cover image St. Lunatic High School Volume 1

St. Lunatic High School Volume 1

Majiko, . . Tokyopop, $9.99 (184pp) ISBN 978-1-59816-944-7

Niko Kanzaki and her brother, Atchan, are just scraping by, so when Atchan gets an offer to work as a teacher at the prestigious private school St. Lunatic High—complete with a house for the two of them—they jump at the chance. Niko plans on taking night classes there while working during the day. There’s just one problem. At night, St. Lunatic is a high school not for privileged humans—but for demons. Niko’s classmates are skeletons, pumpkin-heads and froglike creatures and the school nurse is a human-hating mermaid. As Niko tries, and fails, to fit in, she’s drawn to Ren-Kun, who looks almost human, though his wings come in handy when Niko gets into trouble. This manga is appealingly offbeat, though Niko’s hyperactive over-reactions to every obstacle can be grating. Each of the stories is straightforward, but there are always distracting antics by Niko’s demonic cohorts. The appeal of future installments is not to see the resolution of the predictable romance but to see what bizarre twists Majiko! throws in, whether it be the school chairman leaping through trees in a kangaroo suit or Niko marveling that with a giant mushroom growing out of her back she’ll never have to use an umbrella again. (Aug.)