Some things can just never go on long enough. YajiKita Gakuen Douchuuki is one of them. If it never ends I’ll be a happy fangirl.

So let’s see, where did we leave off? Who can tell?!?

Seriously – let’s see, Yukiya has been rescued, and reunited with his retinue, and Sagiri is still in the middle of the woods whining…and trying to not be too obvious about his crush on Hardy (who pins him with his hawk-like gaze and asks him about it, making Sagiri go all goopy, which is even *worse* than him whiny), and the folks at the school go running around beating each other up and the tourists comb the caves looking for buried treasure, while Julian walks around mysteriously, and whatshisface, the one who idolizes Hardy and follows Ruriko around, eh – Tamahiko, that’s it – mostly follows Ruriko around.

There’s the usual insane fighting among the apparent 7 million occupants of and visitors to this school and mostly Junko (Yaji) and Reiko (Kita) spend the volume running around like lunatics, with the occasional face-slamming interlude for fun.

Reading this manga is a bit “sound and fury signifying nothing”, but I don’t care. It’s brain candy. :-)

Let’s move away from the plot for a second – especially as it is so insanely complex that I’m not always sure I can figure out what’s going on, much less explain it simply – and move onto the service, shall we? :-)

Ruriko has been trying to get Kita back into that tux for some oh 13 years now. And in Volume 27, she succeeds! For exactly 15 panels. LOL

Here’s Ruriko’s brilliant scheme this time: She notes that Kita is being shadowed (pun intended) by the school’s female ninja (kunoichi) club. Ruriko has the club president, an adorable little blonde, kidnapped. She tells Reiko that unless she gets back in that tux, bends her knee and swears fealty to Ruriko, dire and dreadful things will occur to doll-like Kaede. Kita, not wanting to see the girl hurt, dons the garb in question – which sends Kaede into fits of love, btw – and proceeds to bend that knee. But before she can swear to anything, chaos is unleashed. Kita-san rescues Kaede, and knocks Ruriko into unconsciousness, then they bail taking Ruriko with them. Which was a relief to Kaede, as Ruriko was about to make Kita swear she’d do anything Ruriko said to do. A somewhat disturbing thought, even to me. Ruriko’s a nutter.

Kita’s back in boring old school uniform before they even leave the house. It was brief, but DAMN that tux looked good.

Kaede’s mishap only serves to strengthen her interest in “Shinokita-sama”, and Ruriko is, of course, too stupid and rich to understand “no.” I’m not a fan of sociopaths in general, but this series is filled with nothing but – including our two leads – so I’m not going to get myself worked up over it.

This is a great shoujo manga series, but not something for the faint of heart. It’s just too long, too complex and has too many characters to be an easy read. Fifteen *lead* characters at casual count.

So is tux-wearing and ninja adoration all there is for poor Kita’s ongoing girl troubles? Not *quite.* On the last page we reintroduce an exceptionally bizarre character, Himegose – an impossibly rich Empress-wannabe with a obsession with…Yaji-san. Seriously. Himegose was all OVER Junko in the original series – wanted her as her girl toy. But her two little henchchicks had a raging crush on Kita. So with Himegose’s return we can expect massive Yuri sexual harrassment for both our lovely leading ladies.

Ratings:

Art – 6 A little weak, even for this series which is wildly inconsistent
Story – 7 But it takes some work on your part
Characters – 7 The good ones are great and the rest are legion
Yuri – 7 Sociopathic service, but harmless for a change
Loser FanGirl – 10 Pretty boys, gorgeous girls, squeal!

Love it or hate it, YajiKita Gakuen Douchuuki is a cultural treasure.