently funny, it is the vocal talents the English cast
that make the scripts come to hilarious life. The majority of the show
rests on the shoulders of Ben Pronsky and Ilich Guardiola who play
the main characters of Kamiyama and Hayashida. The two of them
are a perfect comedy team. Both men are able to handle the
rapid fire one liners, the pseudo-macho banter, and the utterly ridiculous
plot devices. From getting toughness tips from Freddy Mercury,
to watching a robot oil himself, their reactions will have you
rolling on the floor for hours. The rest of the cast is equally as
gut-busting, with Jay
Hickman really shining through as the smooth voiced, ultra
tough Mechazawa.
Perhaps the
best part of this anime is the way our screener copy arrived.
When we first received this rather large package, we were wondering
who would be sending us a Laser Disc? Very few people know of
my love for the LD. When we opened the package, we were
delighted to pull out what looked like a record album. We were
even more shocked to discover that the DVD came mounted on an actual
LP (a record for those of you who are not into the scratch DJ
scene). What album was the record from? Was it
KISS? Was it "Ozzy"? Nope, it was from
"Air Supply"! If you don't know who that is, remind
me to kick your ass for being so young!
If you have been mourning the end of "Excel Saga", then
dry those tears you wuss cause "Cromarte High School" is
on it's way to kick your ass! The outrageous acting, the tear
inducing comedy, and the general bad assness of this title means
another winner for ADV Films.
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