Review Disclaimer: This review will feature mature content and little to no spoilers, enjoy!
Prison School tells the story of love, friendship and sumo wrestling. If only this show could be summed up in three words. Funimation’s Prison School is completely over the top and has become the definition of ‘Over Exaggeration’. Telling the story of five completely different male students who have one thing in common, they are perverts. Prison School is set at Hachimitsu Academy, an all-girl school that for the first time is allowing males to enroll. This is a pretty normal trope for anime, but Prison School has a twist. There’s an underground student council that has created a prison in the middle of the school for male students who try anything lewd on the school grounds. This is obviously the new home for the main five boys as they try to peep on some of the female students.
The cast of Prison School features Kiyoshi Fujino our main protagonist who seems to always find himself in the worst situations, but most of them he brings upon himself. Kitoshi’s motivation to get through prison is fueled by his attraction to Chiyo Kurihara, a female student who loves sumo wrestling. Kiyoshi’s inmate partners are, Takehito “Gakuto” Morokuzu, Shingo Wakamoto, Jōji Nezu, and Reiji Andō. The underground student council consists of President Mari Kurihara, Vice President Meiko Shiraki and, secretary Hana Midorikawa. The underground student council uses extreme means of dealing with their inmates including, abuse, insults and humiliation.
With so much going on in one anime it’s a surprise that Prison School stays on track, for the most part. The first six episodes center around an escape arc where Kiyoshi attempts to break out for a day to go to a sumo wrestling competition with Chiyo. With the help of Gakuto, Kiyoshi plans an elaborate break out. Prison School’s art style is what brought me to the series in the first place, it is perfect for what the anime is. Close up scene’s of characters getting kicked and stabbed never get dull thanks to this choice in art direction, it is defiantly the highlight of the show.
This anime will not be for everyone, there are extremely close up sexual scenes, explicit language, gore and even golden showers. For the most part I enjoy Kiyoshi’s character, although, I keep in the back of my mind that he is a liar, even his relationship with Chiyo is based on a lie which is shown in the first episode. The underground student council’s means of dealing with delinquents are far too extreme and wouldn’t be acceptable at any establishment, but the anime handles this by adding in the chairman of the school who, like the boys, is a pervert and chooses to defend himself before he can do anything about the boys situation.
Prison School is an anime for the more adventurous viewers telling the story of five guys who do what they have to do to survive this prison. For those who understand, you will be laughing from beginning to end, but for others there will be disgust and hatred for this over the top series. I am one who is excited to continue the season and start the next arc of Prison School.
Have you been watching? Let me know what you think in the comments below!
