Just how many anime series have to do with a modern high school setting? Whether it’s the girls from Lucky Star or the soul reapers trying to masquerade as students in Bleach, it seems that high schools are everywhere, even when they shouldn’t be. After all, it’s a bit unnerving to think that a high achieving student such as Light Yagami would be behind the Kira killings.
Few anime fans in the western world, however, are really familiar with how the Japanese school system works. Unlike in the United States, upper level secondary school is not actually compulsory in Japan. However, nearly all students attend secondary school, never the less. Students have a choice as to which high schools they are going to attend. Using a model similar to what some European nations use, entrance examinations are used to apply to different schools. Students base their decision on various conditions such as prestige, academic level, activities, and even the style of uniform worn.
Of course, the school uniform is probably one of the most depicted themes in all of modern Japanese animation. In many schools, female students wear a form of sailor suit. This so called seifuku, or sailor uniform is so massively depicted that the aforementioned series Lucky Star actually has a theme song that’s more or less about nothing more than the uniform itself. Male students often also wear a military style uniform, consisting of a European style jacket with a high collar, and pleated slacks. In the style of military rank, some schools demonstrate class rank with a pip on the collar.
Cram school is extremely common for Japanese students, and there are vastly greater numbers of cram schools than in the United States. While American students may only occasionally attend to a professional tutoring service, or do so for only maybe a semester, Japanese students are constantly enrolled in them. In fact they have become so common that some estimates show half of the nation’s students attending them. Instruction is generally after school and on weekends, making the lives of many pupils quite busy.
Whether its Kimihiro Watanuki of xxxHolic, or Lelouch in Code Geass, it would certainly seem that high school is an important part of Japanese popular culture. The fact that it is not taboo to make someone out to be the hero of a story who is a considerably younger age than normal has fueled this fire behind anyone’s wildest dreams. We surely haven’t seen the last of classroom-bound champions and villains.
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