School Judgment: Gakkyu Hotei, Vol. 2

The reason I do a comic book and graphic novel reading challenge every year is in order to expand my reading horizons. I can get stuck in a rut and miss out on some reading diverse good stuff. Considering that I am not a fan of Manga and I wanted to read the second volume of a series I discovered in the middle of my challenge is a testament that the experiment works.

The second volume of School Judgment was much more traditional in the Manga style. The expressions were exaggerated to the point that the characters look different. Too different! Scenes like the arbitration sessions are framed like the opening of a round of Street Fighter or Mortal Combat. But perhaps the most Japanese aspect of this book which was ramped up was the level of over-sexualization of the female characters. And this aspect is the most troubling.

School Judgment takes place at an elementary school. The oldest students are 12 and 13. In the last volume, there were 2 panels that had two separate female students taking a bath. However, there's no nudity. There isn't any nudity here in the second volume either. However, we get extreme close-ups of the assets of several budding school girls. It's even more extreme in the 2-part story that takes place at the grade school swimming pool. To the point that several of the male students make comments about how much 'bigger' their female classmates got over the school year. 

The thing is, this actually could have been worse. At the end of each chapter, series creator Nabuaki Enoki provides a little bit of 'director's cut' feedback about the creative process of making School Judgment. Over the course of 3 segments, readers are shown how much more 'larger' the debut of the girl's swimsuits could have been. It is just me or does showing middle school students as flowering goddesses not bother anyone?

I know that there's more R-rated Manga stuff out there. School Judgment probably wouldn't even be considered PG-13. It would more than likely be PG-rated. And yes, I know that these are illustrations and not real life. Yet, this level of acceptance really bothers me. If anything, it will make me a little more cautious over the type of Manga I read in future challenges.

There's only 1 volume left. I'm rather torn as to if I should read it or not? I really want to know how things wrap up. Who is the perpetrator behind the massacre that led Abaku Inugami to become a lawyer? Will Inugami get his revenge? Will prosecutor Pine Hanzuki finally earn a win against Abaku? There's a lot of questions out there that I am dying to know. Yet as a teacher, I really don't want to be associated with something that promotes the objectification of children either.

The storyline is fantastic. Some of the art is questionable. But not for artistic merits. I'm struggling with if it's considered child pornography or not.

I've got a lot to think about...

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.