In a world where it sucks to go to middle school, the Japanese government decided to enact the classroom arbitration system. 12 year old lawyers are sent from school to school in order to argue cases and prevent chaos.
Abaku Inugami is the ultimate middle school lawyer, unable to stop owning people with facts and logic. This is called Ronpa and he’s obsessed with it.
Inugami is called to represent a student named Tento accused of killing the classroom fish. Representing the prosecution is Pine Hanzuki, a literal magical girl
Inugami however proves that the whole thing was a plot by the teacher, and the school fish is actually totally fine.
Then the series decided that actually it doesn’t want us to read it because it shows the school principal perving out over a video of his sexy 12 year old student. Airi Takanashi is the school idol who holds an elected office in Japanese high schools. She’s the victim in this case and Tento’s friend Uozumi is the accused.
Actually though, it was Airi’s best friend who took creep shots of her in order to tease tento’s friend because she likes him. Ignoring that Airi was the victim here. Whatever.
Next the school President Higashide is accused of cheating on his test but actually it was the ugly girl who did it because fuck you if you’re an ugly 12 year old.
Then a student thinks he’s being sold cocaine but actually he just has a dog allergy. No really. The accused in this case is another sexy 12 year old so let’s move on.
Finally Inugami’s arch rival, a stupid ninja appears to challenge him to a court case. Two child artists nicknamed Da Vinci and Picasso painted the exact same painting and are suing each other for plagiarism. They both worshiped this older girl artist named Van Goh who became their art teacher. Inugami and the stupid ninja reveal that actually van goh is secretly Da Vinci’s sister and is having her art stolen by her mentor. They concocted this really stupid convoluted plan to reveal the theft in court by counting on a kid with powerful facts and logic. Anyway we stopped reading because the author drew a boob hierarchy chart of 12 year old girls.
Characters
Abaku Inugami (Ah-ba-ku Ee-nuh-gah-me)
Likes Ronpa: to use argument to refute others theories
Seems like “that guy”
Defense attorney
Went to bad kids school for teens
Pine Hanzuki (Pie-een Han-zoo-key)
Likes pretty cure
Seems very aloof
Kind of a bitch
Prosecutor
Stays in school to beat Abaku
Teno Nanahoshi (Ten-no Na-na-hoe-shi)
Sidekick
Ladybug hair
Dumb
Shuichi Higashide
Class prodigy
Class president
Reiko Shiratori
Very nice girl
Has a lot of dogs aka mikam
Madonna of tenbin elementary
Author for some reason wanted her to have large boobs
Kotaro Sarutobi
Ninja lawyer
Really dumb
Went to gradeschool with Abaku
Why it failed
This is well actually the series
The objection pointing is getting old 20 pages in
I feel this idea might have been too complex for 12 year olds since it follows legit court
Why the fuck do they show boys being looked at naked by an adult in the first chapter
Why are there so many naked children in the series
I worry the series will only focus on court stuff
Ronpa is a dumb word
The whole wacky adult things but for kids def doesn’t have legs to last a long time
Art quality def decreased from the first chapter
MC saying he wanted to kill someone is…weird
The chapters feel kinda abridged, they don’t spend a lot of time in the court for a court series, like the second case is 20% courtroom
Falls for the age old issue of characters only existing for the plot, like why not have the MC fight with Shuichi 1-2 chapters before his trial
Why does a 13yo girl have a mega milk shirt on
You have to read so fucking much given the nature of the series
Ok the drug metaphor was a bit too strong, why not just make it sugar from the start
What it did well
Art is good but I feel not sustainable weekly, kinda berserk inspired
I think school lawyers is a fun idea
Kinda funny seeing kids act like adults
I like the MC doesn’t have a perfect record but isn’t a failure
Lmao old baby judges
The chapter end notes are very cute
I like that the school issues feel like actual school issues
I think some of the humor actually works
This series really walked its own path for better or worse
The cheating case actually did a good job timing if it’s possible for the events to have occured
I like that Abaku acts like a kid
The reader involvement is actually fun
Where it could have gone
Get rid of the weird sexual teenager shit
Make fun of deathnote, like c’mon
Show court elements that are not based on just being in trial, how about witness prep, pre trial negotiation, maybe even something not criminal court
Have him lose a case or have it be his client lied to him and actually did it
Misc Thoughts
I feel this could have been an adult swim show
Final Verdict
Six Word summary
Community
Tucker: It’s elementary school, my dear Watson-kun
MaxyBee: Too much ronpa, not enough dangan
T Wolfwood: lawyer's shitty ripoff of Dr. Stone
Genericman: Why did you sexualize elementary schoolers?!
Scarlet Myrmidon: Started meh, ended in Horny Jail
The luahging fool: The first panel features a lynching