Jonny rediscovers a classic horror manga from the ’70s, and finds it a mixed bag despite its towering reputation….
The Drifting Classroom, by Kazuo Umezu, was first serialised between 1972 and 1974 in Japan’s Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine – “Shonen” essentially translating as “for boys”. It instantly set the benchmark for Manga horror, and has been hugely influential to authors throughout the genre.
The set-up for the story is minimal: a primary school in Japan mysteriously disappears during an earthquake, leaving behind an empty crater and taking with it the pupils and school faculty. The series predominantly follows the character Sho as he and the rest of the school try to survive in the mysterious wasteland that now surrounds their school, whether defending themselves physically, or simply trying to remain sane. As the oldest pupils, the 6th year class takes it upon themselves to protect the younger students, and try to figure out how to return to their home. Sho soon finds himself appointed their leader, but not without accusations that he was somehow responsible for what happened to them.
The series definitely favours style over substance, though with Umezu’s distinctive artwork perfectly capturing the atrocities of the wastes, that’s no bad thing. Many of his creatures can clearly be seen to have directly influenced Junji Ito’s creations for example, with notable similarities between the two artists.
But although Umezu’s creatures are fantastic, the story’s countless barbaric scenes of children fighting one another with homemade weapons – not unlike Lord Of The Flies and Battle Royale – are where the illustrations struggle. Frequently the similarity between the kids is so great that it becomes difficult to distinguish one from another, and at least two of the major characters are virtually identical. This never really disrupts the story greatly, and the nightmarish monsters steal the show anyway, but it certainly doesn’t help alleviate some of the weaker sections.
Drifting Classroom’s story lacks direction and many of its plot arcs end abruptly, often leaving ideas hanging, never to be revisited. Throughout the 11 volumes there are countless false starts, and only in the latter half does a real narrative begin to develop. This could be a result of their collected format rather than the original, weekly instalments, but short of reading one chapter a week, I would advise viewing the series as an anthology of ideas, rather than one ongoing story.
Reading each vignette alone also helps to distract from some of the plot holes, which are few, but glaring. A prime example is the children’s need for drinking water being solved by the school’s swimming pool. Much of the integrity of the story holds up in simple terms; needing water and finding it in the swimming pool makes perfect sense, until you reason that the water must be chlorinated and presumably not fit for drinking. Perhaps this is a reflection of the childlike innocence that the school pupils are bringing to the otherwise brutal wasteland that surrounds them, reminding the reader that despite everything that happens to them, they are still no older than thirteen. Perhaps not.
The Drifting Classroom is an enjoyable series, and without it, the Manga horror genre would undoubtedly be different. It has numerous flaws, and at times doesn’t read especially well, but even given that, its illustrations and numerous ideas make it a worthwhile read.
Jonny West
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