is a Japanese four-panel

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

by Negi Banno about the lives of female teachers within a school at which they teach. The "Astro" in the title is actually an acronym abbreviating "Asahio Sogo Teacher's ROom", alluding to the school's name Asahio Sogo. The original title, ''Kyōkan Astro'', plays on the fact that is 'instructor' in Japanese, but the title uses the

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

meaning 'warship' in place of meaning 'government service'. The manga started serialization in

Houbunsha is a Japanese publishing company founded on July 10, 1950. It is based in Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo. History of Houbunsha In 1946, the founder, Yoshichika Koso, proclaimed the vision of establishing Shobunkan to provide entertainment through publishi ...

seinen manga is an editorial category of Japanese comics marketed toward young adult men. In Japanese, the word means "youth", but the term " manga" is also used to describe the target audience of magazines like '' Weekly Manga Times'' and '' Weekly Man ...

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

Manga Time Kirara Carat is a Japanese seinen manga magazine published by Houbunsha and mainly consisting of four-panel comic strips. It is released on the 28th of each month. The first issue was released on January 18th 2003 as a special edition of Manga Time Kirara. T ...

'' on February 24, 2005, and the first bound volume was released on February 27, 2007. However, the manga has not appeared in the magazine since November 28, 2007.

Yen Press Yen Press is an American manga, graphic novel and light novel publisher co-owned by Kadokawa Corporation and Hachette Book Group. It published '' Yen Plus'', a monthly comic anthology, between 2008 and 2013. In addition to translated material, ...

licensed the series for release in English, and released the first volume on August 12, 2008.

Plot

Set in the present, the story focuses on the exploits of first time teachers Izumi Maki and Yuko Nagumo as they begin their teaching jobs at the school they used to attend (Asahio Shogo). Other faculty members include Setsuna Arai, the school's nurse, and Kaname Karasuma, a veteran teacher.

Characters

; :Maki is a

physical education Physical education is an academic subject taught in schools worldwide, encompassing Primary education, primary, Secondary education, secondary, and sometimes tertiary education. It is often referred to as Phys. Ed. or PE, and in the United Stat ...

teacher who is very relaxed and does not take her job very seriously, much to the irritation of some of the faculty. She is prone to taking naps even during school hours and enjoys playing video games and drinking to excess. ; :Nagumo is the

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

teacher at her school, and dresses in a kimono for the class. She takes her duties far more seriously than Maki, and takes pride in tripping up and fooling her students (as she explains, if they fall for trick questions, they are not reading well enough). However, she is possibly more well known for being a glutton, bringing several

bento A is a Japanese-style single-portion take-out or home-packed meal, often for lunch, typically including rice and packaged in a box with a lid (often a segmented box with different parts of the meal placed in different sections). Outside Japa ...

to school, which she eats between every period, and is something of a ''

fujoshi Boys' love , also known by its abbreviation , is a genre of fictional media originating in Japan that depicts Homoeroticism, homoerotic relationships between male characters. It is typically created by women for a female audience, distin ...

'' though she tries to hide it. ; :Arai is the

nurse Nursing is a health care profession that "integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alle ...

of the school. She is very no-nonsense when it comes to her work, violently ejecting any students (or teachers) who are not actually ill. She frequently plays hand held video games in her office when patients are few and far between. She is somewhat infamous for being something of a

sadist Sadist can refer to: * A person with a high level of everyday sadism, a personality trait characterized by enjoyment of hurting others * A person with sadistic personality disorder, an obsolete clinical term for people who enjoy the suffering of o ...

, grinning happily at the sight of blood, and speaks almost gleefully at the prospect of injuries at a sports event. Arai has a

love–hate relationship A love–hate relationship is an interpersonal relationship involving simultaneous or alternating emotions of love and hate—something particularly common when emotions are intense. The term is used frequently in psychology, popular writing and ...

with Maki's brother, Itsuki, giving her characteristics of a ''

tsundere is a Culture of Japan, Japanese term for a character development process that depicts a character with an initially harsh personality who gradually reveals a warmer, friendlier side over time. The word is derived from the terms (adverb, 'mo ...

''. ; :Karasuma teaches

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

and

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

and is the back-up homeroom teacher to Maki, whom she is in love with. She carries a

camera A camera is an instrument used to capture and store images and videos, either digitally via an electronic image sensor, or chemically via a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. As a pivotal technology in the fields of photograp ...

specifically for taking photos of her whenever the chance arises, and frequently attempts to get closer to her, but is almost inevitably shot down. Maki appears oblivious to Karasuma's feelings.

References

External links

''S.S. Astro''
at

* {{Manga Time Kirara Carat 2005 manga Houbunsha manga Anime and manga set in schools Seinen manga Yen Press titles Yonkoma