Juvenile justice!
Creative Staff
Story: Nobuaki Enoki
Art: Takeshi Obata
Translation: Mari Morimoto
What They Say
In order to curb the crime running rampant in the elementary school system, a new solution has been enacted in the form of the School Judgment System. Now the young students themselves will be responsible for solving the issues that befall them. But are they up for the task?
At Tenbin Elementary, there is only one way to settle a dispute – in a court of law! All disputes bypass the teachers and are settled by some of the best lawyers in the country…who also happen to be elementary school students. The accused this time is a boy named Tento. His crime? Murder of the beloved class fish Suzuki! Luckily for him, the state has sent him a defense attorney, Abaku Inugami. But is this wild young lawyer skilled enough to argue his client off the hook? Find out in the first volume of School Judgment!
Technical:
The front cover is decent enough, showing Inugami in a striking pose in front of a disheveled classroom. It’s a solid and eye-catching composition, though it would’ve been nice to see something that gets across the concept of the series a little better. The back cover meanwhile continues the background while throwing in a multitude of other characters from the volume, alongside a synopsis. And once more, it’s quite well done and looks great. The paper used feels solid, honorifics are not used, and sound effects are translated in stylized text. The text reads fairly well, though it trends a bit high on the usage of Japanese terms. Fortunately, though, there’s a nice bunch of translator’s notes at the end, so as long as readers keep that in mind they should have no problems here.
The art here is from Takeshi Obata of Death Note fame, and it does a great job of being both detailed and expressive. Emotions come across quite well and can get amusingly over the top, which is certainly good considering the nature of the series. The visuals are also appropriately detailed and do a good job of capturing the key elements of each case, which is again much appreciated considering the genre. Backgrounds appear frequently as well and can get rather complex. All in all, this is a great looking little book that succeeds in every way that it needs to in terms of visuals.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Kicking things off, we get a synopsis of the odd setup for this series. Thanks to issues in schools, the government apparently set up a “School Judgment System”, which essentially means that children hold courtroom sessions which they run themselves in order to solve “cases” that arise. As such, there are also children whose “profession” is to transfer around and act as lawyers and prosecutors. And kicking off our tale, we see two such students transferring into the 6th grade class of Tenbin Elementary School. The prosecutor is a girl named Pine Hanzuki, who acts super friendly and is overly into Pretty Cure. The lawyer and our main character, on the other hand, is a serious bespectacled boy named Abaku Inugami. As he himself says he’s into “ronpa,” or essentially laying a verbal smackdown on someone, which he does to the teacher when she tries to take away his video game console. As Pine turns out to have quite a crazy side herself with her crazy mood swings, they make for a central cast that appears rather amusing right off the bat.
Once the introductions are out of the way, we dive into the first case of the series. In this incident, a pet fish was being raised by the class to eventually be eaten, but there was a split in opinion as to whether its life should be spared or not. Though according to the vote it was to live, the fish was found murdered soon after, and a boy known as Tento Nanahoshi ended up as the prime suspect. And from here on out, things progress in a way that should be familiar to fans of the genre. There’s a bit of setup and some character development for Tento, and then we jump into the trial. After an introduction to the idea of “babies”, preschoolers who look like middle aged men due to the stress of acting as judges, we launch into some testimony. And in the midst of all this Inugami picks apart the tricks used and the twists of the case, eventually catching the true villain in his trap. Which is of course just the flow of the genre, so that’s nothing worth getting into. For a first case this is a strong one in terms of setup, theme, and the general imagery and emotional punch, but where it falls a tad short is the “trick” of things. I don’t want to get too far into spoiling things here as there’s no need to do so, but the twist of the case is relatively simplistic, and the way Inugami traps the villain is a very cliché take on the old “you couldn’t possibly have that information unless you did it”, which has been done to death.
The second case is related to peeping, and maintains the same solid trappings while tightening up the core. It’s still not too crazy but there are a few steps before the end, and it’s not 100% cliché in its formation, making for a solid entry. The third case is centered around cheating and once more nails the setup with some quirky characters taking center stage and an all around nice feel to it. Ultimately, though, the twist of this case comes down to one centered around kanji more or less, which is certainly something that pops up here and there in the genre. This means that almost anyone reading this translated version will unfortunately be a little detached and not have the information required to piece it together themselves, which really is a shame. It certainly doesn’t ruin things as everything’s still comprehensible, but it strongly weakens the “aha” moment that’s somewhat crucial to the genre, unless of course you’re well versed in kanji.
Finally, we get a case centered around a student addicted to a sugary powder. When the drug parallel progresses to the point of withdrawal symptoms, will that turn out to be just another over the top element of the series, or is it actually the key to the case?
In Summary
This series is a bit of an interesting one, in that it takes a rather formulaic genre and puts an unusual twist on it. This comes entirely in the form of the setting, as it moves a courtroom drama into the realm of an elementary school. Which of course requires some real suspension of disbelief, as Inugami alone seems insanely quick witted for a child of his age, not to mention things like the “babies.” But as long as that doesn’t throw you off, it adds a certain charm and freshness to things, creating a quirky and unique setting in which events can unfold. Of course as to the actual cases they tend to trend towards slightly more child oriented variants on staples of the genres, such as a murder applying to a fish or a “snack addiction” that’s got suspicious parallels to drug use. In this way it could be said that the series is somewhat wasting its potential by drawing such direct ties to common tropes, since only the cheating case feels truly linked to the setting, though it does have a certain charm to it as well.
Still, all this adds up to a series with a great feeling on the surface, nailing all the elements related to cast and setting, which is very admirable. What is a shame, though, is that the key element of the “twists” and the way Inugami entraps the culprits feel a little flat. This isn’t to say that they’re bad, but they don’t get especially complex or unique, and it’s hard to say that any of the “solutions” to a case managed to impress me much. Still, if you’re interested in the genre and want something a little different, this is a great place to look. It would certainly be nice to see the cases prove a little more involved in the future, but even so, if you think the concept here sounds intriguing then be sure to give it a shot, as it still gets plenty right and makes for a solid read from beginning to end.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: A-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: February 2nd, 2016
MSRP: $9.99
