School Judgment Review-First Impressions (Volume 1)

School Judgement is a new manga series being released stateside by VIZ Media. The series–created by author Obuaki Enoki and illustrator Takeshi Obata (Death Note, Bakuman)– tells the story of a world where, in order to curb crime, schools hold trials for students accused of crimes. The crimes can range from accusing someone of cheating on a test to accusations of murder. Trials have a judge, lawyers, prosecutors; pretty much everything a real court does. While the trials may seem mundane, the punishments actually have real world implications. Students can be given jail time or even the death penalty.

The story tells of Tento Nanahoshi and his lawyer Abaku Inugam. Abaku transfers to Tento’s school in order to defend him in a case in which he’s accused of murdering the class pet. This also introduces the prosecutor of the trial(s) and Abaku’s rival: Pine Hanzuki.  After the completion of Tento’s trial, both Pine and Abaku decide to stay at the school as permanent students.

For the most part, the manga is a very interesting take on a shonen story. Like many shonen, the story is a “battle” manga, but unlike many other stories such as DBZ and Naruto, the battles in this story are one of wits and words. It’s similar to how Death Note is a battle of wits between Light and L/N. School Judgment falls into the typical shonen formula though. Each battle happens, where the “good guys” win with little to no trouble, and the volume ends on a cliffhanger of what seems to be a much bigger battle with higher implications than before.

My biggest gripe with the first volume: while the smaller trials are unimportant other than introducing characters, they were solved far too quickly. Each trial was solved in about two and a half chapters each (SPOILERS: And two of the cases were solved the exact same way. Very boring). I really hope this changes later on and the story has more complex cases.

Overall, the series is very interesting but I’m not too sure if I’ll continue reading. While the art-style (which is something I’m very picky on when it comes to manga) is very nice– as I’m a fan of Obata– the story seems pretty predictable. There’s a certain mystery about Abaku’s past, but I really have a feeling that anyone can predict what his story is a mile away. Personally, I may read it if I have nothing much going on, but it’s not a series I’m going to make a point to continue. It’s not bad by any means, just not my cup of tea. If you like Obata, shonen stories that are a new twist on the genre, or want something interesting check out School Judgement: 7/10

You can purchase School Judgement at the following sites:

• Books A Million
• RightStuf
• Amazon
• Barnes&Noble