By Kazuo Umezu
Published by Viz
Rating: Mature (18+)

Well, it seems like eleven volumes is the magic number for me. Last week I reviewed the eleventh volume of From Eroica with Love, and this week I’m tackling the tenth and eleventh (and final) volumes of The Drifting Classroom. Though help me out here–is it The Drifting Classroom or THE DRIFTING CLASSROOM!!!!!? Because, as the infallible Shaenon Garritty so deftly shows, this manga is simply best explained in ALL CAPS! I mean hell, the cover of every single volume of this series features elementary school kids screaming in abject terror. Does it get any better than that?

In all seriousness, if you haven’t read the first nine volumes, do not start here with numbers ten and eleven. If the series just doesn’t appeal to you, say because of the gruesomely dying schoolchildren, then these volumes will provide no relief. On the other hand, if you’re a sicko like me and have enjoyed the first nine volumes, it only gets better! In true Drifting Classroom style, the action starts at a fever pitch, and then gets crazier and crazier! And it never stops for a breather. In volume ten, for example, things get started with the mysteriously aged girl-gang leader entering the school again and STRANGLING A STUDENT! Next, THE MUTANTS RETURN (again!), but are randomly swallowed by a GIANT FISH THING! And then the students start KILLING EACH OTHER FOR RATIONS! And then everyone flees the school to escape a cloud of POISON GAS! Then students live and die as they have to JUMP A CHASM to escape said gas! And then dinosaurs attack. I kid you not. Now if that’s not a compelling argument to read this stuff now, what is?

This does bring me too my real sole gripe with the series: many of the disasters feel pretty contrived. Especially considering their absurd frequency, it can get really hard to suspend your disbelief despite the already morbid premise. I mean even though it’s a futuristic dystopia, why the random giant mutant-swallowing snake. Seriously? Things like this get brought up once and are never really explained. They seem to serve as plot devices. The smoke gets the student out of the school; the snake takes care of the mutants, etc. And the snake/serpent-thing pisses me off: it’s NEVER explained. It’s just there.

But really, these are small complaints. The Drifting Classroom is the very definition of epic, and volumes ten and eleven only serve to prove that. Granted, the art remains in Umezu’s ridiculous and exaggerated style, but it’s just as scary as it should be. Kudos. Eleven is indeed the series’ end, which is really a tragedy. The ending is wonderfully unexpected, and Viz was kind enough to include a bonus short story which was awesome and didn’t at all detract from the series’ gravity. I have so much love for The Drifting Classroom, and can’t wait to see more of this master’s work. I highly recommend you keep an eye out for Umezu’s Cat-Eyed Boy, to be released in two omnibuses this June. If it’s anywhere near as good as this, it should be real treat!

Volumes ten and eleven of THE DRIFTING CLASSROOM are available now.