Gakuen Heaven

Itou Keita, an average guy, is shocked when he's invited to attend the elite institution, "Bell Liberty Academy." Unnerved by the mystery, he's further distracted by the school's social dynamics. In a sea of amazing young men, Keita struggles to find out what makes him unique, and how he can possibly deserve to be treated as an equal by the boys of BL. Lacking any particular ability, just why has Itou been welcomed into the privileged world of the talented and the beautiful?

Along the way, he develops intense relationships with the almost everyone at school but he is terribly drawn to the friendly, over-caring but very mysterious classmate, Kazuki Endou.

Itou, Keita Main

Fukuyama, Jun Japanese

Endou, Kazuki Main

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Niwa, Tetsuya Supporting

Konishi, Katsuyuki Japanese

Nakajima, Hideaki Supporting

Morikawa, Toshiyuki Japanese

Taki, Shunsuke Supporting

Suzumura, Kenichi Japanese

Naruse, Yukihiko Supporting

Miki, Shinichiro Japanese

Saionji, Kaoru Supporting

Kamiya, Hiroshi Japanese

Matsuoka, Jin Supporting

Narita, Ken Japanese

Iwai, Takuto Supporting

Nojima, Hirofumi Japanese

Shinomiya, Kouji Supporting

Okiayu, Ryoutarou Japanese

Yamazaki, Asuka Producer

Ide, Mie Producer

Aoki, Kiyomitsu Producer

Hiiro, Yukina Director

Reviews

Oct 12, 2024

Nades14

Recommended

I like that all characters have what we could call "normal looks".
The anime doesn't take itself too seriously. It offers a heartwarming romance between the characters, and the love relationship grows at a normal velocity, just like in the real world (it takes time).

in Gakuen Heaven, the concept is not too complex. Their comedy and jokes are funny, and the tension between the protagonists is great. Other two points that are also appealing in the anime are the visuals (and old style of animation, in my view) and it also shows a welcoming school environment, instead of a toxic one.

I also enjoy that the anime ... is not just about their love but also about the mystery of who the president of BL School XD is (I don't want to give a spoiler).

Recommend to anyone who wants to see a BL story that is more lighter.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Mar 3, 2016

NekoMinSeo

Mixed Feelings

Just saying from the get-go. I failed to remember the names of most of the characters, besides Keita, Kazuki and Naruse, so I’m just going to refer to the rest of them by the nicknames that I ended up calling them with (don’t worry, it’s pretty much obvious who’s who by nicknames too, so there will be no confusion).

Story - 3

The overall story is just what it is/what it seems: light, simple, funny, fanservice-y; nothing more and nothing less than what I already expected when I dived into it: your typical highschool BL reverse harem set in the elite Bell Liberty Academy, which is ... literally shortened up to "BL Academy" and I'm not even kidding you! (I see what you did there, author!) Well, at least for the first half it was entertaining to follow Keita getting in all sorts of questionable and funny situations with the rest of the guys.

Second half was rather unbalanced from all points of view. The main problem was that it tried to add up different genres into the story to develop a kind of drama between the main characters, but seriously, it felt like it turned into a different show entirely. It tried to insert some half-assed assassins that got pawned by 16 years old kids because POWER OF MAIN CHARACTERS!! Then some workplace-family tragedy regarding Kazuki and his "secret" because WHY NOT, WE NEED ANGST. And lastly there was some sort of sci-fi virus situation because YAMI NO MATSUEI RIP-OFF(and for those that know that manga/anime, I can say two things: silver hair and medical experimentation. Hello, Muraki of the Red Moon!). But before you go and cheer expecting a Gakuen Heaven MurakixTsuzuki situation, don't get ahead of yourselves because it definitely doesn't go to that extent, no no, because we must not forget the absolute POWER OF BROMANCE! ... and the power of the main guy motivational speeches. This is a LIGHT show, people! Full of hearts and flowers!

Characters - 3

The characters were overall pretty under-developed, but it's anything but a rare issue when it comes to multiple-endings visual novel adaptations. However, not even Kazuki, the obvious main love interest, had as much development as I would wish and expect. He loved Keita by default, his "secret" was just a way to cause drama and in the end, nothing ever mattered. The other characters? They can't be really called "characters".

They are the most basic of anime archetypes with some "gimmicks" to them, sometimes not even that. Kingu (Yes, Kingu, because I can't help but make fun of Japanese Engrish) was nothing but the baddass student council president who had way too little screentime to even be able to remember him, Emo Painter was just an emo painter who sometimes acted like decoration just to be able to say "See? I'm here!", Queen is a feminine-looking guy and head of the school Treasury/Accounting department whose gimmick was acting like a "Queen", being beautiful and having an issue with it, his love/hate towards Kingu and his soft spot for a sketchy looking hacker/childhood friend (and he's voiced by Kamiya Hiroshi in his early seiyuu days coughs worth mentioning), Genki Guy was the typical genki guy with Kanto (?) accent which made him sound as if he was meowing for the most part so we got ourselves the Neko-guy too, who in the end literally did nothing but being "genki", then "megane"-san sent me creepy shivers in more ways than one, but he also went nowhere, then...well, you get the idea. The rest aren't much different or important either.

Honorable mention goes to Naruse because everytime he appeared on screen I couldn't help but grin widely for his over-the-top flirting sessions and I doubt I'll be able to get "HONEY!" off my mind for awhile. And then there's the twins, which surprisingly had to offer some development and conclusion regarding their feelings towards Keita, which I praise immensely seeing how awful the rest of the cast was treated.

Art&OST - 4,5

Art-wise, it was quite generic, nothing too bad or too awesome-looking. Some backgrounds looked unfinished though and I'm mostly referring to the forest backgrounds. OST is quite generic as well and didn't exactly pop out, however the opening song, if listened to more than once, becomes quite entertaining in the long run.

Enjoyment - 7

Well, I personally enjoyed it for what it was. It was my ray of sunshine in some days and I'm sad that it's over! I recommend it to those that want to shut their brains and have something to laugh or d'aww at or to people that like BL in general. I don't recommend it if you're looking for an involving story with twisted Yami no Matsuei-like BL elements or something similar to Junjou Romantica or Sekaiichi Hatsukoi. Gakuen Heaven is even lighter than those and it should be taken as such, for what it is, without having too many expectations for it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Mar 13, 2015

whiteteeth

Not Recommended

You can have a standard plot with standard characters but still have a good show. Nevertheless... I may have the unpopular opinion here but i think Gakuen Heaven is completely dull.

Gakuen Heaven follows the typical formula of "the new dude in school who is fawn over by all his classmates" which is a typical cliche in yaoi/yuri, shoujo and every other anime which involves school romances.
But you can have this setting and still make a great story, but in the case of this anime the plot is boring, all twists are hand-fed to the viewers from the start, and the only one ... which isn't (which i won't spoil because it happens in the end) it's completely random and pointless. The characters are dull stereotypes who doesn't add nothing rather than being handsome love interests to the main character. And Ito Keita himself is completely weak as the protagonist.

I know that this series, as it's based on a yaoi videogame, was probably made as some sort of fanservice for it's fans... but i expect to have at least a little bit of substance if i decide to take my time to watch a 13 episode show. I kept waiting for something to surprise me but everything was a disappointment in this one. There has been BL anime/manga with the same exact premise that still manage to be really interesting... but Gakuen Heaven couldn't get me engage in it.

But i understand that some fans may enjoy it. It has cute bishounen and a happy-go-lucky storyline (eventhough it's extremely pointless)... so if that's enough to float your boat it will probably satisfy you.
If you are someone who prefer something more substantial, it's a waste of your precious time.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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