High School! Kimengumi

High School! Kimengumi (Japanese: ハイスクール!奇面組, Hepburn: Hai Sukūru! Kimengumi; lit. 'High School! Funny-face Club') is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Motoei Shinzawa. A first series Third Year Funny-face Club was serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump from October 1980 to April 1982. High School! Kimengumi was serialized in the same magazine from April 1982 to July 1987. An anime television series aired from October 1985 to September 1987 and an animated film premiered in July 1986.^[1][2] A sequel manga, titled Flash! Funny-face Club, was published in Square Enix's Monthly Shōnen Gangan from 2001 to 2005.

High School! Kimengumi
Manga volume 1 cover
ハイスクール!奇面組 (Hai Sukūru! Kimengumi)
Manga
Third Year Funny-face Club
Written by	Motoei Shinzawa
Published by	Shueisha
Imprint	Jump Comics
Magazine	Weekly Shōnen Jump
Original run	October 13, 1980 – April 12, 1982
Volumes	6
Manga
Written by	Motoei Shinzawa
Published by	Shueisha
Imprint	Jump Comics
Magazine	Weekly Shōnen Jump
Original run	April 19, 1982 – July 6, 1987
Volumes	20
Anime television series
Directed by	Hiroshi Fukutomi
Produced by	Hiromichi Mogaki Kazuo Harada Kiyoshi Sakai Yoshiro Kataoka
Written by	Shigeru Yanagawa Takao Koyama Takashi Yamada
Music by	Shunsuke Kikuchi
Studio	Tsuchida Production (1–7) Studio Comet
Licensed by	NA: Remow
Original network	FNS (Fuji TV)
Original run	October 12, 1985 – September 26, 1987
Episodes	86 (List of episodes)
Anime film
Directed by	Hiroshi Fukutomi (part 3) Makoto Moriwaki (part 1) Shin Misawa (part 2)
Produced by	Hiromichi Mogaki Kazuo Harada Yoshiro Kataoka
Written by	Takao Koyama Motoei Shinzawa
Music by	Shunsuke Kikuchi
Studio	Studio Comet
Released	July 12, 1986
Runtime	51 minutes
Manga
Return of High School! Funny-face Club
Written by	Motoei Shinzawa
Published by	Magazine House Ltd. (magazine) Shueisha (volume)
Imprint	Jump Comics Deluxe
Magazine	Popeye
Published	December 1, 2000
Volumes	1
Manga
Flash! Funny-face Club
Written by	Motoei Shinzawa
Published by	Square Enix
Imprint	Gangan Comics
Magazine	Monthly Shōnen Gangan
Original run	2001 – 2005
Volumes	3

Summary

Main article: List of High School! Kimengumi characters

Cast shot from High School! Kimengumi

High School! Kimengumi is an episodic chronicle of the bizarre adventures of a group of misfit junior high school (and later high school) boys who form a club known as the "Kimengumi". All of the character names in the series are puns. For example, "Kawa Yui" is another way of saying "kawaii", and "Uru Chie" is a slang form of "urusai", meaning "obnoxious" or "annoying".

Media

Manga

Return of Highschool! Kimengumi

High School! Kimengumi is written and illustrated by Motoei Shinzawa. A first series titled Third Year Funny-face Club (3年奇面組, Sannen Kimengumi) was published in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump from October 13, 1980, to April 12, 1982.^[3][4] Shueisha collected its chapters in six tankōbon volumes published between August 15, 1981, and January 8, 1983.^[5][6]

High School! Kimengumi was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from April 19, 1982, to July 6, 1987.^[7][8] Shueisha released the individual chapters into twenty volumes published between April 8, 1983, and February 10, 1988.^[9][10]

Another series titled Return of High School! Funny-face Club (帰ってきたハイスクール!奇面組, Kaettekita Haisukūru! Kimengumi) was published by Popeye on December 1, 2000.^[11] Shueisha later released the series into a single volume on February 4, 2004.^[12]

A fourth series, titled Flash! Funny-face Club (フラッシュ!奇面組, Furasshu! Kimengumi), was serialized in Square Enix's Monthly Shōnen Gangan from 2001 to 2005. It was compiled into three tankōbon volumes published from July 22, 2002, and July 22, 2005.^[13][14]

Volume list

Third Year Funny-face Club

No.	Release date	ISBN
01	August 15, 1981[5]	4-08-851341-X
02	November 15, 1981[15]	4-08-851342-8
03	March 15, 1982[16]	4-08-851343-6
04	July 15, 1982[17]	4-08-851344-4
05	October 8, 1982[18][19]	4-08-851345-2
06	January 8, 1983[20][6]	4-08-851346-0

High School! Funny-face Club

No.	Release date	ISBN
01	April 8, 1983[21][9]	4-08-851347-9
02	July 8, 1983[22][23]	4-08-851348-7
03	October 7, 1983[24][25]	4-08-851349-5
04	December 8, 1983[26][27]	4-08-851350-9
05	February 10, 1984[28][29]	4-08-851351-7
06	April 10, 1984[30][31]	4-08-851352-5
07	July 10, 1984[32][33]	4-08-851353-3
08	December 7, 1984[34][35]	4-08-851354-1
09	March 8, 1985[36][37]	4-08-851355-X
10	March 8, 1985[38][39]	4-08-851356-8
11	September 10, 1985[40][41]	4-08-851357-6
12	February 10, 1986[42][43]	4-08-851358-4
13	May 9, 1986[44][45]	4-08-851359-2
14	August 8, 1986[46][47]	4-08-851360-6
15	December 5, 1986[48][49]	4-08-851365-7
16	February 10, 1987[50][51]	4-08-851366-5
17	April 10, 1987[52][53]	4-08-851367-3
18	August 10, 1987[54][55]	4-08-851368-1
19	August 10, 1987[56][57]	4-08-851369-X
20	February 10, 1988[58][10]	4-08-851370-3

Flash! Funny-face Club

No.	Release date	ISBN
01	July 22, 2002[13]	4-7575-0735-6
02	July 22, 2003[59]	4-7575-0981-2
03	July 22, 2005[14]	4-7575-1475-1

Anime

Main article: List of High School! Kimengumi episodes

A 86-episode anime adaptation produced by NAS and Fuji Television was broadcast in Japan from October 12, 1985, to September 21, 1987, on Fuji TV and its affiliates.

Remow licensed the series in English and started streaming it on its It's Anime YouTube channel.^[60]

Songs

The theme songs, with the exceptions of the fifth ending and insert Nakuko mo Warau Kimengumi, were performed by various sub-groups or former members of Onyanko Club:

• Opening themes 1–5, ending themes 1, 3–4, 6, insert songs 1–2 by Ushiroyubi Sasaregumi
• Opening themes 6–7, ending themes 7–8 by Ushirogami Hikaretai
• Ending theme 2 by Onyanko Club and Ushiroyubi Sasaregumi
• Ending theme 5 by Musukko Club

Opening themes

1. Ushiroyubi Sasare-gumi
2. Zō-san no Scanty
3. Nagisa no "..." (Kagi Kakko)
4. Waza Ari!
5. Kashiko
6. Toki no Kawa wo Koete
7. Anata wo Shiritai

Insert songs

• Abunai Sa·ka·na
• Watashi ha Chie no Wa (Puzzling)
• Nakuko mo Warau Kimengumi

Closing themes

1. Jogakusei no Ketsui
2. Banana no Namida
3. Neko Jita Gokoro mo Koi no Uchi
4. Not Only ★ But Also
5. Chotto Karai Aitsu
6. Pythagoras wo Buttobase
7. Ushirogami Hikaretai
8. Tatsutori Ato wo Nigosazu

Video releases

Kimengumi has been released on DVD in Japan in two different box set releases. The movie was released as part of the second DVD set in 2008.

High School! Kimengumi DVD Box 1

Pioneer LDC, 2001-05-25

High School! Kimengumi DVD Box 2

Pioneer LDC, 2001-07-25

High School! Kimengumi DVD Box 3

Pioneer LDCA, 2001-09-21

High School! Kimengumi Complete DVD Box 1

E-Net Frontier, 2007-12-21

High School! Kimengumi Complete DVD Box 2

E-Net Frontier, 2008-02-22

Video games

Kimengumi boardgame

There is a traditional boardgame based on the series titled High School! Kimengumi Game, released by Bandai. Three video games have been based on the series:

• High School! Kimengumi for the Master System, an adventure game^[61]
• High School! Kimengumi for the MSX2, a port of the Master System game
• High School! Kimengumi: The Table Hockey for PlayStation^[62]

There is also a series of pachinko games based on the series manufactured by Maruhon^[63]

Reception

In a 2006 survey of celebrities by TV Asahi, High School! Kimengumi was listed as #87 on a list of the top 100 favorite anime series.^[64]