Houou Gakuen Shikkoubu © Kawamaru Shin/Shogakukan
Published in Indonesia as The Executives of Houou Academy
by PT Gramedia/m&c!
The Executives of Houou Academy by Kawamaru Shin: Rules are not necessarily sacred
Shoujo manga review by huamulan03 (Some rights reserved)
Rating: 7.5 of 10 pairs of glasses (averaged)
May contain [SPOILERS!]
Houou Academy is a private school for students from society's upper echelons. Think Ouran, except instead of a host club, an arrow of time-straight student council that doubles up as protector of its select student populace (literally; the officers carry bokken around). School day after school day, the Executive Committee upholds the academy's behavior diktat, meting out demerits for the slightest Your tie is crooked! No running in the hallways! infraction.
Into this conservative-would-be-an-understatement, CCTV'd atmosphere blunders transfer student Ougi Minori who tests the limits the glasses- and Luftwaffe dress uniform-wearing Houou Gakuen executive committee will go to to instill discipline within school ranks.
Rules are meant to protect people, not the other way around!
I fangirl megane chara muchness, but I've so far found Kawamaru Shin-sensei's spectacled offerings/characters (Glasses Boys' Lovers, Doctor's Naughty Kiss) meh, no matter how dishy the bishie. That is until I slammed, Ougi Minori-esque, into The Executives of Houou Academy (Houou Gakuen Shikkoubu) that m&c! published in early 2010. Now, THIS Kawamaru Shin shoujo manga is a delight and not just on the eyecandy front.
Three episodes and one unrelated one-shot comprise The Executives of Houou Academy tankou: Hormat Kepada Ketua OSIS
(Regards to the Student Council President), Aku Ingin Kau Menatapku
(I Want You to Look at Me), Aku Bukan Tandingan Wakil Ketua
(I'm No Match for the Vice President) and Happy Tea Time.
Episode 1: Hormat Kepada Ketua OSIS
New student Ougi Minori challenges the student council president Kiryuu Nobunari and his All rule-breaking deserve punishment! policy by kissing him in public, a violation that carries a minus 10 points plus solitary confinement sanction for both kisser and kissee.
Episode 2: Aku Ingin Kau Menatapku
Student council treasurer Ichinohashi Kotoko gets around the No dating, no kissing rule by tricking Executive Committee member Touma, her childhood friend, with an artless It's artificial respiration.
Episode 3: Aku Bukan Tandingan Wakil Ketua
Model student Ryuugasaki Airi stalks student council vice president Saionji whom she thinks is the epitome of Good Guy and uncovers his scheme to...launch a coup d'état?
Happy Tea Time
Her parents allow Nao to move in to the Momozono house while they are away; Nao doesn't realize that she would be sharing the house with three pâtissier brothers, Hitoshi, Shuuji and Shinsaburou, who run the Peach Garden café.
Rating
Of the three Houou stories, the second is the weakest in Warm and Fuzzy, garnering a mere 6.75 of 10 pairs of glasses, despite keeyoot, guilty Touma willingly submitting to solitary confinement to atone for his “sin.” My favorite is the third, starring the scheming vice president and his meganekko stalker, which earns an 8.0. The first episode of how the inflexible president meets his downfall in the wild card new student receives a 7.75, as does the Older Man/Younger Woman-troped Happy Tea Time.
Verdict
GET! if you still can (this anthology streeted the second week of January 2010).
Iamque opus exegi,
~niki DBA 30uɐlnɯɐnɥ (花木蘭03)
Mistress of Adoxography
P.S. The title of this review forms half of a quote by Franklin D. Roosevelt: Rules are not necessarily sacred, principles are.
copyright information
Houou Gakuen Shikkoubu © 2008 Kawamaru Shin. All rights reserved. First published in Japan in 2008 by Shogakukan Inc., Tokyo
Indonesian translation rights in Indonesia arranged with Shogakukan Inc. through The Kashima Agency for Japan Foreign-Rights Centre.
Indonesian copyright (2009) PT Gramedia
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