I'll cut to the chase. A Classroom Bereft of Angels is a shock manga and that's really all it is. If you’re into that kind of thing, go ahead and read this, it does what it seeks out to do well enough with an honestly pretty decent twist at the end to satisfy the average fan of shock horror. But if you’re here for a deeper story and more interesting characters, look elsewhere.
Written and Illustrated by SeNMU, an artist on Pixiv and Twitter, the art is very colorful and fits the tone of the story well. I was also impressed by the wide range of character designs, with a very diverse range of hairstyles and colors. The girls’ personalities all shine greatly through their designs. The art is definitely the best part. Probably a silly point, but if you’re a fan there’s plenty of really good profile picture material in here, so long as you’re willing to tell anyone who asks where you got it from that it’s from a manga about a bunch of gored teenagers.
Now for a quick synopsis
The plot centers around a classroom of girls infatuated with Amane, their class president. They see her as a perfect, infallible person who’s good at everything. Unfortunately, tragedy strikes when she mysteriously dies. They hold a funeral service for her, which goes as normal until one of them accuses another of killing their idol.
This of course brings us to the protagonist, Hainiwa. A very plain girl who seems to have history with Amane. She’s presented as being very quiet, and seemingly somewhat of an outcast as nobody pays her any attention as they argue and attack each other, verbally and physically as Hainiwa is helpless to do anything but watch. She acts as less of an active protagonist and more of a way for the reader to view the story through the eyes of one of the characters, rather than be a passive observer. You do feel like she’s in legitimate danger often and the manga does a well enough job of making you worry for her.
Accusation after accusation and killing after killing happens, until a suicide note from Amane is brought forward. This leads to the initial instigator of violence to be killed and the rest of the class are either be killed or they kill themselves for their “sins,” as the manga put it. From here, it’s revealed that Amane had actually been alive the entire time, and was fulfilling her friend’s wish to kill all of her classmates which she seems to have fulfilled by turning them against each other naturally.. Not long after, we get answers to why Hainiwa has connections to Amane, and why nobody would listen to her.
It’s because she’s been dead the entire time. Amane killed her years prior to the story.
Pretty standard twist, but comes from a pretty good angle and the foreshadowing earlier in hints at something like this while not completely giving it away.
Enough about the story though, you’ve already read it. My problems with the manga really start at how it’s executed rather than the concept. At 10 chapters, it’s extremely short, and I understand fully that independent artists are under a lot of pressure when undertaking a big project like a fully inked and colored comic. As an artist myself, I can relate to that struggle. But I feel like had this been longer, and we had seen these characters developed further before they’re so cruelly snatched away from us then it would have been far more impactful when they died.
Now obviously I’m not suggesting a full Shonen Jump length run of course, but maybe like double the length would be enough for the important characters. And the pacing is kind of messy, which is inherent with the length. And honestly after rereading the chapters, I’m still kind of not sure what really happened in some parts? Maybe I’m just stupid, but who knows.
The characters were good and despite a lack of development and dialogue, they’re very distinct as people. I’m definitely a big fan of Hainiwa’s design as well, the way her muted colors reflect her role as a passive character in the story, rather than the bright and colorful girls actively driving the plot forward with their actions.
In short though, I really like the art and am definitely a fan of SeNMU going forward and am interested in any future narrative driven works they put out, so long as they spend a bit more time developing the plot. Characters are good and the tone is good, but the plot feels undercooked and leaves the reader wishing there was more.. As I said before, I recommend this if you’re into shock content but don’t think there’s much here worth going into it for if you’re not a fan of that.
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