is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Motoei Shinzawa. A first series ''Third Year Funny-face Club'' was serialized in

Shueisha (lit. "Gathering of Intellect Publishing Co., Ltd.") is a Japanese company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The foll ...

's ''

Weekly Shōnen Jump is a weekly ''shōnen'' manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the ''Jump'' line of magazines. The manga series within the magazine consist of many action scenes and a fair amount of comedy. The chapters of the series that run ...

'' from October 1980 to April 1982. ''High School! Kimengumi'' was serialized in the same magazine from April 1982 to July 1987. An

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

television series aired from October 1985 to September 1987 and an animated film premiered in July 1986. A sequel manga, titled ''Flash! Funny-face Club'', was published in Square Enix's ''

Monthly Shōnen Gangan is a manga imprint owned by Square Enix Holdings. It originated as a manga imprint for Enix before the company re-branded as Square Enix. It publishes manga in several anthologies aimed at different reader demographic groups in the Japanese mar ...

'' from 2001 to 2005.

Summary

''High School! Kimengumi'' is an episodic chronicle of the bizarre adventures of a group of misfit junior high school (and later high school) boys who form a club known as the "Kimengumi". All of the character names in the series are puns. For example, "Kawa Yui" is another way of saying "

kawaii ''Kawaii'' is the culture of cuteness in Japan. It can refer to items, humans and non-humans that are charming, vulnerable, shy and childlike.Kerr, Hui-Ying (23 November 2016)"What is kawaii – and why did the world fall for the ‘cult of c ...

", and "Uru Chie" is a slang form of "urusai", meaning "obnoxious" or "annoying".

Media

Manga

''High School! Kimengumi'' is written and illustrated by Motoei Shinzawa. A first series titled was published in

's ''

'' from October 13, 1980, to April 12, 1982. Shueisha collected its chapters in six ''

tankōbon is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or ...

'' volumes published between August 15, 1981 and January 8, 1983. ''High School! Kimengumi'' was serialized in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from April 19, 1982 to July 6, 1987. Shueisha released the individual chapters into twenty volumes published between April 8, 1983 and February 10, 1988. Another series titled was published by ''Popeye'' on December 1, 2000. Shueisha later released the series into a single volume on February 4, 2004. A fourth series, titled , was serialized in Square Enix's ''

'' from 2001 to 2005. It was compiled into three ''tankōbon'' volumes published from July 22, 2002 and July 22, 2005.

Volume list

=''Third Year Funny-face Club''

=''High School! Funny-face Club''

=''Flash! Funny-face Club''

Anime

A 86-episode anime adaptation produced by

NAS Nas (born 1973) is the stage name of American rapper Nasir Jones. Nas, NaS, or NAS may also refer to: Aviation * Nasair, a low-cost airline carrier and subsidiary based in Eritrea * National Air Services, an airline in Saudi Arabia ** Nas Air ( ...

and

Fuji Television JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as and colloquially known as CX, is a Japanese television station based in Odaiba, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Owned and operated by the it is the key station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network S ...

was broadcast in Japan from October 12, 1985 to September 21, 1987 on Fuji TV.

Songs

The theme songs, with the exceptions of the fifth ending and insert ''Nakuko mo Warau Kimengumi'', were performed by various sub-groups or former members of

Onyanko Club was a large all-girl Japanese pop Japanese idol, idol group in the 1980s. Some members of the group participated in spin-off groups, such as Nyangilas, Ushiroyubi Sasaregumi and Ushirogami Hikaretai. Many of the latter two groups' songs were us ...

: *Opening themes 1–5, ending themes 1, 3–4, 6, insert songs 1–2 by Ushiroyubi Sasaregumi *Opening themes 6–7, ending themes 7–8 by

Ushirogami Hikaretai Ushirogami Hikaretai (うしろ髪ひかれ隊) was a Japanese idol J-pop band, active from 1987 to 1988. It was the third sub-group of Onyanko Club, consisting of three of its members: Shizuka Kudō, Akiko Ikuina, and Makiko Saitō, the group debu ...

*Ending theme 2 by Onyanko Club and Ushiroyubi Sasaregumi *Ending theme 5 by Musukko Club

Opening themes

#''Ushiroyubi Sasare-gumi'' #''Zō-san no Scanty'' #''Nagisa no "..." (Kagi Kakko)'' #''Waza Ari!'' #''Kashiko'' #''Toki no Kawa wo Koete'' #''Anata wo Shiritai''

Insert songs

*''Abunai Sa·ka·na'' *''Watashi ha Chie no Wa (Puzzling)'' *''Nakuko mo Warau Kimengumi''

Closing themes

#''Jogakusei no Ketsui'' #''Banana no Namida'' #''Neko Jita Gokoro mo Koi no Uchi'' #''Not Only ★ But Also'' #''Chotto Karai Aitsu'' #''Pythagoras wo Buttobase'' #''Ushirogami Hikaretai'' #''Tatsutori Ato wo Nigosazu''

Video releases

''Kimengumi'' has been released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

in Japan in two different box set releases. The movie was released as part of the second DVD set in 2008. ;''High School! Kimengumi DVD Box 1'' :

Pioneer LDC (abbreviated as NBCUEJ) is a Japanese music, anime, and home entertainment production and distribution enterprise headquartered in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo. It is primarily involved in the production and distribution of anime within Japan. The ...

, 2001-05-25 ;''High School! Kimengumi DVD Box 2'' :Pioneer LDC, 2001-07-25 ;''High School! Kimengumi DVD Box 3'' :Pioneer LDCA, 2001-09-21 ;''High School! Kimengumi Complete DVD Box 1'' : E-Net Frontier, 2007-12-21 ;''High School! Kimengumi Complete DVD Box 2'' :E-Net Frontier, 2008-02-22

Video games

There is a traditional

boardgame Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a co ...

based on the series titled ''High School! Kimengumi Game'', released by

Bandai is a Japanese multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectables America and Bandai UK, are respectively headquartered in Irvine, California and Richmond ...

. Three video games have been based on the series: *''High School! Kimengumi'' for the

MSX2 MSX is a standardized home computer architecture, announced by Microsoft and ASCII Corporation on June 16, 1983. It was initially conceived by Microsoft as a product for the Eastern sector, and jointly marketed by Kazuhiko Nishi, then vice- ...

, an adventure game *''High School! Kimengumi'' for the

Sega Master System The is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console manufactured by Sega. It was originally a remodeled export version of the Sega Mark III, the third iteration of the SG-1000 series of consoles, which was released in Japan in 1985 and ...

, a port of the MSX 2 game *''High School! Kimengumi: The Table Hockey'' for PlayStation There is also a series of

pachinko is a mechanical game originating in Japan that is used as an arcade game, and much more frequently for gambling. Pachinko fills a niche in Japanese gambling comparable to that of the slot machine in the West as a form of low-stakes, low-st ...

games based on the series manufactured by Maruhon

Reception

In a 2006 survey of celebrities by

TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as (also known as EX and and stylized as TV asahi), is a television station that is owned and operated by the subsidiary of certified broadcasting holding company , itself controlled by The Asahi Shimbun Comp ...

, ''High School! Kimengumi'' was listed as #87 on a list of the top 100 favorite anime series.

References

External links

''High School! Kimengumi'' official anime website at Fuji TV
* * {{Gallop (studio) 1980 manga 1982 manga 1985 anime television series debuts 1986 anime films 2000 manga 2001 manga Fuji TV original programming Gallop (studio) Gangan Comics manga Japanese high school television series Onyanko Club School life in anime and manga Shōnen manga Shueisha franchises Shueisha manga Shunsuke Kikuchi