By Tamio Baba
CMX, 162 pp.
Rating: Teen Plus

Fifth grader Makoto Miyahara is one of those rare individuals with synesthesia. Instead of tasting words or seeing letters as colors, it instead feeds off of his empathic nature, causing him to literally see the inner demons of the people around him. (I don’t think synesthesia works that way, but sssh. It’s the story.) His fear of the grotesque aspects his classmates take in his mind, coupled with his inherent emotional sensitivity, cause him to be easily bullied and ostracized from the rest of his class.

As the story opens, the class is just coming back from spring break and discovering that their homeroom teacher, Shimizu-sensei, has committed suicide during the time off. In her place is a new teacher, a giant of a man named Kohei Toyama who bangs his forehead on the door frame as he comes into the class.

Toyama-sensei isn’t just a replacement teacher, though! He’s an undercover detective who has been sent to protect the students of class two. It seems that Shimizu-sensei’s death may not have been a suicide after all, and that someone may be targeting the students for reasons unknown. Toyama-sensei brings with him a strong sense of justice and a lack of patience for bullying—when school nurse Narita-sensei tries to explain the reasons that some of the boys in class two might be bullying Makoto, Toyama-sensei says that he doesn’t care about excuses and that they should be caring for the victim. Needless to say, Makoto begins following Toyama-sensei around like a lost puppy. Over the course of the first chapter, Toyama-sensei learns about Makoto’s special ability and Makoto learns about Toyama-sensei’s secret.

The rest of the first volume of Deka Kyoshi is spent illuminating the lives of the other students while trying to unravel the mystery of who is targeting class two and why. It’s not always handled deftly, but I found that I didn’t really care. Most of the attention is paid to the other students, all of whom are encountering true-to-life issues that children of that age would face. There’s the girl who has already started to develop and gets teased, the boy who shoplifts manga to distribute amongst his classmates and thus become popular, and the girl who takes to self-injury. Toyama-sensei and Makoto become an odd little team, helping the kids through their challenges.

My favorite chapter of the manga, though, is the final chapter. It’s one of those chapters that focuses on the kids going to the school in the dark during summer vacation. While the rest of the kids are spooking one another with ghost stories, Makoto blithely saunters through the school and points out interesting things. Thanks to the horror shows he sees every day, the mundanity of school in the dark isn’t enough to spook him, and I absolutely love that little twist. He comes off as fearless to his peers for what’s probably the first time.

I can’t talk about Deka Kyoshi without talking about the art. The designs for the adult characters are anachronistic, reminding me of pictures I’ve seen of 1970s shonen manga. The kids are drawn very simply, but that works as well, especially given how detailed the horrifying art of Makoto’s visions can be.

Deka Kyoshi is a fun read, and I look forward to the next volume. I’m left wondering, though, why CMX chose to not translate the Japanese title. My second language, the one I took classes in, was French. I am a native English speaker. I do not know what Deka Kyoshi translates to, and thus gives me little clue as to what I might find inside.

Volume one of Deka Kyoshi is available now.

Review copy provided by the publisher.