Gakuen Heaven

Keita Itou, a perfectly ordinary boy, receives an invitation to attend the prestigious Bell Liberty academy (BL, geddit?). They take only the best, everyone who graduates from there is assured a high-flying job, and Keita didn't even apply. While Keita quickly endears himself to the student body, he struggles to understand where he fits in amongst these super-talented over-achievers and indeed how he even got there. Plus, half the student body seem to have a lecherous eye on the attractive new student.

For those of you not in the know, Gakuen Heaven was originally a computer game (apparently, depending on the decisions you made during the game Keita would end up in a relationship with a different supporting character), which has spawned numerous drama CDs, an anime series and now a manga. For all intents and purposes this manga is authorised fanfiction. A poll was done amongst fans of which character they most wished to see Keita getting down and dirty with and "King" (the handsome and uber-manly President of the Student's Union) was the popular decision. As a result the plot is very much just a condensed reworking of the anime (and I assume the PC game) plot in order to get Keito in love with a different character this time around.

In the hands of many writers this kind of mandate could very easily have turned into the kind of sloppy affair which is confusing for anyone other than existing fans, but it isn't, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself despite not knowing the anime at the time. It's an entertaining high school romp with a wild array of vividly realised, but loveable characters, a gentle plot with a sweet budding romance, and a very hot sex scene at the end. Stamped and approved, thank you very much.

Having since seen the anime (I can't speak for fans of the game) I'd say that there is a lot there for fans too. The characters are all beautifully drawn and look very much like they do in the series. Fans will recognise almost all of the plot, but it's nicely changed to shift the focus onto King, so that keeps everything slightly up in the air and interesting. It moves faster than the anime too (for obvious reasons), which is at times a little plodding. It also gives fans a fantastic sex scene where the show only gives us a kiss. Good stuff all round.

Although the kings of Yaoi production are undoubtedly (in my view) Juné and Drama Queen with their glossy beautiful produced editions, this manga from BLU is certainly up to scratch. It's very nicely made and has a rare colour first page, which really is beautiful. I'd also swear that it is on better quality paper than my other BLU releases, but that's probably my mind playing tricks. The artwork itself is wonderful. You Higuri doesn't really have to do anything other than reproduce the well-loved characters from their screen counter-parts, but she does so exceedingly well. Although credit can't truly go to the artist (as all of the characters were handed to her on a plate) it's really nice to see a manga chock-full of interesting, diverse and unique supporting characters, rather than near-identical walking blazers with variations in hair.

Gakuen Heaven is in many ways silly in the extreme (the director in charge of the school gives announcements via a small teddy bear with a speaker in it), but it is very sweet nonetheless, beautifully drawn, and if you like a nice tender romance with pretty guys running round in school uniforms then go pick this up.