School life is like being on a monkey mountain…
At least, that’s how it seems to high school student Haruna Aizawa. Recently transferred from a prestigious academy, Haruna is jaded with school life after all those at her former school whom she thought were her friends decided to snub her. After that, she saw school life for what it was—a hierarchy of wild monkeys, each with their own cliques and in-groups that shuffled back and forth. Believing that everyone would be as two-faced as her old schoolmates, Haruna came to her first day in her new class with a big chip on her shoulder and instantly earned disfavor with the girls for giving attitude to Atsuyuki (the pretty goofball of the class). But it wasn’t till forming a loose association to Masaru (everyone calls him “Macharu”), the baby monkey of the class, that she was met with a sincere personality. This begins her slippery slope into the realms of love that she hadn’t quite known before, and slowly the cool Haruna begins to laugh and is pulled into the accepting arms of her classmates through their monkeying around.
Simply shoujo.
Most shoujo titles tend to have simplistic, but emotive art styles. That trend is very much present in Monkey High. It actually brings to mind the art styles of Yoko Kamio (“Boys Over Flowers”) and Ai Yazawa (“Mars,” “Nana”), but it also has this childishness abut the character designs that reminds me of Kodocha. The story is mainly about the people, so backgrounds aren’t generally detailed in every panel. However, there are good doses of detailed backgrounds throughout, it’s just that the setting isn’t as important as the innocent and confused emotions that the story is trying to bring out through character interactions. The story has a smooth flow to it, but if it seems rushed, the make comic at the end of the volume explains that the creator (Shouko Akira) felt she didn’t have time to drag things out since it was a fresh, unserialized story at the time. She notes that that’s only a luxury a series has, so scenes are usually short and sweet. And, let’s be honest, very few titles can drag a two second kiss scene out for ten pages—this isn’t Inu-Yasha. Also, in addition to the author’s omake comic and bio page, Viz has tossed in a page of notes on a few Japanese terms manga newcomers might not be as familiar with. Monkey High is pretty much your standard shoujo title in look and format, but the story and characters are what makes it unique.
How many bananas are left?
For all Monkey High seems to be an average shoujo title, I enjoyed volume 1. Its story moved at just the right pace for my busy life and was a quick read. Not only that, but I found myself relating to Haruna in her jaded contrary attitude. That’s usually how I know a story is going to be good. Volume one seems to kick things off to a good start between the budding odd-couple, and seeing how their classmates are constantly meddling is terribly amusing. It’ll leave any reader anxious to see how Haruna will thaw over time, and if she can do more than frown as her instinctive facial expression.
