Customer Reviews

The Drifting Classroom, Vol. 1

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Kazuo Umezu is the godfather of horror manga; Junji Ito, Suehiro Maruo and even the great Osamu Tezuka have admitted to being influenced by him at some time. He's legendary in his neighborhood, and thought of as a good luck charm (as told in this books "epilogue"-type ending), and...he's nearly always smiling! After this reading, I'm wondering what it is that he is so in love with.

This is a simple story (so far) that is driven through a tense psychology and plenty of violence (which grows to more, or so I hear). If you're reading this, you're probably already interested and know the story, so I'll skip that. I would like to say that this manga, overall, is a great start, albeit with a few flaws, some of which are hard to overlook.

VIZ publishes well, no doubt. A right-to-left format, as the Japanese are accustomed to, and no noticible censoring (as we're told with the "warning" sticker telling us tha this is intended for mature readers (and it is!)). However, there are a few drawbacks, the most notable being the decision to translate the original sound effects (which are always in katakana) into english (such as  becoming GYAAA!). Personally, I find it distracting and unauthentic. With most manga these days being presented in the most "Japanese" way possible, its a bit odd to see why VIZ choose to do this, yet try to keep things authentic with the right-to-left format.

Another small complaint is the shading. This publication is over thirty years old, and it shows. VIZ has done a pretty good job of restoring what they can, but the smaller panels here look very, very grainy, which mildly upsets me, because Kazz is a wonderful artist!

After not knowing much about this series, I've come to the conclusion that it's sucked me in enough to want the next volume (which I'll be rushing out to get soon!) and to continue with every release from this wonderful manga-ka. The minor set backs, the ones mentioned above as well as the fact that this is relatively cheap paper (though its cost is low, so my complaint is rounded yet again), are definitely overshadoed by a strong, psychological story and verbose and sometimes gory imagery. This is a fine start to a series and recommended to all horror fans!

In Japan, Kazuo Umezu is to the horror genre what Stephen King is to it in America. He's a highly respected mangaka and his work has spooked readers for generations. Getting lost in The Drifting Classroom shows why he's so popular.

The Drifting Classroom doesn't start out with horror. It lets the horror tale descend, slowly, gradually. There's no boom where the reader goes, "Oh, that's scary," but instead the creepiness builds up--along with the anticipation.

The main character, Sho, is a sixth grader, but that doesn't mean this series is intended for children. On the contrary, it's aimed at adults. Sho and his mother exchange nasty words when he doesn't get his way, and he runs off to school, threatening never to return.

He doesn't realize he may get his wish.

There's a terrible earthquake of some sort. When it's over, parents and locals rush to the elementary school only to find it is missing.

Meanwhile, the teachers and elementary school students peer out and discover that their school is in the middle of a wasteland. Venturing out, they discover a plaque dedicated to them in honor of their deaths at the school.

But they're not ghosts. A teacher commits suicide, proving they can still die. Another teacher seems to snap, killing other authority figures at the school and going after the children. A deranged deliveryman, desperate to have the food for himself, wields a knife against anyone who challenges him.

Sho is the one who figures out what has happened (or what seems to be the case so far, anyway). Somehow the school has been transported into the future, so far into the future that when they do find plants and animals, these things are unrecognizable to them. Between when they got to school and now, evolution has had a lot of time to work.

Sometimes we flash back to the parents, especially Sho's mother, who is hysterical and believes she hears Sho talking to her. Others think she's crazy, but we, the reader, know that Sho really is saying the words that she hears.

Umezu does a good job at going for people's fears. What happens here of course isn't realistic, but he's delving into primitive, subconscious terrors. The Drifting Classroom is labeled with Parental Advisory tags for explicit content, but it's really not that explicit. It has a few gory images, though for the most part, the fear comes through implication.

Reviewed by Danica Davidson

I had been reading about Junji Ito, and had read he was inspired to start writing horror manga partially because of reading the works of Kazuo Umezu, when I looked up Umezu on Wikipedia, I found out he wrote "The Drifting Classroom", a manga which I had stumbled upon earlier in the day when I found a list of "must read" horror manga from [...] (a link which now, seems to have vanished), and I figured, well it must be destiny that I read it! I gave up reading manga and horror some time ago, but this was an older manga, from 1975, and I figured I would at least give it a shot.

I am actually surprised by the less then stellar reviews for this manga. I was hooked on this from the get-go, and I suppose this is because unlike many authors who write horror themed manga (especially in pulp horror) there is little to no character development. I am not talking about mangas where there is just a little horror, but ones where the horror is the integral to the storyline. I am guessing part of the lukewarm reception is due to its age, most of the people who seem to read manga have read primarily stuff from the late 80's and up, with the exception of those series which have maintained extreme popularity, such as "Astro Boy".

With that said, I would like to say that I was impressed with the first volume of "The Drifting Classroom", there is a pretty good amount of suspense and mystery surround where and how they are where they are. In the first volume, we do not really see the outside world, except for in the first chapter, so a lot of what has happened and people's reactions are kept hidden, which heightens the tension and suspense.

In a way, this is a lot like an extended episode of Twilight Zone with a good deal of graphic violence. If you like Twilight Zone, and you like suspense, mystery, and violence, I would HIGHLY suggest "The Drifting Classroom", it is not so much about horror, as it is about people's reactions to a strange event and how they cope with it, and it is very intriguing. After reading the first three volumes, I can really see where the idea for Battle Royale came from.

Just be aware that this is an older work, and is written fairly differently then newer manga titles, but is still good. If you are looking for just pure straight gore, I wouldn't look to this manga, there is a lot in the first volume, but it does lessen.

One more note, I did not read the first volume from the Viz Translation, I read a fan scanslation, so any problems there are in the Viz version, I cannot comment on, I can only comment on the material itself. :)

God Bless and Enjoy ~Amy

Kazuo Umezu, The Drifting Classroom, vol. 1 (ViZ, 1974)

Pretty much exactly as described-- a school building suddenly breaks free of reality and finds itself teleported to a different realm of some sort. From there, we get the story from two different sides-- that of the schoolchildren and teachers inhabiting the school, and from the friend and mother of one of the trapped students back in the real world. I've never been a really big fan of Umezu's-- for being described as "the Stephen King of Japan" he's awfully tame-- but this one's got a nice hook and some decent insight into its characters, and I'm looking forward to vol. 2. ***

"The Drifting Classroom" from VIZ Communications is the first in a new Manga series from horror master Kazuo Umezu. It's cover states that it has explicit content but that's a bit of an overstatement. This book is PG13 at the very worst. The book centers on a 6th grade student named Sho who is a bit of a brat to say the least. He's always fighting with his mother who wants him to grow up and be more responsible. The pair have a huge fight before school as Sho dashes off to avoid being late, and later regretting the harsh words he had for his mother...and they may end up being the last words he ever says to her. Soon a catastrophic event strikes the school...and earthquake or maybe an explosion. Whatever it was, it left a great, big hole where the elementary school used to be and no trace of the school or children.

Hearing the explosion, Sho's mother runs to the school and is shocked along with the rest of the parents at the large crater where the school had once been. But they are not nearly as shocked as the students and teachers who find the school still intact, but surrounded on all sides by...nothing. Just endless miles of sand and rock, desolation all around. Panic overtakes the students as the teachers and principal try to keep order. The phones, television, and radio are all out as the teachers lie to the kids in order to keep them calm.

Umezu's story reads like an episode of the Twilight Zone but unfortunately bogs down in the second half of the book. The school disappears relatively early on in the story and the last ¾ of the book is all about the kids being in a panic as some try to leave the school, only to end up unconscious (or worse) in the desolate wastes. So basically you end up with about a 100 pages of crying, whining kids and few questions answered. What happened to the school? How did it disappear? Where is it now? I guess we'll have to wait to future issues to find out. On the plus side, Umezu's art is always solid and enjoyable. We'll see where we go from here...

Reviewed by Tim Janson

this book is about a school that somehow gets sent into the future. and boy is it a bleak future. the kids have to learn to survive on thier own in this alternate universe. its quite violent as the kids commit murder and other acts of violence.