Why The Hell Are You Here, Teacher?! Volume 1 Review
Hello everyone and welcome back to Tiro Finale! Ever since the pandemic, my figure collection has slowed down significantly. This is partly due to the lack of traveling on my end and the delays in shipping. Hence, the lack of figure reviews on the blog lately. Though that part of my collection has slowed down markedly, my manga collection has seemingly taken its place and seen a huge growth over the past few months.
With all the extra time on hand, I have had the chance to read much more manga than I normally would and have found myself exposed to all sorts of new series and genres. One such gem is Soborou's "Why The Hell Are You Here, Teacher?!" series which, after having caught up to all 5 released (English) volumes, have decided to take a shot at reviewing the entire series as they are gradually released. After all, what better manga to review than one of Bookwalker's current best sellers, right?
Unlike most manga reviews, I will be going through each chapter of the first volume whilst trying to remain as spoiler free as possible. Each volume is broken down into 10 main chapters with an additional bonus chapter, or omake, included as part of each volume's release. The entire volume was read via Bookwalker's app running on Apple's 11 inch iPad Pro in order to ensure consistent, high quality content.
The first chapter, Golden Times, serves to establish the entire Why The Hell Are You Here, Teacher!? premise. Namely, student finds teacher in a compromising/unexpected scenario prompting the aforementioned title/question leading to some rather amusing and spicy scenarios. With each volume focusing on a new student-teacher combo, the first volume focuses on Sato Ichiro, a third year high school student, and Kojima Kana, a stern and feared teacher. From the get go, readers are greeted with Soborou's incredible art especially with the highly detailed close ups on Kojima-sensei. As ridiculous as the scenario at hand may be, the art seemingly drives everything along page after page. Before you know it, you have already reached the end of the first chapter and have found yourself wanting more without really questioning what you are getting yourself into, in the first place.
So then, we find ourselves in Chapter 2, A Steamy Moment, which is very much as the title suggest. While the premise remains the same, the ante is raised significantly with things immediately taking a more mature turn. Where the first chapter features a lot of suggestive scenes, readers will find themselves waddling into the territory of full nudity. So do be warned if you are planning to read this manga in public! Nevertheless, Soborou does a masterful job of diffusing the erotic elements with plenty of comedic drawings which ultimately results in a chapter being largely more comedic than erotic. We will find this to be a recurring theme with many chapters down the line and not just in this volume, but the following ones too.
Chapter 3, The Sweaty Geyser, takes place in an infirmary when Ichiro attempts to skip class by escaping to the infirmary but ends up finding Kojima-sensei there. Where the first chapter sets up the highly detailed art style of Soborou with the second chapter delivering the comedic twist, the third chapter emphasizes one of this series' strong suits, close ups at odd angles. Soborou's comfort at illustrating the main character in obscure angles really help to drive home the drama of each compromising situation. It was truly this aspect which was the hook, line and sinker for me to get involved with this series. While I am not able to share samples of those scenes here without also sharing adult content, rest assured they make a huge impact in selling the tension of a particular scene not unlike that which we have seen in Prison School (albeit being much less dramatic).
I am not sure why the fourth chapter is called, Pineapple Juice, but it is the first time readers will get to see Kojima-sensei in her casual clothes together with the introduction of new side characters, namely Ichiro's family. Where the first three chapters played out largely like you would expect form a comedic ecchi manga to, this chapter spends a good portion of it developing the characters, their backstory and the dynamics between their interwoven relationship. Just like finding each other in compromising scenarios, a properly fleshed out backstory between the two main teacher and students is another recurring aspect of this series. Certainly one of the highlights of this first outing and firmly within my three favorite chapters of this volume.
The next two chapters, Sweet Shelter, and, Love Taps, revert to much of the same in regards to the comedic ecchi formula. The fifth chapter, Sweet Shelter, reinforces that fabric in their universe does not work in the ways of our worldly understanding of material physics. While the sixth chapter, Love Taps, has the laws of physics working very much like what you would expect to see in a shounen manga. While they do remain to be enjoyable reads, they are some forgettable in the grand scheme of the entire volume.
The one saving grace would be the conclusion of the sixth chapter, Love Taps, which does a huge deal to accelerate the progress of the story. It was the necessary kick into gear that the Ichiro-Kojima arc required as they moved past the halfway point of the entire arc. As this manga initially begin as a one-shot leading into weekly serializations, it is not hard to understand why the pacing of the story telling in the first volume was a little inconsistent.
Fortunately, character and relationship development kicks into high gear by the seventh chapter, Growing Things, where we are introduced to a teenage Kojima-sensei. Of course, you also get a healthy dose of fan service as this is still first and foremost, an ecchi manga. What I am most impressed is how Soborou manages to convincingly illustrate a younger Kojima-sensei, maintaining her key features whilst changing a great deal of her outer appearance too. Just like the fourth, this too is another chapter which ranks within the top three from this entire volume.
The eight chapter, Getting Lit, brings to fore many the side characters that were first introduced in the fourth chapter. Rather than just focusing on Ichiro and Kojima-sensei, the intermingling of characters between the two really serve to add a huge injection of life to the story. Just like how the relationship between the two are constantly growing and evolving so to does it affect the people around them. And Soborou too is quick to pick up on its success with this formula being applied to many of the later chapter to great effect.
Nearing the end of the first volume, the ninth chapter, Cos-Play, sees Ichiro and Kojima-sensei working together in the school fair's haunted house attraction. At this point, the duo have found themselves in a fair number of compromising scenarios. When you compare the way to behave, there is a refreshing change of behaviors especially compared to the first few chapters which aims to pay dividend to their time along the way. On a side note, this is yet another chapter where Soborou's mastery of tight and obscure angles really stand out making the art notably distinct from other mangaka's.
The tenth and final chapter (omake withstanding) of the first volume is simply called, The Promise. Putting the entire Ichiro-Kojima arc to a close, Soborou pens a lovely ending to the first volume which serves as both a sweet conclusion or the precursor of more things to come. Whichever way things went, the first volume would not have felt like it was hanging. Where the fourth and seventh chapter compete for second and third place, the tenth chapter is undoubtedly my favorite of the entire volume. Bonus points for our protagonist, Ichiro, delivering one properly smooth line at the end of it all.
One of the benefits of purchasing the complete volume of any manga are usually the omake chapters. Unlike the usual 4-koma bonuses, Why The Hell Are You Here, Teacher?! actually comes with an additional eleventh chapter known as the Extra-Curricular Bonus Manga. On top of that, there are also several bonus 4koma comics which answer user submitted questions using the characters themselves. I will not go into detail about the eleventh chapter as those of you who have read sufficient ecchi manga(s) would probably know what it is about. Actually, those of you who do not would probably be able to guess what it is about.
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