Gakuen Heaven
A boy's love franchise spanning games, manga, and anime.
Gakuen Heaven is a Japanese media franchise originating from the Windows game Gakuen Heaven: Boy's Love Scramble, originally released by the company SPRAY. The franchise gradually expanded to include more games, drama CDs, manga, and anime. It is a boy's love property that began as a dating sim and was adapted into multiple formats.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Yaoi
Facts from the source article.
Characters
Keita Itō is a warm and friendly person who receives a letter of admission from Bell Liberty Academy in the middle of the school year, despite having no special skills other than luck. He seems to have forgotten who Kazuki Endō really is, and as a child he contracted the same virus that infected Hiroya Yoshizumi. Kazuki Endō is Keita's classmate and first friend at BL Academy, leading a double life as a student and as the school's chairman, a position he inherited per his late grandfather's wishes. His innocuous and friendly demeanor hides his skill as an executive, and he is a member of the handicrafts club; he is actually Keita's childhood friend who promised they would attend the same school. Kaoru Saionji heads the Treasury and Accounting department, is called the 'Queen' among students for his striking beauty and intellectual strength, though he performs poorly in physical education and dislikes being treated like a female. He has been close to Omi Shichijo since elementary school, once asking Omi to hack the BL Academy server when Omi did not receive the platinum paper. Tetsuya Niwa is the student council president, known as the 'King' for excelling in academics, sports, and extracurriculars, though he often neglects his duties and calls Kaoru 'Kaoru-chan,' which provokes retaliation; he has an aversion to cats. Omi Shichijo is Saionji's childhood friend, always smiling, extremely talented with computers, and helps Saionji at the Treasury department; Nakajima refers to him as a dog, and he enjoys sweet foods like chocolate. Hideaki Nakajima is the vice president of the student council, appearing brisk and cool, often trying to hack the school's treasury records to Omi's annoyance, and despite his sarcastic and cruel demeanor, he cares for Niwa. Yukihiko Naruse is the captain of the tennis club, takes an immediate liking to Keita and calls him 'Honey', and is always trying to ask Keita out on dates. Koji Shinomiya is the captain of the archery club, a responsible big-brother figure who also holds the position of Dormitory Head; he has a little brother with cardiac problems and is very close with Takuto Iwai. Takuto Iwai is the president of the art club, a genius artist who is moody, introspective, soft-spoken, and humble about his skills; he is very close with Koji Shinomiya. Shunsuke Taki is a superb cyclist who ranked third in the National Tournament, is cuter and shorter than others his age, speaks in Kansai dialect, and does freelance delivery work for most of the student body. Satoshi Umino is the oldest character but also the youngest-looking, extremely good at research but quite absent-minded, and serves as both a teacher and researcher for Bell Liberty; he is very strong from constantly carrying an overweight cat. Kakeru and Wataru Ozawa are twins who tease Keita, are never seen apart, always get into trouble, are very good at doubles tennis, and are known as the 'terrible twosome'; later in the anime they seem to become fonder of Keita but don't admit it until the last episode. Jin Matsuoka is the school nurse, Kazuki's mentor and former tutor, and the two are very close; he attended Bell Liberty himself with his friend Hiroya Yoshizumi, to whom he was very close, and has a dark secret that leads him to kidnap Keita, who contracted the same virus as Hiroya. Hiroya Yoshizumi is Matsuoka's childhood friend who attended Bell Liberty with him, went into the medical field after graduation, and contracted the 'X7 virus'; in the last episode, while Matsuoka watches shooting stars, Hiroya wakes up and greets him, saying it felt like he was asleep for a while and he heard Jin's voice.
Games
In the original game Gakuen Heaven: Boy's Love Scramble, the player character Keita Itō suddenly receives an acceptance letter from Bell Liberty Academy and decides to attend. On the day of his transfer, the bridge joining the school and the academy, located on a remote man-made island, suddenly raises and his bus falls; no one is injured, but the accident attracts the attention of student council president Niwa Tetsuya and accounting head Saionji Kaoru. After explaining the cause, they guide Keita to his classroom where he meets classmate Endou Kazuki, who befriends him and shows him around. On the school grounds, Keita meets tennis club captain Naruse Yukihiko, archery club captain Shinomiya Kouji, art club captain Iwai Takuto, genius cyclist Taki Shunsuke, vice president Nakajima Hideaki, genius programmer Shichijou Omi, and child-looking teacher Umino Satoshi. The objective is to solve the mysteries surrounding Keita's sudden transfer. A fan disc titled Gakuen Heaven Okawari! was released for PlayStation 2, set three months after the first game; in it, Keita picks up a cursed ring that takes away his major ability—luck—and the goal is to find a way to release him from the curse. In the sequel Gakuen Heaven 2 ~Double Scramble!~, released in April 2015, the player Yuki Asahina is invited to Bell Liberty Academy despite possessing no remarkable skill except uncanny good luck. On his first day, Yuki is entrusted with a mysterious armband that marks him as the Ace, the school's new student council president, but the position has been reduced to a powerless servant responsible for menial chores that Durak, the disciplinary committee, considers beneath them. After befriending classmate Tomo Kasahara and student council peers Kuya Sagimori and Masatsugu Takato, Yuki meets other important students: friends Arata Minase, a champion diver, and musician Reon Yagami; as well as Durak rivals Kiyotada Jokawa, Durak leader; Hayato Chiba, martial artist; and Eiji Sonoda, chef extraordinaire. Yuki must uncover and overcome a conspiracy, forming a partnership and potentially a relationship with a fellow student to save his position and the whole of Bell Liberty Academy.
Anime
Keita Itō receives a Platinum Paper, the special letter of admission from Bell Liberty Academy, a prestigious all-boys school that only accepts the cream of the crop. Though he doubts his ability to succeed as a mid-year transfer student with no special skill, he accepts. He is picked up by student council president Niwa and warmly welcomed. His first actual friend is Endō Kazuki, who takes care of him so thoroughly that Keita dubs him 'grandmother.' They become a steadfast pair, and when Kazuki is away, Keita finds company among other students. Keita has flashbacks to playing with an older boy he calls 'Kazu-nii' but dismisses them as irrelevant. Kuganuma is annoyed that Kazuki admitted a student of no particular skill—Keita—and rejects many of Kuganuma's proposals. While Kazuki is away on business, Kuganuma summons Keita and tells him his admission was unauthorized and that he is to be expelled. At his friends' urging, Keita emails the chairman to protest, and the MVP Battle is created: a contest for teams of two whose winners can have any wish granted. Keita teams up with Kazuki to ask for his expulsion to be overturned. Unknown to Keita, Kazuki stakes his position on the outcome, planning to resign if they lose. They succeed despite obstacles, and Keita's place at the school is secured.
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