dbaranyi

“Saint Luminous Mission High School” is an original TV anime from 1998 that was produced by Genco/AIC/Triangle Staff and was originally broadcast in a last night TV Tokyo time slot. High school student Kaihei Kijimi is surprised when he finds out that he has inherited his grandfather’s prestigious private all-girls international high school, and he is even more surprised when he finds out that he must accept the role of school chairman or else the school will close. Against the objections of some of the teaching staff and of many of the students Kaihei enrols himself in the school so that he can continue his educationwhile he tries to decide what to do with his new responsibility. But things only turn to the worse as some of the girls start to disappear in mysterious ways while outside forces attempt to discredit the school and take it over. Kaihei finds himself embroiled in an ever deepening mystery while he attempts to establish his credibility with the students, staff and parents. Just what is going on at the non-standard school where students have an unusual amount of freedom in their studies? Are there evil spirits or aliens involved in the disappearances, as some students claim? Are Kaihei’s actions helping the situation or making things worse? Kaihei will eventually have to make a decision about a commitment that will affect everyone and everything at Saint Luminous Mission High School. This short and enigmatic series is first and foremost a very good mystery story. Although the setting and situation appear to be tailor-made for a harem comedy, comedy is very secondary to the mystery in this series, and Kaihei is not a harem anime lead character, nor are the girls harem anime heroines. The animation is quite good for the time, with character designs reminiscent of many of the classic AIC anime of the 90s. As well, the voice acting cast are for the most part seasoned pros from many of those same AIC classics. In addition, the ending theme song is a very early and quite memorable piece from Ali Project. Saint Luminous Mission High School remains a unique and intriguing example of late 1990’s anime series that were based upon original stories. It was originally released on Japanese Laser Disc, and then on R2 DVD, but has never been licensed in North America. The official web sites are now rather sparse and contain little of the original information.