High School! Kimengumi (ハイスクール!奇面組) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Motoei Shinzawa. A first series Third Year Funny-face Club was serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump from October 1980 to April 1982. ''High School! Kimengumi'' was serialized in the same magazine from April 1982 to July 1987. An anime television series aired from October 1985 to September 1987 and an animated film premiered in July 1986. A sequel manga, titled ''Flash! Funny-face Club, was published in Square Enix's Monthly Shōnen Gangan'' from 2001 to 2005.

Summary

''High School! Kimengumi'' is an episodic chronicle of the bizarre adventures of a group of misfit junior high school (and later high school) boys who form a club known as the "Kimengumi". All of the character names in the series are puns. For example, "Kawa Yui" is another way of saying "kawaii", and "Uru Chie" is a slang form of "urusai", meaning "obnoxious" or "annoying".

Media

Manga

''High School! Kimengumi'' is written and illustrated by Motoei Shinzawa. A first series titled Third Year Funny-face Club (3年奇面組) was published in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump from October 13, 1980, to April 12, 1982. Shueisha collected its chapters in six tankōbon volumes published between August 15, 1981, and January 8, 1983. ''High School! Kimengumi was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from April 19, 1982, to July 6, 1987. Shueisha released the individual chapters into twenty volumes published between April 8, 1983, and February 10, 1988. Another series titled Return of High School! Funny-face Club (帰ってきたハイスクール!奇面組) was published by Popeye on December 1, 2000. Shueisha later released the series into a single volume on February 4, 2004. A fourth series, titled Flash! Funny-face Club (フラッシュ!奇面組), was serialized in Square Enix's Monthly Shōnen Gangan from 2001 to 2005. It was compiled into three tankōbon volumes published from July 22, 2002, and July 22, 2005.

Volume list

Third Year Funny-face Club

High School! Funny-face Club

Flash! Funny-face Club

Anime

A 86-episode anime adaptation produced by NAS and Fuji Television was broadcast in Japan from October 12, 1985, to September 21, 1987, on Fuji TV.

Songs

The theme songs, with the exceptions of the fifth ending and insert Nakuko mo Warau Kimengumi, were performed by various sub-groups or former members of Onyanko Club:

Opening themes

Insert songs

Closing themes

Video releases

Kimengumi has been released on DVD in Japan in two different box set releases. The movie was released as part of the second DVD set in 2008.

Video games

There is a traditional boardgame based on the series titled ''High School! Kimengumi Game'', released by Bandai. Three video games have been based on the series: There is also a series of pachinko games based on the series manufactured by Maruhon

Reception

In a 2006 survey of celebrities by TV Asahi, ''High School! Kimengumi'' was listed as #87 on a list of the top 100 favorite anime series.