Aula alla deriva, Vol. 2

The Drifting Classroom #5-8

by Kazuo Umezu, Clara Ciccioni (Translator)

Misteriosamente trasportati in una terra selvaggia e desolata, privati della guida degli adulti, gli alunni della scuola elementare Yamato lottano ora per la sopravvivenza. La giovane comunità, all'inizio raccolta attorno al coraggioso Sho Takamatsu, si divide in fazioni e, oltre alle mostruose creature di un ambiente terrifico e ostile, si trova ad affrontare le proprie paure e l'emergere delle pulsioni più oscure. Intanto, nel nostro mondo, la madre di Sho non si è arresa alla scomparsa del figlio, con il quale sembra in grado di allacciare un legame psichico attraverso le due dimensioni.

Genres: Manga, Horror, Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Fiction, Japan

756 pages, Paperback

Published November 23, 2017

About the author

Kazuo Umezu or Kazuo Umezz was a Japanese manga artist, musician and actor. Starting his career in the 1950s, he is among the most famous artists of horror manga and has been vital for its development, considered the "god of horror manga". In 1960s shōjo manga like Reptilia, he broke the industry's conventions by combining the aesthetics of the commercial manga industry with gruesome visual imagery inspired by Japanese folktales, which created a boom of horror manga and influenced manga artists of following generations. He created successful manga series such as The Drifting Classroom, Makoto-chan and My Name Is Shingo, until he retired from drawing manga in the mid 1990s. He was a public figure in Japan, known for wearing red-and-white-striped shirts and doing his signature "Gwash" hand gesture.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a far flung future wasteland, sixth grader Sho Takamatsu struggles to protect his fellow elementary school students from death and madness.

Here we are, the second Drifting Classroom collection. In this volume, Sho tries to keep everyone safe despite monsters, plague, fungus, a cult, and the damn lunchroom man. The Lord of the Flies scenario continues. Everyone is all too eager to turn on Sho at the drop of a hat.

Much like the previous volume, multiple kids are fed through the meat grinder. Kazuo Umezz's willingness to kill characters is what makes this series so damn interesting. His 1970s manga art is great for both quiet moments and carnage. Sho's connection to his mother across time and space seems to be a deus ex machina plot device at the moment. We'll see if the final volume puts a little more meat on those bones.

As with the first volume, The Drifting Classroom: Perfect Edition, Vol. 2 does not disappoint. Four out of five stars.

[Kesa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This second volume of the Drifting Classroom continues to be good. Every few pages someone is either hit or shoved back aggressively, I find it funny. There's still much gore and violence. But somehow these chapters felt a bit more repetitive, whenever they solve a problem there's another one on the way. But this keeps the story fast-paced and you cannot help but read right away. Already started the third and last volume of these beautiful perfect editions.

[Talie · Rating 4 out of 5]

کازوو اومزو به عنوان پدر مانگای ژانر ترسناک شناخته می‌شود.  گویا او بود که تصاویر دهشتناک با الهام از داستان‌های فلک ژاپنی را به مانگا معرفی کرد.  اومزو یکی از مانگا آرتیست‌هایی است که بر جونجی ایتو تاثیر گذاشته. در این مجمو‌عه‌ی ۱۱ جلدی که من ۲ جلدش را خواندم، آن مدل تصاویر دهشناکی که به وفور در کارهای ایتو دیده می‌شود وجود ندارد. وحشت روانشناختی است. مدرسه‌ای از زمین کنده می‌شود و به مکانی نامعلوم در فضا-زمان پرتاب می‌شود. دانش‌آموزان و معلمان مدرسه با انواع ترس‌ها و بحران‌ها مواجه می‌شوند. آرت‌ش خیلی با آرت نسل ایتو تفاوت دارد.  مثلن فیگورها گردتر و چشمانشان قلنبه تر است بعضی وقت‌ها کوتاهنمایی‌ها در اندام‌ها خوب در نیامده. محیط جزییات زیادی دارد ولی پرستپکتیو دقیقی ندارد. شبیه پرستپکتیو نقاشی‌های قرون وسطی است. 

[Amanja · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the spoiler free review of the full series of Drifting Classroom, if you would like to see the spoiler full review please visit here: https://amanjareads.com/2020/12/23/th...

I was really surprised by Drifting Classroom. On the surface it's a pretty standard horror manga. A classroom of kids needs to fight for their survival. But the gift of Drifting Classroom lies in its characters, that's where it really deviates from the norm.

The classroom in question is spontaneously drifted to a strange new land that no one recognizes. The children and teachers have no idea what has happened and must learn how to survive if they have any hope of returning.

Turns out the very young children, think elementary school aged, are much better at this than the adults. The teachers erupt immediately into a violent panic, there are many casualties. A lot of the shock of The Drifting Classroom comes from the author's willingness to kill off young children.

The protagonist is Sho, a 6th grader and natural born leader. He takes the role of helping everyone work together to find solutions. I really enjoyed watching him find his place in this new society. He handles all sorts of conflicts with a grace most adults could never hope for.

But my favorite character is Yu. He's a tiny 3 year old who happened to be riding his tricycle just too close to the school when it drifted. He's the cutest thing! The way he's drawn, the way he speaks, the way he acts. It's all just so danged adorable! Every time he showed up on the page I was overwhelmed with a motherly urge to protect him and fight for his survival.

I can't do justice to how cute Yu is with words alone. But I did find myself nearly crying from joy at one point in the book, soley because of his absolute purehearted nature. We don't deserve Yu, he's too good for this world.

I cared for several of the characters in this book. This is the key to great horror. The consequences have to be high! I actually did care if they lived or died, a surprisingly rare feature for horror of any medium.

In addition to the characters the art is great. Several full page layouts could easily be framed and hung in any room of your house.

It also has a levity that balances well with the horror aspects. Enjoy many many scenes of kids falling flat on their faces.

Seriously, it happens A LOT in this book.

I fully understand now why The Drifting Classroom is considered a classic. It's absolutely ridiculous and has a lot of stretches of reason but you'll have to see how it ends. You'll have to see if the kids get a happy ending, and you won't put it down until you kow.

[Barbara McEwen · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars - I loved the premise and wanted to see where the story went but I'm just not really feeling it. I don't think it helps I find all the kids super annoying. By the end it was feeling pretty repetitive, the kids plan to survive, insert random horror, kids split into factions and some die. Repeat. I mean the horrors are good ol' Japanese horrors though.

[Auryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book repeats the same formula per episode of the previous book. New danger, the kids freak out, some of them die, the situation is now under control.

Although it may sound repetitive, the book sucks you in.

[Joey Shapiro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes kinda repetitive bc as soon as these kids solve one 50-page conflict another one is immediately introduced without any real narrative progression, but maybe that’s just kind of the nature of serialized comics. Either way it is still insane and uncompromising and so fun. So many children murdering! Would love more monsters or some clues as to what’s going on in the grand scheme of things, but I am very along for the ride.

[Readaholic Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I dislike most of Sho's classmates and hate Sekiya. I hope Sho survives somehow.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely bonkers. A baseball player mummy! A blight of evil mushrooms! Decapitation via mudslide! Not one giant millipede that goes SKITTER but a hundred zillion little millipedes that go RUSTLE! A really scary Cyclops gloop scaly demon god monster!

"Earth's not going to turn into a desert! If it does, it'll be tens of millions of years in the future--maybe hundreds of millions!" OH YIKES DEEP TIME IS VERY FRIGHTENING TO THINK ABOUT and GASP what if they're in the past, not the future?!!!

Proud of myself for remembering "Tadaima!" / "I'm home!" from my disastrous year of Japanese in college.

Altogether not as shocking as the first volume but still batshit crazy.

[Armando · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great mid-point in this trilogy, Vol. 2 focuses on how the students attempt to exist within this futuristic wasteland that they've been transported to, instead of primarily trying to escape it. Escape is still at the back of their minds, but they know they won't be able to escape if they don't have food, water, and order.

This novel definitely ups the stakes with how creepy and disturbing the imagery can get, and has some great twists and reveals that will keep you reeling.

Definitely glad I picked this series up, will have to check out the final installment to see how well it wraps up.

[Julianne Rathbone · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this a few weeks after release, and read through it so fast! Reading it with no spoilers is the way to go; Umezu really has creative twists and turns that make everything even more horrifying.

[Whitney Jamimah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This middle volume was Lord of the Flies on crack. I need more.

[Stay Fetters · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Time to die! You’re bug food!

I didn’t think that this could get any crazier and I was wrong. The more I read, the more shocked I became. This is turning out to be one wild ride! Can’t wait to read the next volume!

[DJ_Keyser · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn’t quite as enamoured with the second volume of The Drifting Classroom as I was the first. The art is fantastic, but the narrative doesn’t seem as purposeful here, with the events portrayed feeling like a bunch of non sequiturs, as opposed to important pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Hopefully my concerns will prove invalid with the third and final volume, and Umezz makes me eat my words with a satisfying conclusion to the tale.

[annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

>:O

[Ange ⚕ angethology · Rating 4 out of 5]

[3.75 stars]

Poor kids can't get a break, especially Sho.
Definitely prefer this one over the previous volume, it's starting to get much more imaginative and bleak too with the eco-dystopian origin/future unveiled along with the creepy creatures. Some black humor is sprinkled in which I think is apt with how dark it progressively gets.

[Jedi JC Daquis · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Drifting Classroom Perfect Edition 2 takes out all the guilty pleasure entertainment of school kids being killed by a giant bug that I thoroughly enjoyed in the first volume and instead grounds the story with uninspired plot arcs that are glazed with socio-political commentary. Like the misleading title (it's not just a classroom, and it is not drifting), the manga's identity drifts away - is it a grindhouse, or a Lord of the Flies of manga?

I don't care really if it goes commentary or all the way gory, or even both. As long as the material is good and entertaining, then as a reader I would let the story take me to where it is supposed to be. The problem is how The Drifting Classroom (volume 2) is delivered. My issue is the ride itself rather than the destination.

This volume of the Drifting Classroom would be better with two things: (1) character personalities (2) and breathing space. Personally, Kazuo Umezz could have gotten away with just brutal, over-the-top, gratuitously violent story. I would love that satisfying, almost self-aware serving of bloodiness and death! (haha) Alright. The main kids could have been given some character, something the readers will see, root for, and understand even if they are against the character's decisions. Such characterization would give the story more depth. Deaths would have more meaning and gravitas in them. I really wanted to feel their despair and hopelessness, not just cardboard characters that are just supposed to be where the plot decides them to be.

The second book is also somewhat exhausting to read. It is unapologetically fast. Drifting Classroom volume 2 is very scarce of that breathing space, the quiet time in between action-packed story arcs, the silence after a blockbuster setpiece. There's little or no time to rest and let the reader's emotions settle down with the absolute f*ckery that has just happened to these savage and annoying kids. Instead, the reader is bombarded with problems upon problems, always the need to fight and run. After a while, it gets tiresome.

There's still one more volume to read though, I hope the next one's better.

[Jessi (bookishlyjessi) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am loving this series so much. It is super action packed, fast paced and so much fun. I can't wait to get to volume 3.

[Paul]

This continues the story of The Drifting Classroom from where the first volume left off. Though there are a few great moments in this section, it generally meanders between a number of ideas that don't quite go anywhere.

As the structure of the collection goes, this feels as "middle volume" as anything could possibly feel, and it unfortunately does it no favors. It builds on what's been established, but advances the conceit relatively little when all is said and done.

If nothing else, it certainly manages to convey the constant setbacks, frustration, and decline that the kids and their haphazardly-built society experience, and it does so without feeling mired in futility (even if several characters feel that way). I don't think this volume is skippable, but it does feel like a dip before a more compelling finale.

[Ostrava · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's something off-putting about this manga. You expect it to be less gory and scary because it involves children and most of it feels very juvenile and "tempered" kind of scary.

But then they hit you with an image or a concept that is actually kind of disturbing and you no longer know how to react. That's why it's so effective in my opinion.

I wouldn't say it's genuinely scary, but it is still good. And more importantly, I'm hooked...

[Executionereniak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah, to be again a twelve year old boy with the natural ability to cross the metaphysical boundaries and become a chair to avoid scuttling dangers to then impale your classmates on wooden pikes and hear them scream fitfully and futilely in the bonfire just to forget it all in five minutes. The joys of being a kid!

[Brick Carson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The pace continues, and it can start to grow tiring, having your attention torn from difficulty to difficulty with barely a resolution in between. That said, this volume does finally begin to scratch the itch of curiosity about how the students have found themselves here in the first place, how the world works, and shows a bit more depth of character for our primary cast.

[Paulo "paper books only" · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great manga novel. With 700 pages read fast and we get to learn more about the tribulations of those kids surviving in another world. There is one more to finish. Let us see If I can read next month.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal. So many emotions, def cried at times. Honestly a 6/5 because I didn’t realize manga this good existed until I read these.

[Fabio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mai una gioia. Molto più bello del volume 1, a mio parere. Aumenta il soprannaturale. La soluzione è sempre la viUlenza per ‘sti bimbi.

[Tim Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bugs. 👍

[Bant · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s a little something bad happens, they solve it, but then something bad happens again. It’s all very Monster of the Week when I’m more interested in the overarching story.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

The way literally every single character responds to conflict by punching each other in the face is SENDING me

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Numbers are decreasing rapidly as more and more problems get presented to the children. Why they are there is still a mystery.

[Beka · Rating 3 out of 5]

This manga is so ridiculous but it’s fast paced and I want to see who’s left standing at the end lol. I can’t keep track of how many coups these kids have had at this point, they should all be dead but they are just extremely lucky/unlucky? I guess lol