By Natsuho Shino
Digital Manga Publishing, 192 pp.
Rating: Young Adult (16+)

Reiji Kurashina’s new teaching career begins, much to his chagrin, right back at his old high school. To make matters worse, he arrives at a strange time of the school year, and right in the middle of a festival to boot. In the confusion of the festival, he is descended upon by the members of the Events Organization Committee, headed by second-year student Akiyama. The students in the committee latch onto Kurashina and treat him as their new gopher rather than a teacher. Activities in this volume include a fashion show to choose a new uniform, a hiking trip for freshman, the aforementioned school-wide festival, and a side trip to the pet store.

I was very surprised by this book, especially since I am weary of titles that involve teacher-student relationships. This is not a romance, but more of a comedic title where the characters banter back and forth. All the different types of standard shojo boys are present in the club (the stoic sportsman, the flirty pretty boy, the shy freshman, the sharp-tongued middleman), but they don’t do a lot of flirting, and they genuinely seem to be having a good time together, especially when tormenting the grumbly Kurashina. Hardly more than a blush passes between the boys, and even then, the blushes tend to happen in the middle of dialogue panels, so they’re not terribly significant. It’s even more mild than a title like Princess Princess, which is all about pseudo-romance, in a way. I was baffled by the rating and the Juné classification (as opposed to the tamer DokiDoki imprint) until it became clear in the very last chapter that two of the characters were going to become an item. And even then, nothing more than a chaste kiss passes between them. The stories are mostly about the friends hanging out with Kurashina-sensei and having a good time, which keeps the tone very light and enjoyable.

I really like the dialogue, and the sense of humor is well suited to the characters and stories. For characters, Kurashina and Akiyama are easily the best of the bunch. Kurashina makes for a good grumpy lead and stands in calm contrast to the madness in the Events Organization Committee, and Akiyama is a great smooth talker and wonderful at instigating. It does good things, and is pleasant to read because of them, but Kurashina Sensei’s Passion is never more than mediocre. The characters don’t develop beyond their stereotypes, including the two that pair up at the end, and the stories aren’t really all that interesting. Everything is pleasant, but it’s all stuff that we’ve seen before.

I did like it for what it was, and it’s possible it will dip into more romantic territory in the second volume. I think I’d like it more if it had a touch of romance and still maintained the pleasant, non-dramatic atmosphere it kept through the volume, but the bland flavor here will keep me from immediately reaching for volume two.

Volume one of Kurashina Sensei’s Passion is available now.

Review copy provided by the publisher.