| | |  | DEATH NOTE | Home » » » Monkey High!, Volume 1 | | | | | | | Product Promotions: | | | | | Description: | | It's hard enough fitting in at a new school while dealing with family problems... Will Haruna remain jaded and distance herself from everyone around her? Or will Masaru win her over with his monkey magic? | | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Shouko Akira | | Paperback:
| 192 pages | | Publisher:
| VIZ Media LLC | | Publication Date:
| March 04, 2008 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 1421515180 | | Product Length:
| 7.54 inches | | Product Width:
| 5.8 inches | | Product Height:
| 0.63 inches | | Product Weight:
| 0.39 pounds | | Package Length:
| 7.3 inches | | Package Width:
| 5.0 inches | | Package Height:
| 0.7 inches | | Package Weight:
| 0.4 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 5 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 5 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 Interesting Characters, Dull Plot (3 1/2 Stars)May 10, 2008
By Hakajin
"Ecclectic Student"
"Monkey High" is about a girl named Haruna who has to transfer to a new school after her father is involved in a political scandal. Haruna never had any friends to speak of, and she's always thought of high school as a "monkey mountain" with all its juvenile cliques. But at her new school, she meets Macharu, a sincere boy who happens to look just like a baby monkey.
This manga has strong characters. Haruna is more serious than most manga heroines. She doesn't spend time wishing she had more friends or mooning over some guy. She's really indifferent to high school life. "Aloof" would be the perfect word to describe her. I find this refreshing after seeing so many dramatic shojo heroines. Macharu is absolutely adorable. He's baby-faced, innocent, and very straitforward about his feelings. He's one of the sweetest shojo manga heroes I've read in a while. Macharu and Haruna have an interesting chemistry. Macharu doesn't force himself on Haruna, but he's very sweet to her, and makes his feelings known. Haruna doesn't know quite how to react to his sincerity. She seems to like Macharu, but doesn't want to tear down the walls just yet.
The major drawback to "Monkey High" is its plot. It's pretty much a line of cliches. The first chapter is about the school play. Really, how many times do we need to see this one? (But at least Haruna doesn't end up playing the prince to Macharu's princess.) There's also the school trip. *Yawn*. I've read some of volume two, and it doesn't seem to get much better. It's a shame, because the characters and their interactions were interesting. I would have liked to have seen them in more interesting settings.
Still, it's not a total loss. "Monkey High" was entertaining enough to get me through the volume. It doesn't have any mature content, which makes it a good choice for younger manga fans. I would most strongly recommend it to younger girls who are just starting to get into shojo manga. I think it would have been more interesting to me if I wasn't so familiar with shojo cliches.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 lovableAug 10, 2008
By J. P. Spotts
I don't read shojo manga. I've been picking up samples of Viz's Shojo Beat manga at Comic-Con since they started putting out the sampler and nothing ever caught my eye until this year. For me Monkey High isn't like any other shojo manga I've ever seen. All the other shojo manga had ridiculous premises that the reader was just supposed to believe could happen in real life. If we're going to go with something far-fetched, you might as well throw magic or an alternate dimension in. Or I just couldn't relate to the characters, and who wants to read a manga where you can't relate to the characters? What I love about Monkey High is that it has that sense of realism to it, and the characters are lovable. With great artwork and good pacing, it all just falls into place.
Turning familiar love-manga tropes on their headsAug 22, 2011
By L. Martin
"(Get Mikey to Try It!)"
I read this and loved it almost unconditionally. Some of the story sags a bit as it goes over some familiar love-manga territory. But that for me was totally outweighed by two other factors: the teen heroine is not a merely a super-girly, starry-eyed teen cute-boy fan; and the hero is not handsome. For me, a long-time male reader of manga who has ventured tentatively into reading shoujo manga recently, both these facts are amazing. The first of these departures from standard shoujo practice made the heroine seem tremendously appealing, almost precious, to me. As I read "Monkey High", it was almost like I had gone back in time to do high school all over again, only to stumble upon the finest possible girlfriend candidate immediately.
This story has this vicarious peak experience and a lot more as well to offer male readers. First, for those of us who were losers in the appearance lottery back then, the manga lets us vicariously relive the old high school experience of being a non-handsome guy looking for love at the stage of life when people of both sexes are most fixated on appearance. Only this time, unlike the experience of many such guys then, our stand-in, Macharu, is not struck dumb by the weight of all that indifference from girls. Instead, in this manga this representative non-handsome guy is decidedly odd-looking, but despite that is decidedly determined. This makes for a fascinating degree of suspense as Macharu plugs away month after month at courting Haruna in the midst of an unbelievabe degree of suspense as to whether he will get her in the end, given his complete unacceptability, within the normal shoujo universe, as a boyfriend candidate.
On the art front, this unusual manga is blessedly relieved of the etiolated girly-boy male leading characters, and the overall art style that feels as if one is floating in a world that never quite becomes real. The manga is a love story for men as well as women.
A sweet, entertaining seriesNov 27, 2009
By kaya j
The story revolves around Haruna, a pretty and composed high school student, who transfers to new school after a scandal involving her dad, who is a politician. The first volume starts with her moving and trying to settle into life at her new school. Among her classmates is Macharu, a cute, lively, good-natured guy (who is compared by everyone to a monkey), who she ends up making friends with. As the story progresses you basically watch the relationship that develops between Macharu and Haruna, who initially seem to be opposites.
The main and supporting characters are really likeable and have a lot of depth. The relationship between Haruna and Macharu is really sweet and it's refreshing to have a lead female character who is intelligent and cool, paired with a cute, naiive boy. As the story progresses it's nice to see different aspects of their personalities emerge as well. The story is well developed and entertaining too.
Overall, this is a light-hearted and sweet read. If you're looking for a cute, entertaining shojo series I'd definitely recommend it!
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Monkey High, vol 1 review!Apr 20, 2008
By Eva Floestad Brevig
"Evalita"
This is a cute story about a girl who transfers to another school because of a family "scandal".
Here she sees the other students as monkeys, and the fun starts from here.
Read about her way to get accepted and make new friends, even a new boyfriend.
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