The Drifting Classroom, Vol. 2: Volume 2

by Kazuo Umezu

IN A SINGLE INSTANT, A SCHOOL OF 862 STUDENTS AND STAFF VANISHED FROM THE EARTH. THIS IS THEIR STORY.

Out of nowhere, a Japanese elementary school is transported into a hostile world. Soon, the students and teachers must struggle to survive in impossible conditions, besieged by terrifying creatures and beset by madness. Part horror, part science fiction, The Drifting Classroom is a classic can't-put-down manga series from...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1421507234
• ISBN13: 9781421507231
• Release Date: October 2006
• Publisher: Viz Media
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.1" x 7.6"
• Age Range: 18 years and up

Customer Reviews

just as good as the first one

this one was great. the kids are getting restless and more and more violent.... the adults are all dead except fop one. and he is a JERK.. keep on reading this series.

Why So Long For Such A Great Title?

Manga-ka Kazou Umezu has been making Japanese comics for decades. One of his most famous properties is The Drifting Classroom, first published in Japan in 1976. In 2006, VIZ Media (American huckster of all manner of Japanese medium) began the publication of a newly adapted English translation of this title. The question remains: why did it take thirty years? In brief, the story surrounds the horrific set of circumstances behind which an entire Japanese school building vanishes, leaving no sign but a crater in its passing. The reader (dare I say, audience?) watches through the eyes of two main characters - sixth-grader Sho Takamatsu, and his widowed mother - from either side of the disaster. As Sho and his classmates wonder what has happened to them, the school building being the only remaining structure to be seen in a desolate, sand-filled world reminiscent of Frank Herbert's Dune, Sho's mother grieves the loss of her only son in what appeared to be a tragic explosion which took the lives of all 862 occupants of Yamato Elementary. This second volume of The Drifting Classroom, Vol. 2 unleashes a rapid-fire assault on the imagination. While the first book developed the characters of Sho, his mother, and a select few classmates - as well as introduced the major plot device - this volume begins what promises to be a fatalistic barrage on the senses of the characters, and thus the readers, in close succession. Whereas Volume 1 begets the promise of unimaginably horrible things to come, Volume 2 begins to deliver. As the gravity of their plight begins to set in, the adults of the book (the stranded teachers and school staff) begin to lose their touch with renowned-Japanese civility, sanity, and - for some - life itself. And as reality shifts, the terrified students begin to lose their lives, as well. And this all occurs within mere hours of the fateful event! Fantagraphics' Comics Journal describes the series as "Lord of the Flies on amphetamines." Volume 2 brings truth and validation to this observation. Mr. Umezu's artwork in this volume is solid, though somewhat dated (not that this is such a bad thing), and looks a little awkward during certain scenes of frantic movement (for example, when a student is running, the pose looks decidedly superimposed over a Manga-esque backdrop, rather than to create a flawless illusion of fluid motion). This phenomenon in The Drifting Classroom, Vol. 2 is, however, less obvious than it was in its predecessorand does nothing to detract from the horror of the book's tale. So, why did it take thirty years for such a unique, cutting, powerful Manga to be released in North America? It is impossible to answer definitively, but there might be something to the suggestion that the subject matter was simply too disturbing in the past, somehow too real, even in its speculative fictional realm, for the North American audience. That is to say, the gentle reader knows and accepts that a building cannot simply vanish for no