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Kyō Kara Ore Wa!!
Series Name: Kyō Kara Ore Wa!! (or From Today I'll...)
Year of Serialization: 1988- 1997
Author: Nishimori Hiroyuki
Artist: Nishimori Hiroyuki
Genres: Action, Comedy, Romance, School Life, Shounen.
Current Status: Complete (38 Volumes).
Moment of Reviewing: Finished
Other Format(s): OVA, Live action movie
Series Summary:Takashi Mitsuhashi's is a new transfer student in Nanyou High School. He takes this opportunity to reinvent himself starting with his hair style. On his way to salon, he runs in to Shinji Itou. It turns out that Itou had similar idea in mind. Soon these two would be climbing the ladder up aiming to become the biggest delinquents Japan has ever seen.
Critical Review: (May contain some light spoilers)
KKOW is story of humorous misadventures of the two aforementioned delinquents throughout their school life, told in, slice of life setting. The plot is completely driven by it's characters. Their personalities, and interaction are believable and draw in the reader quickly. It was long running series so there are plenty of recurring ones whom we can talk about. But you will have to look for them yourself. I will just describe the main characters a bit.
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Mitsuhashi is a self serving, vengeful, cunning guy who uses his excellent athletic abilities to brawl. Be it setting a trap for an enemy or pulling no-holds-barred-pranks on friends, count him in. Nothing is off limits or so it seems when it comes to Mitsuhashi. He must always be his number one priority and must win. Very unbecoming qualities for a hero, aren't they? Surprisingly as the story progresses his vices are balanced out and Mitsuhashi grows on the reader just like he does to Itou. There is softer side to him which goes unnoticed by many but still earns him enough reliable friends, even a girl friend, Riko. They too trust him to come through eventually even though they will readily swear they have no faith in him.
Itou is a classic headstrong idealist, but with similar readiness to get in brawls. In his case, it's to uphold justice. In contrast to Mitsuhashi in everything, he is more straightforward, honest and popular guy. People find him dependable and friendly. That's not to say he doesn't have his own moments of selfishness or pettiness. His self righteousness is also grating for his enemies, while some take advantage of it. Mitsuhashi and Itou together, however, balance each other out pretty well for the chagrin of their enemies.
Did I mention it's a comedy? Replace it with laugh riot if you are in to slapstick humour and gags.Most of the jokes come from Mitsuhashi himself. His pranks, or pettiness both will draw a smile easily even if unfortunate for his victims. But it also includes how he deals with a pervert teacher harassing a girl or messes things up for himself. Or the characters do something unexpected, diverging from their established character, like Itou pulls a Mitsuhashi when no one is looking or Mitsuhashi simply doesn't turn up for a fight or the villain breaks the fourth wall to show his disappointed at being the better person than the hero. Even though I usually prefer to avoid slapstick comedy most of the jokes work well. My only complaint is that a few of them were related to toilet humour but thankfully they were not more than 2-4 such jokes in the whole series and can be ignored.
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The art in manga is in older style, reminding you the date it was published in and may not seem attractive at first. But it improves and grows on you just like Mitsuhashi. It kind of compliments the comedic tone with visuals and expresses the emotions well, giving the series it's own character.
OVA
Alternative names : From today on I am; Today, It's My Turn!!; Due come noi (Italian); 今日から俺は!! (Japanese)
You can check out the OVA first if you prefer anime. There are 10, one hour episodes of it, released between 1993 to 1996. However it doesn't cover the whole story. Manga of course is more complete.
Highly recommended if you like shonnen gag mangas, non traditional protagonist, along with several side characters with real personalities.
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