Rating: Teen
RRP: $8.99

It's hard enough fitting in at a new school while dealing with family problems...  Will Haruna remain jaded and distance herself from everyone around her?  Or will Macharu win her over with his monkey magic?

Haruna, the daughter of a disgraced politician, must leave her upper class high school and transfer to another.  Her experiences at her old school has jaded her about school, and she sees all her classmates as monkeys living on a mountain; getting into groups, fighting, and reforming their groups.  She's decided she doesn't want anything to do with the "monkeys".  But on her first day, she meets Masaru, who even looks like a baby monkey and is called Macharu by his classmates!  Though she tries to distance herself, Macharu seems to be able to get through to her, making the rest of class believe that they should be a couple.

Monkey High! is a typical high school shojo, with a few different things going for it.  Haruna is a great lead!  Her jaded attitude and tendency to blurt out without thinking puts her in a class of shojo lead that I really like and is much more interesting than the usual "sweet girl trying to find her place and true love".  Haruna is looking for neither.  She wants nothing to do with her new classmates, after losing favor with her "friends" at her old school.  She wants to be the outsider, looking in at the monkeys.  Macharu also goes against the grain of the usual shojo male lead.  He's cute, but short for a boy, and is usually not taken seriously by anyone.  He's also kind and cheerful.  It's because of all this that he seems to be able to get to through to Haruna, often making her blush despite herself.  The pair make for a different couple that you usually get in a shojo.  Even their classmates, that decide that Haruna and Macharu should be a couple, find it hard to believe.  But it seems that because of the novelty of the situation their classmates want them to be a couple even more.

The classmates really help to make this title's name have meaning.  They seem to follow Haruna and Macharu, constantly hovering around them as a group, and butting in at the most inopportune moments.  Like a bunch of monkeys, they stick their noses into Haruna and Macharu's business, teasing and pushing them, some times going too far.  It's their eavesdropping at the end of the first chapter that starts the idea of Haruna and Macharu as being a couple, and it just gets worse from there.  But it's also because of their constant interfering that Haruna begins take Macharu serious as a boyfriend.  The dynamics of the class as a group are more interesting than just seeing individuals from within the group interacting with the leads.

Monkey High! doesn't bring anything exciting or new to the shojo genre.  What it does do is entertain with some interesting characters that you really like.  The comedy is subdued, with no chibi's popping up, but is still fun.  The situations are outrageous, and the reactions are real enough that you believe these characters could be real.  Anyone looking for a fun romantic comedy should pick this up.

8.5