is a Japanese

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

series written and illustrated by

Motoei Shinzawa is a Japanese mangaka, manga artist born June 10, 1958, in Kashiwazaki, Niigata, Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture, Japan. His debut manga was ''Highschool! Kimen-gumi, Sannen Kimen-gumi'', published in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' beginning in 1980. A ...

. A first series ''Third Year Funny-face Club'' was serialized in

Shueisha is a Japanese publishing company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. Shueisha is the largest publishing company in Japan. It was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The ...

's ''

Weekly Shōnen Jump is a weekly Shōnen manga, ''shōnen'' manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the ''Jump (magazine line), Jump'' line of magazines. The manga series within the magazine consist of many Action (fiction), action scenes and a fair ...

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

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

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 is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational holding company, video game publisher and entertainment conglomerate. It releases role-playing video game, role-playing game franchises, such as ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', and '' ...

's ''

Monthly Shōnen Gangan is a manga imprint owned by Square Enix Holdings. It originated as a manga imprint for Enix before the company merged with Square to form Square Enix. It publishes manga in several anthologies aimed at different reader demographic groups in t ...

'' 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 a Japanese cultural phenomenon which emphasizes cuteness, childlike innocence, charm, and simplicity. ''Kawaii'' culture began to flourish in the 1970s, driven by youth culture and the rise of cute characters in manga and anime ...

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

Media

Manga

''High School! Kimengumi'' is written and illustrated by

. A first series titled was published in

's ''

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

tankōbon A is a standard publishing format for books in Japan, alongside other formats such as ''shinsho'' (17x11 cm paperback books) and ''bunkobon''. Used as a loanword in English, the term specifically refers to a printed collection of a manga that w ...

'' 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

'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 (S ...

and

Fuji Television JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as or , is a Japanese television station that serves the Kantō region as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network System (FNS). The station is owned-and- ...

was broadcast in Japan from October 12, 1985, to September 21, 1987, on Fuji TV. Remow licensed the series in English and started streaming it on its It's Anime

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel.

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 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 used as theme ...

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

Ushiroyubi Sasaregumi was a female Japanese pop music duo consisting of Yukiko Iwai and Mamiko Takai, formed in 1985. In parallel to their membership in this duo, Iwai and Takai were at the same time members of Onyanko Club, a large pop group widely seen as a precurs ...

*Opening themes 6–7, ending themes 7–8 by Ushirogami Hikaretai *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 ki ...

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 that is a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, owned by American telecommunications/media company Comcast headquartered in Akasaka, Tokyo ...

, 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 A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...

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

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

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

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

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

MSX2 MSX is a standardized home computer architecture, announced by 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, the director at ASCII Cor ...

, a port of the Master System game *''High School! Kimengumi: The Table Hockey'' for

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

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 Gambling in Japan, Japanese gambling comparable to that of the slot machine in the West as a form of l ...

games based on the series manufactured by Maruhon

Reception

In a 2006 survey of celebrities by

TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as , and better known as , is a Japanese television station serving the Kanto region as the flagship station of the All-Nippon News Network. It is owned-and-operated by the a subsidiary of , itself controlled by ...

, ''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 1986 films 2000 manga 2001 manga Fuji Television original programming Gallop (studio) Gangan Comics manga Japanese high school television series Onyanko Club Anime and manga set in schools Shōnen manga Shueisha franchises Shueisha manga Shunsuke Kikuchi Remow anime