Shomin Sample(庶民サンプル,Shomin Sanpuru), short for Shomin Sample: I Was Abducted by an Elite All-Girls School as a Sample Commoner(Japanese: 俺がお嬢様学校に「庶民サンプル」として拉致られた件,Hepburn: Ore ga Ojōsama Gakkō ni "Shomin Sanpuru" Toshite Rachirareta Ken), is a Japanese light novel series by Takafumi Nanatsuki. The light novel has been published by Ichijinsha since December 2011. Eleven volumes have been published. A manga adaptation began serialization in Ichijinsha's Comic Rex magazine in July 2012. A drama CD was released on February 20, 2013. An anime television series adaptation, produced by Silver Link, began airing in October 2015.
Kimito Kagurazaka is an ordinary high school student. One day, he is forcefully enrolled in All-Girls School Seikain, where its noble female students are cut off from the rest of the world to preserve their innocence. However, this deep isolation leaves a large number of school graduates unable to cope with the outside world. To deal with this problem, the school has decided to kidnap a male commoner, Kimito, hoping that his "common man's" influence will be a gentle way to introduce the girls to the realities of life outside. Unfortunately for Kimito, the school only considered him a candidate for this project because they thought that he was a homosexual with a muscle fetish. Therefore, the school concluded that Kimito is no threat to the innocent girls' chastity. Once he learns that he either will face castration or exile should this be proven otherwise, he has no choice but to cooperate. Soon after his enrollment, he has a fateful meeting with Aika Tenkūbashi. Aika is a student who can alternately be shy, stubborn, and/or pretentious. She is also innocently fascinated by the outside world.
Characters
Kimito Kagurazaka (神楽坂 公人,Kagurazaka Kimito)
Voiced by: Kaito Ishikawa (drama CD), Atsushi Tamaru (anime) (Japanese); Dallas Reid (English)The main protagonist of the series. He is a commoner who is forced to enroll at Seikain after being kidnapped. Kimito immediately notices how detached the girls are from the outside world. His first informal speech at the commencement ceremony leaves them flabbergasted. Seeing a cell phone for the first time excites the girls far more than it should. Kimito has a thing for girls' thighs. The staff has falsely announced to the school that he is a homosexual with a muscle fetish to protect the girls' pride and chastity. To help offset the strain of living up to his false credentials, his room in the school dormitory is renovated to look exactly like his bedroom at his family's home. He and Aika often chat in his room, where he enjoys trolling her with jokes about real-life topics that exploit her tendency for pretension as well as her very real innocence.
Aika Tenkūbashi (天空橋 愛佳,Tenkūbashi Aika)
Voiced by: Asami Seto (drama CD), Yū Serizawa (anime) (Japanese); Sarah Wiedenheft (English)The primary heroine of the series. She is childish, naive, and shy about talking to others. This distances her from them even though she wishes to be popular among her peers. Aika is strongly fascinated of the outside world. The PSP, ramen, and manga are but a few of her interests. She asks Kimito to teach her how to be a commoner. Aika declares the establishment of the Commoner Club with Kimito as the master. She seems to have feelings for Kimito beyond that of master and disciple. However, it is shown in a flashback to her childhood that a young boy (Kimito) once helped her escape to see the wonderful things the outside world had to offer.
Reiko Arisugawa (有栖川 麗子,Arisugawa Reiko)
Voiced by: Ai Kayano (drama CD), Rika Tachibana (anime) (Japanese); Mikaela Krantz (English)Reiko is considered the most innocent, polite, and cheerful girl in the school. Because of his earnest attempts to help her and the other girls with learning the Commoner Way, she quickly grows fond of Kimito and falls in love with him. She is someone who always acts positive although has a horrible singing voice. However, her personality drastically changes when she learns about Aika's idea for helping her reconcile with her friends and classmates after a certain uncharacteristic outburst. She does not want to accept Aika's unexpected help and bitterly confronts her for her actions. In the end, the situation is resolved amiably. In turn, this breeds a rivalry for Kimito's affections. Reiko joins the Commoner Club to stay close to Kimito and interfere with the advances of other girls.
Hakua Shiodome (汐留 白亜,Shiodome Hakua)
Voiced by: Rina Hidaka (drama CD), Yūki Kuwahara (anime) (Japanese); Jeannie Tirado (English)Hakua is a short, soft-spoken, and extremely youthful girl genius who is very antisocial until she grows attached to Kimito, which shocks her maids. Hakua is an expert in mathematics and the sciences. She habitually documents new equations on any convenient wall. She goes into a strange daze at such times and wriggles out of her clothes as she writes. Her family owns a cellular phone company. Hakua's maids tend to get her and Kimito into intimate moments.
Karen Jinryō (神領 可憐,Jinryō Karen)
Voiced by: Sachika Misawa (drama CD), Chitose Morinaga (anime) (Japanese); Skyler Davenport (English)Karen is a girl from a samurai family who carries a katana on school grounds. Her fear of insects causes her to reflexively slash others nearby even though their clothes are often the primary casualties. After Karen inadvertently experiences a humiliating defeat at the hands of Kimito, she believes herself to have become weak and swears to stick closely by his side. She is determined to kill him whenever a chance presents itself. She like Aika is a typical tsundere (although more aggressive) and she masks her feelings for Kimito with a fake desire to defeat him. She has a sexual arousal with Hakua. There came a point where Karen felt overexcited for displaying her full potential the first time when invading Reiko's wedding arrangement.
Miyuki Kujō (九条 みゆき,Kujō Miyuki)
Voiced by: Aoi Yūki (drama CD), Saori Ōnishi (anime) (Japanese); Mallorie Rodak (English)Kimito's personal head maid (in name only). She is a very sadistic person, often carries out severe punishment whenever Kimito commits a blunder, yet she secretly kisses him in the morning to wake him up. Miyuki knows Kimito because he switched places with her older brother when they were young to comprehend each other's worlds, and she becomes attracted to him. After switching back; however, Kimito developed a terrible fever which causes him to lose the memories of the events.
Eri Hanae (花江 恵理,Hanae Eri)
Voiced by: Yumi Hara (anime) (Japanese); Jād Saxton (English)Kimito's childhood friend and an idol voice actress. For unknown reasons, she claims to be his girlfriend and is upset about his sudden transfer away from home. In middle school, she was bullied for her unique voice, but Kimito told her that she could become a voice actress. Due to a misunderstanding, she believes that Kimito would not reciprocate her feelings, and so she lied wildly about Kimito being homosexual just to have him to herself, which unintentionally led him to be chosen to enroll at Seikain. She later becomes the second commoner sample as part of a deal after finding her way to Seikain in the hopes of bringing Kimito back.
Voiced by: Kousuke Toriumi (anime) (Japanese); Austin Tindle (English)Reiko's older brother who is very protective of his sister, resulting in having a sister complex. He is firmly against Reiko's arranged marriage and turns to Kimito for help.
Voiced by: Kaya Okuno (Japanese); Bryn Apprill (English)She works alongside with Eri in a few projects.
Anime
A 12-episode anime television series adaptation, directed by Masato Jinbo and animated by studio Silver Link, began airing in Japan in October 7, 2015. The anime has been licensed by Funimation in North America and Madman Entertainment in Australia. On November 11, 2015, Funimation began streaming the English dubbed episodes as part of its Broadcast Dubs initiative. The dub marks Aaron Dismuke's ADR directorial debut.
