The Drifting Classroom: Perfect Edition, Vol. 1 by Kazuo UmezzMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
After an earthquake, an elementary school is transported to a desert world. Cut off from everything they know, can sixth grader Sho Takamatsu keep things together as even the teachers are falling apart?
A couple years ago, I was on a manga binge when good old Anthony Vacca recommended this to me. It was out of print at the time but now the entire series is collected in three omnibuses. I traded some crap in at V-Stock a few months ago and finally picked this up.
The Drifting Classroom was published in the 1970s and the artwork is of the time period, similar to Speed Racer and other manga from around that time. The cuteness cannot stop the coming horror, though.
As the last couple years have shown us, people have a habit of being shitheads when they need to come together and cooperate and these Japanese sixth graders are no exception. When faced with things like isolation, food shortages, and the unknown beyond the desert, plenty of people show their asses.
Sho Takamatsu, the protagonist, though at this point I don't know if he'll survive the series, is a somewhat angry young man who finds himself balls deep in trouble with other kids looking up to him. It quickly becomes a Lord of the Flies scenario.
Gruesome shit happens. The cutely drawn kids get dispatched in various ways, none of them kind. The teachers don't fare much better. Before reading this, I read that it inspired Junji Ito of Uzumaki fame. After reading this, I have no trouble believing that. While not as grotesque as Ito's work, some harsh things go down.
As far as horror manga I've read so far, The Drifting Classroom hits all the buttons for me. I need to score the next two volumes. Four out of five stars.
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