Manga A Day: St. Lunatic High School Vol 01

Amazon.com: St. Lunatic High School (Yoru nimo Makezu!) Volume 1: Books: Majiko! ISBN: 1598169440 ISBN-13: 9781598169447

Oh god! The cute! The cute is so cute it's evil. The story is simple, Niko-chan and her older brother are poor and hardly making ends meet. They haven't even been able to afford to pay rent in the past six months. So when her brother spots and offer for a teaching job that comes with lodgings in house with a bath and garden, they sneak out in the middle of the night, no questions asked. When they get there they find the "house" is a shed, the "garden" is the school grounds, and the bath is shared with the school. But the school is rich, super exclusive and Niko-chan is excited to find out she'll be able to go. That is, unitl she finds she has to take night classes and the classes are full of demons and monsters!

The mangaka Majiko! (I think the ! is part of her name) has a really engaging art style. It borders on the super deformed, with everyone having rounded bodies and simplistic faces. The expressions tend to be exaggerated. Everything is just dripping with cute. But since the story is a silly gothic fantasy it really mixes well. Her monsters are inventive too. I love the Pumpkin-headed guy and the penguin-looking kid. (Easter Island Statue Head kid is fun too.) Genders are bit difficult to determine (not just among the skeletons and other monsters in her class). Until Niko addressed her older brother by "older brother" I assumed he was Niko's older sister. I'm still not certain if the school nurse is a woman or an effeminate male. 

Her layouts can get a bit cluttered too, and the panels a little jumbled. But I like her style. I can't think of a good word to describe it other than "chunky." She's fond of thick black outlines and bold black and whites. Since a lot of it takes place at night, there's quite a bit of screentone but she keeps it from getting muddy.

The story is just plain fun, and it's nicely all ages. Tokyopop has rated it T (Teen, for ages 13+) but I can't imagine why. There isn't any sexual humor, no swearing, and the only minor violence is no worse then you'd see in your typical after school cartoon. There may be monsters, but none are particularly scary. I can only wonder if it's because of something that happens in a later volume. I hope that Majiko! doesn't try to turn this into a serious book, it's really great as a gag manga.

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