Real Bout High School
Volume 1

An Anime Review

by Shad

Ryoko Mitsurugi is a high school student studying in the Kendo club at...uh...the Real Bout High School (sorry, I can't remember the high school's name right now, I think it might be Daimon High but I'm not sure). But her high school is quite different from the norm, where daily "K-fights" take place in order to settle disputes between students and decide which student will be the K-fight champion and win their club 100-times the normal amount of club funding (plus a vacation for two to Hawaii). RBHS is an action-comedy anime series featuring light-hearted comedy and brutal fighting sequences.

I rented this DVD from my local video place the other day (yay, 5-day lazy rentals!!) because I was curious after reading a few pages of the manga that Mighty Doom bought. It seemed pretty damned funny and quite entertaining. Unfortunately, the anime didn't seem as funny, maybe because the tv series has to fit a lot of plot and aciton into 24 - 26 episodes. It was very entertaining, though, and actually the funny parts were quite amusing. I would have liked to see a little more craziness that was present in parts of the manga that I read, but since I didn't read a whole lot of it I won't talk about that anymore.

The show itself was pretty good, but it got a little too serious too quickly. The characters in the show are pretty interesting, although some of them are cliche of some of the anime action-comedies I've seen in the past couple of years. You've got the main character who is trying to study some form of martial art (although I admit that Ryoko's character is a little better than a cliche but for the purposes of explaining what I mean I'm starting there), the annoying rival, a hot-headed blowhard who thinks he's the greatest guy alive but he's actually a dumbass, the main character's biggest fan, the sweet and caring best friend, the mysterious badass that comes out of nowhere, and the old man that kicks much butt and is extremely ancient in his ways and appearance.

I watched the first four episodes in the english dub, from Tokyopop of course, who seems to be getting better and better at it, acquiring voices like Wendy Lee for Ryoko and David Lucas for Shizuma Kisanagi. Just about every voice actor was pretty talented, and nobody had an annoying voice or poor dubbing skill at all, so all the characters were likable. The soundtrack was your typical Jpop, but nothing that I found particularly memorable or anything I need to go to Kazaa and download.

Overall, my first impression of the series is that it's entertaining, but somehow I end up comparing it to Gatekeepers in my mind. Maybe it's the same artist or same animators or something, I dunno. I'll ask Mighty Doom, maybe he knows. Anyway, Gatekeepers is way more fun and I can't keep myself from thinking "I'd rather watch the rest of Gatekeepers". If I had the opportunity to watch the rest of this show without paying another dime, I'd take it.

I give Real Bout High School 7 out of 10 Shin-chan's!