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Gakuen Heaven
Volume 1 of the anime series
学園ヘヴン
Genre	Shōnen-ai, Romance
Manga
Author	You Higuri
Publisher	Biblos
English publisher	BLU
Volumes	2
Game
Gakuen Heaven: Boy's Love Scramble
Publisher	SPRAY, Visual Art's
Platform	PC
Released	2 August 2002
Novel
Author	TAMAMI
Publisher	Biblos
Published	October 2002
Game
Publisher	SPRAY, Visual Art's
Platform	PlayStation 2
Released	27 November 2003
Game
Gakuen Heaven: Type B
Publisher	SPRAY, Visual Art's
Platform	PlayStation 2
Released	22 July 2004
Game
Gakuen Heaven: Okawari
Publisher	SPRAY, Visual Art's
Platform	PlayStation 2
Released	27 February 2005
TV anime
Gakuen Heaven: Boy's Love Hyper
Director	Takahashi Natsuko
Studio	SPRAY, Visual Art's, Tokyo Kids
Licensor	AnimeWorks
Network	AT-X
Original run	April 1, 2006 – June 24, 2006
Episodes	13
Anime and Manga Portal

Gakuen Heaven (学園ヘヴン, Gakuen Hevun^?, lit: "Academy Heaven") is a popular franchise that is based on the PC game Gakuen Heaven: Boy's Love Scramble, originally released by the company SPRAY. The franchise gradually expanded to include three PlayStation 2 games, drama CDs, manga, and anime.

Characters

Keita Itō (伊藤 啓太, Itō Keita^?)

Voiced by: Fukuyama Jun

During the middle of the school year, he received a letter of admission from Bell Liberty Academy. Though he seems to be an average guy without any sort of special skills, he is a very warm and friendly person. The only skill he thought he had was Luck. He seems to have forgotten who Kazuki is really.

Tetsuya Niwa (丹羽 哲也, Niwa Tetsuya^?)

Voiced by: Konishi Katsuyuki

As the president of the student council, he excels in almost everything, from academics to sports and extracurriculars; he is also known as the "King" at the academy. He has an aversion to cats.

Kaoru Saionji (西園寺 郁, Saionji Kaoru^?)

Voiced by: Kamiya Hiroshi

He is the head of the school Treasury/accounting department. Strikingly beautiful, he shares the same amount of influence as Tetsuya Niwa, and is called the "Queen" among students. He is very strong intellectually but performs very poorly in physical education.

Kazuki Endo (遠藤 和希, Endō Kazuki^?)

Voiced by: Sakurai Takahiro

He is Keita's classmate and the first friend Keita makes at BL Academy. He leads a double life as a student of BL Academy and as its chairman; as the school's late chairman, Endo's grandfather's last wishes were for Endo to succeed his position. Endo's innocuous and perpetually friendly demeanor do not betray the fact that he is also an excellent executive. Endo is also a part of the school's handicrafts club. He is actually Keita's childhood friend who promised in the future they can go to the same school.

Hideaki Nakajima (中嶋 英明, Nakajima Hideaki^?)

Voiced by: Morikawa Toshiyuki

He is the vice president of the student council. He appears to be brisk and cool with most of the students, and can usually be found trying to hack the school's treasury records, much to the chagrin of Omi Shichijo.

Omi Shichijo (七条 臣, Shichijō Omi^?)

Voiced by: Tsuboi Tomohiro

Saionji's friend since childhood, he is a person who always smiles. He is extremely talented with computers and can also be extremely dangerous when he wants to. Currently, he helps Saionji at the Treasury/Accounting Department. Nakajima refers to him as "that dog" and "the treasury's dog". He likes eating sweets such as chocolate.

Yukihiko Naruse (成瀬 由紀彦, Naruse Yukihiko^?)

Voiced by: Miki Shinichirou

He is the captain of the tennis club at school. He takes an immediate liking to Keita and calls him "Honey". A little oblivious at times, he is extremely passionate about Keita and is always trying to ask Keita out on dates.

Koji Shinomiya (篠宮 紘司, Shinomiya Kōji^?)

Voiced by: Okiayu Ryoutaro

He is the captain of the archery club. He is a very responsible, big-brother figure. He also holds the position of Dormitory Head. He has a little brother who has cardiac problems. He is very close with Takuto Iwai.

Takuto Iwai (岩井 卓人, Iwai Takuto^?)

Voiced by: Nojima Hirofumi

He is the president of the art club and a genius artist. On the moody, introspective side, he is very soft-spoken and very humble about his skills as an artist. He is very close with Koji Shinomiya.

Shunsuke Taki (滝 俊介, Taki Shunsuke^?)

Voiced by: Suzumura Kenichi, Drama voice by: Majima Junji

He is a superb cyclist who ranked the third in the National Tournament. Cuter and shorter than others of his age, he is characterised by his Kansai ben dialect. Taki also does freelance delivery work for most of the student body.

Satoshi Umino (海野 聡, Umino Satoshi^?)

Voiced by: Tomoko Kawakami, Drama voice by: Amada Mahito

Although he is the oldest character, he is also the youngest in terms of outer appearance. He is extremely good at research but can barely take care of himself as he is quite absent minded. He is both a teacher and researcher for the Bell Liberty. He is also very strong, probably because he carries an overweight cat all the time. Though, it has been proven he is quite strong.

Kakeru Ozawa (小澤 翔, Ozawa Kakeru^?) and Wataru Ozawa (小澤 渉, Ozawa Wataru^?)

Voiced by: Takeuchi Ken and Voiced by: Mizushima Takahiro, repectively

Twins who tease Keita. The twins are never seen apart and they sneak around a lot. They are always getting in to trouble and the are the "kings of doubles tennis". Also nicknamed the "terrible twosome". Later in the anime the twins seem to become fonder of Keita, but don't admit this till the last episode; when the say that they might become his friends.

Jin Matsuoka (松岡 迅, Matsuoka Jin^?)

Voiced by: Narita Ken

The school nurse of Bell Liberty, he is Kazuki's mentor and former tutor, and the two are very close. It is revealed in later episodes that he attended Bell Liberty himself with his friend, Hiroya Yoshizumi, to whom he was very close. He has a dark secret and will go to any means to fulfill his own agenda.

Hiroya Yoshizumi (Yoshizumi Hiroya)

Voiced by: Kirii Daisuke

Childhood friend of Matsuoka, they attended Bell Liberty together. Not a major character, he went into medicine like Matsuoka after graduation, but contracted the "X7 virus" and is currently hospitalized.

Games

Boy's Love Scramble

In the original game, the player Keita Itō suddenly received an acceptance letter from the renowned Bell Liberty Academy (also known as BL Gakuen). Attracted by the prestige of the school, he decided to attend. However, on the day of his transfer, the bridge joining the school and the academy, which was located on a remote man-made island, suddenly raised and his bus fell. Luckily, no one was injured but the accident aroused the attention of both the student council’s president Niwa Tetsuya as well as the head of the accounting department Saiyonji Kaoru. After explaining briefly the cause of the accident, they guided Keita to his classroom where he met his classmate Endou Kazuki, who kindly befriended Keita and showed him around the campus. On the school grounds, Keita met the rest of the important students in the game: Naruse Yukihiko, captain of the tennis club; Shinomiya Kouji, captain of the archery club; Iwai Takuto, captain of the art club; and Taki Shunsuke, a genius cyclist; the vice president of the student council, Nakajima Hideaki; the genius programmer, Shichijou Omi; as well as the child-looking teacher Umino Satoshi. The objective of the game is to solve the mysteries surrounding Keita's sudden transfer to BL Academy.

Okawari

This is more like a fan disc than a sequel as the game is very short. It takes place three months after the first game. This time, Keita picked up a cursed ring that would take away his major ability - luck. The characters are the same as in the PC Game and the objective this time is to find the way to release Keita from the curse of the ring.

Anime

Summary

Keita Itō receives a letter of admission from Bell Liberty Academy, a prestigious all-boy's school that only accepts the cream of the crop. Though he doubts his ability to succeed at such a school because he is a transfer student coming in the middle of the year, and he has no special ability that he can speak of, he accepts the admission. Keita is picked up by Niwa, the president of the student council, and from then on, he is warmly welcomed by everyone to BL Academy.

Keita's first actual friend is Endo Kazuki, who immediately takes Keita under his wing and takes care of him to the extent that Keita laughingly dubs him "grandmother." The two of them become a steadfast pair, but in the days that Kazuki is not around, Keita has no trouble finding other company among the other students.

Occasionally Keita has flashbacks to his childhood, where he is playing with a slightly older boy whom he calls "Kazu-nii." He can't remember much except that he and "Kazu-nii" were close at one point, but these memories seem irrelevant to his current life, so Keita dismisses them.

Meanwhile, Kazuki is involved in a power struggle with the Vice Chairman of the board. The Vice Chairman is distinctly annoyed that the former chairman chose to leave his position to Kazuki, and views Kazuki as a young and incompetent despot incapable of running BL Academy, much less Suzubishi Corporation, the business group that owns BL Academy and many scientific research and development companies. Indeed, Kazuki rejects many of the Vice Chairman's proposals and seemingly "abuses" his power by admitting a student of no particular skill—in this case, Itō Keita—to BL Academy. Keita unwittingly becomes involved in a potentially deadly power struggle between the Chairman and Vice Chairman. Kazuki stakes his position on the outcome of the school's annual "MVP Battle--" that is, if he and Keita do not manage to win the competition, he will resign his position as Chairman.

Staff

• Game Character Design：You Higuri
• Director: Hiiro Yukina
• Script: Takahashi Natsuko, Hiiro Yukina etc.
• Anime Character Design: Nakayama Yumi
• Opening Theme: "School Boys" by YAMOTO
• Ending Theme: "Panorama" by Fujioka Masaaki
• Music Production: Dusk Production
• Music Composer: Nishioka Kazuya
• Produced by: BL Academy Supporting Committee

Drama CDs

So far, 5 drama CDs have been released. Aside from the first drama CD, the core cast remains the same for all other products in the franchise and is based on the casting in the PlayStation 2 games.

Full Length Drama:

1. Gakuen Heaven 1: Mirai wa Kimi no Mono
2. Gakuen Heaven 2: Muteki no Sannensei
3. Gakuen Heaven 2: Tsuyoki na Ninensei
4. Gakuen Heaven 2: Welcome to Heaven
5. Gakuen Heaven 3: Happy Paradise

Mini Drama

1. Gakuen Heaven: Bitter Chocolate
2. Gakuen Heaven: Sweet Candy

Manga

1. Gakuen Heaven Boy's Love Scramble First Print: March 2004
ISBN 4-8352-1565-6

2. Gakuen Heaven

Web Radio

Beginning from March 2006, there will be a web radio show on Marine Entertainment's site to promote the anime. Personality is the cover voice for Keita Itō - Fukuyama Jun and every 12 days, there will be guests from the regular cast.

Reception

Anime News Network describes the manga as derivative, but enjoyable, with a romantic sex scene.^[1] IGN found the manga surprisingly well-paced and enjoyable, despite its roots in a dating sim.^[2] Holly Ellingwood, writing for Active Anime, found the art for the manga to be very good.^[3] Nadia Oxford, writing for Mania Entertainment, felt that the manga did not rise above other BL manga, its only distinction being its video game origins.^[4]

References

1. ^ http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/gakuen-heaven
2. ^ http://au.comics.ign.com/articles/744/744615p1.html
3. ^ http://www.activeanime.com/html/content/view/2316/71/
4. ^ http://www.mania.com/gakuen-heaven_article_53586.html

Further reading

• de Bats, Hadrien (2008). Brient, Hervé. ed (in French). Homosexualité et manga : le yaoi. Manga: 10000 images. Editions H. pp. 110–111. ISBN 978-2-9531781-0-4. 

External links

• Anime Official Site(Japanese)
• Anime Unofficial Fan Site
• Web Radio Official Site
• Audio Wiki (Drama CD Information)
• Gakuen Heaven (manga) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia