Gakuen Heaven (Japanese: å¦åœ'ヘヴン, Hepburn: Gakuen Hebun, lit. "Academy Heaven") is a media franchise originating from the PC game Gakuen Heaven: Boy's Love Scramble, originally released by the company SPRAY. The franchise gradually expanded to include more games, drama CDs, manga, and anime.
Characters
- Keita ItÅ (伊藤 å•"太, ItÅ Keita)
- Voiced by: Fukuyama Jun
- During the middle of the school year, he received a letter of admission from Bell Liberty Academy. Though he seems to be an average guy without any sort of special skills, he is a very warm and friendly person. The only skill he thought he had was luck. He seems to have forgotten who Kazuki is really. While he was young, he contracted the same virus that Hiroya Yoshizumi is infected with.
- Kazuki EndÅ (é è—¤ å'Œå¸Œ, EndÅ Kazuki)
- Voiced by: Sakurai Takahiro
- He is Keita's classmate and the first friend Keita makes at BL Academy. He leads a double life as a student of BL Academy and as its chairman. The last wishes of the school's late chairman, EndÅ's grandfather, were for EndÅ to succeed his position. EndÅ's innocuous and perpetually friendly demeanor does not betray the fact that he is also an excellent executive. EndÅ is also a part of the school's handicrafts club. He is actually Keita's childhood friend who promised in the future that they could go to the same school.
- Kaoru Saionji (西åœ'寺 éƒ, Saionji Kaoru)
- Voiced by: Kamiya Hiroshi
- He is the head of the school Treasury/Accounting department. Strikingly beautiful, he shares the same amount of influence as Tetsuya Niwa, and is called the "Queen" among students. He is very strong intellectually but performs very poorly in physical education. He is close to Omi since Elementary days, going as far as making him hack into the BL academy server when Omi didn't receive the platinum paper. He also has close contact with the chairman and contacts him if something sprouts up. Even though he is called the "Queen," he hates it when someone treats him like a female.
- Tetsuya Niwa (丹羽 å"²ä¹Ÿ, Niwa Tetsuya)
- Voiced by: Konishi Katsuyuki
- As the president of the student council, he excels in almost everything, from academics to sports and extracurriculars; he is also known as the "King" at the academy. He regularly neglects his duties leaving them to the very last minute. He also has a tendency to call Kaoru, "Kaoru-chan," which results in the latter hurting him. He has an aversion to cats.
- Omi Shichijo (ä¸ƒæ¡ è‡£, ShichijÅ Omi)
- Voiced by: Tsuboi Tomohiro
- Saionji's friend since childhood, he is a person who always smiles. He is extremely talented with computers and can also be extremely dangerous when he wants to. Currently, he helps Saionji at the Treasury/Accounting Department. Nakajima refers to him as a dog. He likes eating sweet foods such as chocolate.
- Hideaki Nakajima (ä¸å¶‹ 英明, Nakajima Hideaki)
- Voiced by: Morikawa Toshiyuki
- He is the vice president of the student council. He appears to be brisk and cool with most of the students, and can usually be found trying to hack the school's treasury records, much to the chagrin of Omi Shichijou. Although appearing to be sacastic and cruel to others, he does care for Niwa.
- Yukihiko Naruse (æˆç€¬ ç"±ç´€å½¦, Naruse Yukihiko)
- Voiced by: Miki Shinichiro
- He is the captain of the tennis club at school. He takes an immediate liking to Keita and calls him "Honey". A little oblivious at times, he is extremely passionate about Keita and is always trying to ask Keita out on dates.
- Koji Shinomiya (ç¯ å®® ç´˜å¸, Shinomiya KÅji)
- Voiced by: Okiayu Ryotaro
- He is the captain of the archery club. He is a very responsible, big-brother figure. He also holds the position of Dormitory Head. He has a little brother who has cardiac problems. He is very close with Takuto Iwai.
- Takuto Iwai (岩井 å"人, Iwai Takuto)
- Voiced by: Nojima Hirofumi
- He is the president of the art club and a genius artist. On the moody, introspective side, he is very soft-spoken and very humble about his skills as an artist. He is very close with Koji Shinomiya.
- Shunsuke Taki (æ» ä¿Šä»‹, Taki Shunsuke)
- Voiced by: Suzumura Kenichi, Drama voice by: Majima Junji
- He is a superb cyclist who ranked the third in the National Tournament. Cuter and shorter than others of his age, he is characterised by his Kansai ben dialect. Taki also does freelance delivery work for most of the student body.
- Satoshi Umino (海野 è¡, Umino Satoshi)
- Voiced by: Tomoko Kawakami, Drama voice by: Amada Mahito
- Although he is the oldest character, he is also the youngest-looking. He is extremely good at research but can barely take care of himself as he is quite absent-minded. He is both a teacher and researcher for the Bell Liberty. He is also very strong as a result of constantly carrying an overweight cat wherever he goes.
- Kakeru Ozawa (å°æ¾¤ ç¿", Ozawa Kakeru) and Wataru Ozawa (å°æ¾¤ 渉, Ozawa Wataru)
- Voiced by: Takeuchi Ken and Mizushima Takahiro, respectively
- Twins who tease Keita. Kakeru and Wataru are never seen apart. They are always getting into trouble and are very good at doubles tennis. They are also known as the "terrible twosome". Later in the anime, the twins seem to become fonder of Keita, but don't admit this till the last episode when the say that they might become his friends.
- Jin Matsuoka (æ¾å²¡ è¿…, Matsuoka Jin)
- Voiced by: Narita Ken
- The school nurse of Bell Liberty, he is Kazuki's mentor and former tutor, and the two are very close. It is revealed in later episodes that he attended Bell Liberty himself with his friend, Hiroya Yoshizumi, to whom he was very close. He has a dark secret and will go to any means to fulfill his own agenda such as kidnapping to Keita, who contracted the same virus as Hiroya Yoshizumi, his friend.
- Hiroya Yoshizumi (å‰ä½ æ¯"å'‚å"‰, Yoshizumi Hiroya)
- Voiced by: Kirii Daisuke
- Childhood friend of Matsuoka, they attended Bell Liberty together. He went into the medical field, like Matsuoka, after graduation, but contracted the "X7 virus" and is currently hospitalized in a coma. Not a major character.
Games
Specs
Boy's Love Scramble
In the original game, the player Keita ItÅ suddenly received an acceptance letter from the renowned Bell Liberty Academy (also known as BL Gakuen). Attracted by the prestige of the school, he decided to attend. However, on the day of his transfer, the bridge joining the school and the academy, which was located on a remote man-made island, suddenly raised and his bus fell. Luckily, no one was injured but the accident aroused the attention of both the student council's president Niwa Tetsuya as well as the head of the accounting department Saiyonji Kaoru. After explaining briefly the cause of the accident, they guided Keita to his classroom where he met his classmate Endou Kazuki, who kindly befriended Keita and showed him around the campus. On the school grounds, Keita met the rest of the important students in the game: Naruse Yukihiko, captain of the tennis club; Shinomiya Kouji, captain of the archery club; Iwai Takuto, captain of the art club; and Taki Shunsuke, a genius cyclist; the vice president of the student council, Nakajima Hideaki; the genius programmer, Shichijou Omi; as well as the child-looking teacher Umino Satoshi. The objective of the game is to solve the mysteries surrounding Keita's sudden transfer to BL Academy.
Okawari
A fan disc titled Gakuen Heaven Okawari! (å¦åœ'ã¸ãƒ´ãƒ³ ãŠã‹ã‚ã‚Šã£!, "Academy Heaven Second Helping!") was released for PlayStation 2. The story takes place three months after the first game. This time, Keita picked up a cursed ring that would take away his major ability â€" luck. The characters are the same as in the PC Game and the objective this time is to find the way to release Keita from the curse of the ring.
Double Scramble
Another game in the franchise, Gakuen Heaven 2 ~Double Scramble!~ (å¦åœ'ヘヴンï¼' ～DOUBLE SCRAMBLEï¼ï½ž) is in the works. It is planned for PC and PSP.
Anime
Summary
Keita ItÅ receives a letter of admission from Bell Liberty Academy, a prestigious all-boys school that only accepts the cream of the crop. Though he doubts his ability to succeed at such a school because he is a transfer student coming in the middle of the year, and he has no special ability that he can speak of, he accepts the admission. Keita is picked up by Niwa, the president of the student council, and from then on, he is warmly welcomed by everyone to BL Academy.
Keita's first actual friend is EndÅ Kazuki, who immediately takes Keita under his wing and takes care of him to the extent that Keita laughingly dubs him "grandmother." The two of them become a steadfast pair, but in the days that Kazuki is not around, Keita has no trouble finding other company among the other students.
Occasionally Keita has flashbacks to his childhood, where he is playing with a slightly older boy whom he calls "Kazu-nii." He can't remember much except that he and "Kazu-nii" were close at one point, but these memories seem irrelevant to his current life, so Keita dismisses them.
Meanwhile, Kazuki is involved in a power struggle with the Vice Chairman of the board. The Vice Chairman is distinctly annoyed that the former chairman chose to leave his position to Kazuki, and views Kazuki as a young and incompetent despot incapable of running BL Academy, much less Suzubishi Corporation, the business group that owns BL Academy and many scientific research and development companies. Indeed, Kazuki rejects many of the Vice Chairman's proposals and seemingly "abuses" his power by admitting a student of no particular skillâ€"in this case, ItÅ Keitaâ€"to BL Academy. Keita unwittingly becomes involved in a potentially deadly power struggle between the Chairman and Vice Chairman. Kazuki stakes his position on the outcome of the school's annual "MVP Battle--" that is, if he and Keita do not manage to win the competition, he will resign his position as Chairman.
Episodes
Staff
- Game Character Design: You Higuri
- Director: Hiiro Yukina
- Script: Takahashi Natsuko, Hiiro Yukina etc.
- Anime Character Design: Nakayama Yumi
- Opening Theme: "School Boys" by YAMOTO
- Ending Theme: "Panorama" by Fujioka Masaaki
- Music Production: Dusk Production
- Music Composer: Nishioka Kazuya
- Produced by: BL Academy Supporting Committee
Drama CDs
5 drama CDs have been released. Aside from the first drama CD, the core cast remains the same for all other products in the franchise and is based on the casting in the PlayStation 2 games.
- Full-length drama
- Gakuen Heaven 1: Mirai wa Kimi no Mono
- Gakuen Heaven 2: Muteki no Sannensei
- Gakuen Heaven 2: Tsuyoki na Ninensei
- Gakuen Heaven 2: Welcome to Heaven
- Gakuen Heaven 3: Happy Paradise
- Mini drama
- Gakuen Heaven: Bitter Chocolate
- Gakuen Heaven: Sweet Candy
Manga
The 5-volume manga series by You Higuri began in 2003. Each volume is an alternate-universe story following Keita's relationship with one of the possible romantic interests. The series was licensed in English by Tokyopop's yaoi imprint, BLU. Due to the closure of Tokyopop's North American publishing operations in 2011, only the first three volumes were published in English.
Web radio
Since March 2006, there has been a web radio show on Marine Entertainment's site to promote the anime. It is anchored by the cover voice for Keita ItÅ, Fukuyama Jun, and every 12 days, there are guests from the regular cast.
Reception
Melissa Harper of Anime News Network describes the manga as derivative, but enjoyable, with a romantic sex scene. IGN reviewer A. E. Sparrow found the manga surprisingly well-paced and enjoyable, despite its roots in a dating sim. Sandra Scholes, writing for Active Anime, found the manga's art to be very good. Nadia Oxford, writing for Mania Entertainment, felt that the manga did not rise above other BL manga, its only distinction being its video game origins.
References
- ^ Harper, Melissa (January 18, 2007). "Gakuen Heaven". Anime News Network. Retrieved March 22, 2011.Â
- ^ Sparrow, A. E. (November 7, 2006). "Gakuen Heaven Review". IGN. Retrieved March 22, 2011.Â
- ^ Scholes, Sandra (December 14, 2007). "Gakuen Heaven Vol. 1". Active Anime. Retrieved March 22, 2011.Â
- ^ Oxford, Nadia (February 11, 2007). "Gakuen Heaven". Mania. Retrieved March 22, 2011.Â
Further reading
- de Bats, Hadrien (2008). Brient, Hervé, ed. Homosexualité et manga : le yaoi. Manga: 10000 images (in French). Editions H. pp. 110â€"111. ISBN 978-2-9531781-0-4.Â
External links
- Official Site (Japanese)
- Anime Official Site (Japanese)
- Web Radio Official Site (Japanese)
- Gakuen Heaven (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
- Gakuen Heaven (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
- Gakuen Heaven: Boy's Love Scramble at The Visual Novel Database
- Gakuen Heaven 2: Double Scramble at The Visual Novel Database
- Gakuen Heaven Okawari at The Visual Novel Database
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