Cromartie High School: Volume 6

Pootan is one of the most popular kids shows in Japan, but when the show's producer schedules 20 autograph sessions the same day in various cities throughout the country, he has no choice but to hire stand-in actors to take the place of the real Pootan. One of the replacements ends up being Freddie and his total lack of communication skills makes him an even bigger hit with the kids than the real Pootan, even though he looks nothing like him! A new character named Hideki Takahashi is introduced in this volume. He's a year ahead of the Cromartie cast and he's like the man's man. He's tough and a great fighter with a sense of samurai honor, but this wouldn't be Cromartie if there wasn't something weird about him. He walks around wearing a head accessory with bug antennae on them. Kamiyama and the others spend a great majority of this volume trying to figure out what special powers, if any, that this strange piece of headgear has. And what evil mastermind strapped a bomb onto Mechazawa and will the guys be able to defuse it in time?! This series seems like it's never going to get old. Nonaka keeps on coming up with new jokes and simple but effective moments of surrealism that will have you rolling in laughter. Some books with absurd humor can fall flat on their face because they have no grounding in reality, but you really like the characters in this manga, and the humor is never dirty or coarse and there's really no slapstick or characters yelling at the top of their lungs in distorted displays of emotion which mars a lot of shonen manga. The art here is rather crude, but suits the deadpan reaction most characters give to the crazy things going on around them. I would also recommend Azumanga Daioh and Midori Days.