Within the manga industry there is a name that fans hate and love at the same time: Akira Hiramoto. Perhaps the name alone may not sound like anything to you, but you surely know one of his most popular works: “Prison School“. What person who calls themselves an otaku doesn’t know or at least heard about this franchise?
However, it is likely that you only know the anime adaptation produced by JCSTAFF and released in the distant Summer-2015 (July-September). Maybe you were so interested in the story that you tried to read the manga, only to find hundreds of people telling you not to. And this is where the hatred towards author Akira Hiramoto comes in, since fans claim that “he is terrible at writing endings.”
The story of “Prison School” focuses mainly on Kiyoshi Fujino, who attends Hachimitsu Institute with four other boys, being the only male population in the entire school. Unfortunately for them, the school’s dominance focuses on women in said school, and they are soon locked up in the school prison by the Student Committee.
But of course, this is not just a story of men against women. “Prison School” is extremely popular for its variety of erotic and perverted situations, extravagant designs, sadism, fetishism, exhibitionism, cross-dressing, among many other things. Furthermore, the female designs are extremely erotic, showing breasts, nipples and asses.
Usually a manga that is known for its sexy girls doesn’t have a great story to offer, but “Prison School” was the exception at the time. Although the story moved slowly, it was complemented by comedy and erotic situations, one after another. Although some claim that eventually the author ran out of ideas to develop the erotic part of the manga, at least they kept up to date with a curious love triangle that had emerged between three characters.: Kiyoshi, the protagonist; Chiyo, sister of the council president and Kiyoshi’s love interest from the beginning; and Hana, the council secretary who develops feelings for Kiyoshi after their multiple encounters.
Although the story already had a winner, the other refused to lose and carried out his last plan. All this ended in that apparently neither of them won, and the author ended the story in an abrupt and absurd way. Many believe that, in fact, the ending was in line with the manga, because from the beginning it was an absurd story as such.
It was the fans themselves who, on their own, began to get their hopes up that an erotic comedy manga like “Prison School” would suddenly begin to involve themes of romance and love triangles, when it was not the essence of the work. In any case, the majority were the ones who thought this way, and the ending where Chiyo becomes the president of the student council to continue torturing men (something totally against what her personality was supposed to be) is still labeled as one of the worst conclusions in manga history.
The impact was such that, even though he tried to make new stories like “RaW Hero” and “Futari Switch”, The author was never able to replicate the success of “Prison School” because his entire fan base turned their backs on him.. But what do they have to say today? Let’s review:
- «The ending is a big “fuck you”, there is no logic behind it, the characters act in contradiction to their original personality».
- «Chiyo thought that Kiyoshi was a good guy, that he was not a liar or a pervert. When Chiyo saw him wearing Hana’s panties, her perfect image of Kiyoshi was destroyed. Realizing that and getting a golden shower on her own birthday from a guy he respected pushed her over the edge. We can assume that all that trauma turned her into a misandrist like her sister, and is the reason why in the end Kiyoshi said that she hadn’t changed anything from the beginning. He was always a liar and a pervert, and only Hana accepted him for who he was from the beginning.».
- «Well said, Chiyo had the exact opposite development that Mari had, who began to hate boys for childish and vapid reasons until she was forced to work with them especially with Kiyoshi (the real one, not the fabrication he played for Chiyo) arriving. to a point where I couldn’t hate them anymore. While Chiyo trusted a boy for childish and insubstantial reasons and never matured from that stage or questioned Kiyoshi’s claims despite all the red flags surrounding him, that is the reason why the former was able to move on while that the second couldn’t handle the revelation».
- «If this were a normal anime series I would agree with you, but for an ecchi comedy I didn’t want anything deep that would make me sad for a few days, I just wanted a happy and satisfying ending. I’m the kind of person who obsesses over characters and the possible futures for them after it’s all over.».
- «Somehow the author managed to find a way to leave all the characters in the love triangle miserable and end it in the most unbearable way possible. It’s rare to find a manga with a worse ending than Usagi Drop (because it throws all the character development that happens before into the trash bin), but here we are».
- «I agree, I also started reading it for the comedy and the ecchi, if I wanted this kind of deep and sad stuff I would read a story that focused on that and there it would be shown better unlike the prison where it is ecchi comedy, but go going so deep into this type of story just ruins both aspects of it. There is no happy or satisfying ending at all, everyone ends up sad and miserable and the author completely ruined Chiyo’s character and made her worse than Mari was.».
- «If Kiyoshi was shit, what about Mari, not to mention Meiko and Hana? Kiyoshi never tortured anyone. The advice was given to the boys, both physically (with punishments that would kill any real person) and psychologically, and why all this? Because, being a lesbian who hates men, Mari wanted to expel the boys, no matter what happened to them. Seriously, change the gender and tell me you still see Mari as someone who is positive, who matures. In the end, she’s still on her ass and still despises men, when in reality she’s absolute trash, not guys.».
- «The truth is that I really liked the story, with all those plans, counterplans and contingency plans! The author even managed to transform something as common as a kiss into something huge and overwhelming (at least for me). If it weren’t for the extreme graphic violence, the first arc would be a masterpiece. I can only assume that the torture was introduced as a power fantasy for female readers, an attempt to lure them into an ecchi manga they wouldn’t otherwise be interested in. I’ve even read comments from some where they happily declare that they are like Meiko or Hana. Yes, really something to be proud of».
- «I know I’m late to the party, but even years later I still can’t get over this ending. There is some truth to what you say, but in my honest opinion, the author simply ran out of ideas (to meet a deadline or whatever). The entire Festival Arc, excluding the scenes that included Hana, was garbage and by the time the final volume had to come out, they didn’t advance the story enough to get a decent ending out of it. I applaud you for making sense of this and making the best of it, but sometimes the harsh truth is: there really isn’t any sense.».
- «I love Prison School, but that ending pissed me off. So much time and effort put into the characters only to throw them away feels almost like a “Fuck you” from the author. I’m convinced he did it on purpose.».
- «Even if it was intentional screwing up on the author’s part, I agree. He kinda gives his own opinions on the ending, as well as different opinions of him. I’m pretty sure this is a common opinion, but I think the festival arc is a little boring. I’m told that the series is rife with puns, especially during this arc, where it was dragged out for a couple of silly puns to be said. If I understood Japanese, I’m sure this arc would be more enjoyable and understandable. It also gives the series a ridiculous note, not that it wasn’t already pretty wild».
- «I just got to the end and… it left a bad taste in my mouth. Hana and Kiyoshi were the best, and although she wanted them to end up together, she didn’t want it to be because of sabotage to Chiyo. She wanted Kiyoshi to start valuing what she had with Masa. In reality, Masa didn’t even end up confessing and the last emotion we had from him towards her was anger. And that last “men are trash” panel was unnecessary. And while I’m ranting, the Cavalry Battle arc gave a new definition to how to make a very slow manga».
Source: reddit
Credits:Kudasai
