Murenase! Seton Gakuen
Come Together! to the Seton Academy

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Story 7: Murenase! Seton Gakuen's over all narrative plotting is the standard slice of life/high school comedy formula, but unlike most manga/anime where this formula holds the narrative back, I feel that this allows the series to push at a much faster pace without feeling rushed. The series uses the expectations of the viewer to allow for a bypass of sorts, using the common sol tropes to skip alot of the exposition that is common in these sorts of narratives and instead use that time for great jokes, solid characterization, and a great set of morals that are surprisingly relevant to modern societal issues.

Art 8: ... The art, while adorable, cutesy, and at times just the perfect amount of bizarre, is kind of hard to really talk about, because in this type of manga, it is pretty much the standard among slice of life manga. It stands out more in how the series uses its art to create comedic moments, with intensely detailed zoom in shots, animals that are far more realistic looking in some pics then immediately minimalist in the next shot, which allows this series that on the surface looks standard, feel more unique visually.

Character 9: The characters of Murense! Seton Gakuen are surprisingly detailed, especially our protagonist, which is something I thought I wouldnt get to say before. He has struggles unique to him (not just the whole being in a school of animals while being human thing), like how he has an intense disgust for his peers, whom he views as being foreign to him, he has a masculinity complex that hides a more sensitive side, and he has a lot of trouble expressing himself due to social anxiety. This is all portrayed in a way that is both hilarious and relatable, and it goes even further with the side characters. Each one has surprising depth as the author uses the other characters to express different common issues among modern youth, from being a social outcast, body image issues, and even gender dysphoria. That last one surprised me with how adeptly it was handled, as the joke wasnt hey look its a girl that thinks its a guy, ha. The joke is that the realization of thier gender was apparent to all but her, and the shock of this realization was too much for her to deal with. The way the chapter is framed is identical to the "coming out of the closet" scenes featured in a lot of media, and her response, while adorable, still further expresses how she is having difficulty accepting the situation she finds herself in. Gender dysphoria is a complex issue, that very few series handle well, and its nice to see one that truly does.

The series has multiple other moments and characters like this that handle complex and serious issues with a level of understanding that belays the light hearted nature of the story. Often times I will finish a chapter both laughing and thinking about the weight of what just happened, which is pretty remarkable.


enjoyment 8: If there is one word that I can use to describe my experience with this series, its surprising. I am not a fan of most slice of life stories, that goes doubly true for gimmicky comedies, but this is among the best ive ever scene. Its both ridiculous and zany in its comedy, yet smart and competent in its character and world, and is heart warming and modern in its moral expression. The series gives you more than just good jokes, it gives you something to think about and reflect on, and that, above all is pretty darn surprising.

Over all 8: Murenase! Seton Gakuen, while still being an excellent story with writing far beyond that of most of its competitors of the sol genre, is still a comedy sol with some minor harem elements. It is still a cut girls doing cute things series as well, so if that bothers you and turns you off inherently, then you wont like this series. However, if you were to try any sol, school comedy, or 'cute girls doing cute things' series this is the one to try, as its well written, well designed, and just cant help but endear you to it.

Have you ever felt just a little furry?
Not full blown furry mind you, but you have a thing for Neko’s, Kitsune and other Kemonomimi.
Are you no longer satisfied with your standard cat, dog, bunny and fox girls but full blown monster girls are just a bit to much for you?
Have you been desperately searching for panda, koala, sloth and bat girls in your standard harem anime?
If you feel a connection to any of these statements.

Get out while you still can…...

Still there?

... Then welcome to the Seton Academy!

Story – 7

Murenase! Seton Gakuen (Come Together! to the Seton Academy) Is a story about the mixed species school Seton Academy where all manner of Kemonomimi girls and full blown anthropomorphised animal guys study together. Yes, you heard correctly. The girls are Kemonomimi and the guys are animals that walk on two legs and wear clothes, with the obvious exception to this being humans. The main character Jin is a human with encyclopedic knowledge of animals which is constantly put to the test to solve the problems of his animal classmates despite his hatred of them. Along the way we find out more about his past, he collects more h̶a̶r̶e̶m̶ ̶m̶e̶m̶b̶e̶r̶s̶ friends…. And he tries to spend more time with the only other human in the school Hitomi while avoiding the eccentric little wolf Ranka. The initial story is honestly pretty awesome and makes you learn about animals in a surprisingly fun way. Case in point, while doing an animal quiz with my friends I crushed it. Convincing most of them I’m smart while in reality I’m just a degenerate, and before you ask, yes. This is a standard harem plot with panty shots galore so if that’s not your cup of tea you may wish to look elsewhere. As something of a degenerate myself I didn’t mind it and continued on learning interesting animal tidbits and enjoying the spectacle. However, the last few arcs kind of fell flat in my opinion as it felt like Bungo Yamashita was just throwing stuff at the wall and hoping something would stick. Therefore, despite how much I enjoyed the series initially, the score drops for the incoherent lead in to the rushed ending.

Art – 9

The art in Murenase! Seton Gakuen is great. The girls are extremely cute and their animal depictions are on point. Furthermore, the other half of the student body who are literally just animals are extremely well done and detailed. I can’t even fathom the amount of effort necessary as Yamashita could have been content with this but also made solid background and action scenes and even had all the teachers be dinosaurs for some reason, all of which was also well drawn. While there were occasional weird attempts at different animals that were a touch jarring the artwork is probably the best part of this series.

Characters – 8

Jin Mazama

Jin is a man with the knowledge of Steve Irwin and with zero of his love. Jin hates animals, to him they are pests to be avoided if possible and controlled when necessary. He has studied them not because he loves them but because he has to know his enemy. When you find out more about his past, his view although frustrating to watch is also understandable to an extent. However, that’s not all there is to our Jin-dere. His hate of animals regardless of species actually makes him really fair with those who would otherwise be ostracized for their particular quirks and the stigma they might receive from the other animals. This causes a harem of Kemonomimi to form around him while a more secretive group of male students watch longingly from the shadows. Furthermore, he’s not quite as hateful as he lets on as he’s occasionally gone out of his way to help others while also showing genuine concern for his friends. If I have one complaint about Jin it’s that his attitude towards Ranka is awful in the beginning. I mean come on, how can you hate such a cute character. Speaking of which.

Ranka Ookami

An adorable little pink haired wolf who wants to rule the world. However, she’ll have to start somewhere and that means leading her own pack in Seton Academy first. Ranka would definitely not be considered the most capable, intelligent or powerful leader but she makes up for that with...uh… well she is cute I guess? All joking aside, she’s really determined to cross the divide that animals make with each other to only stick with their own species and willing to do what it takes to help others. She’s honestly an admirable little wolf with a heart almost as big as she is. Although, she does have a habit of letting success go to her head inevitably leading to her downfall. Thankfully, she has the capable Jin to pull her out of trouble and the kind Hitomi to smooth things over.

Hitomi Hino

Hitomi Hino is the only other human at Seton Academy and the girl Jin is interested in. She’s kind and accepting of others and demonstrates all the qualities of a true female as Iena would put it. She’s the one who comes up with the initial idea of a cooking club for the group and helps calm down Jin when he gets angry. She plays the part of the buffer well and is also aware of Jin’s feeling towards her. Although, she seems to prefer to maintain the status quo rather then allow their group to fall apart to infighting.

There are a lot of other awesome characters in the harem as well including the ‘active’ sloth Miyubi. The ‘gourmet’ koala Yukari, The elusive cat Kurumi, the idol panda Meimei and the shy bat Chii. Add King the lion in ‘love’ with an impala, Iena the ‘manly’ spotted hyena, Ranka’s BIG sister Ferrill and the ‘nudist’ student council president Miki and you have a truly interesting and varied cast.

Enjoyment – 8

I honestly enjoyed this manga. It’s not often you get a harem manga that is actually kind of educational and the characters are all interesting and fun to watch. The hijinks they get into and the ways they solve their problems rapidly switch from realistic to absurd and back again and I would often be caught in between loving, hating and laughing hysterically about any particular arc in this manga. If you’ve read this far you should have a pretty good idea what to expect from the first 100 or so chapters. Although, the others might surprise you.

Overall – 8

While I have some complaints about some of the characters being 1-dimensional, a little too non-committal, rude or even straight up disappearing like the author totally forgot about them. Murenase! Seton Gakuen is honestly pretty good. If it had not been for the haphazard and rushed ending I would have rated it higher. With all that being said it’s a fairly unique, educational and interesting manga and if this review has made you curious then there’s only one thing left for you to do. Come to Seton Academy and Join the Pack!

Holy fuck this was bad.

I came from the anime and this already had a lot of problems in there.

The insane amount of fanservice was bothering me but it was nowhere near to the level of fanservice in the manga.

Story: No story, the worldbuilding is nonexistant, nothing makes sense, nothing ever gets explained. There are characters who are 65 million years old, some Re:Zero bs that gets glossed over like it was nothing and literally adds nothing to the story.

There are 4 academies in the story and we know nothing about either of them. We only know that in the main one everyone's mood is being ... horny or being an asshole.

Art: Cool. The designs for most of the main cast are the most generic and lazy thing ever created but the art stays consistent trough the whole manga and it looks nice.

Character: No character has a single shred of personality. Jin is a tsundere while Ranka is a literal puppy with the mental maturity of a 7 y/o who never acomplishes anything on the story outside the stuff that's biologically granted to her like being fast and shit.

There's a character with poop jokes who eats shit, some cat, Hitomi disappears completely from the last third of the story (outside of the fact that she literally gets a job to help the MC and cares for him instead of having a life of her own but yeah she gets cucked by Lanka because... i don't know). For being a rom-com this manga has much romance as DBZ, hell in DBZ there was the whole shit of Vegeta getting a family out of spite but growing fond of them eventually and putting his life on the line for them so there was love there... somewhere.
In this manga yeah there's none of that. There is more chemistry between a random side character and a nameless lion chick in 3 chapters than the "main couple".
Even in the anime it was beyond obvious that Lanka and Jin were gonna be together in the end but they never grow closer as a couple like never.
Miyumi is cool even though she has screentime for like 2 more chapters after what the anime already adapted, hell at the very least she doesn't interrupt the already shitty story with escatological jokes.

There's the whole lion and impala mating joke that gets dragged for 150 chapters and even in the end there's no punchline or anything. Theres a teacher who makes jokes about having sex with the underage children and haha its funny! Thank god the author eventually forgot about her like he forgot about everything in the manga outside drawing panty shots and girls in bikinis. Hell there is like a whole arc dedicated to two random ass teachers who adds literally nothing to the story and NEVER gets properly adressed again outside some stupid nods in some stupid chapters.

The only character who has any semblance of development trough the whole story is at the very own start of the manga which is Chloe (and Lion to a smaller degree) the zebra girl who goes from being a stuck up brat to being a chill person with a mighty kick who hangs out with the donkeys playing definitely not Yu-Gi-Oh. That's it.

Enjoyment: Poop jokes, sex jokes, haha jindere, haha Lanka likes Jin, Yena has a penis, Lion gets cucked, rinse and repeat for 170 chapters.
There was a catgirl in the start of the story who gets forgotten MULTIPLE times trough the curse of the history. Hell the author forgets about her in the final panel shot of the story and adds two random side characters who appear in an arc to be instantly forgotten quickly afterwards.

The story starts to barely pick up when it decides to go for arcs instead of random events but even then these arcs are so uninteresting and boring like holy shit.

I finished the story out of spite and i expected NOTHING from the ending and i still got disappointed. One has to literally power trough the last 23 final chapters which are the most pointless and generic shit ever imagined.

The whole manga feels like a doujinshi which had the sex scenes removed since everything is so pointless (in the sense that they add nothing to the "story"), generic and fanserviceish.

Overall: I blame the anime for making me continue this manga. Lanka is a vomitive character.