The Drifting Classroom, Vol. 2 (2) Paperback – October 17, 2006

this one was great. the kids are getting restless and more and more violent.... the adults are all dead except fop one. and he is a JERK.. keep on reading this series.

The 862 souls of Yamato Elementary are still trying to figure out what happened as it seems their school has been transported to the middle of a desolate desert in the middle of nowhere. But they don't even know if the school has moved. Maybe the city around it has been destroyed. When a little boy that Sho encountered on the way to school shows up with a sign from the front of the school that appears to have aged decades, answers begin to surface as to what exactly has happened. Since they're in the middle of a desert with no means of communicating to the outside world (if there is one), the school has to start worrying about food. There is some in the cafeteria, but one of the school workers, Sekiya, has decided he's going to hoard it all for himself, even if he has to kill men, women, and children to do it!Drifting Classroom has a creepy Twilight Zone premise which immediately hooked me in the first volume. In volume 2, the writing, or more accurately, the characterization, reaches a stumbling block. Some of the characters, especially the adults, reach their breaking point too soon. It just seems like Umezu begins to kill off the teachers just to get them out of the way so he can focus on the kids. Being a teacher, I can say that if a similar situation happened at my school, I doubt the teachers would be as weak-willled and despairing as the ones in Drifting Classroom. They would recognize that the kids would need an example of strength and not to give up. At least that's what I'd like to think. Umezu does not give enough background on any of them to explain their suicidal or even homicidal behaviors. This manga does keep you reading, even it has some major flaws, and I am curious to see the truth of what happened to Yamato and if they're ever gonna get back home.

When I reviewed the first volume, I believe I noted that the pacing seemed somewhat 'off' at times and had a tendency to lag---no more! This second offering of this psychological gore rollercoaster picks up from the exact frame we were left with at the end of Vol. 1.The children, now distraught and fearful for their lives, have come together (a bit too quickly I might add) and shielded themselves from the madness and death that captures most of the teachers.A crazed lunch worker hunts Sho and the rest of the school while protecting the entire school's food supply; greedy and mad, he kills several students and injures more. When the children realize they can venture out into 'the sandbox', things get even stranger and this quickly becomes an action comic.Fast reading, and not for the faint of heart. I recommend this to anyone of age. Kazz works his magic again, and while I don't think THE DRIFTING CLASSROOM is a particularly strong title yet, I can see where it might be heading--right into my favorites list for a long, long time. Mildly recommended.