What would Jesus do?
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Kumiko Suekane
Translation/Adaptation: Camellia Nieh
What They Say
IKKYU SOJUN (1394–1481)
A Buddhist monk of the Rinzai school in the middle Muromachi period, Sojun was rumored to be the illegitimate son of Emperor Go-Komatsu. After leaving home in 1399 to enter the Ankoku-ji temple, in 1410 he became the student of an abbot called Ken’o at Saikin-ji temple. There he was given the name “Sojun.” He was known for his poetry, comical tanka poems, calligraphic works, and eccentricities. Many stories of Sojun’s legendary wit were composed after his death.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
I find it somewhat hilarious that the relatively recent findings of DNA having a 521 year half-life make it impossible for any sort of cloning of someone like Ikkyu. Thankfully, the series isn’t trying to pass itself off as fact. Hell, at this point none of these kids would even have to be clones of famous people for this drama to go down. They would just have to make people think they are.
Afterschool Charisma started off as a very different animal than what the story has become. At it’s heart it was always about the clones trying to discover a meaning to their existence, but that was hidden behind murder mystery antics and bizarre social experiments. Eventually it looked like it would be an us versus them situation between two groups of clones.
Stepping forward to current events and Shiro has left the Academy to take his place overseeing it from afar. He thinks he has the answer, and lets reporters in to see the Academy. Then tragedy strikes as one of the reporters attacks the students and kills one of them. Shiro blames himself, and that blame is only compounded when Da Vinci starts laying on the pressure.
Of course, Shiro bolts and Marie follows along with him. What happens next is the most interesting moment of the series so far, and it happens when Shiro and Marie sit on a park bench somewhere in the city. Shiro doesn’t want to return, but has no money to live off of. They don’t even have enough for lunch. Suddenly up walks a homeless dude who probably tells them he’s Jesus Christ and leads them to a soup kitchen.
The whole scene is absurd, it’s brilliant. The kids end up asking to stay the night at the kitchen and help out the lady who runs it. For a moment it feels like the characters escaped fiction and broke into reality. That moment doesn’t last long.
The organization agents locate the kids and Shiro discovers that he’s been lied to and deceived by more than one party. Fearing for his life he flees, only to be rescued by Kuroe, who immediately takes him to the one person that Shiro probably doesn’t want to meet. The man pulling the strings, or so it would appear, is a politician who we’ve seen a few times before but without much context.
At this point I have to feel for Shiro, the whole series seems to exist just as a means to mess with his head. He remains quiet for the rest of the volume, lost within himself trying to formulate a response other than that of ‘I can’t trust anybody.’ He looses himself in physical activities and training under Kuroe’s ever watchful gaze. This is juxtaposed against the growing cult of personality forming around clone Hitler. It’s weirdly nerve wracking, there’s a definite sense of growing tension. I’d guess there is much this series is still keeping hidden from the readers.
Elsewhere, reporter Benjamin interviews the students, each of whom presents their own theory of who they are and why they are. Frustrated, he finds himself in a conversation with Rockswell. At this point Benjamin is the voice of the reader, asking all the questions that we would and getting non-answers in response. The response he gets from Rockswell rings the truest though. Why clone famous people? If the students hadn’t been clones of famous people, then no one would have cared.
In Summary
The more off the rails Afterschool Charisma becomes, the more amazing it gets. As ridiculous as the series has been, this volume revels in the clashing of the clones closed society with how society at large would actually react to such a clandestine establishment existing. A million hypothetical questions are posed in this volume, and with each character trying to find meaning in it all, I’m starting to think that there is none. Clones exist because they can, and the only meaning that applies to the situation is that which each person ascribes to it. Of course the real question remains… what will Shiro do next?
Content Grade: A –
Art Grade: B +
Packaging Grade: B +
Text/Translation Grade: B
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: October 15th, 2013
MSRP: $12.99
