Creative Staff
Story/Art: Kumiko Suekane
Translation/Adaptation: Camellia Nieh
What They Say
St. Kleio Academy is a very exclusive school. To enroll a student must be the clone of a famous historical figure. Wolfgang Mozart, Queen Elizabeth, Sigmund Freud, Marie Curie, Adolph Hitler — with such a combustible student body, it’s only a matter of time before the campus explodes!
Sigmund Freud
(1856-1936)
Sigmund Freud was an Austrian psychopathologist. He studied at the University of Vienna and joined the the faculty there after graduation. He pursued research in neurology and worked as a clinical physician, treating patents suffering from hysteria and similar conditions. Based on this work, Freud went on to pioneer the discipline of psychoanalysis. He developed a very close relationship with the psychologist Carl Gustav Jung, despite the difference in their ages, but later in life the two became estranged due to difference in their psychological beliefs. As a Jew, Freud was forced into exile in London due to rise of the Nazis, where he died a year later at the age of 83.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
After a somewhat slow last two volumes, I was wondering if Afterschool Charisma had lost it’s way. It seemed poised to slide back into relatively unexciting school life and the drama contained within. The students that hadn’t met an early end were left to ponder their existence, with little to no control over their fate. Sure, two students had fled to join the terrorist clones, but the rest went back to their school lives. That all changes swiftly for Shiro when this volume begins.
Shiro’s father finally takes him aside and confirm what he already suspected, that he and Dr. Kamiya are clones of the same man. Shiro ends up being okay with it all, although Dr. Kamiya still seems troubled. Apparently, out of all the clones ever created at the academy, Shiro is the only one to be raised like a normal person. Despite that, he was unknowingly being groomed to become the next leader of the Academy.
Faced with confronting his own fate, he’s forced into an early graduation and has to leave his friends behind at St. Kleio’s. Departing for the outside world, he ends up under the tutorage of the former director of St. Kleo’s, the clone of Leonardo da Vinci we’d seen only in flashbacks. Kuroe accompanies Shiro as something of a chaperon, although he’s almost as shifty as Dr. Kamiya about what his true intentions are. No matter how sketchy his behavior in the eyes of other characters, he appears to me to be the most normal of the bunch and the only person who probably has Shiro’s well being in mind.
Shiro isn’t as maladjusted to life outside the academy as his classmates, who’s only exposure to the outside world was TV. However, meeting some familiar faces at his new residence does throw him threw a loop. Not all ‘reject’ clones met a horrible fate, surprisingly. Some were given a second chance to prove themselves in other ways, and one person in particular gives Shiro a glimmer of hope that maybe he can save his fellow students from suffering a terrible fate.
Meanwhile, it turns out that the escaped clones might not be as self-destructive as they appeared at first glance. Kai seems set on bringing about the downfall of St. Kleo, but is also bolstering the idea that clones are superior because of their illustrious DNA. Of course, Hitler is thrilled with that idea, leading to a very obvious ‘uh oh’ moment. However, Kai’s plan on bringing about the downfall of the Academy starts with a very interesting public outing of the school to the media. This is our first look at what the outside world really knew about the clone program, which turns out to be not much.
Some time passes while Shiro adjusts to life outside St. Kleo’s, and it’s hard to tell if it’s weeks or months. With the school outed to the public a decision is made to allow the media to tour the facilities. Even Shiro thinks this is a good idea, humanizing the clone students. While this goes on we get some insight on what the former director believes the true mission of the clone program is, and it’s just as corrupt sounding as Kai’s logic. Shiro doesn’t seem to buy it, and by the end of the volume it’s starting to look like not everyone is going to buy into the sob story of clone students held against there will.
In Summary
Surprises are all around in this volume of Afterschool Charisma. Everything starts to move forward swiftly in this volume, as Shiro finally learns just what his role in the Academy is. Although, it’s painfully obvious that he’s still in the dark on some things. Just who is really in charge of St. Kleo’s Academy, and just how much control do they really have? The origins of the school and the program seem even more clandestine now that the world at large knows of it’s existence. The quickening pace and the change in locations are long overdo, and hopefully it’s a good sign for things to come.
Content Grade: B +
Art Grade: B +
Packaging Grade: B +
Text/Translation Grade: B
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: January 15th, 2013
MSRP: $12.99
