Thanks to barnesandnoble.com for the image.

VIZ Media’s English language version of The Drifting Classroom, one of the signature works of manga-ka Kazuo Umezu (considered by many to be the godfather of horror manga), comes to an end.  The Drifting Classroom is a mixture of horror and science fiction and follows the adventures of a group of young school students trapped in a post-apocalyptic near-future.  After an earthquake, their school, Yamato Elementary, disappears and is transported to a barren future where they must struggle for survival and battle bizarre creatures that may have evolved from humans.

In The Drifting Classroom, Vol. 11, the end may be near.  Sho Takamatsu, the series hero, faces death at the hands of his classmates when they learn that his actions were responsible for their school being blown into the future.  But is it really his fault?  And will all be made well when Sho figures out a way to send them back to their own time?

[This volume includes the short story, “The Wish.]

THE LOWDOWN:  The Drifting Classroom is a terrific, breezy read.  It’s as if Umezo puts you on a horse that just races at breakneck speeds through a barren, future landscape of non-stop action and adventure.  On a final note, Umezu’s depiction of the children as resourceful and occasionally ruthless little brutes goes a long way into making The Drifting Classroom a chilling work of sci-fi comics.

As a bonus, Umezu’s The Wish ups the creep factor times 3.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  The serious manga reader – interested in the past as well as in the present and future – will find this a must-read.

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