The Drifting Classroom

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The Drifting Classroom

Volume 1, English edition.
漂流教室
(Hyōryū Kyōshitsu)
Genre Horror
Manga
Author Kazuo Umezu
Publisher Flag of Japan Shogakukan
Demographic Shōnen
Magazine Flag of Japan Shōnen Sunday
Original run 1972 – 1974
Volumes 11
Live action film
Director Nobuhiko Obayashi
Studio Bandai Entertainment
Released Flag of Japan July 11, 1987
Runtime 104 minutes

The Drifting Classroom (漂流教室 Hyōryū Kyōshitsu?) is a horror manga series by Kazuo Umezu. It was awarded the 20th Shogakukan Manga Award in 1975.[1]

The story was adapted into a Japanese live action movie in 1987, and given a modern setting at an international school in Kobe. The movie starred Hayashi Yasufumi and Aiko Asano.[2] It is unusual among Japanese movies in that most of the dialogue is in English.

A more modern remake came in the form of a dorama which changed it into a love-story of sorts.[citation needed]

Contents

[edit] Summary

After an earthquake, an entire elementary school disappears, leaving only a hole in the ground. The school has been transported to a barren future.

Sho Takamatsu wakes up one day to find that his toys have been thrown away by his mother. He leaves her in a rage, yelling that he never wants to come home. He gets his wish when, in class, the school is shaken by an earthquake. Upon investigating, Sho learns that they've been cast into a desert wasteland. He tells his classmates, who go to the roof and freak out. Yamanaki falls off the roof and becomes the first casualty.

The students attempt to leave, but are repulsed by the teachers. The teachers determine that they have no contact with anyone outside the school and that the entire surrounding area is sand and rock. Sakiko's brother attempts to leave, but collapses once he's in the distance and apparently dies. The Principal comes in wounded, saying that he was robbed and his money stolen. The teachers mostly ignore him, and then lie to the students that they have some idea of what is going on.

Sho goes to get food for his class, but the delivery man Sekiya has taken the food hostage. He takes a teacher and a student, Aikawa, hostage too. The students attempt to rescue them, but when Hata attacks Sekiya with a gun Sekiya kills him, accidentally kills Obitu, and takes the gun. He then attempts to take all the candy and other food in the school. Meanwhile, Sho sees Yuichi, a preschooler who knew Sho and was teleported too. Yu doesn't seem to mind. Sho leads the rebellion against Sekiya that ends with him trapped in a locker. Sho urges the students not to kill him, countering Ikegaki's protests.

Yuichi shows the students a memorial... for them, indicating that they've been teleported into the future. Mr. Sakura kills himself, unable to deal with the chaos, and Wakahara goes mad and slaughters the rest of the staff. He takes some sixth graders to hunt for food and water. They meet Nishi, a crippled fifth grader, who tried to walk home but went the wrong way. Then Wakahara attempts to run them over with his car. The others are hit and killed, excluding Nagata, and Nishi is knocked unconscious. Sho takes her into a tunnel where he cries out for his mother as Wakahara strangles him. Sho's mother somehow hears, and hides a knife in the same room that Wakahara is strangling him in the future. Sho stabs Wakahara, who falls forty-five stories.

Upon returning to school, Sho sees Tatsumi being burned at a cross. Otomo, the class representative, tells him that the little kids are hunting for a scapegoat. Sho remembers the swimming pool, and he convinces the students to release Tatsumi. They also find a grocery storage room that was teleported with the school. Sho becomes de facto leader of the school, and Gamo the genius explains the situation more clearly. Later, Nagata comes back with a leaf. He dies from the sand he ate.

Sekiya escapes, takes Yu hostage, and demands that the students take him to wherever Nagata got his leaf. Sho, Ikegaki and Otomo, and Akabane and Tashiro go. They enter a weird jungle with an insectoid monster, whom Sekiya provokes. He knocks out Sho. Ikegaki and Sekiya then knock each other out. The others have to leave them to help Yu escape. When Otomo wants to fight he too is knocked out, Tashiro later goes to fight and is eaten. Akabane and Yu escapes.

At the school, the Princess takes over and beats up all who disagree. She says that someone was stealing food and starts a witch-hunt. Akabane comes back and says that Sho was a coward and that he, Akabane, fought. Sakiko disbelieves this, but is outnumbered. At this point, the other survivors come back. Sekiya has been reduced to the mental capacity of an infant. While Sho and the Princess argue about who's in charge, first graders attempt to fly home from the roof, and a few die falling.

The students decide to hold elections, which Sho narrowly wins thanks to Gamo's vote. He is named the Prime Minister of the Nation of Yamamoto Elementary. The Princess and her followers leave. Sho elects Ikegaki as the Defence Minister, Otomo as the Welfare/Health Minister, and Gamo as Education Minister. Otsuke, Ishiki, and Shibata are elected by their classes to unnamed positions.

The students learn that Nagata, Nishi's friend, stole the food, and that he has severe hunger pains. He is tied up to stop him from eating everything. The students build defenses, but Nagata escapes and triggers them as he eats several servings of rice. The monster shows up and is immune to all their attacks. Ikegaki and his team are slaughtered trying to keep it out. Gamo realizes at the last minute that they need to be asleep, unconscious, or meditating to make the monster pass them by. Several students are killed, and half the food eaten by the insect, but the rest live.

Sho leads the sixth and fifth graders to kill the monster. The students learn that the monster is being summoned by Nagata's imagination, and many want to kill him. Sho tricks Nagata into thinking that he was being stabbed, and the monster dissolves and the food is recovered. On the way back, though, the students see two dead bodies with many tiny cuts. Back in the school, which is now deserted, Uemaki is stripped of his flesh. It becomes apparent that the monster laid eggs. Otomo and many others attempt to kill Nagata to get rid of the little monsters. Sho protests and is knocked aside. Nagata, seeing Nishi about to be eaten, kills himself by smashing his skull with an ax. Otomo apologizes to Sho. A census taken at this time reveals that of the 863 people teleported (counting Yu), 811 survive.

Hashimoto contracts the plague, which spreads through the school. Sho and the government, along with Yoshida, Yanase (the doctor) and Sakiko, are run out of the school and almost killed. Hashimoto is burned to death, and Yoshida is speared in the stomach. The others survive and go to the hospital ruins, where they find only a mummy and no medicine. Returning next morning to the school, Sho sees that Scar Kid is rounding up anyone who knew him and planning to burn the building down. Yuichi is among the potential victims. Scar Kid also has the plague, which is why he decides to kill everyone.

Sakiko helps the fled officials use the mummy to distract the mob while the fire is put out. Scar Kid and all the rest collapse from the plague, and soon Sho and his group do too. Sho cries out to his mother, who again hears him, and who plants medicine in the corpse of Oki the baseball star. This is the mummy, and so the students get medicine.

Days later, the students look for water. Because they burned the plague-infected building down, the smoke makes it rain. It turns into a flash flood, which drowns most of Sho's party and kills several girls attempting to hold the water back from the garden. Sakiko, who led the charge to block the water, survives. In the morning, the garden and most of the food is infested with mushrooms. There are 440 students remaining, and the mushrooms have reduced them to starvation rations -- unless the mushrooms themselves are edible. To decide if they are, Otomo overrules Sho and has the government officials force-feed Sekiya. Sekiya regains his memory, only pretends to eat, and later forces Otsuke to eat. Otsuke likes them and keeps Sekiya's secret. He tells the others to eat the mushrooms, but they ignore him and listen to Sho. He runs away.

The students begin praying to a bust of Sho's mom, and also begin digging a well. Otomo grows less and less stable. A weird cult springs up, praying to a one-eyed blob. Yoshikawa admits that she ate mushrooms, but says they tasted fine. Sakiko tracks down the cult, which includes Yoshikawa and the other mushroom eaters. When the government goes to arrest them, they easily beat up the officials and flee -- except for Yoshikawa, who is convinced to stay by her friend Koyami.

That night, the students hook up bicycles to get electric power back, but then a monster comes. Yoshikawa, who now sleeps with her eyes open, runs away to be with it. Then Sekiya comes out with a crossbow. He shoots the goddess bust, then leads a charge against Sho that he planted dynamite that teleported the school. Other students back this up. Sekiya wins over most of the students.

Sho gets no food the next day, and Sekiya forces him, Sakiko, and all the remaining government people besides Gamo to dig the well. They find a crack and enter an old subway, and come to a room with the mushroom eaters -- now horribly deformed -- and a few monsters. The monsters play a film strip depicting the world turning arid due to environmental disasters, and say that this happens within twenty years of the school's original timeline. The monsters see the students, but the mushroom eaters hold them off while the students run.

The students find an erupting volcano and run away. Sho tries to contact his mother but gets no response. Sho is then trapped when rocks shift on top of him. Otomo takes his flashlight and leaves him with Ishida and Shibata, Sakiko stays with him. A billboard has fallen across the opening that they see. The eruption knocks down the billboard, but bursts Ishiki's eardrums and knocks him out. Sho runs to him. Angry, Otomo pushes over the billboard. He misses Sho but kills Ishiki. Sho and he get into a knife fight. Then the monsters come. Shibata dies fighting them.

The kids run back to school, where Sekiya had destroyed all the trees and the garden. When the monsters come he forced the students to fight and die while he flees with all the food. Sho begs them to leave and they do. Otomo rejects Sho and takes about half the students to the other school building. Sho advocates dividing the rations and freeing the birds. Otomo says they should cook the birds, he and Sho fight again and Sho wins. Soon Otomo's camp raids Sho's, and Sho kills a raider. He is horrified, and then collapses due to appendicitis. Raido takes the dead raider's food. Mutant starfish infest the school grounds, and eat one of Otomo's people.

Yanase is forced to operate on Sho. Sakiko and other girls run to get lily and mugwort to help clot blood. This is on Otomo's side, and the girls with Sakiko are killed. Sakiko comes back with the flowers, only to find Sho still alive. Nishi suddenly speaks in the voice of Sho's mother, comforting him. She falls into a coma afterwards. Then a ragged figure jumps Yanase. It's the Princess, who says that there is paradise on Mount Fiji before falling dead.

Toxic clouds encroach on the school. Some of Sho's students kill first graders on Otomo's side and eat their food. They run away and die in the toxic cloud. Everyone evacuates, and heads to Mount Fiji. On the way they reach a chasm. Many die trying to leap over it.

On Mount Fiji they find an amusement park, where there is plenty of food, but it's all locked up and they can't get to it. A computer tells them that a lot of energy must have catapulted them into the future. A student starves to death. Otomo's group takes the body and cooks and eats it. Sho and Raido see this, Otomo throws a spear and kills Raido.

The two camps fight, desperate for food. Otomo once again tries killing Sho but is defeated. Sho tells everyone that he planted the dynamite, then takes Nishi's unconscious body and flees for the school. Everyone follows.

Back at school, Sho denies planting the dynamite and says that they all have to focus their will on coming home. The students are ready to kill him when Otomo confesses to being the one who planted the bomb. Sho forgives him for everything, and the students agree to try going home. They focus and set off the dynamite, but can only send Yu's tricycle. Sakiko runs away, leaving a note saying that she doesn't want to go home because she knows that Sho likes Nishi more than her, and won't be with her anymore if they return to their time.

Sakiko runs towards the ravine, but Otomo stops her from killing herself. He confesses his love for her. They then find a stream of water, and plants growing on corpses of students. Back at school, some of the plants are growing again. And finally, a satellite lands with supplies and a message from Sho's mom.

The students decide to stay and rebuild the world, except for Yu. They decide to try sending him home. Sekiya arrives and stalks towards Yu. An arm and half of the face of the robber that beat up the principal sneak out of Yu's backpack and strangle Sekiya. The kids are able to draw on Nishi's power and send Yu and the arm and half face home. The rest remain to rebuild the world. Less than 100 students survived.

[edit] Characters

[edit] Main characters

Sho Takamatsu
The main character of the story. Sho is always noble and brave, and rather selfless. He attempts to keep everyone alive and consistently refuses to sacrifice anyone for the good of the rest. Even though he started the story by fighting with his mother, he loves her a lot and frequently cries out to her. He is good friends with Ikegaki and Otomo, and later becomes good friends with Sakiko, Gamo, and the other officials. He survives.
Saki
A friend of Sho. She is a sixth grader from class 3 and she has a brother, Takeshi, in the third grade. When everyone seems to doubts about Sho, she always seems to stick up for him. After the Nation of Yamato Elementary is formed, she seems to be a cook or a server when it is meal time. She is brave, as shown by her rushing to block the flood waters. She, however, is jealous of Sho's love of Nishi. She survives the series.
Otomo
A sixth grader who is in class 3. He is also very brave and athletic, being the first to successfully jump the chasm. However, he has a much darker side. He was the one who tried blowing up the school. Worried about being found out, he blames Sho and eventually leads an armed revolt against him. Despite this, he still has honor through most of the novel; he helps Yuichi make the chasm jump, and also tells Sho to chase Sekiya (who is fleeing with the food) rather than help him and Sakiko face the monsters. By the end, though, shortly before he regains his mind, he is attempting to kill Sho and Sakiko frequently.
In the very end he admits to his sins and helps reunite the school. He survives the series.

[edit] Classmates: Sho’s Class

Ikegaki
Extremely brave. Hot headed, he was one of the ones that wanted to kill Sekiya after his first attack. He stops Sekiya from leaving Sho to be eaten by the monster, and he leads the defense forces against the monster when it attacks. Though stripped of one hand, he still fights on until he dies.
Hata
A jokester. Sekiya stabbed him when he tried rescuing Ayumi. He died.
Okubo
Hata accidentally shoots him when stabbed by Sekiya.
Yoshida
A nice guy, but very clueless. He intrudes on Hashimoto's sick bed to inform the government officials that peaches are growing. Otomo gets mad at him when this turns out to just be peach flowers. He freaks out when told that he must leave the school due to being a plague risk, and needs to be restrained. He escapes Sho and runs towards Scar Kid's mob, and is killed.
Yanase
He wants to be a doctor when he grows up. He's apparently a good friend of Sho and is one of the first people to return to Sho's side after Sho returns. He helps in examining what is wrong with Hashimoto and discovers that Hashimoto has the black plague. He is very knowledgeable about medicine, and is even able to perform surgery later. It is unknown if he survived to the end of the series.
Yoshikawa
A girl who wants to be a singer. She eats the mushrooms and proceeds to mutate and create the One-Eyed God cult. She is stopped from fleeing with the rest of the cult by her friend Koyami. However, when the monsters come to the school, she leaves with them. She later helps Sho and his friends escape from the monsters when in the subway tunnels, and is presumably killed for her treachery.
Mari
She becomes infected with the black plague, but is cured. Cracks up under pressure easily. It is unknown if she survives.
Aikawa
She is held hostage by Sekiya but is rescued. Nothing else is known about her.
Yamamoto
A sixth grader who falls off the roof and becomes the first death.
"Glasses Kid"
He is never named through the story, but he makes several appearances and cameos in the story. While he, Sho, and three others search the desert for water, he becomes sucked into the quicksand created by the down pour of rain.

[edit] Classmates: Other 6th Graders

Otsuki
A practical jokester with suspenders and an annoying sense of humor. One of the government officials, and he seems to be in charge of the census. He is appointed to his position by Sho. He is instrumental in using the mummy to frighten away Scar Kid's mob. He joins Otomo's side in forcing Sekiya to eat the mushrooms, but Sekiya tricks them all and eventually forces Otsuki to eat the mushrooms. Otsuki proceeds to run off into the desert and mutate into one of the future humans. He helps protect Sho and his friends when the mutants catch them, and is presumably killed later.
Ishida
A quiet kid who runs the garden. One of the governmental officials. He says little, but takes Otomo's side in disagreements with Sho. When escaping the tunnels, the volcano eruption bursts his eardrums, and then Otomo pushes a billboard on top of him. This kills him.
Shibata
A kid with a black shirt. Easily excited. More loyal to Sho than Otsuki and Ishida. He is the construction minister. He is decapitated fighting the monsters after escaping the tunnels.
Akabane
Cowardly. He and Tashiro are among the students taken by Sekiya to see the insect, they beat up Otomo rather than fight the monster to buy Yu time. He then lies and says that Sho was the coward. He sides with Princess in the election. Once Sho wins, he apologizes. It is unknown if he survives.
Tashiro
He goes with Sho and everyone to find the forest in the desert. After being attacked by the insect monster, he, Otomo, and Akabane escape. Akabane and he beat up Otomo after he suggests that stay and fight the monster instead of escaping. At the last moment, he has a change of heart and attacks the beast head on. He is eaten by the monster.
Nagata
While Sho, he, and a few other classmates are out searching for supplies, they are all attacked by Mr. Wakahara. He manages to escape Mr. Wakahara's car. During the night, he makes his way back to the school, but is in critical condition when he arrives due to hunger. He left Nishi behind, but did a good dead by informing the school of the jungle. He dies after eating sand.
Tatsumi
The school bully. When a rumor is spread about a person whose name begins with 'Ta' is said to be the cause of why they are stuck in the wasteland, he is captured by the lower grades and is nearly burned alive. Sho manages to save him. It is unknown if he survives future events.
Ando
One of the five people who went with Mr. Wakahara to search for food. Sho managed to pull off a plastic bag wrapped around his head and he points out Mr. Wakahara as the attacker. He is the second to be struck down by Mr. Wakara when he attacks the group with his car and is killed.
Seino
One of the five people who went with Mr. Wakahara to search for food. He was the first to be killed by Mr. Wakahara using his car.
Uemura
He is devoured alive by the insect swarm when he investigates his classroom after people heard the strange sound coming from his class. Relatively brave.
Hatsuta
Goofy and weird, he almost breaks his teeth biting a can of pineapples. It is never stated that he dies, but he is not shown in the 'wishing circle' and so presumably perished somewhere along the way.
Murata
A non-athletic student who drowned in quicksand during the flood.

[edit] Classmates: 5th Graders

Nakata
A very good friend of Nishi. Frail and weak, but a loyal friend. When he eats, he summons an insect monster with his mind. He commits suicide to stop the monsters from eating Nishi. It is unclear how Nakata is able to produce the insects.
Gamo
He is the smartest student in the whole school with an IQ of 230. He often helps Sho understand the situation better and is very loyal to him. He often helps with explanation, such as telling the student body about their time travelling. He is incredibly loyal to show, casting the deciding vote for him during the elections and risking the plague to stay with him in the desert. He survives the series.

[edit] Faculty

Mr. Wakahara
Sho's sixth grade teacher. After seeing Mr. Sakura commit suicide, Mr. Wakahara has a mental breakdown that causes him to go on a rampage causing him to murder all the teachers. His murder spree is interrupted by Sho, who stabs him. Wakahara then falls to his death.
Mr. Sakura
Teacher who commits suicide.
Principal
The school's principal. Right before everyone was transported to the future, he was attacked by a burglar who stole the teachers' pay. Clueless and rather dumb. He was killed by Mr. Wakahara.
Ms. Tanimura
A teacher for the school who suffered from seizures. She was killed by Mr. Wakahara.
Mr. Arakawa
A teacher for the school. When all the older students try to rush out into the wasteland after discovery what happened to them, he breaks his glasses and stabs his son in the arm to calm everyone down. He was killed by Mr. Wakahara.
Mr. Asai
A teacher for the school. Before the school vanished, he was listening to his handheld radio in the teacher's lounge. He was killed by Mr. Wakahara.

[edit] Villains

Kyusaku Sekiya
A 38 year old delivery man. He refuses to believe that the school has time-shifted and believes that a nuclear war happened, and also that Americans will come to save him. He refers to children as beasts and routinely kills or threatens them in order to fulfill his own desires. Children, in his opinion, are less than full adults and are therefore resources to be exploited by them.
In the very end he seems to realize the truth. He attempts to kill Yu to be teleported home, but Basai's arm strangles him.
"Princess"
She is a leader of a girl gang and attempts to take over the school. A violent and cruel bully who advocates capital punishment for stealing food. She takes over because she believes all that Sho does just gets them into more trouble. Her friends who help her in tyranny over the school are Tomeko and Hatsuko. She leaves the school in a huff after losing the election. She comes back to the school much later to tell them to go to Mount Fiji. It is unknown if she did this to be deliberately cruel, as the Fiji amusement park was itself torturous. She dies shortly after returning to the school.
Hatsuko
She is one of the Princess's friends/gang members. She doesn't talk much and obeys the Princess without question. Her hair is cut a bit short and she wears a short dress. After the Prime Minister election, The Princess lost and she with a few other followers left the school to go into the desert. Her fate is unknown, but she presumably starved to death or was killed by the Princess.
Tomeko
She is one of the Princess's friends/gang members. She doesn't talk much and obeys "The Princess" without question. She is a bit of a masculine build and has ponytails. She left with the rest of the gang after the election, and presumably died afterwards.
"Scar Kid"
Very selfish. Leads the pogrom that burns Hashimoto to death, kills Yoshida, and almost burns up half the remaining students. He does this to remove the plague and to increase the food supply available for himself. Once he learns that he is infested, he decides to kill everyone. He dies from the plague.
Basai
One of two thieves that robbed the school and beat up the principal before the explosion. His partner is killed in the blast, and Basai's arm and half of his face are teleported along with the school. They remain unseen somewhere for the vast majority of the adventure, until the very end. When Sekiya attempts to kill Yuichi, Basai's hand jumps out, gouges out Sekiya's eyes, and strangles him. The body parts then return with Yu and are reunited with their body.

[edit] Locations

Yamato Elementary School
The school that Sho and everybody have been transported to the future in. It consists of a few buildings, including a storage shed and factory that were also transported into the future.
The school has:
  • A pool (used for water supplies)
  • A separate gym
  • A science room/chemistry lab (containing hydrochloric acid and Chloroform)
  • Greenhouse
  • First-Aid Room (Despite the fire in Book 5, this room is still in good shape)
Nation of Yamato Elementary
It originally was the Yamato Elementary School. Many events happen to the nation throughout the story.
  • Book 4: The school officially becomes a nation and becomes under attack by a giant insect and a swarm of them.
  • Book 5: An official census is taken and there is a black plague outbreak.
  • Book 6: The plague subsides, an entire building is burned to the ground, plants are grown, and then nation becomes target of a flash flood.
  • Book 7: The flash flood ends with no damage done to the school, plants become infested with a strange fungus, the crack in the pool is fixed, and a well is built for water.
  • Book 8: The school comes under the control of Sekiya.
  • Book 9: The school is converted into a military like base with barb wire and stuff. The underground monsters attack the school and Sekiya takes off in his vehicle with most of the school's food supply. After the monsters leave, strange starfish like creatures arrive and the school is divided into two sides with Sho on one and Otomo on the other.
The Desert
Originally Tokyo, but somewhere in the future where Sho and his friends are, Tokyo is now just a vast wasteland.
A few things have survived throughout the years:
  • Memorial sign for Yamato Elementary School
  • Hotel Keiyo (Barely, the rooms and floors have turned into a giant cave system and only one side of the hotel still exists)
  • The General Hospital (Mostly gone except for the basement and morgue which held a lone dead body in it.)
  • Tokyo Bay: The water has completely dried up in the bay and only a few old ships are still left behind in the end.
  • Tokyo Subway: The Tokyo Subway is barely still there. One train cart still exists and is only used by the underground monsters in their ritual. Lots of dead bodies are around as they are the fallen survivors of the future world.
The Future Forest
Originally created through Nakata's mind, this forest consists of strange plants. It is also the home of the insect monster, who only appears when Nakata eats. After Sho makes Nakata faint, the forest collapses and turns into sand along with the monster.

[edit] References

  1. ^ 小学館漫画賞：歴代受賞者 (Japanese). Shogakukan. Retrieved on 2007-08-19.
  2. ^ Hyôryu kyôshitsu (The Drifting Classroom) at the Internet Movie Database, retrieved on 2007-08-01

[edit] External links