Coengar2 continues his review of “real teenagers, real life” genre manga, this time from a much lighter perspective.

Title: High School Girls

Publishers: ComicsOne/DrMasters

Genre: Comedy

Age: Older Teen 16+

Volumes: 6 so far, Vol. 7 due out later this year

Violence: Slapstick

Sex/Nudity: Fanservice, bare breasts, sexual dialogue and content

Status: Ongoing series,sporatic release schedule

High School Girls follows the adventures of six friends who are beginning thier first year at an all girl’s high school. Eriko is the defacto leader of the group, she’s got the best grades in class but she’s rather naive and a total spaz at sports. Yuma is the tough talking rebel of the group and often leads Eriko into mischief. Ayano has glasses and braids and is not a very good student but she’s the only one of the group with a steady boyfriend.Kouda is the group rich girl determined to be a famous actress despite a total lack of talent. Ogawa is the cute, perky and undersized member of the group with a rather unhealthy appetite (some would say addiction) to health supplimates. Hejime is the resident nonvirgin and the one the girls turn to for advice on sex (which they either never listen to or get totally wrong). Not only does the series cover the standard high school genre plotlines of romance,tough teachers and upcoming exams,but also covers such important issues as interferring with your friend’s dates,unwanted body hair and menstrual cycles and the school swimming pool.

Good Points: The artwork is pretty good. The series is entertaining.

Bad Points: Some content makes this a series for older readers. See overall review

Overall Review: This series is based on the real life high school adventures of the series mangaka who based most of the characters on the friends she knew in school. Now,for anyone who read the above synopsis and thought that this series is just a knock off of Azumanga Daioh, trust me, this series isnt even close. The girls of AD never came up with a plan to help Osaka lose her virginity, but the girls of HSG do just that for Ayano,not that she really wants thier help with that. HSG is very funny but the girls talk and act like real high school girls (or at least like the girls did when I went to high school) so sometimes the subject matter can get a tad sexual and explicit at times. On an interesting note, ComicsOne, the original publisher of this series went under after the release of volume 2. However, DrMasters, ComicsOne’s asian publisher picked up the U.S. publishing rights for this series and has released all the volumes current for the U.S. market. Volume 7 was released in Japan early this year but a U.S. release date has not been officially given but is expected to be probably sometime in November or December. After that,the status of this series is unsure.

Coengar2 says, if you are looking for a series that is easy to read, that will have you laughing out loud and has a good amount of naughtiness mixed in, than he totally recommends this series.

BTW: Coengar2 is not sure why he suddenly had the urge to do a set of reviews with a common theme but promises that he only has one more “real teenagers, real life” genre title to share with you. It also has the cool twist of tying into his liking of korean manhwa series. It also happens to be the only manga title that he knows of that comes with it’s own urban legend. Look for it soon.