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A review by feedingbrett
The Drifting Classroom: Perfect Edition, Vol. 2, Volume 2 by Kazuo Umezz
4.0
In this second volume, much of the prejudice that held me back in regards to its style of art has started to dissolve. No longer constrained by the shackles of obligatory introductions, these middle chapters have set out to further expand the world; its set of characters; the social, political, and emotional dynamics that have bubbled within the children's current set of circumstances. Little by little, Kazuo Umezz have taken us on a trip to humanity's edge, a tipping point of desperation that often explode in violence, irrationality, and distrust.
Violence is undoubtedly a theme that finds itself erupting more profoundly in this second volume. While in the first volume, that sense of impact and bluntness in the manner people strike and impart force onto others is confronting, that expansion in this volume showcases and reinforces the fragility of the human spirit, and that it could manifest itself in multiple and different ways. Sho, our protagonist, attempts to hold hope and maintain a calm and rational spirit to his sense of politics, only to always be defiled and betrayed by the very subjects that he is trying to protect; the concept of loyalty is an ambitious idea that can only be maintained if one's own self-interest has not been breached. Umezz paints a world that is punishingly relentless and hopeless, leaving me rather curious about how it would all come together at the end.
With the ending only a volume away, I am surprised at how much of the narrative still has gaps yet to be filled. With a lack of key revelations that would push our understanding of the philosophical and existential reason of it all, there has been instead a central focus on the present; their sense of survival and the fragile social politics that exists within this isolated society. Even the perspective of Sho's mother feels reduced here, an aspect of the first volume that I felt was a wonderful contrast and even nuanced when taken upon in isolation. She exists here primarily as a plot driver rather than a studied character during this position of grief and loss. That being said, I am certainly eager to see what comes next; to potentially see how everything will come together.
Violence is undoubtedly a theme that finds itself erupting more profoundly in this second volume. While in the first volume, that sense of impact and bluntness in the manner people strike and impart force onto others is confronting, that expansion in this volume showcases and reinforces the fragility of the human spirit, and that it could manifest itself in multiple and different ways. Sho, our protagonist, attempts to hold hope and maintain a calm and rational spirit to his sense of politics, only to always be defiled and betrayed by the very subjects that he is trying to protect; the concept of loyalty is an ambitious idea that can only be maintained if one's own self-interest has not been breached. Umezz paints a world that is punishingly relentless and hopeless, leaving me rather curious about how it would all come together at the end.
With the ending only a volume away, I am surprised at how much of the narrative still has gaps yet to be filled. With a lack of key revelations that would push our understanding of the philosophical and existential reason of it all, there has been instead a central focus on the present; their sense of survival and the fragile social politics that exists within this isolated society. Even the perspective of Sho's mother feels reduced here, an aspect of the first volume that I felt was a wonderful contrast and even nuanced when taken upon in isolation. She exists here primarily as a plot driver rather than a studied character during this position of grief and loss. That being said, I am certainly eager to see what comes next; to potentially see how everything will come together.