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Why I Can't Stop Watching Prison School

meiam: Ehhhh? The music that sounds is pure energetic rock for such tense situation that transmits urgency, and he doesn't spoiler[have a orgasm face, he has the typical "PEEING WHEN YOU CAN'T KEEP IT ANYMORE" face]. And the cut to spoiler[the dominatrix drinking is basically tricking us for a second that they were actually showing us... well, Hana drinking that (and making all of us going "UUUUGH"), but instead it's just ridiculous dominatrix drinking in ridiculous way]. That's not sexy at all, just pure over the top sexual ridiculous stuff meant to be funny.

Your reasoning definitely applies to my enjoyment of Prison school as well to a lesser extent why I watch Shimoneta (these light novel short titles are getting out of hand).

If Prison School can be said to have a theme, it's that pubescence is terrifying in an "embrace the madness" sort of way. In their own words, the boys are "imprisoned by love" (lust) and the real prison they can't escape from is the rush of perversion and sexual obsession flooding their system that just won't ever go away. It will follow them for the rest of their lives, just like it has the academy's otherwise professional headmaster. He will forever like big butts and be unable to lie about it.

I think this is it. THIS right here is what hooks people.

So people who think that it's just plain funny and endearing in its (very intentional) stupidity are actually doing it wrong? :/

I'm a woman so I've never experienced the "child-like male pubescence in high school" first hand (and it's not the same when you experience it second-hand), and while watching the show I've never had the "I don't want to look but can't stop" feeling that people talk about either. I just have a thing for this kind of comedy.

(I continue to be honestly confused about the way that many people seem to treat Prison School, as if it was something strange and unique that needs to be analyzed to be understood. I never felt that way.)

It's shameless but ultimately well-meaning fun I think, and the fact that the entertainment comes from the characterizations and outrageous situations, as opposed to the sexual imagery constantly flaunted on-screen, I think is maybe a good indicator that the show is trying more to say something about the sexuality of youth, as opposed to just exploiting it for pure titillation.

My reasoning:

We often complain in these forums about the tropes in teen rom-coms and particularly the one where the MC is continuously punished not for doing anything wrong but just the appearance of it. Sometimes not even the appearance of male perfidy is required -- just their presence. In Love Hina (sort of gold standard for this sort of thing) Keitaro is in one scene actually asleep when he is kicked through a wall and over the horizon simply because that is what girls do (and are privileged to do) when they are nonplussed. Har har har.

And I am sure every reader here could name a thousand examples of this and how they have gotten bored with it and how overused it it and so on. And it continues to this day and shows no sign of ever being abandoned.

My guess is the makers of Prison School feel the same way. What they seem to be saying to the anime industry and consumers in general is: You like that trope so much? Well then tell me what you think of this. And what they have presented is the raw form -- the true essence of what mainstream anime constantly flirts with. The treatment the boys get is nothing more than the logical extension in most rom-com anime.

The point seems to be that you will never look at another anime rom-com interaction of this type again without thinking about how Hana keeps trying to piss on Kiyoshi and failing, instead getting defiled herself and aroused in the process.

That is what satire is all about. That is what it is for: to change how people thing about something that they see as normal. (and, perhaps, change their behavior about it?) And that, in my humble opinion, is what Prison School is. And it is excellent.

intense comedy