The Drifting Classroom

A few months ago, I was taking a break from the Jefferson Bass novels I have been reading for the past year. I wanted to curl up with some manga to break up the long journey of a book. Being October, I thought a Halloween themed manga would be best whether it was scary or had to do with Halloween elements. Mikey suggested Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service which is a decent manga but I could not get into it. I looked at Top 10 lists for the scariest manga and found a few possibilities. The Drifting Classroom by Kazuo Umezu was my second or third, but it was what Mikey found at the library first. I would not be disappointed with this selection.

Note that I do not read fast. It is one of the reasons that finding books I like is hard. Those Jefferson Bass novels take me at least a month if I read a bit at night and sometimes when I have free time. I can get through a manga volume in a week or two. That being said, I finished the first volume of The Drifting Classroom in an hour. I have not felt this invigorated to read a manga since Death Note. It is still my favorite but Drifting Classroom comes in at a close second.

Sho is a sixth grade boy whose school has disappeared along with all the students in it. The children and the teachers have to find out how to survive while discovering what has happened. People start going crazy. Those outside of the school just saw it vanish into thin air, leaving only a crater. It has a bit of a "Lord of the Flies" vibe, but it is much more than that. Adults are involved and there is another side to the situation; the parents wondering where their kids are. Sho's mother spends years trying to find her son. Everyone thinks she is crazy because at times, she can hear him.

I will be frank. Kids die, horribly. As this is a work of fiction, this does not bother me. In fact I applaud them for having the balls to be controversial. Those who do have a problem with it should stay away from this series. But if you want a very fast paced manga that will have you on the edge of your seat and begging your husband who works at a library for more volumes, The Drifting Classroom is perfect. I love it. I could not put it down.