Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight!

Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight! (がくえんゆーとぴあ まなびストレート！) is the title of a Japanese manga series set in a fictional future concerning the lives of a group of high school girls. The manga was created by the animation studio ufotable and illustrated by Japanese artist Tartan Check. The manga was first serialized in the Japanese manga magazine Dengeki Daioh, published by MediaWorks, on December 1 2005. A twelve-episode anime series began broadcasting on TV Tokyo on January 8 2007, which will be complemented by a bonus episode to be released exlusively on DVD on October 10 2007. A Playstation 2 video game based on the series will be released in Japan on March 29 2007, developed by Marvelous Interactive.

Plot
Manabi Straight! follows the lives of a group of young high school girls living in the year 2035 while they attend the all-girl Seiō Private High School (私立聖桜学園). Due to the fact that birth rate has dropped dramatically, schools are being closed down due to the sheer lack of students available to teach. Morale in schools has dropped dramatically, and Seiō is no different.

The story begins when the main heroine, Manami Amamiya, transfers to Seiō High School. Manami is an active girl with a positive personality, often shouting her personal motto Massugu Go! (まっすぐ Go!). Despite it being the day before her first day, Manami decides to go to Seiō to witness the forty-fifth swim meet where four members from six classes participate in a relay race against each other. On the way to school, Manami, or Manabi as she wants to be called, meets Mika Inamori, a shy student of Seiō who was to participate in the swim meet, despite her not knowing how to swim. After an intense ride together on Manami's futuristic scooter, they end up literally crashing the meet over the fence and into the pool. Due to Mika's inability to swim, Manami stands in for her, though is not very helpful. The next day during a meeting led by the student council in front of the entire school, Mika, the lone student council member and secretary, tries to rally students to join the council, but is initially met with an apathetic audience. Suddenly, Manami bursts through the doors of the auditorium on her scooter only to be summarily punished for the disruption. Manami shows interest in becoming the student council president, but since she is a new student and has already caused trouble for the school twice, the principal is reluctant to allow Manami to become the president. To show the school how much she wants to lead the student body, Manami begins to sing the school song of Seiō after hearing it for the first time the day before. At the conclusion of the song, Manami is inducted as the student council president and received well from the entire school.

The story that follows pertains to Manami working with Mika, and three other classmates named Mutsuki Uehara, Mei Etoh, and Momoha Odori, in student council matters, despite Manami and Mika initially being the only official members. After some remodeling of the student council room, Manami and her friends set forth to plan for the upcoming student festival.

Characters

 * Manami Amamiya (天宮 学美)
 * Manami, also known as "Manabi" (まなび), has a very active personality and gives everything a lot of effort. It is mainly due to her uplifting personality that other students begin to have more vigor in their lives, in contrast to how bland life was before she transferred. After transferring to Seiō Private High School, she becomes the student council president, and sets forth to transform the school lives of the students at the school so as give everyone a better experience while they attend Seiō. One of her first decisions is to clean up and remodel the student council room into a café of sorts where any student can come and relax. This spurns a cooperation from many of the other clubs in the school, which helps brings the students together under one project. Her motto in life is Massugu Go! (まっすぐ Go!) which she recites as a motivator for herself to go forward in life.


 * Despite her enthusiasm to become the student council president early on, Manami soon shows an incapability to lead even a joint student council meeting. Manami relies on her close friends for support for the things she wants to put forth for the sake of the school, while simultaneously giving her friends the motivation they need to continue work within the student council.


 * Mika Inamori (稲森 光香)
 * Mika, also known as "Mikan" (みかん), is a shy and clumsy girl who is constantly falling down and bumping into things. As an only child, she has taken advantage of her position and has been spoiled by her parents. After meeting Manami, Mika becomes very attached to her, and shows some latent signs of being attracted to her and others of the same sex. At first she was the only member in the student council, taking the position of secretary, but was later joined by Manami when she became the student council president.


 * At first she is unsure about Manami's strange enthusiasm and is unsure on how to work with her within the council. As time passes, Mika begins to become more enthused herself by going along with Manami's plans to reform student life at Seiō. Mika seems to be the least mature among the five main characters, even going as far as to believe "little people" finished the work for the school festival promotional video while she, Minami and Mutsuki were sleeping.


 * Mutsuki Uehara (上原 むつき)
 * Mutsuki, also known as "Mucchii" (むっちー), is an exceptional athlete whose reputation often precedes her. In effect, sports clubs at school have invited her to participate in several club activities as an honorary member. Not wanting to turn them down, Mutsuki ends up participating in a multitude of other sports-club related activities in addition the work she puts forth for the student council despite initially not being an official member. This is due to her liking to help out where she is needed. She has a tomboyish personality, often hitting Mei on the back very hard and sporting a short haircut for a girl. Mutsuki's mannerisms are not feminine either and her voice is deeper than the typical female's voice her age.


 * Mutsuki has known Mei Etoh as far back as elementary school and often tries to get her to participate with the other main characters as a group rather than distance herself more from them. Mutsuki was the first person Mika became friends with upon entering high school. The two share an odd friendship as they have little in common. Mutsuki is eventually inducted into the student council as the assistant.


 * Mei Etoh (衛藤 芽生)
 * Mei, also known as "Mee-chan" (めぇちゃん), usually appears to be a stubborn girl who tends to be industrious and competitive despite her standoffish nature. Mei secretly desires to be friendlier but finds it difficult to express her emotions. This is due to an event in her past during elementary school when she was unanimously voted to be the class representative. Before long, the students in her class started shirking his or her own duties, in effect giving Mei all the work to do herself. After this treatment from her peers, Mei had lost much faith in the intentions of people and distanced herself from others. When greeted by other students, Mei will usually not respond and just keep walking, apparently completely ignoring them, but is in fact too shy to engage in conversation. Mei has very little school spirit and feels that school events are a waste of time. Mei and Mutsuki have known each other since childhood, though Mei does not act like it.


 * After initially trying to organize the work of the student council, Mei gets inadvertently involved with the council's initial projects after Manami becomes the president, such as remodeling the student council room or helping to organize the inter-school dodgeball tournament. Mei is eventually inducted into the student council as the treasurer.


 * Momoha Odori (小鳥 桃葉)
 * Momoha, also known as "Momo" (もも), is a quiet girl from a rich family who may seem lazy since she tends to sleep during class time. She does not talk much, which usually leaves her to not get directly involved with student council affairs. She is a member of the journalism club and broadcast committee, which serves as the reporters of school news either through printed articles or recorded interviews. She is always looking for interesting things to report on and carries around a digital video recorder. Her hobby is videotaping the events of the student council surrounding Manami and her friends.


 * Shimojima (下嶋)
 * Shimojima is the male teacher of Manami's class; Manami started to call him Shimojii (しもじー) and eventually the other main characters followed suit. He has a lazy and self-depreciative personality; he once came to work after drinking a little too much. Despite this, he has shown an interest in helping Manami in her endeavor in making school life more interesting for the students. Such as when he donated 5,000 yen to the student council and tried to help with the early planning of the student festival.


 * Takako Kakuzawa (角沢 多佳子)
 * Takako is the student council president of Seiō's sister school Aikō High School (愛光学園). Her school is much more organized and has more money for school matters, such as for the student festival. She has a nice and helping attitude and has leadership abilities which likens her to that of the typical student council president.


 * Takefumi Amamiya (天宮 武文)
 * Takefumi is Manami's older brother and is her only guardian; their parents' whereabouts are unknown. While living together, he is in charge of most of the domestic chores around the house as Manami has to attend school. He loves his little sister very much and was very concerned once when her usual energetic attitude was completely depressed.

Manga
The Manabi Straight! manga, with story by ufotable and illustrated by Tartan Check was first serialized in the Japanese manga magazine Dengeki Daioh published by MediaWorks on December 1 2005. Currently, two volumes been released: the first came out on May 27 2006 and the second on December 16 2006. The first volume contains the first six chapters which encompasses the story from the first two episodes of the anime. There are no major differences between the manga and anime.

Anime
The twelve-episode Manabi Straight! anime starting airing in Japan on January 8 2007 on the TV Tokyo television network; it will contain twelve episodes. A thirteenth OVA episode will be released on October 10 2007.

Direction
The production staff of Manabi Straight! is taking a new path in terms of direction, effectively removing the traditional "director" position. Instead, a team of studio producers and episode directors called Team Manabibeya (チームまなび部屋) share the burden together, a first for an animation production. Team Manabibeya includes:


 * Story director: Ryunosuke Kingetsu
 * Animation director/Character design: Atsushi Ogasawara
 * Layout director: Takurowo Takahashi
 * Technical director: Takayuki Hirao

Music
Before the airing of the anime, five character mini albums were released featuring the characters of Manami Amamiya, Mika Inamori, Mutsuki Uehara, Mei Etoh, and Momoha Odori sung by their respective voice actresses from the anime. On February 7 2007 the opening and ending themes, "A Happy Life" and "Lucky & Happy" respectively, were released on a single album sung by Megumi Hayashibara and produced by King Records. According to Megumi Hayashibara, she was scheduled to voice Manami Amamiya, but she chose to sing the opening and ending songs instead. It was then decided that Yui Horie would take Manami's role. On February 21 2007, the first original soundtrack went on sale containing two CDs: the first with background music tracks and the second with remixes of the songs featured on the character mini albums.

Video game
A video game developed by Marvelous Interactive for the Playstation 2 entitled Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight! Kira Kira ☆ Happy Festa! (がくえんゆーとぴあ まなびストレート! キラキラ☆Happy Festa!) will be first released on March 29 2007 as a limited edition version retailing for 9,240 yen (~$76.50) including tax. This edition will come bundled with a thirty-minute length drama CD and two background music CDs. The normal edition released on the same day will retail for 7,140 yen (~$59.59) with tax.

The gameplay is that of a visual novel where the player interacts with the game by making choices at key times in the story. While the game consists of several different scenarios, the main one takes place during the summer festival. In the scenario Manami needs the cooperation and comprehension of the town people in order to ensure the success of the event. Manami and her friends go through various missions in the game while they work and help the people in town get ready for the festival. As an original system built into the game, Manami has the power to give her friends "Hustle Points" that she uses to cheer her friends up during their various missions.