June reviews: Cromartie High School

 -That's got to be one badass rabbit

 While all media is at least somewhat dependent on subjective opinion, i don't think there is a single genre whose quality varies more from person to person than comedy, a joke that can be genuinely hilarious for one person might completely fall flat for another, this is what makes analysis of this genre particularly difficult, as, while there are a few rules as to what can be considered "good humor" (not punching down, avoiding quips and Wheadon-isms such as the now infamous "well that just happened", etc.), but any attempt to analyze what makes GOOD humor can easily come off as overthinking something simple, or worse yet, explaining the joke.

 This is where parody comes in, as, while explaining what makes a parody funny is no easier than explaining what makes any other type of comedy funny, by pointing out the source material it draws from one may, at the very least, be able to gain a new appreciation for both, this, i believe is the case for the subject of today's review, Cromartie High School

-Synopsis

 Takashi Kamiyama is your regular, run-of-the-mill honor student who, after an unexplained incident (read the Manga), is transferred to the notorious Tokyo Metropolitan Cromartie High School, a school infamous for it's population of delinquents and troublemakers, now in a completely unfamiliar environment, Kamiyama must do his best do survive.

 -Story

 As an episodic sketch comedy, the story in Cromartie, to put it lightly, doesn't matter. rather, i want to use this segment of the review to look at the source of most of it's comedy; the show's parody elements.

 

 While it may not be instantly obvious for those unfamiliar with the genre, CHS is a parody of the delinquent/Yanki manga that was fairly popular in the 80s and 90s with titles such as 1983's 'Be-Bop High School' and 1990's 'Crows' having long, successful runs, these manga often feature casts of delinquent outcasts who bond together through emotional fistfights.

 

 The way Cromartie parodies this genre is twofold; the first, and most obvious, is by highlighting the inherent absurdity of a genre where all conflict is resolved through hypermasculine fistfights by having the characters nearly engage in these tropes (such as listing off the nicknames a character's earned trough their life as a delinquent) only for the situation to be resolved in an astonishingly mundane way (such as the guy with the most impressive accomplishments having such a lame nickname that all the others lose interest entirely).

 

 The second, and (in my opinion) more effective one is a far more character based approach. essentially, nearly everyone in Cromartie High School is some variation of the "though guy with a heart of gold" trope, an outwardly menacing and silent character with a secret soft side that they believe would lose them the respect of their peers if it ever got found out. 

 

 However, unlike most other versions of this trope where this secret soft side manifests itself in doing "unmanly" things such as being good at cooking or working part-time at a daycare, the ones in Cromartie are nearly all things like "being passionate about stand-up comedy" or "getting motion sick easily", this lends the characters an air of what can only be accurately described as a sort of Gap Moe, as these hypermasculine delinquents scramble to hide what are, to any sane person, completely normal character traits.

-Visuals

 CHS' "animation" is, to put it as nicely as possible, awful, if you told me the Series'  entire budget was some loose change and a paper clip I'd believe you without question, and yet, this too is an integral part of it's comedy, as most of it's runtime is occupied by static shot/reverse shot dialogue scenes the Series plays quite a bit with them, such as randomly changing the direction a character is facing between cuts or animating a shot in 4:3 before stretching it to widescreen so it looks like a bad VHS rip, CHS is certainly a masterclass in doing a lot with very little.

-Final verdict

 I can acknowledge that CHS is not really for everyone, its a parody of a fairly niche genre whose particular brand of absurdist comedy might be off-putting to some, however, for the rest, it is a genuinely charming little comedy that manages to do quite a bit with a relatively simple premise.

 

also Freddy Mercury is there.

 

 

                   RATING:RECOMMENDED