Flunk Punk Rumble

Flunk Punk Rumble (original name: Yankee-kun to Megane-chan) is a 23 volumes Manga written by Miki Yoshikawa from 2007 to 2011.

It was originally just a three part short story published in Kodansha's Weekly Shounen Magazine. These chapters are named "Stand", "Bow", and "Sit". Eventually, it turned into a regular manga, with the story continuing from the original three chapters; therefore, its first chapter is actually the fourth chapter. By the way that this manga is drawn, it looks like it would make a great anime series, but got a Live Action Adaptation instead.

Speaking of which, Miki Yoshikawa was the assistant of Hiro Mashima (Rave Master and Fairy Tail), so the art style of this manga is very reminescent to Hiro Mashima's work. This is most apparent in the Intercontinuity Crossover, Fairy Megane.

It's a Slice of Life manga that follows the lives of a "Yankee" named Daichi Shinagawa and a Meganekko named Hana Adachi , who is also the Class Representative of Daichi's class (thus the name Yankee-kun to Megane-chan, which can be roughly translated as (The Adventures of) Delinquent Boy and Glasses Girl). In the course of the manga, the two soon formed a whole Five-Man Band, with the genius and Gray look-alike Seiya Chiba, Adachi's former kohai Rinka Himeji and the Marty Stu wannabe Izumi Gaku.

Expect lots of silly facial expressions, comedic circumstances, and quite a few cool fight scenes as Hana ropes Daichi and the gang into her crazy ideas.

A 10 episode live-action drama was broadcast in 2010. It modified some plot points and added some depth and emotion, but the show kept much of the spirit and goofyness of the manga, at least in the first couple of episodes.

Tropes used in Flunk Punk Rumble include:
  • Absurdly Powerful Student Council: Though not your typical definition of "powerful".
  • Action Girl
  • Art Evolution: Just compare the first appearance of Chiba with a latter one
  • Authority Equals Asskicking: The current student council, the previous one, and the one from the rival school have mostly been composed of people who can kick serious ass when needed.
    • This is definitely the case with the two groups who ran for the new student council.
    • Subverted with the StuCo of Aosuji Academy.
  • Badass
  • Bad Bad Acting: Komaki Howari (turned into a Large Ham after proper training from the student council).
  • Berserk Button:
    • Don't call Akita a girl.
    • Do not mess with Izumi's former True Companions.
    • Don't mess with Adachi's duties as class rep/student council president. Or with her glasses.
  • Beach Episode: Which somehow turned into a Hot Springs Episode because Adachi forgot her swimsuit.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The toilet cubicle, the porn show used to lure Chiba out of his room.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: A lot of characters who are seen in earlier chapters often end up playing some important role in later ones (see the Early-Bird Cameo example on this page), even seemingly minor characters.
  • Clark Kenting:
    • For some reason, people only realize who Adachi truly is (and run away as fast as possible) when her glasses come off.
    • Subverted and played straight in Chapter 32: Noda recognizes Shinagawa's disguise in Adachi's glasses right away but the older baseball club members and Adachi herself are fooled.
    • Shinagawa also doesn't recognize Adachi to be the girl he fell in love with and who was the sole reason for him joining that school.
    • And he also doesn't recognize Adachi to be the girl who gave him the scar on his face after beating him in a fight. After he lost, he even made a promise with her to get back his glasses when he can beat her one day.
  • Continuity Nod: By chapter 112, Shinagawa is still playing that MMORPG in the computer club room.
  • Corner of Woe: Displayed a few times.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: You'd never guess that the sweet, ditzy, Meganekko class rep could be so terrifying.
    • You'd also never guess that Shinagawa's idiot childhood friend is a fighter on par if not better than him.
  • Curb Stomp Battle: Every time Adachi physically attacks someone. So much that Shinagawa hardly recovers from his extreme surprise after seeing Izumi successfully blocking Adachi's first kick.
  • Deep-Immersion Gaming: Occurs whenever Shinagawa plays the MMORPG with a team.
  • The Drag Along: Much of the fun in earlier volumes comes from Shinagawa reluctantly complying with Hana and co.'s shenaningans. It changes when the focus of the story drifts from her to him.
  • Dream Sequence
  • Dynamic Entry
    • Adachi does this sometimes by kicking down doors.
    • Himeji Rinka's initial debut.
    • Izumi after the Culture Festival, taking on a group of delinquents who attacked a friend and sent him to the hospital.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Izumi's first appearance in the manga actually coincided with Rinka's in chapter 23 along with all the other "nerds" of class 2-A. He's seen again in chapter 25 as one of the harassed students in the field trip before his proper introduction at the end of chapter 28.
  • Everyone Is Related: The girl Izumi has a crush on turns out to be Shinagawa's sister Kairi, and she's dating the former StuCo President Akita.
    • The cute little girl Mako-tan who keeps messing with Shinagawa in the MMORPG he plays? She's Kitami's younger sister. She pops up when they visit his place.
    • Shinagawa's childhood friend Nerima is one of Ageha's Big Four.
  • Expository Hairstyle Change: Parodied in chapter 119 during the second StuCo beach trip. Rinka undoes her pigtails and temporarily reverts back to her old hairstyle, claiming that since the Student Council, she has been holding back her true persona as the "Bloody Pantheress." She immediately capsizes the boat they are on.
  • Fan Service: While there are some not-so-blatant examples, there usually is not so much of this. It does happen, but pales compared to...
  • Fan Disservice: Especially when Nerima's flirting around.
  • Five-Man Band: Humorously constructed in the student council, with Adachi as The Hero, Shinagawa, Izumi and Rinka as a troika of lancers, and Chiba checking in as The Big Guy, The Smart Guy AND The Chick. Later becomes Shinigawa as The Hero, Izumi as The Lancer, Adachi as The Big Guy, Rinka as The Chick, and Chiba as The Smart Guy.
  • Flat What: Izumi reacts this way after the student council finds a necklace that claims to grant three wishes... and Chiba immediately suggests wishing that 5th-period PE get cancelled.
  • Flock of Wolves: The student council, this year, and apparently every other year as well.
  • Generation Xerox: Every male in Izumi's immediate family.
  • GIRL: Inverted, to the shock of the gang.
    • Subverted in Chapter 69 when Shinagawa assumes this to be the case regarding a rival merchant whose avatar is a cute little girl. It turns out, the rival player actually is a cute little girl.
  • Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: If Akita opens his eyes, it will be likely the evil variant, 'cause you just pushed his Berserk Button.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: Chiba actually has the 'good' kind, though it's a little more ambiguous than he would like.
    • Makoto's avatar in Battle Legend has a big scar upon his left eye.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: It first seemed that Chiba's interest in Makoto was unrequited. However, when Chiba has to practically carry Himeji during the three-legged race because of their height differences, Makoto is less than pleased.
  • Hot-Blooded: Sliding doors are no match for Himeji Rinka!
  • Honorifics: See the Japanese title.
  • Hypocritical Humor : There's a certain amount of humorous irony derived from Shinigawa thinking Adachi obviously likes him when his feelings for her are far more objectively clear. That's projection for you.
  • Idiots Cannot Catch Colds: When the whole school comes down with the flu except for Shinagawa, this is Adachi's explanation.
  • Intercontinuity Crossover: With Fairy Tail. Note that Miki Yoshikawa was actually Mashima Hiro's (Fairy Tail's author) assistant in his past works.
  • I See London: Izumi catches a peek at Himeji's undies in her infamous Moe Blob shot.
  • Japanese Delinquents: Just take a look from this spoiler quote:

The moral in chapter 36: In Flunk Punk land, EVERYBODY is a delinquent.

    • To Chiba's chagrin and repeated misfortune, his height and naturally glaring eyes automatically causes others to assume he is a delinquent. Him hanging out with Shinagawa, Adachi, and their group has only exacerbated this.
  • Kidanova: Seiun Nerima, though his tastes for women are rather... questionable...
  • Kogal: Anna Ichinomiya (also a former top cheerleader).
  • Loads and Loads of Characters: The cast list keeps growing with every volume.
  • Love Triangle: Confirmed, with the revelation that Rinka likes Shinagawa, who likes Adachi, who likes her glasses. Possibly morphing into Love Dodecahedron or Unwanted Harem as some girls later introduced to the story also seem to have a thing for Shinagawa.
    • Adachi's glasses are "inspired" by a guy she fought back in middle school, who made a promise with her to take back his glasses one day when he can defeat her. So you could possibly say she likes the guy who gave her his glasses. The guy in question? Shinagawa. And they both don't realise it.
  • Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Subverted. Hana forces Shinagawa to help under the pretext of being the class president, making this loner life a hell with her hare-brained attitude and well-meaning schemes. But she's only bugging him because she used to be a delinquent herself and can't relate to anyone else.
  • Manly Tears: In chapter 209, Shinigawa as he delivers the last lines of his graduation speech.
  • Maybe Ever After: Mixed very well with No Romantic Resolution.
  • Meganekko: Subverted with Adachi who seems like one at first, but in fact it's just a facade to hide her delinquent past.
    • If the manga was set during their middle school times, it would be Yankee-chan to Megane-kun
    • Aosuji's Student Council's president much less nice than you would expect from her Meganekko looks.
  • Nerd Glasses: The two recurring computer club students.
  • Never Mess with Granny: Adachi probably got her insane fighting skills from her grandmother.
  • Nobody Poops: So very averted to the point that it's an early Running Gag. Even the very first scene of the manga is Shinagawa sitting in his favourite cubicle.
  • Official Couple: Not who you're thinking. It's Makoto and Chiba in the end.
  • Offscreen Teleportation: Adachi has a habit of doing this.
  • Only Sane Man: Shinagawa, Izumi and Hana tries to be this, God bless them, but failed utterly for various reasons. Shinagawa is too Hot-Blooded, Izumi always find himself being targeted and challenged and can't do much but accept it, and Hana... well, Hana.
  • Panty Shot -> Magic Skirt: Adachi had some Panty Shots in the first chapters, thanks to frequent kicks. In typical FPR fashion, it wasn't fanservicey nor comical, but rather realistic wardrobe moves. It quickly faded away, having Hana (or Himeji) always drawn in an angle so the readers won't see any underwear when that happens. The characters, though...
  • Passing the Torch: From Student Council to Student Council.
  • Rivals Team Up: Shinigawa and Izumi as Co-Vice-Presidents. They continue to live out their rivalry in the most trivial ways possible.
  • Running Gag: Adachi has a habit of peeking into Shinagawa's favourite cubicle in the boy's bathroom. This actually created a rumour in their school that there's a ghost in the said bathroom. One chapter actually had Adachi using the said cubicle.
  • Scare Dare: School the evening during the holidays. It's the guys from the supernatural research club. And the head teacher's mother, visiting.
  • Scary Shiny Glasses: Adachi and Chiba at times. It's more often Opaque Lenses, though.
  • Schedule Slip: The author, Miki Yoshikawa, usually mentions that she fails to reach the deadline in her commentaries.
  • Sempai-Kohai
  • Serious Business: The rivalry between the Red and White teams during the school athletic festival is so intense that friendships and couples have been known to break up for the duration of the competition should the friends or lovers find themselves on opposing teams.
    • The stall at the back in the boys' bathroom is Shinagawa's only.

Chiba: That stall is serious business!

Hana Adachi: What a lame name for a play.
Shinagawa: YEAH!

  • Super-Deformed: Adachi becomes chibified (with accompanying Opaque Lenses) whenever she's doing or saying something weird.
  • Spoony Bard: Shinagawa played as a merchant who can't even fight when the gang tried to play a Deep Immersion MMORPG in order to get a certain student to go back to school. True to Adachi's characterization, she picked the merchant class for Shinagawa. Despite having a useless class, Shinagawa still became addicted to the said MMORPG and became a highly successful merchant.
  • The Stoic: Kagawa always has a straight face, even when he fights.
  • Surrounded by Idiots: Izumi makes this observation when the rest of the student council starts fighting the gang he'd tried to take on himself. His friend points out that he too is an idiot.
    • Chiba says this to himself pretty much every day.
  • Straight Man: Shinagawa to Hana, Seiya to everybody.
  • Theme Naming: Author Yoshikawa states in one of her commentaries / Q&A's that she names all of her characters after places.
    • With the exception of the first two chapters ('Stand' and 'Bow'), the chapter titles are (almost) always something picked up from the dialogue inside the manga. This could also count as Title Drop.
  • The Glasses Come Off: Happens several times in the first chapters when Adachi decides to kick some serious ass.
  • This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: The point of the whole story is to subvert this trope, as nothing is as strong as The Power of Friendship. Specifically subverted a couple times, such as when Izumi tries to quit the student council so that he can get revenge against a gang for beating up his middle school friend, without involving anyone else. They reject his resignation.
  • Those Two Guys: Two students keep criticizing the various posters the student council come up with.
    • The two students from the computer club.

"The computer club is 'the computer club;' there's nothing more to it! Even if I did know, I'd still want to call them 'computer club!' Even as adults, they'll still be called the computer club."

    • Nacchi and Macchi. As of the recent Student Council election, they have ascended into secondary characters.
  • Title Drop: See Theme Naming of the chapter titles above.
  • Two Guys and a Girl: Itsuki Kagawa, Akira Kitami and Anna Ichinomiya
  • Two-Teacher School: The only prominently featured teacher is Sakai, who is also the coordinator for the Student Council, and even then he is just a side character.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Shinagawa and Izumi. They spend much of their time together either viciously staring each other down or outright brawling. But they make a good team, and even if they clearly don't get along, they both grumpily admit that doesn't mean each would inarguably (and demonstrably) go to the ends of the Earth to save the other from danger.
  • Wig, Dress, Accent: The usual way the characters disguise themselves is to change the hairstyle and clothing style and possibly to put on some glasses.
  • Will They or Won't They?: Shinagawa asks himself this on a chapterly basis...
  • Zettai Ryouiki: Grade B for Himeji Rinka.
    • Miki Yoshikawa sometimes depicts Adachi Hana as an archer wearing Zettai Ryouiki socks. She manages to do this without making it fanservicey.

The Drama provides example of:

Shinagawa: Ha! Strawberry-print panties!
Hana: They're tomatoes!

  • Heroic Sacrifice: Discussed. Shinagawa fights the yankees who went at Monshiro for Hana. He takes the blame and face expulsion so her past won't be revealed in front of everyone. Various characters discuss what attitude Hana should have over this. Finally, she reveals her past to the whole school, what is intrumental in Shinagawa's reintgration.
  • I See London: Shinagawa has the chance to catch an eye at Hana's panties when she tries to kick him. Though we spectators see nothing.
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Himeji's reaction towards the ending.
  • Large Ham: Almost EVERYONE is required to be given the nature of the show. Riisa Naka particularly does her best at looking as dumb as she can. Even in the last episode in cleaned-up mode. Special mention also goes to Kanata Hongo as Izumi.
  • Lonely at the Top: Izumi's situation before he decides to join Hana's gang and become vice-president of the student council.
  • Maybe Ever After: For Adachi and Shinagawa at the end.

Adachi: Sensei, Shinagawa-kun confessed to me!
Sensei: I see, I see! Something to be glad about, isn't it?
Adachi: Yes!
Shinagawa: *cutting in, referring to her answer* You said yes just now.
Adachi: Yes?
Shinagawa: Which is it?!

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