Gakuen Prince by Jun Yuzuki

Title: Gakuen Prince
Mangaka: Jun Yuzuki
Age Group: Older Teens
# of Pages: Approx. 200
# of Volumes: 3
My Rating: 5/5

Azusa Mizutani is the new male student at the prestigious Jyôshioka Gakuen Private High School. It used to be an all-girl school. Only recently, it became co-ed but only a small number of boys are enrolled because of the difficulty to get acceptance.

On Azusa's first day, he finds the individuals of the male population to be very strange. But no stranger than the fact that the whole entire female body tries to mob him! Their sexual desires are at the maximum! With rarely any boys around, they would always take on the new student (especially if they are good-looking!). And this time, Azusa is on their hit-list!

While hiding from them in a closet, he meets the nerdy Rise Okitsu. She wants no part in the battle to get him and just wants her peace. Remembering one of the techniques that another male classmate told him, Azusa decides that he must pretend to commit to Rise to avoid the female herd. Pulling out the girl, who's appearance he fussed up (making her look undeniably pretty once you get rid of her geek getup) and half naked himself, all the girls gasp in shock. How could he pick her??! From then on, they are "officially" a couple!

To Rise's horror, she now has to go through endless bullying from all the girls. She hates it. She tries to stay low in high school until this idiot shows up and wrecks everything!

Both Rise and Azusa are now constantly being attacked by the school; will there be no end to this sea of madness?!?

To start off, when I glanced at the cover and summary, I knew it was a clique story. And it is. I thought I wouldn't like it as much because it is one of the many repetitive plots that mangakas are using nowadays. But remarkably, Gakuen Prince was an entertaining read that I could not put down!

Sometimes, the main girl could be quite annoying. But I actually like Rise! Maybe because I can relate to her in the nerd factor and tries to avoid attention too. Even though she is the "girlfriend" to a hot guy, she is completely unfazed while other girls are attempting to rape him! She was bullied when she was younger (yet to explain why), giving the reason why she likes to stay out of the spotlight. She may be quiet but can be strong and scary if you provoke her enough!

Two of my other favourite characters would be Akamaru and Munechika, both males. Akamaru is a solemn guy who you would never know what he is thinking of. Munechika is the polar opposite. He may look and appear more mature, but he fools around with more girls than you could count. I liked the way the mangaka potrayed these two stereotypes (or they wouldn't be my favourite characters!). And Azusa is just the stupid sort of guy that you would just want to make poke fun of!

Gakuen Prince is a definite non-serious read for those who likes your typical girl-meet-boy-but-they-don't-really-like-each-other-except-they-have-no-choice-to-be-stuck-with-each-other-anyway plot (phew)! The art is also drawn very nicely! The character would be all beautiful one second and then down-right comically ugly the next! Check it out manga fans! The second volume is totally on my wishlist!

(The third one has been released in Japan but I am unsure if that is the last volume in the series or not.)

Review copy provided by Del Rey.