Sleep Is For the Weak

Just barely PG-13 for offscreen fighting and onscreen kissing; official series website

In a genre where so many lead characters are generic cyphers meant to act as stand-ins for the reader, High School Debut’s Haruna is a heroine in the tradition of Sana, Tsukasa, Miyazawa, Kyoko, and Risa. She’s weird, loud, and awkward, goes after what she wants with fervor and often fails with equal fervor. Shoujo leads are so often either completely passive or barely defined outside of being “nice,” but Haruna is both strong and funny as well – traits that are depressingly rare in female characters in all types of media. She expresses her feelings for the man she loves, in part, by protecting him both physically and emotionally from the problems he faces. She gets out there and works to get what she wants, struggles through external problems and the ones in her own head, decides on a course of action and then takes the consequences. That is what makes me care about her successes and failures, and what keeps me reading this manga.

In a genre where so many main male love interests are treated like unrealistic paradigms of perfection, High School Debut’s Yoh is a flawed, interesting character who grows and changes throughout the story. He has most of the standard personality traits of the angsting bishounen; he’s handsome, stoic, often speaks very bluntly even if it means insulting people, and attracts others to him without really trying. But in High School Debut, these traits are treated as actual character flaws. They aren’t excused by his male-lead requisite hotness, nor are they simple things that a love interest can fix by being generally nice and loving in his direction. Yoh has trouble communicating, and this is something he needs to personally overcome before he can have a meaningful relationship.

High School Debut is what would happen if you took a handful of real-life responsible teenagers and threw them into Crazy Shoujo Land. Most of the plot points are fairly standard shoujo fare – misty-eyed love confessions, awkward misunderstandings, romantic rivals, the gang of girl bullies who don’t like some unpopular kid hanging around their collective crush – but the characters deal with them using things like common sense and concern for the feelings of their friends. The series also touches upon a bunch of important themes that are rarely dealt with in manga:

-It’s important to know what you want from a relationship before you go looking for one, or you’ll end up with the first (creepy, stalkerish, totally incompatible) person who shows any interest.

-Relationships work best when they’re an equal partnership – both people give something and get something.

-Falling into traditional gender roles isn’t the only way to find happiness – good relationships are all about compatible personalities no matter who does what.

-Being hot, especially if you don’t plan to use it to your advantage, is usually more trouble than it’s worth.

-Just because you like having a boyfriend doesn’t mean everybody wants one.

also:

-When a vaguely familiar-looking girl transfers into your class and spends all day glaring daggers into the back of your head, it’s probably not because she has a lesbian crush.

Anyway, all the talk of morals and messages doesn’t mean this comic is serious and heavy-handed; on the contrary, it’s mostly lighthearted, often silly, and has its share of wonderfully gushy romantic moments. Haruna is a big shoujo manga fan, and watching the main characters go to shoujo cliché for help when their relationships stumble is always entertaining. The pace is so quick that there’s always something happening; the moments that do fall flat tend to be over really quickly. The art is nice, nothing terribly special, but I’ve never seen manga grins that make me want to smile back so much.

There are a few sticky points. The quality of the series does vary a bit, with a few strange events that stretch reality a bit too much for the sake of jokes. The way they deal with the physical parts of romantic relationships is a little odd, too; of course plenty of people don’t have sex in high school, but the teenagers of High School Debut barely seem to know it exists and treat closed-mouth kissing like it’s the ultimate form of physical affection. But those small factors aside, High School Debut is well worth a read for anyone who likes a good romantic comedy.

Educated Impression: Like I said, you should read it. (NotHayama)

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