Staff Picks (December): School Judgment Gakkyu Hotei Volume 1 GN

Modern schooling disciplinarians within the School Judgment Gakkyu Hotei series are at their wits end. Bullying has been on the rise and the increasingly strict institutional punishments only serve to dishearten and break the spirits of the children. Therefore this series’ universe has instituted an enormous educational overhaul: the classroom arbitration system! Middle schoolers are trained as lawyers and prosecutors, preschoolers as impartial judges, and all elementary school conflicts are settled in court. Why? Because you can’t trust adults.

Manga creator Takeshi Obata, the virtuoso that brought us Death Note [NOV101063], Hikaru No Go [OCT148016], and Bakuman [MAY101165], has returned as the artist on the new series School Judgment Gakkyu Hotei. Picture a mix of school kid battles a la Yu-Gi-Oh and the popular court room drama of Phoenix Wright, and you’ve got School Judgment Gakkyu Hotei.

This manga, written by newcomer, Nobuaki Enoki, grapples with some weighty topics, but every single one of them empowers kids. There’s the value of logic, the complexity of a court system, the burden of deciding guilt or innocence, and the impact of the punitive sentence — all of them determined by and legally binding by a jury of elementary students’ peers. Paint it all with Obata’s super-dramatic flair and impeccable line work, and the whole package tells the reader: if you think clearly, strive to speak well, and stand up for yourself, you can improve your situation even in the face of the most powerful opponents!

—Sarah Martinez

Publisher: Viz Media Item Code: DEC15 1686 Release Date: 02/03/16 SRP: $9.99