Digital Manga Review: Afterschool Charisma
Afterschool Charisma © 2009 Kumiko SUEKANE/Shogakukan
Afterschool Charisma is creative, holds your attention while getting a few laughs. A Manga on sigikki.com by Kumiko Suekane, it’s worth the free price, and if printed, worth buying. She has also done works such as Blood+ A, Once Upon a Glashma (Hajimari no Gurashuma), and Seijou Koucha–kan no Jijō (The Seijou Teahouse Affair).
Before I go into the review, I feel that the context of the review in needed. Namely, that since the manga is updated 1 chapter per month, and being that I have come late to the manga, and just in case you have too, an overview is in order.
Overview: The story takes place at Saint Kleio High School where the clones of influential historical figures attend. On the outset in the first chapter, you are immediately introduced to some of the characters:
“The year is 2xxx A.D. These children are the fruit of leading-edge genetic engineering technology. In other words, they are clones.
“Why are you crying…Florence Nightingale?”
The reader is also introduced by the 6th page, to one of the interesting issues about being a clone. “But why am I Marie Curie?” then a few pages later… “But I don’t want to be Marie Curie.”
From there we are thrown into the world of the clones and their only human schoolmate: Shiro Kamiya. Many of the clones seem to have a love-hate relationship with Shiro, the main character of Afterschool Charisma. He is nice, smart and funny, but he is also very much not a clone and his father is one of the directors at the school.
Shiro convinces Marie Curie she should tell his dad, Dr. Kamiya, that she wants to learn music instead of studying fission. She does; and in one night she is gone, transferred to another school. By the end of the first chapter the clone of John F Kennedy is assassinated the same way his “original” was. It leaves the question, does history repeat itself? And if so, are the clones doomed to relive it?
Chapter 2 opens with everyone wondering where Marie Curie is. What school did she transfer to? It’s a mystery to them all, yet because Shiro’s father is the one who took care of the details, no one is overly worried because he seems nice, and, after all, his son attends the school. By the end of the chapter Mozart and Shiro are thrown into the girls locker room where lots of Fan service occurs. And, of course, Freud sees the good in it. The matter of Kennedy’s assassination isn’t solved either, if anything it only gets worse. It turns out an anti-clone group may be behind the attacks.
By Chapter 3 security is beefed up, the board members meet (they oddly remind me of the Nerve board from Evangelion – blurred hologram image, old and a tad bit evil), and Freud reveals to the class that there is an assassination plot by an anti-clone group. There is a lot of character development between Shiro and Mozart. Plus hilarity abounds in this chapter.
The beginning of chapter 4 opens with fan service. Mozart and Shiro decide on a duel because more than anyone else in the school, Mozart reminds Shiro constantly how Shiro doesn’t know what it is to be a clone. By the end, we are introduced to a young Adolf Hitler.
Chapter 5 moves into the past. And shows how Shiro and Hitler became friends. Into the now, Shiro goes to a secret meeting where many of the clones gather to pray to recieve Dolly the sheep’s good luck.
In Chapter 6, Things come to a boiling point with Mozart and Shiro, leaving us at the end of the chapter shocked!
Review:
Afterschool Charisma is drawn well. Though the characters look similar to their historical identities, it should be kept in mind that the characters are in High School, and, in typical Japanese styling, some of them are more beautiful than the actual persons. I don’t think I would have liked to see a short, round bellied Napoleon. Or a scary eyed, mustache wearing Adolf Hitler. The clones are supposed to be better than their originals, and through the drawing of Kumiko Suekane, they often are.
I also like that each chapter leaves you somewhat hanging in mid air, this is especially true for chapter 6. So far, the first six chapters have suspense, comedy, fan service, environmental development such as social interaction between the classmates, and mystery.
At first I wasn’t sure about Afterschool Charisma. Historical clones come to life? What makes this so different from the other “evil clone-replicant” manga? But after reading the first chapter, the story is original and, it keeps you wondering what will happen next.
I hope that the manga continues to hold it’s own as we progress through the chapters, so far, it’s a read I’d recommend.
And for the manga enthusiast, St Kleio, the school which they attend, is named after Kleio , the Greek goddess/muse of History. It seems already that the creator, Kumiko Suekane, did some homework before beginning this project. It’s a plus to be able to read the manga,and then go back to find out little hidden things within the story.
Read the manga here: Afterschool Charisma is published chapter by chapter in the USA on Viz’s site: SIGIKKI, the English version of the Japanese monthly printed magazine, IKKI.
Rating for chapters 1-6: 4 outta 5 for great development, drawing and suspense.
