Lately, I've had a
craving for more bad anime. Whether it's because I don't feel like
tackling my massive pile of shame, or because a number of shows last
season were crap in the not-fun way, I don't know. But it's lucky
for me that I succumbed, because after sitting through the hideous
designs of Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer and questionable dubbing
choices of Fire Emblem, I 've found it. An anime that makes
some very poor decisions, yet does enough wrong things right to make
it memorable. A worthy addition to any So Bad It's Good list:
Battle Royal High School.
The “story”,
such as it is, follows hotheaded high school athlete Riki Hyoudo who
becomes embroiled in a massive conflict when he gets possessed by an
alternate version of himself from another universe. Alternate Hyoudo
rules his own world and wants to conquer our own, but a rebellion led
by his fairy queen underling has complicated matters, and now both
ruler and student must work together to stop Earth from being overrun
by evil little fairy bastards. Throw in a priest (? Exorcist?
Demon master?) and a space cop for good measure, and you've got a
hell of a lot of story to cover in less than an hour.
Good thing story's
never really the focus, and really, can we expect a show that throws
so many weird characters together to give a shit? Action is on the
agenda instead, and on that front Battle Royal High School
does not disappoint. The variety of characters and motivations means
that alliances constantly shift, and everyone will fight almost
everyone else at some point before the end. There're plenty of
monsters and demonic transformations to be found, each with more
teeth and slime than the last.
The characters are
mostly hit-or-miss stereotypes, but Hyoudo is a special source of
joy. You'd expect him to be something of an underdog, or written
with an endearing trait, but his very first scene involves him
fighting (and defeating) an entire high school karate club. We learn
soon after that Hyoudo beat them all so he could quit the club on a
whim, causing the leader to also resign in shame and ruining their
chances at future competitions. He's just an asshole like that.
It's just really funny to imagine why we should be rooting for this
guy when all his classmates think he's so awesome they literally
donate all their lunches to him, yet his motivation hovers around the
laughably vague “get stronger”. His two primary love interests
(one demure shy girl, one abusive childhood friend, naturally) get a
few laughs as well due to how well they take the otherworldly events
happening around them. Maybe I'm being judgmental, but I don't know
if I'd let a man who claims to be a Space-Time Continuum Enforcer
walk me home at night, even if he did just save me from a
giant teddy bear.
It wasn't until
later that I discovered the man behind this slice of magic was none
other than Ichiro Itano, he who would later bring us Angel Cop.
Although based off a pre-existing manga (the overflow of characters
indicates a story that could easily be drawn out), it bears many of
the best aspects of Angel Cop, namely some asshole
protagonists and a willingness to jerk the plot off the rails . . .
after jerking the plot off the rails. The hilarious,
profanity-ridden dub is just another a happy coincidence. The only
negative I can think of is the short runtime, since I mentioned
before that there's potential for a lot more crazy here. Still, if
you're looking for a bite-sized piece of What The Fuckery, Battle
Royal High School is easily as good as anything I've seen.
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