Here is Greenwood

Here is Greenwood (ここはグリーン・ウッド) is a 6 part comedy OAV series based on the manga of the same name by Nasu Yukie.  The series was originally release on home video between 1991 and 1993.

     

    The story follows a group of elite all boys private high school students and the peculiar dorm hall they reside in, nicknamed Greenwood.  Hasukawa Kazuya, through bad luck, is unable to begin the school year until a month later.  Kazuya is introduced to the president of the dorm, Ikeda Mitsuru, who shows the late first year around the campus and settles him into his room.  Unknown to him, Kazuya is rather infamous in the school and the student body has decided to play a series of pranks on him.  The first prank is his room mate, fellow first year student Kisaragi Shun.  Shun, by all appearances and mannerism is a girl, but due to her famillies particular habits, has been raised as a boy and enrolled in the school as a boy.  Rooming with a girl, living as a boy will prove to be quite complicated for the beleaguered Kazuya.  Kazuya and his older brother, Kazuhiro, lost there parents a number of years ago.  Kazuhiro is a number of years older and took it upon himself to raise his brother.  Everything was going well for the brothers until Kazuhiro mgets married to the first girl Kazuya fell in love with, his tutor Sumire.  In order to escape the torture of his brother enjoying the live of a newlywed with the woman he loves, he enrolls in the school his brother graduated from, Ryokuto Academy.  The decision was based partially on the ability to live on campus and to overcome his brothers academic abilities at his alma mater.

    Kazuya finds himself out of the fire and into the frying pan with a female room mate in an all boys school...except for the fact that Shun is really a boy who purposely looks like a girl.  Once he realizes the trick, Kazuya quickly understands the efforts the dorm has taken to mess with the student who missed the first month of school due to stomach issues.  Mitsuro also shows his true intentions, along with his reserved and cold roommate Tezuka Shinobu, to do as much as possible to pick on Kazuya.  Kazuya struggles to endure the loving pranks and traps set by Shun and the other members of Greenwood, pushing forward to avoid home as much as physically possible.  Avoiding his brother is harder as he works as the school nurse, partially in an attempt to keep and eye on his brother and join in on the teasing.  Its hard for him to move beyond his love for Sumire...his new sister-in-law and when that knowledge becomes known to the members of Greenwood his live becomes even harder.

 

    This strange comedy series first came to my attention in the mid nineties and instantly became a favorite of him, as should be somewhat obvious given the URL name of this blog.  The characters are well crafted over the course of this short series and the stories are memorable and well worth repeated viewings.  The humor is off beat and amusing.  This is an old anime based on an older manga so the character design and artwork is quite dated at this point.  Very classic shojo character designs, with tall willow men with long legs and beautiful features.

    The series has a bit of a long history for commercial release in America.  The original dub/sub releases were brought out by a company called Software Sculptors, an off shoot of the defunct Central Park Media.  In the mid 2000's the license was picked up by Media Blasters, who released a new dub and sub version on DVD.  Since then the license has expired and is currently no longer under the domain of any company in North America.  It will probably remain that way indefinitely.  The series was little known when it was originally released and never made any waves afterward.  I still have the original VHS copies from Software Sculpture, but should work on getting a copy of the DVD....unless it has some absurd collectors price attached to it.  The series is also not available anywhere for streaming, so good luck!!