Prison School vol. 8

Comedy is tough.  It gets even tougher to pull off when it has to transition from one language to another.  The gulf in context between Japanese and English swallows some of the gags from this volume whole, something which only becomes clear after you read the translation notes.  I mean, I was willing to assume that Andre’s cries of “‘Auce Girrrr” were just a random bit of absurdity of the kind this series loves to traffic in.  Just not a particularly funny one.  However, the translation notes indicate that this was actually a reference to the classic manga “The Rose of Versailles” as the main heroine is named “Oscar” and her best friend and confidante is named “Andre.”  It all makes sense now!  Does that make it funny?  No, not really and there’s more where that came from in this volume too.

At least it doesn’t reach “Sayonara, Zetsubou Sensei” levels of ridiculousness.  After a certain point in that series you had to keep flipping between the translation notes and the manga itself to have any hope of understanding its humor.  This volume of “Prison School” still manages to deliver plenty of outrageous antics that don’t require translation notes to be funny.  The volume starts off with Kiyoshi trying to rationalize Mari’s groping request through the medium of politics and reaches its comic apex near the end when the boy has to set up an excuse to use the restroom and sets off a marvelously ridiculous chain of fanservice that sees both of his tools being found out.  Business as usual for this series, you see, with the added benefit of a marvelous “I’ve already escaped” cliffhanger setup at the end.