Cromartie High School

'Measured by the standards of modern civilization, they would be like a boy of twelve as compared with our development of 45 years.'

- Douglas MacArthur

Well, that's one interpretation of the Japanese psyche from a Western perspective. Though one not entirely unshared by the Japanese themselves.

The concept of 'immaturity' is one that is often seen in various aspects of Japanese culture, with 'kawaii' mascots for everything, the nature of relationships and extensive use of high school imagery in popular culture. One area of Japanese culture where you'll regularly find all three of these examples is in manga and anime.

'Cromartie High School' is a new millennium manga-turned-anime that unashamedly presents itself as a parody of typical high school manga/anime, embracing the hyperbolic delinquent nature of its characters and scenarios; and in doing so takes an ironic look at the immature nature of many series.

Takashi Kamiyama is a new student at Cromartie High School, a fact that he states at the start of each episode of the anime. A seemingly ordinary and weedy student, it is strange that he has transferred to the all boys' school of delinquent fighters that is Cromartie. The other students also notice this fact and foolishly believe that this new student is the toughest kid in the school, as why else would he transfer there?! What follows is a serialised string of repetitive jokes and scenarios across twenty-six mini episodes, as the students of Cromartie and their rival schools come to terms with reality.

All the characters in Cromartie are sixteen years of age, not that their appearance would suggest it. When each first appears on screen each episode, their name and age is shown, as if to remind you that these are just teenagers. Their older, 'tough guy' looks suggest serious and violent storylines, however, all storylines are magnificently infantile. The parody is clear: with so much manga and anime using juvenile characters to tackle overwhelmingly serious situations, here seemingly mature and violent types deal with the trivial, mundane and immature.

These are 'teenagers' dealing with everyday, trivial dilemmas, that aren't exactly life-threatening, despite how the characters may describe them. This role reversal from typical manga and anime add a surrealist comedy element and paradoxically make it a more mature viewing experience.

These dilemmas include resident tough guy Yutaka Takenouchi finding himself in various scenarios where his travel sickness is exposed; rival school leader Noboru Yamanouchi fretting over finding the perfect joke to send into radio shows to be read out; and the delightfully obscure episode where Hayashida hears Mechazawa humming a tune, but can't recall which song it is from, leading to an endless struggle for the entire school to name that tune.

The character Mechazawa himself is a further example of the surreal comedy: a robot, but no one wants to say it out loud, and so everyone just gets on with this obscurity. The class also includes a silent Freddie Mercury and a gorilla. There are also references to various music and films throughout as well, the manga and DVD covers parodying various famous images, namely those of Queen.

Stylistically, the anime is quite budget. There is very little in the way of actual animation; the characters often speaking in front of blank backgrounds and repetitive shots used. The short length of episodes also suggest a limited budget. All this makes it feel like watching a manga, with the focus very much on content over style, further suggesting Cromartie as a more mature manga/anime.

The truth is there is a lot of underlying immaturity in manga and anime, and the humour of 'Cromartie High School' is very much immature in nature. Though here it is done ironically, parodying the serious scenarios the school children of other series face. With Cromartie, immaturity is something to be embraced.