Holiday Review: KENKA BANCHO OTOME

It's finally time to move on to some of this year's shojo manga.  We don't get a lot of reverse harem manga these days, and when we do more often than not they're based on otome games.

After reading this, I think I understand precisely why those two statements are connected.

KENKA BANCHO OTOME: LOVE'S BATTLE ROYALE, based on the game created by Spike Chunsoft, with story & art by Chie Shimada.  First published in 2015 and first published in North America in 2018.

PLOT:

Hinako Nakayama was hoping that going to an all-girls' high school would let her put years of bullying at the orphanage behind her and make some friends in the process.  On her way to her first day, she's sidelined by her long-lost twin brother Hikaru.  He convinces her to pose as him and attend Shishiku Academy in his place.  Once she gets there, Hinako learns the truth behind the ruse: Shishiku is an all-boys' school full of deliquents, where student rankings are settled with fists instead of tests.  Hinako manages to win over some of the baddest boys with a potent combination of delicate looks and a powerful right hook, but can she keep her gender a secret forever?

STORY:

You have no idea how much I wanted to like this story.  The notion of a reverse harem based around a heroine who gets to punch boys was thrilling in a mildly subversive way.  Sadly, this manga adaptation doesn't even manage that thrill and instead just rushes through the motions.

The game this is based on is not available in English, but even without that I feel pretty certain that this is a very bad, abbreviated version of its story.  It's trying to rush through as many routes as possible, and yet it still feels the need to pad itself by recapping the story at the start of each chapter.  By glossing over so much and so fast, everyone's personality suffers here.

The boys in Hinako's harem end up boiled down to their most basic, archetypical form, to the point that I couldn't tell you anything about half of them.  Meanwhile ,Hinako comes off as a flibbertigibbet lost in her own story.  It's sad when I would rather read the story of her wayward brother (who gracefully and readily takes to posing as a girl) than would Hinako's, if simply because he demonstrates some of the personality and force of will that his sister is sorely lacking in.  I can't imagine even the biggest fan reading this and not coming out of it disappointed.

ART:

Chie Shimada's art does this story no favors.  If anything, she manages to take the game's already average character designs and make them even blander.  Her pages are cluttered, she has no eye for action (a major failing a series based around fights), and it's utterly lacking in any sort of charm or appeal.

RATING:


Kenka Bancho Otome is a lazy, rushed cash-in of a manga.  It doesn't give its story the space it needs to tell itself, and Shimada lacks the artistic skill to bring it to life through her art.  You'd be better off just playing the actual game.

This series is published by Viz.  It is complete in Japan with 2 volumes available.  Both volumes have been published and are currently in print.

Want a chance to win a $25 RightStuf gift certificate?  Then check out our Holiday Review Giveaway to learn how to enter!