popcar2 reviewed The Drifting Classroom by Kazuo Umezz (The Drifting Classroom: Perfect Edition, #01)
Review of 'The Drifting Classroom' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
It's like Lord of the Flies, except everyone is a psychopath from day 0.
Wow! I didn't know what to expect coming into this. I always heard about how popular this horror manga is but when I finally read it I was blown away that it's kind of... Funny?! Most of the manga will have you altering between "What the hell is going on?" to "How did we get here?".
Everything in this story is so over the top and chaotic that it's kind of similar to an '80s slasher movie. You're not necessarily here for the horror, but rather the crazy turn of events you watch unfold as everyone goes insane and everything falls apart.
Within the first 5 minutes of the classroom disappearing, kids start falling off the roof, a teacher starts slapping the crap out of every kid to calm them down, then a heroic teacher stabs …
It's like Lord of the Flies, except everyone is a psychopath from day 0.
Wow! I didn't know what to expect coming into this. I always heard about how popular this horror manga is but when I finally read it I was blown away that it's kind of... Funny?! Most of the manga will have you altering between "What the hell is going on?" to "How did we get here?".
Everything in this story is so over the top and chaotic that it's kind of similar to an '80s slasher movie. You're not necessarily here for the horror, but rather the crazy turn of events you watch unfold as everyone goes insane and everything falls apart.
Within the first 5 minutes of the classroom disappearing, kids start falling off the roof, a teacher starts slapping the crap out of every kid to calm them down, then a heroic teacher stabs his kid and threatens everyone that they're next in order to calm them down. This works. Soon after the teachers start a free for all and kill each other for no real reason.
My favorite thing about this though is that the story doesn't even try to make sense. It knows how absurd it is, and doesn't try to justify itself. Events happen for seemingly no reason out of nowhere and you're expected to just roll with it. I could say a lot of things about the story, but at least it doesn't slow down or get boring.
So yes, it's not exactly a realistic story or a very scary one, but it is interesting watching everything unfold and how quickly things get out of hand. Overall it's a good book with some moments of good horror like the very creepy giant insect, but I wouldn't classify this as a very scary book if that's what you're looking for.
