This time around we’re bringing a review to the blog with a review of the 12 episode comedy, Girls High. Girls High focuses around Eriko, a young girl who has just made the transition from junior high to high school. Along the way with old friends and new Eriko experiences what its like to be in the world of high school.

Rather basic plot but then again, most comedy anime comes with a simple plot and lots of laughs and I’d say that this series will give you that. Not rolling on the floor like Lucky Star or Azumanga Daioh but it doesn’t leave you hanging.

One more rather unique thing is the fact that the DVD release is subtitled only. There is no dub version of this series. The subtitles are rather spot on however, they will at times attempt to americanize portions of the translation. Honorifics are left off, but thats never a big complaint. Sister or brother are often translated based on the age to usually ‘big sister’ despite use of the word for sister being used. Finally, you’ll also find the grade scale in the series is americanized. The girls are depicted as being in 9th grade, the first year of high school in the Western world. In Japan, 10th grade is the start of high school. Many veteran anime fans will pick up on this, however if you’re new to subtitled work and not as familiar with Japanese culture you may not notice.

Plot:

Again, the plot is rather straight forward and leads you along through various wacky adventures. One thing of note if this matters to you is the fact that the series is more traditionally episodic unlike most comedies in which you have split up episodes(such as School Rumble) or segmented episodes(such as Azumanga). This actually mixes it up. I know that sound weird since thats what you normally expect. However the current trend of comedy anime has been segmented to fit with manga editions. This series thankfully doesn’t do that.

The laughs are there and you will have laugh out loud moments. However, not every joke is unique or new. This series ranges from hit or miss as far as comedy and that ratio becomes spread out. While it hurts the series it makes the extremely funny moments that much funnier. The best aspect of this series is the more or less honesty of the series. You could almost swear that this could actually be happening somewhere in Japan. Most anime comedy has a certain absurdity to it, however the only absurdity that is here is the girls personality.

Music:

I don’t have a lot to say on the music, though I have more to say then usual.. as contradictory as that sounds. The music is rather standard fare. It works and is even at times enjoyable. You won’t be terribly distracted by the music and may even enjoy it at times. It does become repetitive at times and if you pay attention to music you might pick up on this.

The opening and ending, ending especially, can be rather catchy. Not in the same way Lucky Star’s music is catchy to the obsessive. But catchy to just listen to on its own. I will admit there were times where I had a hard time skipping ahead.

Art/Animation:

The art style is rather enjoyable but nothing that breaks the mold. Its bright, its detailed, its colorful. Its what you come to expect for a comedy about school girls. However, there is a certain un-described sparkle to the art that really gives it a certain charm. A certain something that sticks out at you. However, I find that character design comes off rather uninspired. There’s a good argument for either side… either you have lazy character design that said “Forget it, we’re just going to make three girls the same.” or “Well, we could be rather realistic in a way and not give everyone big bright colored hair that will simply distract everyone.” I just feel like they could have done more with character design, particularly with the main characters.

Animation is rather fluid and easy going for a comedy. The only shame to this is the lack of physical comedy in the series to take advantage of this. Its not mind blowing, but a nice change of pace. Some moments will come off as stiff, but then again I still don’t think every animator in Japan has the art of punching animation down yet.

Overall, this is a series that is worth checking out. If you enjoy school girl comedy with realistic honesty, fanservice, and an enjoyable set of characters then you’ll have a little something to watch along the way.

Check it out, DVD’s are in a box set which is very affordable which comes along with some decent extras including DVD only bonus episodes. Or if you don’t mind watching this on your computer, this is one of the series which was put on Crunchyroll by Media Blasters.