DESCRIPTION

CAST

CHAPTERS

ANIME HorrorGakkou Gurashi!
MANGA Slice of LifeGakkou Gurashi! Anthology Comic: On
MANGA Slice of LifeGakkou Gurashi! Anthology Comic: Kai
MANGA Slice of LifeGakkou Gurashi! Anthology Comic: Goku
MANGA AdventureKirara Fantasia
MANGA HorrorGakkou Gurashi!: Otayori

REVIEWS

• 

  Fractured

  83/100
  A darker perspective on an apocalypse, with the cute girls being the truck-kun to deliver it to you.

  Spoilers outside of the first paragraph, since it's impossible to write a review for this without spoiling at least small parts.

   
    I went in to this expecting CGDCT in a post apocalyptic world, and honestly I did get that, since I find bashing in a zombie's head pretty cute. I had nothing spoiled for me outside of the summary on this site. In the beginning it sort of draws you in, giving you small hints while you wonder what's wrong with this girl. Honestly at first I thought it was sort of ridiculous, even through the reveal. I think since overall, I'm used to more comfy-centered manga and shows, I couldn't accept that there was something that was using it to deliver not just a zombie story - but one with an excellent psychological aspect. Overall, I'd say it did it very well and it even shocked me at times. The flow of it was brilliant, with bits and pieces sneaking up on you to slam you in the face. Realistically the only gripe I had was how quick the finish was, but it wasn't necessarily bad, I just think it cleaned up too fast for what happened. I would highly recommend this to anyone who wants something outside of their comfort zone, but doesn't want all the drama of a typical series. Oh, and zombies. There's lots of those here.
   

  ___Spoilers Ahead___

    What catches people off guard about the series the most, is likely the story. The cover and the title don't really give you any expectation of a dark, honestly practically a thriller story centered around young girls. What you really don't expect, is the almost realistic psychology thrown in. The fact that the author came up with the idea of having one of the girls imagine her sister, have no character mention it, then have her disappear also without saying it directly is absurd. On top of this, when I went back to make sure I wasn't losing my mind, you realize it was all planned when the girl you think is slowly losing her mind dropped the teddy bear there almost as if it was on purpose. It blew my tiny mind when I saw that teddy bear being passed on, and it honestly almost brought me to tears. It's the small things that just make you empathize with these girls who never wanted this. They just wanted to live their lives out how they would've if nothing ever happened. All the hope they ever had up until the end kept getting ripped away, while they all see each other decaying and just wanting it to be over. My only gripe is how it all seemingly cleaned up in the end. The story never gave us them recovering from something that would've scarred them for life. I can somewhat excuse it because it was seemingly never meant to be centered on their psychology, otherwise it would've talked about it more, but I think it was a missed opportunity to have it impact them in some way, which doesn't happen in the after-story either.

    I don't have much to say about the characters, because I covered a lot of it in my story discussion. Really the strong point was each of them having their own issue that led to them... decaying? in some way or form. I'm not sure if that's exactly the right way to describe it, but you see them losing a lot the childish parts of them and growing up without really growing up. It's something you see quite often in some sort of apocalypse story, where they like to talk about it but never really show it. I think here they show it a lot, but not directly. Any time they come across someone, the story shows them trying to just give the girls a break. Whether it be the college kids, the scientist, or indirectly the radio host. It's something small that in a way made me almost despise the manga. I just wanted them to catch a break but I realized it really wasn't going to happen. Nothing could ever work out for them, because if this ever happened, nothing would ever work out for anyone caught in it and that's what the story was reflecting on. They couldn't just go on relaxing in the school, the same way they couldn't relax anywhere else. It's just some young girls versus the world that's trying to kill them. It's a story of each of their struggles mentally and physically.

    Visually I don't think there's anything too mind blowing. The art was excellent but at the same time could've been improved. I had a bit of trouble distinguishing the characters from one another, because they weren't too different from another, and it tended to jump between them quickly. But at the same time the art was good enough for anything impactful to be just that. There were backgrounds to practically every scene that were detailed but tended to contrast the main panels a bit by being too "perfect". A lot of perfectly straight lines and cleanliness in a world that's decaying. You could say that it's the characters view of the world, but it's in every panel even the ones with the more normal characters. It didn't detract too much really, it was just something I noticed.

    Overall, I really loved this manga. It's one of my go-tos for people that want something that's not your typical shounen or comfy story. Not to say there's anything wrong with those, but there's a lot of them and few of these. And even fewer read this one. Not to mention the shock value if they go in blind. But there are people that don't like it, and I really think it comes down to what you come in expecting. It's not perfect at being a thiller, nor is it an inside look on the psychology of someone in a disaster, and it sure as hell isn't CGDCT. Honestly I don't think there's really any place it fits in, but if you want a more anime-y try at a zombie story, with some bittersweet thrill and mental decay thrown in, then this is the manga for you.

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