Harenchi Gakuen

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Harenchi Gakuen is one of the earliest signs that Go Nagai was a mad genius.

An absolutely deranged yet creative man who was willing to go anywhere and everywhere, going out of his way to write the most insane thing you could possibly follow with some of the worst scumbags you could imagine.

You find yourself confused as to why you care about these strange little creatures that are meant to be human but come off more as some sort of ancient, vengeful spirits that will haunt your dreams. That is not a joke mind you, the whole night after I binged this series I was ... left tossing and turning as I dreamt about Yamagishi and Juubei, as well as Bearded Gorilla, practically torturing me through shenanigans.

This series not only started a whole new genre, it caused a shift in the culture. It pushed boundaries in fiction, completely going against what was "allowed". Was it perhaps a bad idea to create such a perverted series in a magazine largely targeted at children at the time? Perhaps. However, if it wasn't for bad and controversial ideas, it wouldn't be a Go Nagai manga at all!

I do have some genuine issues with it however.

The art style is REALLY old, most of the characters are designed just like other gag characters of the time and that may certainly put you off with how disgusting some of these bitches look.

The third part of the story really really takes a dive into boring territory, I don't think Nagai ran out of ideas or anything, but I was not quite as engaged as I was during the second or even early first part.

The Harenchi war arc was absolutely mind blowing but definitly felt like it came out of nowhere, almost like one massive rant as Nagai got himself into large media trouble for the creation of this manga. It almost felt like he was trying to prove something, to really blow people away in a literal sense. This may just be a silly manga with upskirts and naked little girls, but just like any other manga it had sweat, tears and blood put into it.

It's not Nagai's best work, but goddamn, I don't want to imagine what the world would be like if Harenchi Gakuen didn't exist.