Reviews in Brief: You Higuri's Gakuen Heaven (anime)

I've been indulging myself over the past few days with a bit of boys' love fluff, Gakuen Heaven, one of the most light-hearted and delightful anime I've run across. (Yes, I finally found the whole series online.) It's based on the PC game Gakuen Heaven Boy's Love Scramble, which has become a franchise that includes three PlayStation 2 games, drama CDs, a manga series, and this anime.

There are several interlocking story lines here, all centered on the story of Ito Keita (Japanese usage here), a fairly average boy who, out of the blue, receives a letter of acceptance (the "platinum paper") to prestigious Bell Liberty Academy (nicknamed "BL Academy"), a school that only accepts boys with special talents. Interwoven with the story of Keita's acceptance at the Academy is that of his growing relationship with Endo Kazuki, his neighbor in the dorm and his first friend at the school. Keita is also intimately, although unknowingly, involved in a power struggle between the school's new and very young Chairman and its Vice-Chairman, Kunanuma, who fears loss of his influence on the Board and sees Keita as a weak-point in the Chairman's defenses: Keita was admitted on the Chairman's special recommendation. (I should also point out that this thread involves a lot of behind-the-scenes activity, which adds depth to the story.) And, there is a mysterious agency that is stealing research data from the computer used by the biology teacher, Umino Satoshi, who is doing some important research on viruses.

The main idea here is to have fun, and fun it is: I'm not sure where to start. The characters -- and there is a large cast here, all of whom have important roles -- are a delight: clearly portrayed, each is a rather quirky individual, from the wild-man student council president, Niwa Tetsuya, to the most beautiful man on campus, Saionji Kaoru, cool, collected, and very, very shrewd. The character designs fit right in: these are all appealing young men, and there is a great deal of subtlety in the portrayals.



The subtlety extends to the BL aspects: they're very low-key, with only the occasional suggestive remark, but we do get a clear idea of some of the relationships here: they are not plainly pointed out, but through some scene openings (suggestive dialogue that resolves itself into perfectly innocent situations) and some backstory, we know who's with who. There are also a few pointed remarks directed at Kazuki to get his act together and stake his claim.

The general pace of this one is high-key, including the delivery of dialogue. Keita, in particular, seems to talk as though he were a machine-gun. It's not something that bothered me at all, and it sets a very different tone than what I've become used to: very upbeat and, as the subtitle notes, "Boy's Love Hyper."

The one major problem here is Kunanuma: like most cartoon villains, he is a bit much, and I find myself skipping his scenes on second viewing. (I think villains should not be allowed to laugh, and certainly never ever be allowed to gloat.) There are one or two places where it could be tighter, but on the whole, it's a winner: drama, suspense, romance, and a healthy dose of charm.

Licensed in North America by Media Blasters.

Crew:

Director: Yukina Hiiro
Series Composition: Natsuko Takahashi
Script: Daisuke Watanabe, Natsuko Takahashi, Yoshifumi Fukushima, Yukina Hiiro
Music: Kazuya Nishioka
Original Character Design: You Higuri
Character Design: Yumi Nakayama
Sound director: Hiromi Kikuta
Key Animation: Akiko Kawashima, Chiyuki Tanaka (OP), Hisami Teshima, Junko Abe, Keiko Nagamine (OP), Setsuko Unno, Yoshiko Nakajima (OP), Yuki Nomura, Yukie Akitani
Theme Song Performance: Masaaki Fujioka (ED), YAMOTO (OP)

Cast:

Jun Fukuyama as Keita Ito
Takahiro Sakurai as Kazuki Endo
Hirofumi Nojima as Takuto Iwai
Hiroshi Kamiya as Kaoru Saionji
Katsuyuki Konishi as Tetsuwa Niwa
Ken Narita as Jin Matsuoka
Ken Takeuchi as Kakeru Ozawa
Kenichi Suzumura as Shunsuke Taki
Ryotaro Okiayu as Koji Shinomiya
Shinichiro Miki as Yukihiko Naruse
Takahiro Mizushima as Wataru Ozawa
Tomohiro Tsuboi as Omi Shichijo
Tomoko Kawakami as Satoshi Umino
Toshiyuki Morikawa as Hideaki Nakajima
Ayumi Tsunematsu as Kazuki Endo (child)
Daisuke Kirii as Hiroya Yoshizumi (eps 12-13)
Masayuki Katou as Watanabe
Shigenori Sôya as Kuganuma
Takashi Oohara as Nagahara
Touko Aoyama as Keita Ito (child)
Yasuhiro as Construction Worker, Naoi, Track Team Captain
Yuuichi Nakamura as Ishizuka (secretary)