Cromartie High School

is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiji Nonaka and published in Kodansha's ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' from August 2000 to May 2006. It follows the everyday life of Takashi Kamiyama and his odd classmates at Cromartie High School, an infamous school for delinquents. The series is a parody of Japanese "''yankii''" (juvenile delinquent) manga of the 1970s and 1980s. The style of art resembles Ryoichi Ikegami's works such as ''Otoko-gumi'' and ''Otoko Ōzora''.

Both the manga and anime have been released in North America by ADV Manga and ADV Films respectively. However, the manga was not completely published in North America due to restructuring issues at ADV. Discotek Media has since licensed the anime, after ADV's closing in 2009. The series aired in the United States on the cable network G4 on its Barbed Wire Biscuit late-night block and on the UK satellite channel Rockworld TV.

The manga won the 2002 Kodansha Manga Award for the ''shōnen'' category.

It was followed by a spin-off sequel titled ''Cromartie Kōkō Shokuinshitsu'' in 2018, launched on Kodansha's ''Magazine Pocket'' app.

Characters

Main characters

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:Originally just another above-average student until he decided to enroll at Cromartie. Everyone else at Cromartie assumes that he is the toughest kid in school, since a rabbit would never go into a den of lions. He has ambitions to change the school for the sake of bettering its student body. In secret, he is an amateur comedian who writes and sends jokes to be heard on special radio stations under the penname of . In later episodes, he becomes the number one boss in Japan after winning the National Boss Championship, only winning after being the only one to answer the first question correctly. He later defeats the legendary biker Sadaharu in a race.
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: Kamiyama's first friend at Cromartie, noted for his purple mohawk. Hayashida is the one delinquent that helps Kamiyama blend into the bewildering environment of Cromartie High. Although streetwise, he is dumber than the gorilla and does not even understand basic math. His signature purple mohawk was revealed to be fake in episode 17, but in episode 8 one can see him take it off for a brief second.
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: A delinquent who claims he was always getting into fights and never lost a single one (he claims to have won a 5-against-1 fight), he is ignored and disrespected because he lacks a nickname. (In the manga, he chooses the nickname "Dragon of Razors" with the help of Hokuto's lackey, who himself decides on "The American Dream", though no one else seems to acknowledge those names.) Often the most conservative of Kamiyama's friends (and really, quite possibly the only one who actually possesses common sense), he is also frequently abducted by delinquents from Bass High School and is often the unwilling host of Cromartie High gatherings at his house. He bears a great resemblance to his mother, whose appearance normally horrifies everyone else. His name is a reference to a famous Japanese wrestler.
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: One of the most notorious delinquents of Cromartie. Though there is a rumor that he may be perhaps a robot, no one but the main characters (Kamiyama, Hayashida, Maeda, etc.) seems to notice, including himself. At one point he ends up in a motorcycle accident and is repaired, only to end up combined with his motorcycle into an even stronger motorcycle, complete with missiles and rocket boosters. He is also known as a smooth-talker and is considered very charismatic, regularly getting first place in popularity polls. He has a little brother, identical but one-fifth his size, named Beta, also known as Mini Mechazawa.
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: A mute with a nearly uncanny resemblance to Freddie Mercury, lead singer of the band Queen. Hayashida claimed that as long as he attended, Cromartie would be the "Olympics for delinquents". Although he never speaks and people assume he is a mute, Freddie actually has a good singing voice and the only occasion people can hear his voice is when he sings (as seen in the manga episode of Mechazawa's birthday). The bottom of the microphone stand is broken, referring to Freddie Mercury's gimmick. He also rides to school on an incredibly large, incredibly powerful, possibly wild horse named Black Dragon (Kokuryu in Japan, a reference to Raoh's horse Kokuoh in ''Fist of the North Star''), which waits outside the bathroom while he is "doing his business".
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: A gorilla who appears often at Cromartie High. He sometimes wears a watch and is considered smarter than most of the main characters. It has been revealed that his superior is a monkey. He is also an extremely talented sushi chef. His real name is a reference to a famous Japanese singer. He has also a sister who looks just like him but has prettier eyes and red/pink flower on her left ear.
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: The leader of Cromartie High's first-year students. Known to be an incredible fighter and a reliable person. His weakness (unknown to everyone else) is motion sickness. Though he loves field trips and excursions in general, he hates having to travel, because he gets sick very easily, and struggles with all of his might not to vomit. His name is a reference to a famous Japanese actor. His parents are unseen.
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: A son of a chairman for a major zaibatsu, who is also the chairman of the board for several high schools throughout Japan. He used his father's influence to rule every school he goes to, until he came to Cromartie, not knowing that the school is municipal. He also arrives wearing the wrong uniform (white, instead of the standard black). Despite his setbacks, he continues to plot how to rule this school, if not all of Japan or even the world. As a result of his luxurious, extravagant life, he thinks all people below him are pigs.
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: Nameless in the series. While he does have a name, no one seems to be interested in knowing it (including Hokuto himself), and they simply refer to him as "you", "other guy", or just "Hokuto's lackey". There was actually a controversy among the students, when he said he did not want to be called "Hokuto's lackey". Every time he tries to say his name though, something generally absurd happens and cuts the event short. In the manga, he helps Maeda come up with the nickname "Dragon of Razors", and Maeda suggests for Hokuto's lackey the nickname . They are both satisfied with their new nicknames, but no one else acknowledges them.
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: Before coming to Cromartie, he was a hijacker who tried to commandeer the plane that students of Cromartie High School were taking to go on a field trip to Kyushu. Being agoraphobic, he feels quite uneasy among strangers. When talking with Takenouchi about this problem, he ends up in a situation where he succeeds in the hijacking, but ends up staying in Japan. In the meantime, Takenouchi ends up in the Nevada desert in America. To maintain anonymity, he constantly wears a white wrestling mask, with the kanji character for bamboo, 竹 (The first character in "Takenouchi"), which leaves everyone in Cromartie High with the impression that ''he'' is Takenouchi, although no one questions his presence even after being seen alongside the real Takenouchi. He frequently imparts elderly knowledge (being presumedly in his 30s) to the other students when they face contentious issues. In the manga, he becomes the successor of pillow-jutsu, the fictional technique of softening pillows with a sharp blow with a long stick, but this is given only very brief mention in the opening animation of the anime.
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: The leader of Destrade High School's first-year students. He has the nickname of "The Unsinkable Battleship", which is coincidentally the nickname of professional wrestler Stan Hansen who is extremely popular in Japan, and is mentioned to be a member of a bike gang called "Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water" in his spare time. ("Ash, Wind, Fire" in Japan; both are parodies of the American Funk band Earth, Wind & Fire.) His cronies believe that he hates jokes, since he is always so serious. In truth, he is a connoisseur of sophisticated humor, despising the sophomoric jokes that his friends prefer. He is also a postcard comedian (someone who sends jokes in the mail to be heard on the radio). His pen name is "Ajishio Taro" (roughly, "Salt Boy"), and he is rivaled only by Kamiyama, who he initially knows only as "Honey Boy." He is easily recognized by his large afro hairstyle and his ever-constant sunglasses.

Other characters

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:Yamaguchi's right-hand man, often beaten by Yamaguchi for telling crude or banal jokes, which Yamaguchi hates.
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:One half of a comedy duo and the main character of a variety show, which is very popular among delinquents and others, but is scorned by Yamaguchi for being (in his eyes) painfully stupid. The duo wears fuzzy animal suits.
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:Glasses-wearing partner of Pootan. He is employed in the show, but he is not allowed to talk about it.
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:Mother of Maeda. She only grunts in the Japanese version and never speaks in the English dub. Her face is identical to Maeda's. She apparently uses the net often, going by the name of "Killer Queen."
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:Also known as Mini Mechazawa or just "Beta", he is the little yet older brother of Shinichi Mechazawa. Mechazawa Beta, who can only say "Meka-ratta" despite being "more advanced", is also a cellphone. Meka-ratta is a parody of the lead character from ''Obake no Q-tarō'', a ghost who is unable to speak human language and hence can only say "bake-ratta." Like Mechazawa, he is often mistaken for something else, such as a tea canister, and is stepped on often due to his small size.
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:The leader of Bass High School

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