Funny Faces in High School

What happens when five high school students with genuinely weird faces and even weirder personalities somehow end up in the same friend group? The results are exactly as chaotic as you'd expect. That's the core of High School! Kimengumi, an 86-episode TV series from 1985 where the comedy comes less from plot and more from watching these misfits stumble through daily school life with zero self-awareness and maximum strange energy. The Kimengumi are the school's designated weirdos, surrounded by equally absurd cliques like the Pretty-boy Brigade and the Rebel Crew. When transfer student Yui arrives and actually finds them interesting rather than off-putting, the show finds its rhythm, a loose, episodic string of gag situations, slapstick moments, and the kind of parody humor that pokes fun at school anime tropes before most people knew those tropes existed. The character designs lean hard into exaggerated features, which gives every reaction and facial expression its own comedic weight. There's a lightness to it that feels distinctly eighties: unhurried, character-driven, and genuinely fond of its cast. If you grew up enjoying Osomatsu-san or Nichijou's brand of absurdist ensemble comedy, this is essentially that energy in its earlier form. And if you've ever wondered where a lot of that irreverent school-comedy DNA in shows like Gintama actually comes from, High School! Kimengumi is a good place to start tracing the lineage.