Manga / Afterschool Charisma

From left to right: Florence Nightingale, Ikkyu, Elizabeth I, Napoleon, Freud, Shiro, Marie Curie

St. Kleio is, in every sense of the word, a special school. It doesn't just have 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 morally ambiguous to say the least) to see if they would live up to their originals' standards - complete, of course, with Historical Beauty Update.

Enter Shiro Kamiya, The Everyman, Nice Guy protagonist, who is the son of the school's director and the only non-clone in a school full of clones. He immediately forms a friendship of sorts consisting of the clones of Sigmund Freud, Napoléon Bonaparte, Ikyuu, Elizabeth I, Florence Nightingale and Marie Curie.

All's fine and good, of course, until Marie Curie decides she wants to Screw Destiny and transfers out of the school to study music, the clone of John F. Kennedy is assassinated, Freud investigates a bunch of anti-clone groups, and there's a secret cult devoted to the Almighty Dolly and is dedicated to screwing destiny over...

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, Viz Media is releasing the manga online, and as each volume goes to print, corresponding online chapters are taken down. Similar in concept to Clone High (only with less humor and more angst).

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Tropes found here:

• Blood-Splattered Innocents: 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.
• Break the Cutie: Hitler is starting to lean towards this after Rasputin and Einstein 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. Perhaps more alarmingly, he's beginning to show signs of being like his original.
• Character Development: Particularly evident with Mozart. Perhaps to the point of Taking a Level in Badass, considering that despite his earlier desire to die, 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.
• Clone Angst: 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.
• 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. In addition, his philosophy and tendencies towards clones are akin to that of a child who likes to 'torture' their toys.
• Expendable Clone: Rockwell takes this view against clones. To the point that he 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.
• Evil Knockoff: We find out that almost every clone has one in volume 3 and 4. Except for Joan of Arc, whose clone is actually a good person.
  • The truth is a little more complicated than this, for as we see in volume 5, 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.
• Famous, Famous, Fictional: Played with, in that 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.
• Fanservice: Shower scenes, anyone?
  • Also, (young, prettier versions of) Elizabeth I and Florence Nightingale shirtless. And Florence and Elizabeth bathing together. And generally more Ho Yay than you can shake a stick at.
  • Hell, Einstein grabbing Shiro's crotch has got to count for something.
  • 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 Hilarity Ensues.
• Fantastic Racism: 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.
• Full-Name Basis / Last-Name Basis: A lot of the clones are referred to by what they are commonly called today - eg. Marie Curie, Mozart.
• History Repeats: Something a lot of the clones — particularly Adolf — really, really want to avoid. Played completely straight by Joan and her predecessor clone, who are both burnt at the stake. John F. Kennedy's clone is also assassinated, though Freud notes that the circumstances surrounding the assassination are different.
• Irony: By the bucket-loads. Hitler is a socially awkward meek character, while Joan is devoted to a cult based around a sheep.
• Meaningful Name:
  • 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.
  • St. Kleio Academy is actually named after Clio, the Muse of History.
• Mirror Match: Napoleon and Dr. Kamui. Joan's Mirror Match 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.
• The Napoleon: Actually inverted with Napoléon Bonaparte's clone - he's a cheerful, easygoing guy. Shiro also comments that he gets taller every physical exam.
• Napoleon Delusion: 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 Leonardo da Vinci is believed to be suffering from this by passersby when that person is "un-personed" by St. Kleio's secret backer.
• Proper Lady: 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 Virgin Queen never got to.
• Say My Name: After her death, Shiro shouts JOAAAAAAAAAN!
• School Festival: A festival is planned to showcase the talents of the clones, and to raise funds.
  • Apparently the festival's purpose is to help the rich decide which clone they want to buy. What for, we'll just have to see...
• School for Scheming: There's definitely something fishy going going on at St. Kleio Academy, especially after Marie Curie "transfers out".
• Screw Destiny: The attitude of those of the clones who reject the idea of being bound to the fate of their originals. The Almighty Dolly cult devises a ritual to liberate a clone from his or her original's destiny, involving a symbolic death.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: In the outside world, especially within the research field and high class societies, clones are considered 'property investments' at best, and novelties at worst.
• Wrong Bathroom Incident: 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.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Some of the clones believe that they are destined to live lives analogous to those of their originals, even down to the lifespan.
• You Cloned Hitler!: A shy student is revealed to be a clone of Hitler.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: "Shiro says you're not Marie Curie, Pandora. That means you're not needed anymore."
• Young Future Famous People: All clones are high schoolers. Except for the unspoken-of graduates. One of the first "successful" clones, though, was seen in the first chapter: Kennedy.
• Yaoi Fangirl: Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shonagon in the Afterschool Charichuma omake. Basically, the clones of first female writers in Japanese history have been re-animated into Yaoi fanfic writers.

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