by Samantha Hii, staff writer, Inside AX- Anime Expo

“St. Kleio Academy is a very exclusive school: all of the students are clones of famous historical figures such as Beethoven, Queen Elizabeth I, Napoleon, Mozart and Freud. All of them, that is, except for Shiro Kamiya. As Shiro struggles to adapt to this unusual campus, St. Kleio’s first graduate, a clone of John F. Kennedy, is killed. Are the clones doomed to repeat the fate of their genetic progenitors, or can they create their own destinies? And how does a normal boy like Shiro fit in?”

Released October 18, 2011, under Viz Media’s  Signature series, Kumiko Suekane’s Afterschool Charisma is an intriguing read.   Volume 4 of this series picks up where volume 3 left off, the students of St. Kleio are attacked by terrorists who are clones of the same historical figures.  Unfortunately, I was not able to read the first three volumes of this series, so I had to jump right into the action with little background information.

While the first few pages offer a neat little character roster, I was still mildly confused.  Needless to say, the plot of this particular volume took an interesting turn, as the readers received several action-packed and bloody fight scenes between the students and the terrorists.  By the conclusion of the terrorist attack we see that the roster of characters has changed a bit, with some of the clones leaving or dying. Everyone is confused and wants to know if they truly are going to follow the fate of their original selves.  At the very end of volume four we shift to Kai, a clone who looks the same as Shiro, as he begins to shed light on Shiro’s origins. That said, there are still a lot of questions left unanswered.

Volume 4 takes turns shifting from one clone to another as they confront the terrorists. I found it refreshing that the focus shifted to others instead of only focusing on Shiro throughout the story. We get to see everyone’s reactions and their thoughts as well.  The  whole aspect of fate and destiny was really strong in the issue, especially near the end. One particular character that I took interest in was Hitler, who’s reactions were truly interesting to read and really started to mirror the original Hitler towards the end of the volume.

Pros:

• serious tone
• little comic featuring Freud at the end
• shifting of point of view

Cons:

• Need to read vol. 1-3 (obviously)

Tags: After SChool Charisma, review, Viz Media