A flawed yet functional final entry
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?
Tento once again finds himself in a tight spot when he’s accused of trying to murder the school’s Madonna, Reiko Shiratori, and locking her unconscious body in a shed. Can Abaku argue his friend to freedom? Meanwhile, the Red Ogre sends out a warning to Abaku, Sarutobi, and Yui: Find out his identity before graduation or he will murder all of their classmates again. Can Abaku solve this final mystery in time? Find out in volume 3 of School Judgment!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
This time around, the book is essentially one big case, which starts with some mysterious foreshadowing about Tento having no records. And on top of that, Tento ends up as the prime suspect when Reiko is found having been bludgeoned and locked in a cage that he has the only key to. Oh, and Abaku pulls out a freaking laser cannon because why not. Also, Higashide is the one who arrests him, as it turns out he was an undercover cop… which honestly doesn’t amount to much, except giving him a vague excuse for pulling out a lightsaber later on to look cool. But the biggest development comes when we’re introduced to the last of the three tongues, Yui Kijima! And honestly… she’s not a good character. Her whole gimmick resolves around effectively being a dominatrix, which is incredibly awkward when it’s applied to a child as it is here. So that just feels terribly uncomfortable throughout the whole volume, and it honestly makes me wonder if the idea was rather blatantly lifted from a certain famous court drama videogame series, as there was a prosecutor there whose gimmick revolved around using a whip as well…
Anyway, continuing on it looks like the mysterious Red Ogre, the 4th survivor of the bloody session, is somehow involved. We learn that he was presumably the true murderer in that incident, and also the reason that Abaku came to this current school. Though it seems like maybe the only reason Red Ogre is presumed to be involved is because “only someone so heinous would attempt such an awful crime,” which is kind of flimsy. On the plus side, this time around we get a case with a moderate amount of complexity, which is fitting for the finale. On the other hand, it feels a tad awkward, because the solution is that everything was due to fluke coincidences piling up. It does admittedly fit into the theme, but it’s not really a great solution, and feels rather underwhelming.
Finally, the time comes to confront Tento as the Red Ogre. But of course it turns out that he wasn’t actually the culprit in the Bloody Session, despite being its fourth survivor. As it happens, the real answer was that the teacher was mentally unstable and murdered all the children, which is both unsettling and doesn’t really feel like an “aha, so that’s it!” solution, but rather something that came out of nowhere. And it’s made extra awkward when one of the last shots in the series is of her smiling approvingly. It really feels like something that could’ve used a bit more depth and development, so as is it’s a creepy and rather unsatisfying ending. Oh, and it turns out Tento was working “undercover” to essentially push the three tongues to overcome their obsession, and when he’s explaining this we get what sounds suspiciously like a summary of how things would have progressed were the series allowed to run longer.
Finally, we end on the prototype version of the series, which is honestly a little weird to read. A lot of it is almost line for line from the first chapters that were published in the final version. Pretty much the only truly noteworthy difference is the actual case itself has been swapped out for something else. So essentially this amounts to a weird bit of déjà vu combined with a “new” case and of course some different artwork.
In Summary
With this volume the series comes to a close, and it’s a bit of a mixed bag as far as endings go. Structurally it at least hits the right notes, as it focuses on one big case rather than several one shots, and the complexity is definitely higher as a result, which is nice. And of course we do get some pretty well done emotional moments along the way, which is fitting of a finale. On the other hand, the resolution of the case is a little underwhelming, even if it does work thematically. And the overall finale of the series doesn’t quite click as well as it should, which is definitely a real shame. Oh, and we also do get the meaty bonus of the prototype for the series, which isn’t an amazing read for several reasons, but is certainly a nice thing to throw into the last volume. If you’ve enjoyed the series thus far, then you’ll likely find this will do the trick for wrapping things up, but don’t go in expecting a brilliant conclusion, as you won’t find one here.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: A-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: June 7th, 2016
MSRP: $9.99
