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CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

• 

  TheGruesomeGoblin

  40/100
  An extremely gory fully colored horror manga. Nobody leaves the classroom until we find out who did it.

  You know what I hate the most about horror series?

  When there's an included warning basically spoiling the entire series. It's a horror series. If you aren't ready to see some messed up stuff or possibly get disturbed, then you probably shouldn't be reading it. The only thing worse is when somebody reviews a horror series and then before they start their review they ALSO do a warning which again spoils the entire

  CONTENT WARNING!

  This series is extremely gory, and approaches some subjects that people may find uncomfortable. Such as self-harm, bullying, and suicide................... oh, and also murder.

  

  ---

  A Classroom Bereft of Angels

  Tenshi ga Ita Kyoushitsu is a fully colored manga by SeNMU. The plot's real simple. A well respected and admired (more often obsessed over) girl in a class has died, and all of her classmates are performing their own little funeral service for her.

  

  And things of course go horribly wrong as someone throws out the idea that their idol did not simply kill herself but instead was murdered by one of her fellow classmates.

  Emotions are running high, and this is effectively the lit match needed to set off this powderkeg ready to erupt into over the top violence at any moment.

  

  Honestly, it pretty much almost goes without saying that this isn't a very... good manga. But for a small little manga about a class of girls completely turning on each other and then turning to violence in grief over loss of their idol, this was honestly better than I expected. Also, I genuinely didn't expect how far it was going to go with the gore.

  While most of it was cutting and stabbing or just straight up beating someone to death with chairs or people plummeting to their deaths either voluntarily or not voluntarily, there was at least one instance of a girl throwing acid in another girl's face. Whenever I see a horror manga willing to break out some hydrofluoric acid, I'm happy.

  

  Even the twists, while not at all unique or clever, weren’t offensive or just downright stupid. There was one I actually even liked quite a lot and it was the sort of twist that if not handled exactly right, could ruin the rest of the series…

  The main character having been dead the entire manga worked really well. It works for this series not only because the main character's role is more that of a witness than an active component in the swirl of insanity going on throughout this series, but because of how many characters there are and how chaotic it is. By the time the number of characters got slimmed down, it was already cemented in my mind that the other characters never directly answer gray hair girl because they just ignore her.

  But then of course it turns out oh, she's not one of the last girls surviving. She's been dead for years. And then I went back and reread through it and yeah, none of the other students directly interact with or speak to her the whole time.

  

  Ultimately though, even while there’s some things I genuinely like about it, there’s really no dressing it up. It’s just another horror manga that reaches for the edge as much as it possibly can, and isn’t shy about throwing the buckets of blood around.

  Even while I most certainly would not call it good, it was acceptable for what it was. I give it a 4 out of 10 and can easily recommend it as long as you’re the sort of person who’ll go “yeah this doesn’t look very good but maybe it’ll have gore.” when looking at a horror manga.

  
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• 

  lunaterra

  35/100
  Decent enough for what it is, but leaves a lot to be desired in the end.

  THIS REVIEW CONTAINS HEAVY SPOILERS FOR THE MANGA. FINISH IT BEFORE YOU READ THIS.

  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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