The Spring 2021 Manga Guide

Thigh High: Reiwa Hanamaru Academy

What's It About? 

The students at Hanamaru Academy are putting the boot (and booty!) to gender norm uniforms. Instead of wearing drab blazers, these beauty-builders are obsessed with the length of their skirts and the size of their chests as they try to navigate high school. This high-energy comedy takes being cute and being cut to a whole new level!

Thigh High: Reiwa Hanamaru Academy is drawn and scripted by Kotobuki and Seven Seas Entertainment has released the first volume digitally and in print for $9.63 and $12.99 respectively

Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

Have you ever read a story about cute girls in an all-girls school living their everyday lives and thought, “Man, this would be so much better if they were cross-dressing boys”? If so, then you are in luck, because that's the premise of Thigh High: Reiwa Hanamaru Academy, and I do mean that in a very literal sense. The story takes place at an all-boys school in a world where men wear skirts (and panties and bras) and…yeah, that's about it.

That makes your enjoyment of this volume largely dependent on how funny you find the base concept, as it's milked for all that it's worth over the course of 150 pages; with the sole exception of a chapter that involves more masculine facial hair, that's really all that Thigh High has to offer. The story, such as it is, follows Kiritani, the tight-laced class rep, as he tries to figure out how to relate to his classmates better in fairly typical fashion. Kiritani is the rule-follower who wears his skirt long, finds it embarrassing to talk in the bathroom while peeing, and is scandalized yet secretly envious of his classmates' cute bras, which he's not buff enough to need. The book examines his abortive attempts at befriending people and understanding what makes them cooler than he is while also indulging in the basic staples of its genre, such as cooking class, swim class, and eating lunch.

Part of the issue here is that it doesn't feel particularly funny or subversive to have boys wearing girls' uniforms or worrying about their appearances. It's clearly meant to be both based on the loving images of muscular thighs peeking out from under skirts and scenes of boys worrying about their skin and having to wear bras when it's hot out. (Not to mention the whole swimsuit chapter.) It's also kind of weird that we don't see any women in the story at all, including teachers, which makes things feel underdeveloped, although that really could just be me overthinking. Mostly this just feels like dated humor, especially because its only real gag is the cross-dressing.

Thigh High isn't terrible, but it also isn't anything too exciting. Its greatest sin is not being as funny as it desperately wants to be, but since comedy is the most subjective of all genres, this is likely a case of “your mileage may vary.”

Lynzee Loveridge

Rating:

Thigh High is a manga built around an aesthetic concept, but it really isn't central to its plot. The series would work with or without its all-male students wearing skirts – it's simply there for oggles. The primary focus of the series is the hijinks and misunderstandings that Reiwa High's earnest yet stiff class president gets himself into. Kiritani (oft referred to as Kiretani as a reference to his habit of 'snapping') wants his fellow classmates to rely on him and dreams of a fun, social school life. Except he's very straight-edged and a loner, with the exception of his friend (and crush) Harumi.

Kiritani gets in all sorts of situations, most of which end with him becoming self-conscious about how "not cute" he is compared to the slighter, more trendy classmates or his bulky, athletic classmates. Regardless of what box the character falls into, all adopt the cliche mannerisms usually assigned to female characters: interest in one another's underwear, discussion of chest size, locker room groping. etc. On the one hand, I certainly don't mind seeing these stereotypes broken away from their designated gender; it doesn't change the fact that it was fantasy to begin with. I'm also of two minds about "boys in skirts take on 'feminine' mannerisms." I can't decide if its playing with expectations or just perpetuating them.

Putting that conundrum aside, Thigh High is trying to be more of a silly comedy than a pure fanservice title and that's to its detriment; it's not funny enough. I found the first chapter touching enough and it does well to establish Kiritani's good points, but the jokes usually fall flat. For example, there's a chapter dedicated to Kiritani's competition to reach things that are high up after a taller classmate tells him he isn't cute and demands somewhat demeaning behavior before he'll get the objects for him.

Thigh High is just okay, but I imagine certain readers who are attracted by its major selling point might enjoy it more. Just expect the substance to be pretty thin.