Even as he tries to keep the student council president -- who flaunts his powerful, man-seducing charm -- out of trouble, Vice President Chiga-kun finds himself drawn to the president's strength and power. Chiga-kun wonders how he, being such an intelligent individual, can be so unwillingly taken with a boy who is so country and simple... but watch out! The president has a temper!
This review contemplates this series until volume 9!
The Story
Chiga, vice-president of his class, is obsessed with his president, Kokusai. The other guy is a magnet to pervs and weird people, so Chiga feels like is his duty to bodyguard for Kokusai.
What started as only a safety arrangement very soon grows into friendship with the undeniable pull of desire and passion behind it.
Can Chiga confess his true feelings for Kokusai? Will Kokusai accept something more?
The Analysis Just remembering that those were my impressions and opinion as a reader:)
First things first: HACHIYUMI, WE HAVE TO STOP STARTING UNFINISHED SERIES!! LOL This one I’m not really sure if Hachiyumi recommended to me or if I found it myself and filled her whatsapp with crazy fangirlings while reading and bossing her around for her to read it too, haha! Both scenarios are equally like to happen and I apologize for my eccentricities to all my offline and online turned offline friends, as I have no control whatsoever when I’m obsessed with something, haha!
Now, to the manga: it had me since page one. The art is so delicate and yet the males remain so manly, haha! I loved everything about this series! Oh, well, I don’t really loved that it takes so long for its chapters to be out and about, but one can’t have everything, right? Haha! The title starts light and funny and gets darker with each volume until you are grabbing your seat and eating your nails without being able to breath. For sure, a 5 stars series!
The narrative is manly from Chiga’s point of view, but we get to switch characters more as the series go by. I liked the main couple and Chiga is one of my favorite manga guys! Also, the relationships on this series are so real, with the difficulties, the love, the camaraderie and all… It begins with a very fast pace and it slows down as the story gets more complex.
Which brings us to the plot. It starts simple and revolving around Chiga and Kokusai, as they need to work out their differences and feelings to be together. As things go by, new characters are introduced and Chiga and Kokusai start to share their spotlight with other gay couples. This is highly common for long yaoi series and now I’m going to tell the big secret behind this.
The truth is… that the authors rarely know how many volumes their stories will have. The manga publishers are merciless and demand a good start for the series. If you make trough that and the public loves it, only God knows when they will allow the author to finish their stories. Don’t believe me and need examples? Okay.
NARUTO. The author had the whole story prepared, but when it was coming to the end, the publishers begged him to keep going as Naruto is a world-wide gold mine. Results? The story got boring, confusing and repetitive.
Back to Seito Kaichou Ni Chuukoku: it is still being published and I think that’s awesome, but once the main problem gets solved and Chiga and Kokusai start to go out, there is only a handful of things that one can do to keep the story going without falling for Naruto’s destiny and that’s why other couples take over. Either the story that Kaori-sensei had in mind came to an end and she is stretching it or she never had a plan for a long-term publication and is going with the flow.
If you ask me, the second case also happens with Sekaiichi Hatsukoi.
Anyway, the characters and the art are the best assets of this series. The characters are so real, intense and funny! They always have some snarky remark to make and Chiga is incredible. Kokusai is more naïve, so Chiga is the skeptical with streets’ smart. I laughed aloud many times while reading Seito Kaichou Ni Chuukoku ❤
And there is the art, that is breathtaking and only keeps getting better, as Miss Xtina would say. Really, I love this delicate and beautiful art style that still manages to portray guys as guys lol
Overall, if you like yaoi, daily life titles, wonderful art and awesome characters, you have to add Seito Kaichou ni Chuukoku to your TBR pile!
I like the art in this but the content was unsatisfactory. I had gone into it expecting it to be a regular graphic novel, but it isn't. The plot is underdeveloped and the dialogue just doesn't make sense sometimes. Plus, there are some sub-dom themes that I'm not okay with, even though I wouln't normally have a problem with this kind of dynamic, which makes me think that this book just didn't handle it properly. I have a lot of issues with this, it is clearly not my favourite, but it's not the worst either, so yes, two stars is what it gets.
There was a time where my younger self would think this moment would never come. A full circle moment back to watching the late 2000's OVAs produced by PrimeTime muted on YouTube? C'mon. Browsing through WorldCat over the years showed only one library still had this in the States, and I wasn't sure where this was in the field of collectibles. The answer when I looked recently? Not as much as the later volumes that got published in the States. So deciding to buy this while in class (to be fair, those lectures were DRY) seemed like a wise move. Thank you, Abe Books!
Hey, Class President (also known as Seitokaichou ni Chuukoku) was my favorite out of the PrimeTime OVAs I eventually watched to review for my blog. I liked how the OVA was able to balance the perspectives of Kokusai and Chiga attempting to contextualize their feelings for each other against the backdrop of their minimal student council duties, how they meet with judo club, and a mysterious stranger (who honestly may not be that mysterious) on the loose. Tomokazu Sugita's performance as Chiga also made me understand why he's gotten other comedic roles in his work (Gintoki and Kyon, specifically). I liked how he played his dynamic with Kousuke Toriumi, who would later play the seme to Hikaru Midorikawa's uke in Koisuru Bokun (question: Has Midorikawa been seme in BL?). The animation was nice to look at, too, so it all worked out.
I'd say the first volume excelled in Monchi balancing both her leads' perspectives, and her art has a nice shininess and shading to it, but the plot is ultimately what held Hey, Class President's starter volume back. For as much talk about how Kokusai attracts the attention of older men who prey on him, there doesn't seem to be a motive as to why. Is it because he's desirable? Is it because he's childish? We only get the answer of his fledging maturity and it kind of being played for laughs. As a sixteen year old, this would have been fine. As a twenty five year old, it isn't. The initial dialogue also only serves the purpose of moving the story along without allowing us into the characters' inner worlds. Maybe if Monchi had started the series with establishing how the two met, it'd make their eventual connection stronger?
Said connection does work, as Chiga vows to protect Kokusai from being taken advantage of, whereas Kokusai comes to terms with exploring his body sexually. But there's the underlying language in the translation where Kokusai is now "cured" after fooling around with Chiga that caused my eyebrows to raise. A pivotal plot point in the series is when Kokusai gets sexually assaulted by someone who breaks into his house (I applaud how Monchi drew this in the manga, because the anime staff went full throttle with the illusion). He feels disturbed by what happened to him in his sleep, but when Chiga touches him in a similar way, he doesn't feel as put off by it. We inadvertently brush past his trauma by having these two experiences take place on the same day, and it doesn't help when the other sex scenes read like Chiga taking advantage of Kokusai's innocence. Consent's present in a way, but also not really?
The OVA ended up cutting out two side characters beyond the leads's closest friends in judo, so my initial theory on who Kokusai's stalker is was wrong. We're introduced to Yamashiro, the former VP who is rumored to harbor a crush on Kokusai to the point where he may have attempted to assault him. There seems to be a sense of forced politeness to this character, so I'm intrigued by how Monchi will develop him. I do think having these interactions helped give the stalker subplot backdrop since in the OVA, it felt like it was just plopped down on center stage without having reasoning. Here, it's tied into Kokusai getting taken advantage of.
It's also fun to see the characters bumble and get embarrassed. Monchi has a nice style to flushed faces and body language to this. Outside of some queerphobia latent in the subgenre, there was one moment where Kondou teases Chiga about his past dating experience. Kokusai is the first person who he's gotten flustered over, whereas the young women he'd been with in the past were just flings. This unfortunately reinforces the sexism queer media has towards women (ironic given the target audience for BL manga), but shows women as disposable objects for men to test on before they get into a serious relationship. Even if someone isn't queer themselves, does getting with someone who is the same gender as them mean they've matured? This is the question that scene proposes, and it's honestly an offensive one. Making my mind reach back to that One Internet Story I read as a teen. Luke and Ferris, IYKYK.
While this first volume wasn't the best thing I ever read and I won't be holding on to it (sending a blessing to the New Jersey business who had it for around its initial asking price, though), coming back to a BL franchise that helped shape aspects of my queer identity was still fun. The giddiness I felt when opening this package was something I wasn't expecting, and I have to applaud Digital Manga Publishing for how they incorporated the original Shinshokan spine into their cover design. There are other BL titles I'd recommend to readers who want to get into the genre, but for those who've been through this subgenre's ups and downs over the decades, Hey, Class President is a fine jaunt into its past. It also would be a solid choice for the collector. Those later volumes are a commitment. I'll page through them in my own way.
I read this after watching the OVA, and I have to say that I preferred the anime, even the whole "groper/stalker" thing makes *slightly* more sense in the manga. (Well, as much sense as that whole thing can make, I suppose.) But this is cute, and fun, and just the right amount of smutty, I'd say. Not a must read, but entertaining.
I'm a very big fan of this series. It's one of the few series I enjoy rereading. I mostly like how Chiga can't express his feelings to Kokusai so he constantly bullies him. Or maybe its the fact that both guys love each other but can't tell for fear of rejection or the fact that the other doesn't feel the same way. its cute n frustrating! But I enjoy it everytime I reread this series.
Want to know the true meaning of a Japanese light novel? Read this one. There's really no plot to this manga but I didn't mind it at all. If it wasn't for the quirky mix of characters, this manga would've failed miserably.
As it stands, the characters make up for a story shortfall. It's entertaining, awkward and stupid all that the same time. Making you want to turn the page for more.
Amazing in the sex scenes, and I loved them. I thought the anime was better and clearer than the beginning of the manga, but the scene in the hospital in the mannga was completely hot, and there's only an anime for the fiirst couple of episodes anyways.
I'm a fan of this mangaka, I grabbed up v. 1 and 2 when they came out, then the series stalled out. A couple years later 3 was released and I was excited it was picked up again but releases have been sporadic and I'm not sure its all been released in English. I tried reading scans where I could but the translations weren't great and so I go back from time to time to check for new releases. Funny story though and I love the art!
Seito Kaichou ni Chuukoku or Hey Class President is an ongoing yaoi manga series by Monchi Kaori that’s also been made into an anime. It’s got all the trimmings: comedy, drama, romance, and with a high school setting. *BCB Even as he tries to keep the student council president—who has a mysterious charm that attracts men and perverts—out of trouble, Vice President Chiga-kun finds himself being drawn to him. Chiga-kun wonders how he, being such an intelligent individual, can be so unwillingly taken with a boy who is so country and simple...but watch out, because the president's sweet naïveté is irresistible! Basically, Kokusai is the student council president, a young man who attracts lecherous men like bees to honey, and can’t seem to protect himself. He’s adorable, but unfortunately dimwitted and just not assertive. He asks Chiga a fellow classmate and friend to become the vice president, and Chiga accepts. I thoroughly enjoyed this yaoi and look forward to reading more. The characters are highly addictive. I guess what I like is the fact that Chiga isn’t a normal seme—aloof and abusive—he’s reluctant, protective and truly kind. After he becomes the VP he finds himself gradually falling for Kokusai. And it’s a struggle for him, because he’s a bit of a womanizer. But he doesn’t want to Kokusai to think of him as that type of person, and he has no intention of treating him that way. He can be hot tempered and blunt, but overall he’s a good guy trying to make sense of his feelings. And he loves Kokusai. Kokusai isn’t the normal uke either. He doesn’t protest, and although he's somewhat confused with his own feelings, he still allows Chiga to become his boyfriend. I’m not big into the high school setting, despite the fact it is popular in yaoi and shonen ai. However Seito Kaichou ni Chuukoku is one of the best I’ve read. The art is quite pretty, the plot flows, and the leading men are nice guys, for a change. Don’t misunderstand me, I love the all powerful and unemotional semes, but I also like to see variations too—a man who doesn’t need to be a prick—a man who can win over the uke by simply being nice. What a treat! I also recommend watching the anime. I give Seito Kaichou ni Chuukoku 5 Stars!
It's funny, my ratings for this series tend to vary (first I rated it 3 stars here, and I gave it only 6 points over at Mangaupdates). But I finally settled on 4 stars, because while it isn't exactly Shakespeare, I find this series immensely entertaining.
Because while the "plot" is, ahem, hardly worth calling it a plot and horribly confusing, especially in volume 3 (I am still not entirely sure what was going on there), and the stalker bit is all kinds of weird and ridiculous, this series has something that's pretty rare: a couple where both the seme and the uke are equally hot for it *and* admit it. After reading 14 volumes of Junjou Romantica, for example, you soon see the difference. Chiga and Kokusai are pretty much an idiot couple, but they're seriously endearing. And I have to say, this manga is pretty dirty, but in the best of ways. It's funny, a lot of things I usually find annoying or silly in other manga (lots of sweat and sound effects during sex, for example) work for me here. The are also isn't great, but it works for the story, and she does manage to capture the more emotional scenes very well. It's nowhere near perfect, but as I said, it's immensely entertaining, and definitely one of the more enjoyable BL manga I've read. When you're in the mood for something not-serious and fun and dirty, go for this.
(And as an aside - I watched the anime before reading the manga, and while the amount of blushing going on was worrisome, and while the story was seriously unfinished, it really had some scorchingly hot scenes. I usually place more importance on the emotions than on the sex, and usually the sex scenes are just, well, kinda there, but in this instance - *fans self*)
We open the series with Chiga having just been suddenly appointed vice president of the student council (it's rumored the previous vice president was fired after jumping the president, Kokusai). Chiga happens to see Kokusai get groped on the train on the way to school (and then later in the train station, and at school, and...) and realizes the rumor might be true after all. Chiga takes it upon himself to be a sort of anti-harassment bodyguard for Kokusai, and of course the more time they spend together, the more attracted to each other they start becoming. Eventually Plot rears its ugly head (in the form of a stalker, and a missing niece and some weird crap about some college OBs and their angsty relationship), but Chiga and Kokusai's relationship is definitely the main focus. For the better part of the series (so far), Kokusai and Chiga have been totally crazy about each other, but each thinking the other is not interested in the other, resulting in lots of pining, longing, and painful misunderstandings designed to tug at the readers' heartstrings. (And, in my case anyway, it totally works.) It's also chock full of hilarious gags and puns (my personal favorite: when Kokusai is trying to tell Chiga that he's bleeding but Chiga doesn't get it because everything just sounds like his name: "知賀!違っ--血が!" etc etc.)
No plot and morally bankrupt but since I don't take it seriously I find this manga is hilarious and love it.
The "seme" is like 'no homo' and wonders why the "uke" attracts and draws out the pervert in all the males he encounters until he suddenly has the 'omg I want to bang him' epiphany and his sexuality crisis just up and disappears so he can pursue pursue the "uke".
The "uke" is like 'no homo' until "Seme" suddenly gives him a hand job and he likes it so much his sexuality crisis also just ups and disappears but for some reason continues to think that the "Seme", who gave him the enlightening hand job, is straight...
A yaoi that lives up to the genre's reputation that is nothing but sex starring clueless and stupid protagonists that would normally bore me but for some reason I find this one hysterical.