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Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight, or just Manabi Straight, is a school life anime that has been mostly forgotten by time. The term “underrated” is a somewhat contentious way to describe a show, (because who is to actually decide if a show receives enough attention/phrase?) and risks sounding pretentious or overly-emphasizing a show’s quality. However, in my eyes, Manabi Straight is a truly underrated show. With less than 27,000 members registered on MAL and only a mere 100 favorites, I feel that its lack of lasting attention from most anime fans is disappointing. It bears some obvious narrative similarities to the likes of Lucky Star, K-on ... and Azumanga Daioh, yet unlike those shows, has not been beloved by time in the slightest. There are certainly reasons for this, and I do think Manabi Straight is more niche of a story and has far less widespread appeal than the former three. Still, Manabi has a lot going for it, and is certainly worth a watch for those that enjoy the aforementioned anime.

Manabi Straight is, to put it bluntly, a show about a bunch of cute girls in high school. However, Manabi handles a setting and attitude that I have never seen in another anime. Unlike most school life shows from this era, there is no initial school pride or excitement from the characters to enjoy their academic duty. Manabi takes place in 2035, where Japan remains mostly unchanged, besides the increased work force for its citizens from an earlier age. High school is made optional, and job opportunities and trade schools are opened up to teenagers very early on. Realistically, most teens in this world choose to begin their careers sooner, deciding on a solid paying work schedule over four more years of mandatory education. Due to this adjustment, high schools are a dying breed, and are constantly merged into one another because of the lack of both teachers and students attending. The kids at these high schools are mostly independent, studious, and appear to be even bored, focusing on their schoolwork first and having little interest in the excitement of high school activities. This concept feels unique right off the bat because it allows for some obvious questions. What will the characters get up to in the show if they are not even interested in going to school? What are the different perspectives and attitudes towards this system?

Enter the main character Mikan, an adorable and easily flustered high schooler senior who was roped into running her high school’s student council. Mikan is without a doubt, Manabi Straight’s protagonist, as she has the most meaningful interactions with each character and the strongest development throughout the story. The titular Manabi herself plays the Kamina to Mikan’s Simon, constantly motivating and humbling her friend in hopes of seeing the leadership and strength that Manabi recognizes is there. Mikan begins the show by sloppily presenting a slideshow on the student council’s importance and attempts, halfheartedly, to encourage her classmates into joining her. She is paid no attention by anyone, not even the teachers, and loses her motivation quickly on this cause. Manabi then steps up to the stage, excitedly announces her want to help Mikan, and then SINGS the school’s anthem for a few minutes. This entrances the crowd briefly, as they sit both confused and curious about who this Manabi girl even is. Thus starts the story of Manabi Straight, as these two unlikely girls are now joined together in hopes of bringing back school spirit and fun to this futuristic, less school-dependent society.

Manabi Straight’s first three episodes ultimately serve to introduce the main plot and characters, managing to be both a strong start to the central narrative and a lot of fun on their own. The ultimate destiny that Manabi wants to accomplish is a School Festival. In Manabi’s eyes, that will be her last hoorah for the senior class and a way to motivate interest in the dying out high school setting. Manabi and Mikan indocturate other members to help with their school festival, members who join somewhat half-heartedly initially but do progress and begin to share Manabi’s spirit. Although the main five girls are fairly simple and serve mostly as means to help the story progress, they are still a lot of fun and really entertaining to watch. Manabi is a spirited leader and the heartbeat of the show. Mikan is a somewhat timid and grounded girl who agrees with Manabi’s ambition, though is less blatant with showing it. Mei is tightly-wound and focused, Mutsuki is bold and well-respected by the school, and Momo serves mostly as comic relief/to even be the eyes of the audience. Although these characters do fit obvious archetypes, and are not the most nuisanced outside the plot/their roles within the show, I still found myself endeared to them greatly, and wished I could have seen more of them. The little moments of them sharing excitement together, working on planning for the festival and even just spending time relaxing are always comforting.

Each episode of Manabi simply portrays a portion of planning for the school festival. Small arcs occur, typically involving setup for the big day (like indoctoraing clubs, signing petitions, getting motivated, etc.) Although I think Manabi Straight is mostly consistently good throughout, there are a few moments in the mid section that felt slightly forced and cheesy. The biggest for me being Manabi’s brother dating Aikoh’s principal, which felt only present in the story to create added internal conflict for Manabi. Aikoh’s principal’s role and personality felt kind of forced in general, since most of the other teachers and adults within this story were endeared by Manabi and her excitement for the festival. Still, these qualms are few and far between. Big moments happen in almost every episode, from friendship developments between the characters to the ever-emotional scene in episode 10 in which Manabi is able to bring her entire school together.

Episode five definitely deserves a mention for being my personal favorite in the entire series. This episode focuses only on two characters and their hesitant friendship due to past circumstances. As the episode progresses, the two characters learn more about one another and complete different tasks without reliance on outside forces helping to break the tension between them. I am a big fan of montage scenes that are able to show off progression in a brisk yet emotional way, and this episode definitely does not fall flat in that regard.

The ending of Manabi is also truly special. The characters graduate in the last episode, a common destiny for shows about girls in high school. However, Manabi takes its story a step further by showing the characters after high school, and showing each of their decisions they made for their futures. This definitely adds further weight to Manabi’s story, and really makes the entire show completely justified for just how well it wraps itself up.

If I had to describe Manabi Straight’s story in one word, I would choose “cinematic”. Each episode of Manabi flows into the next as if it were a film. Little time is wasted for less important moments that would be service to the audience, as the show feels tight and most scenes feel somewhat necessary. Of course, Manabi Straight is still a show about cute high school girls. There are moments of silliness, weird interactions or just a second to look at the character in a cute pose. Still, it really feels like Manabi Straight is emphasizing the importance of its message and using its characters’ development as tools strictly for that mission. Shows like Lucky Star and K-on have more character interactions and variety in topic, which gives both of them the advantage of making one more invested in the characters by the end. However, neither of those shows have the consistent central story of Manabi. Where Manabi lacks the wide variety of discussion and added personality to its characters, it decides to prioritize the linear message of how important this goal for the characters is. I feel that this benefits the show greatly, considering it is only 12 episodes and it was a treat to see a well-done story about high school girls instead of taking up that time for random bullshit and typical tropes.

Comedy wise, Manabi Straight is pretty strong. There were several instances when I laughed out loud at scenes and jokes, usually due to the unique timing. Manabi’s style could be described as a mixture of both slapstick and dry humor, often involving weird actions from the characters or a few seconds to let something bizarre that was spoken sink in. An example of this is in the first episode, when Manabi herself is late to school. She frantically asks a girl (later introduced as Momo) walking by for directions, and is pointed a few feet away from the steps going up the hill to school. Manabi completely ignores the steps and flies her scooter straight into the trees next to it, constantly whipping through trees to get to the school on the other side. And at times, the absurdity of a moment is the joke. Halfway through the show there is an entire scene of the characters losing their minds due to being overworked/experiencing sleep loss. Mikan begins to wreck their club room out of desperation to reorganize it (a common symptom of overstress) while Mei, Mitsuki, and Manabi taunt each other out of frustration and take turns smacking one another in the face. The ridiculousness of scenes such as this one provide further realism and character interactions, allowing for the potential happening of the Student Festival to be all the more important to the audience as it is for Manabi’s characters.

Manabi Straight’s animation and art design can be described as ambitious and high-spirited. UFOtable may be known as the “Type Moon” studio nowadays, handling both the Fate and Kara no Kyoukai franchises, and pairing those stories with highly stylized and bright digital animation. However, a decade or so ago UFOtable had a very different aesthetic, which came across in both their graphics and stories. Their shows featured colorful and poppy animation and cute rounded character designs (you can see this in other 2000’s UFOtable productions like Ninja Nonsense and Dokkoida) and Manabi definitely continued this trend. Everything about Manabi’s setting is alive and bright, from the whimsical looking school to the detailed club room. Each girl’s room and house is shown throughout the show, and each of these settings is filled with so much variety and specific detail that they all have strong distinctions. And by the end of the show, the viewer will have somewhat of a spatial idea of the school, considering the show’s tendency to show off different angles and areas that the characters have wandered. This may seem like a pedantic compliment, but it is one I truly was very excited by. It is not often I can say an anime has made me feel aware of its central location’s proportions and that they have stuck in my mind, since that seems like an afterthought for a lot of shows, especially high school comedy ones.

While I can not defend Manabi Straight as having the best animation ever, or even being a contender for that contest, I can strongly state that it has some of the most unique and interesting animations cuts I have seen. There are many little moments throughout that stick out and add an increased flavor to the show’s direction. Manabi growing wings as she motivates her club and flies around as her ideas are portrayed around her. Mei sitting in her lit-blue bedroom sadly while only her video game’s reflection is shown bounced off of her wall, which feels very Hideaki Anno inspired. And episode four must be praised for having the most interestingly animated scene in the entire show. A flashback showing an entire classroom of students with blindly neon inverted colors, emphasized in that fashion to show Mei’s despair and unease. Manabi Straight just feels unique with the way the characters move and interact within its universe. It often shows very blatant animated symbolism, which of course adds intrigue and enhanced attention due to straying away from stagnant direction.

Of course, I can not discuss the artwork of Manabi Straight without mentioning the character designs. Manabi’s Straight’s characters are all drawn as cute and goofy looking lolis topped with bright hair, which I am fully aware will immediately turn off an entire crowd of viewers. However, it should be mentioned that everyone in Manabi’s story looks that way, even the adult men have rounded proportions and somewhat cutesy faces. Personally, the weirdly juvenile and innocent designs did not detract any of the show’s likability, and instead contributed to its unique narrative (which is of course, a coming of age story). The characters in Manabi also often make silly faces or have funny mannerisms (Manabi’s iconic raised fist is a big stand out) and I was admittedly endeared by just how cute they could be at times.

Manabi Straight also has an extremely memorable and outright delightful soundtrack that suits it well. Each background song has so much personality and care put into it, often complimenting its given scene with grace. Fully orchestrated string pieces are played with the more melancholic and poignant scenes, and the upbeat moments are paired with upbeat clapping and what sounds like a really fun jam session. Manabi Straight also has one of my top five favorite openings ever, which might be surprising to some, but I can not deny how much of a fun earworm it is. Sung by the ever-wonderful Megumi Hayashibara, who has not only talent in voice acting but singing, “A Happy Life” is a motivating ballad with sweetly sung lyrics and exciting buildup in the background instruments. The characters are shown running around their school and appear almost as if they are being videotaped, shown in interesting angles. This video may appear nonsensical for a first time viewer, but has incredible payoff in the context of the ending.

So do I recommend Manabi Straight? Obviously, I just gushed about it for a dozen paragraphs. If you are a fan of Cute Girls Doing Cute Things shows, you owe it to yourself to watch this one for its uniquely structured story and likable characters. If you are into original anime in general, or just want to see a tightly done yet fun narrative, it is also recommendable. Manabi Straight was an especially touching show to rewatch during these intense times, as it provides an entertaining tale that mostly revolves around the importance of taking advantage of the excitement of teenage years, no matter the circumstances.

Time to get really controversial. *Rubs hands together* Lets go.

Since Elfen Lied is a very popular anime with a bit of a cult following to back it up, I found myself very interested in giving it a shot. Not to mention, it had some things that I really appreciate in my anime, like cute pink haired killer girls, gore, and an amazing theme song. Seriously though, I love the Elfen Lied opening, I listened to it even before I learned about the show. Go check it out, its very beautiful.

Now, most Elfen Lied fans suggest the manga above the anime. Since the manga has over ... 100 chapters compared to a 12 episode show, I figured that the manga might truly be the superior one of the two, considering it would have more depth, character study, etc etc. So I downloaded the story and read most of it at school within a week or so.

I really wanted to enjoy this story. But I will go in to detail now as to why I could not stand so many important aspects of this manga, much to my dismay. I will try to be as specific as possible.


Story-
My score: 3

Elfen Lied has a very generic story that could have been developed into an interesting one. For the two people that have not heard of it, the story focuses on Lucy, (who I will be delving into shortly) a young woman who was born from test experiments to be a killer. She is referred to as a Diclonius, a breed of dangerous humans with cat like horns coming out of their heads. But what is so dangerous about Diclonius girls like Lucy, you ask? Well, they can use their anger towards others to produce invisible ligaments that can tear apart men. Lucy went through intense torture as a child, so she used her dangerous powers to leave the lab at an early age and hid from the government, killing those who she needed to kill as she was on the run. However, Lucy got a concussion during her escape, meaning that her killer tendencies are bipolar. She can be an innocent, kind girl at times, and then resort back to a stone-cold killer with little knowledge of the switch.

Elfen Lied focuses on Lucy and a few other Diclonius girls, such as Nana and Mariko, seeking refuge out of fear of further violation from the government. One by one, each of the girls cross paths with one another, and end up all confiding in Kouka, a young boy that is the son of an inn keeper. I think you know where this is going.

Now, I would like to explain that I do not hate harems. And Elfen Lied did actually have a decent set up for one. I mean, a boy taking care of wounded monster girls, teaching them social skills? That actually sounds kind of cute! But even with the occasional fluffy or endearing moment, this harem was absolutely ridiculous.

For starters, the girls in Elfen Lied just got naked a lot. For literally no reason either. The fanservice in this manga feels so unearned and cheap. I just wanted the plot to progress, not to see a bunch of girls getting groped.

Everything about the scientists trying to find Lucy was ridiculous and almost felt comical. They would assault and harm children for literally no reason, and had no motives. The story never delved in to why the diclonius existed, either. So I was confused almost the entire time reading it, curious as to why these scientists had even made Lucy in the first place.

The gore in this story was literally only there for shock. I did not want to see children get their bodies scissored and see a dog get beaten to death. This gore made no sense to the narrative and felt so childish to watch. I enjoy gore if it fits the story to have it, but this story's shock scenes were only there to scare the viewer. They felt so unnecessary.

Every single woman in this story was sexualized, and every single man was an evil douche with no personality. This story had themes of "the world is cruel" in every corner, but it was so exaggerated that I could not take one bit of its message seriously. None of the characters felt relatable, so the message did not fit this story one bit.

Elfen Lied also felt so flimsy and choppy. Sometimes the story would focus too long on boring aspects, and sometimes it moved far too fast. The ending was too rushed and by the final volume, I was scratching my head and wondering what the hell was even going on.

The story was edgy, full of unearned gore and fanservice, and had a jumbled, dumb plot and message. I almost chuckled at times over how ridiculous it could get.


Art-
My score: 6

Decent backgrounds, especially the lab shots. Lucy's kill scenes were well drawn too.

However, for a seinen manga, the characters looked too shoujo. Big eyed pink haired girls makes no sense for a story like this, and it almost felt laughable.

Nana, Mayu and Lucy have nice designs though. Still, they looked completely out of place in a violent manga like this one.

The scientists had some of the least unique character designs I've ever seen. I could not even tell them apart.


Characters-
My score: 3

Lets start with the elephant in the room, Lucy.
Lucy's killer form was badass and actually pretty cool to watch it action. I found the best parts of Elfen Lied to be when Lucy was a stone cold killer.
However, Lucy's "cute" (if you can even call it that)'s form was UNBEARABLE. I get that the "nyu" thing was for moe appeal but good lord it was annoying. And Lucy's cute form would often molest and strip the other girls at the inn, but she got away with it because she "did not know any better." A little character development towards the end did make her soft side a little better, but I personally found the bipolar thing with her really wishy-washy and dumb. Her killer side was too brutal and her sweet side was too saccharine and cheesy. This is not even mentioning that she has absolutely no character development. She just went on killing people the entire story with no progression or morals whatsoever. What a shame. Lucy had the potential to be a cool character, she even has a great design. But she felt so unrelatable, unrealistic and unlikable.

Nana and Mayu were fine. While not developed nearly enough, they were both sweet and were by far the most likeable of this bunch. I felt legitimate sympathy for both of them, such as Nana's terror in Lucy and Mayu's cliche, but still sad backstory. A little more development would have made them so much better.

Kouka was absolutely generic with no personality outside of his interactions with the girls. By the end of the story, I knew nothing about him. It never showed him on his own, never showed his motivations, never showed his hobbies, nothing. Such a bland plot device. He seemed to only be in the story so that Lucy would have someone showing sympathy for her. While his sister's death was sad and he did have the occasional moment that made me feel for him, he was really only there for Lucy's development. He could not have been any other character archetype besides a bland harem MC.

Yuka was very annoying. At least Kouka was generic but still a nice guy. Yuka was honestly just a generic, mean girl with a brother complex. She served no purpose other than fanservice and to be Lucy's competition in the harem, even though her and Kouka are related. Seriously, if you had taken her out of Elfen Lied the story would have had no changes.

All of the scientists were stereotypical, "evil" villains that just wanted to hurt Lucy with no reason to root for them. God, they were so annoying. None of them had any personality or backstory, and they were so damn interchangeable. Why even bother with them. Horrible, one dimensional villains that had nothing interesting about them.

Arakawa, the only female scientist, was okay but had no development outside of fanservice. She just walked around with panties on in a lab that did human testing. Because, you know, that's realistic. Could have been cool, but just a boring fanservice device.

Overall, Elfen Lied had a boring cast of characters, with all of them besides Lucy and Nana feeling like plot devices.


Enjoyment-
My score: 5

Here is where it gets weird.

Why such a high score if I had so many issues with this story?

Honestly, as dumb, over-the-top, and down-right aggravating that Elfen Lied was in almost every category, it was so damn entertaining.

Reading this manga was pretty fun, and I'll admit, the story was investing. That could likely be because I just wanted the story to finally get good, but it was a quick binge for me. I had fun reading it, as groan worthy as it was. Straight up horribly written pop-corn entertainment, like a Micheal Bay movie.


Overall-
My score: 3.5

Elfen Lied could have been better. So much better.

It was super generic and over the top with its story and gore. The characters were mostly cheesy and annoying with little development. And while the art was decent, the character designs looked so out of place. The story felt so flimsy and rushed, especially towards the end.

Still, give Elfen Lied a shot. I can understand why some would like it, pink haired girls killing people violently is pretty cool. Reading it was a ride, for sure.

What an interesting film.

I've never truly seen anything quite like this movie, and I find myself thinking about it quite often.

The story is very simple, yet very complex at the same time. Just about two little cat boys who ride a giant train and travel across the universe, in it all being a metaphor for dying and being taken to heaven.

While this film is very slow and can drag at moments, its extremely atmospheric. The inside of the train and the cats are nothing special but some of the backgrounds are STUNNING. Things like the giant cross and fields seen from the train look very ... well drawn, especially for the time this movie was made.

It should also be noted that the main theme is one of my favorite orchestrated pieces of all time. Such a beautiful and haunting tune, combining a music box and the ticking of a clock.

This movie's ending also caught me off guard completely. This is a G rated movie, meant for children, but it has one of the most bleak and nihilistic endings I have ever seen. Seriously, if you would have showed me this movie as a kid I would have been very confused, but this does not mean the ending is bad by any means. It suits this movie perfectly, being so eerie and downright startling.

Overall, this is a movie I would recommend if you want to watch a classic, artbook of a film. Don't come for a linear story. Come for the capturing atmosphere, bleak tone and beautiful OST. Its not for everyone, but it is a one of a kind movie with heart behind it.