Line #54 Manga/AfterschoolCharisma


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/After_7423.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350: From left to right: Florence Nightingale, Ikkyu, Elizabeth I, Napoleon, Freud, [[OddNameOut Shiro]], Marie Curie]]
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4	St. Kleio is, in every sense of the word, a special school. It doesn't just have [[ElaborateUniversityHigh great facilities]] and a high standard education - it's far more special than that. It's a school for clones. A group of scientists have decided to clone history's most brilliant characters (and not just the good guys, they've also cloned people who were [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler morally]] [[UsefulNotes/RasputinTheMadMonk ambiguous]] to say the least) to see if they would live up to their originals' standards - complete, of course, with HistoricalBeautyUpdate.
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6	Enter Shiro Kamiya, TheEveryman, NiceGuy protagonist, who is the son of the school's director and [[FishOutOfWater the only non-clone in a school full of clones]]. He immediately forms a [[TrueCompanions friendship]] of sorts consisting of the clones of UsefulNotes/SigmundFreud, UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikkyu Ikyuu]], UsefulNotes/ElizabethI, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Nightingale Florence Nightingale]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Curie Marie Curie]].
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8	All's fine and good, of course, until Marie Curie decides she wants to ScrewDestiny and transfers out of the school to [[ElegantClassicalMusician study music]], the clone of UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy is assassinated, Freud investigates a bunch of anti-clone groups, and there's a secret {{cult}} devoted to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_%28sheep%29 the Almighty Dolly]] and is dedicated to [[ScrewDestiny screwing destiny]] over...
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10	''Afterschool Charisma'' (''Houkago no Charisma'') is a {{seinen}} manga by Kumiko Suekane, which was serialized in ''Monthly Ikki'' from 2008 to 2014. In the United States, Creator/VizMedia is releasing the manga [[http://www.sigikki.com/series/afterschoolcharisma/index.shtml online]], and as each volume goes to print, corresponding online chapters are taken down. Similar in concept to ''WesternAnimation/CloneHigh'' (only with less humor and more angst).
11	----
12	!!Tropes found here:
13	%%* AlmostKiss: [[http://www.mangadog.com/manga/houkago_no_charisma/10/4/ Here]].
14	%%* AnyoneCanDie: Especially evident during a certain arc.
15	%%* BigNo: Shiro [[spoiler: after Joan is burnt at the stake]].
16	* BloodSplatteredInnocents: [[spoiler:Ikkyu and Florence get covered in blood when the Evil Knockoffs are gunned down in front of them. Ikkyu closes his eyes, but poor Florence has hers open.]]
17	* BreakTheCutie: [[spoiler:Hitler]] is starting to lean towards this after Rasputin and Einstein [[spoiler:reveal that the Almighty Dolly and the rituals late at night are, in fact, propaganda they both developed to prove a point in an ''experiment''.]] Poor guy. [[spoiler:Perhaps more alarmingly, he's beginning to show signs of being like his original.]]
18	%%** Not to mention all the crap Shiro goes through.
19	* CharacterDevelopment: Particularly evident with [[spoiler:Mozart.]] Perhaps to the point of TakingALevelInBadass, considering that despite his earlier desire to die, [[spoiler:Mozart personally manages to not only receive acknowledgement of his skills from the previous Mozart clone, but in this way keeps from getting shot by him at a time when a good number of previous clones were killing (or attempting to kill) their current counterparts together with themselves.]]
20	%%* ClonesArePeopleToo: Shiro and Kuroe take this view.
21	* CloneAngst: Most of the angst in this series comes from the teenage clones forced to live up to their clone parent's legacies. Mozart hangs himself while Marie Curie transfers to another school when she'd prefer to study music instead of chemistry.
22	* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Rockswell, Director of St. Kleio, is introduced as a ditzy, easily-bored man who seems to have little interest in actually running the school. [[spoiler:In addition, his philosophy and tendencies towards clones [[PsychopathicManchild are akin to that of a child who likes to 'torture' their toys.]]]]
23	%%* EroticDream: Shiro has one of Marie Curie at the start of chapter 4, he gets rudely and amusingly awakened by Ikyuu.
24	* ExpendableClone: Rockwell takes this view against clones. To the point that he [[spoiler:''strangles his adopted "daughter" Pandora/younger Marie Curie'' because he thinks that Shiro doesn't like her.]] Hell, he even states that watching clones suffer is something he finds ''arousing''.
25	* EvilKnockoff: We find out that almost every clone has one in volume 3 and 4. Except for Joan of Arc, [[spoiler:whose clone is actually a good person.]]
26	** The truth is a little more complicated than this, for as we see in volume 5, [[spoiler:most of the predecessor clones seem to have been living the same sort of day-to-day student lives that the current are living now (to the best of their abilities, of course, since psychological effects are evident in both groups), before it was...disrupted.]]
27	* FamousFamousFictional: Played with, in that [[spoiler:Shiro may or may not be the clone-son of the scientist who created the other clones, making him yet another clone of an important historical figure, albeit a fictitious one]].
28	* {{Fanservice}}: Shower scenes, anyone?
29	** Also, (young, prettier versions of) UsefulNotes/ElizabethI and Florence Nightingale shirtless. And Florence and Elizabeth bathing together. And generally more HoYay than you can shake a stick at.
30	** Hell, Einstein [[http://www.mangadog.com/manga/houkago_no_charisma/5/17/ grabbing Shiro's crotch]] has got to count for something.
31	** Chapter two has Freud and Shiro shoved into the girl's changing room. By Napoleon after the idea was whispered to him by Ikkyu. Fanservice and HilarityEnsues.
32	* FantasticRacism: Shiro seems to be the only non-clone who considers the clones to be fundamentally the same as other people. Likewise, some of the clones, particularly Mozart, consider non-clones inferior to themselves because they don't have the DNA of a proven genius.
33	* FullNameBasis / LastNameBasis: A lot of the clones are referred to by what they are commonly called today - eg. Marie Curie, Mozart.
34	%%* HimeCut: Himiko, being a clone of ''the'' Queen Himiko (who was a Japanese shaman queen) would of course wear her hair like this.
35	%%* HistoricalBeautyUpdate: Explained/lampshaded at the end of volume 3.
36	%%* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Sort of.
37	* HistoryRepeats: Something a lot of the clones -- particularly Adolf -- really, ''really'' want to avoid. [[spoiler: Played completely straight by Joan and her predecessor clone, who are both [[BurnTheWitch burnt at the stake]]. John F. Kennedy's clone is also assassinated, though Freud notes that the circumstances surrounding the assassination are different]].
38	* {{Irony}}: By the bucket-loads. Hitler is a socially awkward meek character, while Joan is devoted to a cult based around a sheep.
39	%%* LaughingMad: Mozart, several times. [[spoiler:Particularly after his suicide attempt.]]
40	%%* LockedInARoom: Shiro and Mozart (plus Pandora), before the expo. It's more to keep them safe than to force them to get along, though.
41	%%* MarshmallowHell: InnocentFanserviceGirl that she is, Florence Nightingale probably didn't get that she was subjecting Shiro to this.
42	* MeaningfulName:
43	** Shiro's name is written with the characters for "history" and "good". It's not yet certain exactly ''what'' it means, but in a series with a lot of characters trying to either force history to repeat itself or prevent it from doing so, it can't be an accident.
44	** St. Kleio Academy is actually named after [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Clio]], the Muse of History.
45	* MirrorMatch: [[spoiler: Napoleon and Dr. Kamui. Joan's MirrorMatch is a good person, Florence Nightingale's is taken care of before she can do much, and Mozart doesn't fight his. Shiro, on the other hand, has lots of them.]]
46	%%* {{Miko}}: Himiko.
47	* TheNapoleon: Actually inverted with UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte's clone - he's a cheerful, easygoing guy. Shiro also comments that he gets taller every physical exam.
48	* NapoleonDelusion: Played with for many of the characters, being the clones of famous historical people who have varying amounts of acceptance of this. In Volume 8, we meet "Jesus Christ" who is most assuredly ''not'' a clone, and [[spoiler: Creator/LeonardoDaVinci]] is believed to be suffering from this by passersby when that person is "un-personed" by St. Kleio's secret backer.
49	%%* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler:Marie Curie]] in volume 7.
50	%%* PimpedOutDress: Elizabeth during the expo, fitting for someone living up to a historical queen.
51	* ProperLady: Elizabeth may be a little too forceful to be a textbook example, but all she really wants is to be a housewife and settle down with a husband and family the way the original [[UsefulNotes/ElizabethI Virgin Queen]] never got to.
52	%%* ReplacementGoldfish: The clones, arguably, for their originals. [[spoiler: Hinted in a lot of ways with Shiro]].
53	* SayMyName: After her death, Shiro shouts JOAAAAAAAAAN!
54	* SchoolFestival: A festival is planned to showcase the talents of the clones, and to raise funds.
55	** Apparently the festival's purpose is to [[spoiler:help the rich decide which clone they want to ''buy''. What ''for'', we'll just have to see...]]
56	* SchoolForScheming: There's definitely something fishy going going on at St. Kleio Academy, especially after Marie Curie "transfers out".
57	* ScrewDestiny: The attitude of those of the clones who reject the idea of being bound to the fate of their originals. [[spoiler: The Almighty Dolly cult devises a ritual to liberate a clone from his or her original's destiny, involving a symbolic death.]]
58	%%* ThereAreNoTherapists: Flat-out stated by Dr. Kamiya. Shiro is basically the closest thing they've got.
59	* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: [[spoiler:In the outside world, especially within the research field and high class societies, clones are considered 'property investments' at best, and novelties at worst.]]
60	* WrongBathroomIncident: Shiro and Freud are pushed into the girl's locker room by Ikkuyu and pals. They get quite an eyeful of fanservice from Elizabeth, Florence Nightengale, etc.
61	* YouCantFightFate: Some of the clones believe that they are destined to live lives analogous to those of their originals, even down to the lifespan.
62	* YouClonedHitler: A shy student is revealed to be a clone of Hitler.
63	* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: "[[spoiler:Shiro says you're not Marie Curie, Pandora.]] That means you're not needed anymore."
64	* YoungFutureFamousPeople: All clones are high schoolers. [[spoiler:Except for the unspoken-of graduates.]] One of the first "successful" clones, though, was seen in the first chapter: Kennedy.
65	* YaoiFangirl: [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murasaki_Shikibu Murasaki Shikibu]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sei_Sh%C5%8Dnagon Sei Shonagon]] in the Afterschool Charichuma omake. Basically, the clones of first female writers in Japanese history have been re-animated into [[MostFanficWritersAreGirls Yaoi fanfic writers.]]

Context Manga / AfterschoolCharisma