The school comedy manga that stars high school girls not going to school and giving us their lives in school continues in volume 2 of Chio’s School Road. Let’s just say that as wacky as the first volume was, this second volume ends up involving gang members, Showa era ladies, and these girls continuously trying to one-up each other.
Which is all fun and cool, but it still feels like it’s got more to go before being truly hilarious.
Chio’s School Road’s hook is the fact that it’s not your traditional high school comedy. There have been plenty of other ones that do feature students having their hijinks outside of class, but for the most part, it all revolves around dealing with teachers, doing schoolwork, doing detention, cleaning the…ok, going a bit too far. The point is, there’s traditional school comedies, and this one’s different in that it leads up to what happens to Chio as she’s heading to school. That’s it. Naturally, that means the unexpected happens on her way towards school, and that’s why I like it so far.
Otherwise, the humor hasn’t taken over for me just yet. The stories in volume 2 are interesting or bizarre: we have Chio and Manana simultaneously trying to get on the good side of Hosokawa (because she’s high in the school’s caste system) while also trying to reveal that the overweight man she’s been running with MIGHT just be a creep and a liar; Chio immediately regretting using her gaming handle Bloody Butterfly as now a local gang looks to seek revenge because their leader, Andou, is quitting that life because of her; a version of Kabaddi that reveals for one young girl that the game is second in importance to copping a feel; how grabbing a cigarette butt makes you look cool and also foolish for thinking you can bypass school security with it; and getting smacked by old ladies with the Showa mentality if you don’t bring their newspaper on time. Amusing to a degree, but none of it has hit me as gut-bustingly funny yet, so it’s a little disappointing in that aspect.
But there’s a good charm about it, likely due to the dumb situations the characters get into and the art style, which when they’re walking or staying still feels ordinary, but when things happen, it’s crazy how they look based on whatever trouble they’re in (or when they’re embarrassed). It’s still so far a very solid work and never boring, but I do hope Chio’s School Road will make me laugh like a madman at some point in the next couple volumes.