I don't know whether to sing the praises of this barely-animated animated high school comedy or to tell you to stay away. For the majority of you, I'd highly reccommend this oddball comedy because there are just so many strange occurences at this Japanese high school.

In this volume, we get to meet the Mighty Mechazawa's mighty little brother, who is also, well you know. At the end of this episode, he will give a new meaning to the phrase little brother!

the rest of the crew is back, including the silent Freddie, who looks to be 3 times older than his felow students and bears a striking resemblance to rocker Freddie Mercury; Gorilla, who's a gorilla is also back, and he's a gorilla!

There's also badass fighter/motion sickness guy, the guy with a lively purple mohawk, the guy who always gets captured by rival schools, the rich guy with a nameless lackey (well he has a name, but maybe he'll get to tell everyone in the next volume) and all of the other strange students of the rival high schools, such as Bass High and Manuel High.

I'd label all of these guys (Hayashida, Hokuto, Tekenouchi, etc.) by name, but I'm really bad at recalling all of these Japanese names! It's much easier to label them for all their silly quirks.

What's funniest about the badass Cromartie High school is that there is a lot more fooling around and doing silly things and there is really no action! If this was a serious battle anime, at least one character would be dead by now, but these guys are too busy pondering things, having birthdays for students whose birthdays have passed and crushing the mechanized little brothers of mechanized badasses. I think that American Viewers will like this anime in the English dub over the original japanese because the English voice casting was well done.

I think that this volume was pretty funny, but it doesn't have as many laughs as the first or following volumes. What's really a cool part of the dvd, more than the show, is the DVD menu. I don't know who the live action guys are in the menu, but I was laughing at them just milling about in a classic record store. There are also cultural notes for the hed-scratch inducing Japanese references.

Have fun at Cromartie High!

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older