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School Judgment #2
School Judgment: Gakkyu Hotei, Vol. 2
At this school, there’s only one way to settle a dispute—in a court of law!
At Tenbin Elementary, there is only one way to settle a dispute—in a court of law! All quarrels bypass the teachers and are settled by some of the best lawyers in the country…who also happen to be elementary school students.
The Masked Dude has been distributing a magical powder to the children of class 6-3 to put on their boring food. The powder is so addictive that the children who are hooked get sick if they don’t eat it. Pine finds Reiko Shiratori, the school’s Madonna, at the Masked Dude’s hideout and accuses her of distributing the powder. Can Abaku ronpa Reiko out of this not-so-sweet situation?
At Tenbin Elementary, there is only one way to settle a dispute—in a court of law! All quarrels bypass the teachers and are settled by some of the best lawyers in the country…who also happen to be elementary school students.
The Masked Dude has been distributing a magical powder to the children of class 6-3 to put on their boring food. The powder is so addictive that the children who are hooked get sick if they don’t eat it. Pine finds Reiko Shiratori, the school’s Madonna, at the Masked Dude’s hideout and accuses her of distributing the powder. Can Abaku ronpa Reiko out of this not-so-sweet situation?
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
January 4, 2018
Okay suspension of disbelief is gone. They are legitimately sexualizing ELEMENTARY school kids. I do not care what the age of consent is in Japan. The first volume it was tolerable because it was one moment in a ridiculous manga.
Skim the last manga to find out the origin. But we have a dominatrix twelve-year-old in that one. What the actual fuck.
Skim the last manga to find out the origin. But we have a dominatrix twelve-year-old in that one. What the actual fuck.
April 5, 2016
The second in a 3-book series is both fun and serious. This volume contains three separate legal cases while giving us a bit more information on the "Bloody Classroom Session", the overall mystery of the series. The book starts with the continuation of the magic powder case started in vol. 1 which ends up with a small treatise on what is a drug anyway and addictions in general. The second case brings in a new character that ties in with the bloody classroom tale while dealing with a plagiarism case that was quite a good mystery all in all. Finally, the last case brings in an adult prosecutor and tries to show the differences between adults and children in this world. Usually when we have kids left to their own devices we have "Lord of the Flies" scenarios or the real life "Robber's Cave Experiment" but here mangaka Enoki makes a point that the child-lead legal system in this series is making a kinder, gentler, more rehabilitating society. Not sure how realistic that would be but I do see some merit in it. Quite a thought-provoking series, while being fun and not too heavy. Will mention this volume has lots of fan service to big boobs and of course, gorgeous art by Obata.
June 7, 2021
It continues to be an interesting premise, and to have some good moments of heart, as well as I think showing some reasonable motivations, at least for a child. Some of the innuendos I feel go a bit far, and certain situations are exaggerated to an extreme, but overall it's pretty good.
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June 13, 2021...The gross "THESE ARE CHILDREN" moments increased exponentially in this one. It made it more difficult for me to enjoy the bizarre events and characters because I kept on getting deeply uncomfortable.
February 12, 2017
Volume two did not hold up as well as volume one did.
Here, we have a total of two and a half longer cases. The "half" is the conclusion of the previous volume, with thedrug candy dealing incident, which takes two chapters. The other two court cases take up the rest of the seven chapters and conclude within this volume, so no cliff-hangers. These cases include a civil case about blatant plagiarism and a sabotage of the school pool.
While these latter stories sound more reasonable than the previous volume's drugs, fish murder, and so on, the implementation made them even more bizarre. We've got some masters of game theory (guessing what your "opponent" will do next, not the Youtube channel) in elementary school as well as a full-grown adult trying these school arbitration cases. That's right, a real prosecutor gets involved in a school court case that's supposed to be run by elementary school students.
So while the cases make more sense in the school setting, there are factors that just make it weird. The stories also run much longer than the previous volume, since we really only get two cases compared to the first volume's three and a half. There's a lot more text to sift through and so the pace tanks compared to volume one. And truth be told, the novelty is wearing off. Whereas in volume one, I found myself laughing incredulously at an Elementary School Phoenix Wright, it's starting to wear a tad thin.
The artwork is still great and expressive, and the character designs are still very original, with a new crew of odd classmates getting introduced. The one thing I didn't care for was the scene at the pool with all the girls in their swimsuits.
I know, I can already hear some of you groaning and rolling your eyes at me. Yes, the sound of you rolling your eyes is reaching me through the 'net, but bear with me for a moment. My complaint is not with the swimsuit-clad girls, but with the scene.
Every girl (sans one) is wearing a bikini, and all of them pretty much the same style of bikini. And some of them are wearing bikinis that seem too small for them and would probably make swimming without boobs falling out impossible. It's elementary school. These are KIDS. You'd think they'd pick out suits that you could, I don't know, SWIM in. Or that there'd be a uniform swimsuit like the boys have (and that one girl is obviously wearing). One or two might have impractical swimwear, but all of them in bikinis? Yeah right. And I doubt the school would allow it anyway. In a country where homogeneity is really important (there are some schools that actually have standard haircuts students must pick from or be punished), there's no way they'd allow something like this. Meaning it was put in for fan service. And these are twelve-year-olds.
So, swimsuit ronpa aside, the pool case would actually have been my favorite so far, if not for the long run time and an adult shouldering his way in for some reason. It was quite clever, the way everything was resolved, but the adult kind of derailed things.
The plagiarism civil case was also pretty smart, though it got way too bogged down in the details. Plus, the fishy ninja business made me quirk an eyebrow. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the well-trained grade-school ninja, didn't I?
Ultimately, I think School Judgement is starting to out-stay its welcome. Such a crazy premise wears thin after a while if not executed correctly, and I think it's starting to feel the strain.
Here, we have a total of two and a half longer cases. The "half" is the conclusion of the previous volume, with the
While these latter stories sound more reasonable than the previous volume's drugs, fish murder, and so on, the implementation made them even more bizarre. We've got some masters of game theory (guessing what your "opponent" will do next, not the Youtube channel) in elementary school as well as a full-grown adult trying these school arbitration cases. That's right, a real prosecutor gets involved in a school court case that's supposed to be run by elementary school students.
So while the cases make more sense in the school setting, there are factors that just make it weird. The stories also run much longer than the previous volume, since we really only get two cases compared to the first volume's three and a half. There's a lot more text to sift through and so the pace tanks compared to volume one. And truth be told, the novelty is wearing off. Whereas in volume one, I found myself laughing incredulously at an Elementary School Phoenix Wright, it's starting to wear a tad thin.
The artwork is still great and expressive, and the character designs are still very original, with a new crew of odd classmates getting introduced. The one thing I didn't care for was the scene at the pool with all the girls in their swimsuits.
I know, I can already hear some of you groaning and rolling your eyes at me. Yes, the sound of you rolling your eyes is reaching me through the 'net, but bear with me for a moment. My complaint is not with the swimsuit-clad girls, but with the scene.
Every girl (sans one) is wearing a bikini, and all of them pretty much the same style of bikini. And some of them are wearing bikinis that seem too small for them and would probably make swimming without boobs falling out impossible. It's elementary school. These are KIDS. You'd think they'd pick out suits that you could, I don't know, SWIM in. Or that there'd be a uniform swimsuit like the boys have (and that one girl is obviously wearing). One or two might have impractical swimwear, but all of them in bikinis? Yeah right. And I doubt the school would allow it anyway. In a country where homogeneity is really important (there are some schools that actually have standard haircuts students must pick from or be punished), there's no way they'd allow something like this. Meaning it was put in for fan service. And these are twelve-year-olds.
So, swimsuit ronpa aside, the pool case would actually have been my favorite so far, if not for the long run time and an adult shouldering his way in for some reason. It was quite clever, the way everything was resolved, but the adult kind of derailed things.
The plagiarism civil case was also pretty smart, though it got way too bogged down in the details. Plus, the fishy ninja business made me quirk an eyebrow. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the well-trained grade-school ninja, didn't I?
Ultimately, I think School Judgement is starting to out-stay its welcome. Such a crazy premise wears thin after a while if not executed correctly, and I think it's starting to feel the strain.
March 6, 2024
The reason I do a comic book and graphic novel reading challenge every year is in order to expand my reading horizons. I can get stuck in a rut and miss out on some reading diverse good stuff. Considering that I am not a fan of Manga and I wanted to read the second volume of a series I discovered in the middle of my challenge is a testament that the experiment works.
The second volume of School Judgment was much more traditional in the Manga style. The expressions were exaggerated to the point that the characters look different. Too different! Scenes like the arbitration sessions are framed like the opening of a round of Street Fighter or Mortal Combat. But perhaps the most Japanese aspect of this book which was ramped up was the level of over-sexualization of the female characters. And this aspect is the most troubling.
School Judgment takes place at an elementary school. The oldest students are 12 and 13. In the last volume, there were 2 panels that had two separate female students taking a bath. However, there's no nudity. There isn't any nudity here in the second volume either. However, we get extreme close-ups of the assets of several budding school girls. It's even more extreme in the 2-part story that takes place at the grade school swimming pool. To the point that several of the male students make comments about how much 'bigger' their female classmates got over the school year.
The thing is, this actually could have been worse. At the end of each chapter, series creator Nabuaki Enoki provides a little bit of 'director's cut' feedback about the creative process of making School Judgment. Over the course of 3 segments, readers are shown how much more 'larger' the debut of the girl's swimsuits could have been. It is just me or does showing middle school students as flowering goddesses not bother anyone?
I know that there's more R-rated Manga stuff out there. School Judgment probably wouldn't even be considered PG-13. It would more than likely be PG-rated. And yes, I know that these are illustrations and not real life. Yet, this level of acceptance really bothers me. If anything, it will make me a little more cautious over the type of Manga I read in future challenges.
There's only 1 volume left. I'm rather torn as to if I should read it or not? I really want to know how things wrap up. Who is the perpetrator behind the massacre that led Abaku Inugami to become a lawyer? Will Inugami get his revenge? Will prosecutor Pine Hanzuki finally earn a win against Abaku? There's a lot of questions out there that I am dying to know. Yet as a teacher, I really don't want to be associated with something that promotes the objectification of children either.
The storyline is fantastic. Some of the art is questionable. But not for artistic merits. I'm struggling with if it's considered child pornography or not.
I've got a lot to think about...
The second volume of School Judgment was much more traditional in the Manga style. The expressions were exaggerated to the point that the characters look different. Too different! Scenes like the arbitration sessions are framed like the opening of a round of Street Fighter or Mortal Combat. But perhaps the most Japanese aspect of this book which was ramped up was the level of over-sexualization of the female characters. And this aspect is the most troubling.
School Judgment takes place at an elementary school. The oldest students are 12 and 13. In the last volume, there were 2 panels that had two separate female students taking a bath. However, there's no nudity. There isn't any nudity here in the second volume either. However, we get extreme close-ups of the assets of several budding school girls. It's even more extreme in the 2-part story that takes place at the grade school swimming pool. To the point that several of the male students make comments about how much 'bigger' their female classmates got over the school year.
The thing is, this actually could have been worse. At the end of each chapter, series creator Nabuaki Enoki provides a little bit of 'director's cut' feedback about the creative process of making School Judgment. Over the course of 3 segments, readers are shown how much more 'larger' the debut of the girl's swimsuits could have been. It is just me or does showing middle school students as flowering goddesses not bother anyone?
I know that there's more R-rated Manga stuff out there. School Judgment probably wouldn't even be considered PG-13. It would more than likely be PG-rated. And yes, I know that these are illustrations and not real life. Yet, this level of acceptance really bothers me. If anything, it will make me a little more cautious over the type of Manga I read in future challenges.
There's only 1 volume left. I'm rather torn as to if I should read it or not? I really want to know how things wrap up. Who is the perpetrator behind the massacre that led Abaku Inugami to become a lawyer? Will Inugami get his revenge? Will prosecutor Pine Hanzuki finally earn a win against Abaku? There's a lot of questions out there that I am dying to know. Yet as a teacher, I really don't want to be associated with something that promotes the objectification of children either.
The storyline is fantastic. Some of the art is questionable. But not for artistic merits. I'm struggling with if it's considered child pornography or not.
I've got a lot to think about...
February 15, 2025
Can someone explain to me how a manga author, a grown man, could be this obsessed with giving 12 year old girls huge breasts and telling us every other page how he would have liked to include even more pages about the girls in swimsuits and how he asked for a girl to have even bigger breasts?
And there really is no reason for it to be there. Like the story itself is actually really funny and creative, but this shit just gives me the creeps.
And there really is no reason for it to be there. Like the story itself is actually really funny and creative, but this shit just gives me the creeps.
September 5, 2023
Ce tome m'a paru meilleur que le précédent. Des histoires plus poussées, mieux réfléchies. On découvre mieux les personnages, avec plus de facettes, et l'apparition de certains qui amortissent l'aspect désagréable des personnages principaux.
Par contre la sexualisation de gamines de 12 ans n'était vraiment pas nécessaire et laisse un côté malaisant qui gâche vraiment le manga
Par contre la sexualisation de gamines de 12 ans n'était vraiment pas nécessaire et laisse un côté malaisant qui gâche vraiment le manga
September 9, 2024
The cases on offer here continue to be fun and always come to interesting, if a little convoluted, conclusions.
Unfortunately the artists also double down on making grade 6 kids sexy.
There is only one volume left, so I will see through but so far I'm not that impressed.
Unfortunately the artists also double down on making grade 6 kids sexy.
There is only one volume left, so I will see through but so far I'm not that impressed.
March 9, 2025
This volume completes the story begun in volume 1 and adds two more stories. The stories are good enough but to quote the adult on the scene, "everything from the cast to the decision is saccharine sweet like shortcake."
January 16, 2020
Still an great series. Loved all the law.
July 30, 2019
A ver, me ha quedado claro que el mangaka es un machista de mierda y que encima tiene los santos cojones de sexualizar a niñas de primaria.
Sin embargo, eso no quita que me lo pase pipa con esta historia, con esos personajes tan entrañables, esos juicios tan divertidos y esa deliciosa patada al final del tomo a la condescendencia adulta. Y se nota que el mangaka se ha informado sobre cómo funcionan los juicios.
Me da pena que sólo me falte un tomo para acabar esta historia.
Sin embargo, eso no quita que me lo pase pipa con esta historia, con esos personajes tan entrañables, esos juicios tan divertidos y esa deliciosa patada al final del tomo a la condescendencia adulta. Y se nota que el mangaka se ha informado sobre cómo funcionan los juicios.
Me da pena que sólo me falte un tomo para acabar esta historia.
September 23, 2017
~3/5
Given that this series only has one more volume, I thought this volume would have more development. We only got a tiny bit here, sadly.
Instead, we got three individual cases in the classroom, with Abaku defending and winning mostly. At one point, Pine struggles with her father’s decision to transfer her to another school again, when she’s finally settled and made friends at this one.
There was a tiny development for the classroom case that Abaku was involved in. We get an explanation of what happened after, who survived and what happened to the three kids. We meet the other boy, who rivals Abaku in the court-classroom, a crazy ninja kid. And we find out about a mysterious female student, who will surely be showing up next.
I’m not a big fan of this series, but this volume was okay. It was still exaggerated, and I’m annoyed with how easily Abaku seems to win, even against an undefeated opponent (who they spin the outcome for, to seem like it was a tie—bleh). Also, the overuse of the word “ronpa” drives me crazy.
I mostly just don’t think it’s for me, but I might read the next one to see how it concludes.
A review copy was provided by the publisher, VIZ Media, for an honest review. Thank you so, so much!
[Read more at my blog, Geeky Reading!]
Given that this series only has one more volume, I thought this volume would have more development. We only got a tiny bit here, sadly.
Instead, we got three individual cases in the classroom, with Abaku defending and winning mostly. At one point, Pine struggles with her father’s decision to transfer her to another school again, when she’s finally settled and made friends at this one.
There was a tiny development for the classroom case that Abaku was involved in. We get an explanation of what happened after, who survived and what happened to the three kids. We meet the other boy, who rivals Abaku in the court-classroom, a crazy ninja kid. And we find out about a mysterious female student, who will surely be showing up next.
I’m not a big fan of this series, but this volume was okay. It was still exaggerated, and I’m annoyed with how easily Abaku seems to win, even against an undefeated opponent (who they spin the outcome for, to seem like it was a tie—bleh). Also, the overuse of the word “ronpa” drives me crazy.
I mostly just don’t think it’s for me, but I might read the next one to see how it concludes.
A review copy was provided by the publisher, VIZ Media, for an honest review. Thank you so, so much!
[Read more at my blog, Geeky Reading!]
June 6, 2016
The middle case about the paintings was the strongest of this series so far, but there's just something...off about the whole thing. Also, what are they putting in the milk at that school that so many girls are so developed in the sixth grade!?
Full review eventually appearing on ANN (with vol. 3).
Full review eventually appearing on ANN (with vol. 3).
August 3, 2016
Starting to get a bit more serious, but not overly so. A couple incidences of fanservice, which creeped me out, but it's still far less than in others I've read our watched. The story is still enjoyable and clever especially for a rookie effort. I love Obata-sensei's art; it is so lively and there are so many details that you need to pay attention to catch.
April 22, 2017
Clever and entertaining.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews