Afterschool Charisma Vol. 1

Author: Kumiko Suekane

SigIKKI; ISBN: 978-1-4215-3397-1

Afterschool Charisma Vol. 1

I was intrigued with the premises of this manga. Afterschool Charisma, is about a special school that only enrolls certain kind of students: clones (except for Shiro Kamiya, an actual human).

The series starts off with Marie Curie, who instead of wanting to further her studies in radioactivity (like her original), wants to study music, like Mozart. Shiro encourages her to pursue her dreams of music, he even offers to talk to his dad, who works at the academy. Suspiciously, his dad agrees to help Marie Curie out, by offering her a transfer to a new school the next day. We later find out that Marie Curie was “trashed,” in order to create a new version that is more true to her original.

This chapter leads to a whole new issue that the manga tries to address. What will happens to a clone that chooses his or her own destiny? Judging by Marie’s Curie’s tragic demise, I guess it can’t be that good.

Another issue the series addresses is that will the clones die like their originals? An example is how clone President Kennedy, gets assassinated just like his original.

I have to comment that, as I progress further into the volume, it simply gets darker. Cults, suicides and terrorist groups are some of the things that occurred in this volume.

One of the things I like about this volume is the relationship between Shiro and Hitler. You’ll be surprise at clone Hitler’s personality. As opposed to the ruthless dictator that his original was, Hitler seems to be a bit shy. He told Shiro that they are both really similar; they are both the odd man out. Hitler, who can’t seem to makes friends with other clones because of his original’s sins, and Shiro who is the only human in a clone high school.

The only problem that I had with this volume is being introduced to too many characters at once. The author should have slowly introduce the key characters one at a time, instead of throwing them all in one chapter. Also, Mozart kind of pissed me off. Even though he’s a “prodigy” why is it that he judge Marie’s dream of music? Even though it wasn’t mention in the manga, I presume it was because of all the pressure his teacher was giving him to live up to his original, whereas, Marie has no pressure at all. Well like they say, “Karma is a b****,” because by the end of the volume, he takes his own life.

I really enjoy this series, but i have a feeling that this story is just going to get ever more darker. It won’t take long for me to find out because I have volume 2 in my TBR pile.

Grade: B