Philosophy School: Unedited Audio and Recording Notes

Manga Details

• Based on a oneshot
• Author: Furudate, Haruichi
• Author’s other works: Haikyuu!!
• Run dates: Mar 1, 2010 to Jul 5, 2010
• Chapters/Volumes: 3/18

About the Manga

• Plot
  • Ok so there’s this creepy middle school kid that no one believes actually exists named Yotsuya, who is obsessed with writing horror stories. He’s approached by a girl named Makoto Nakashima whose friend Hinano went missing recently, and together the two decide to prank a serial killer teacher into being arrested by convincing him he’s being haunted by a spooky disfigured doll, but he didn’t kidnap Hinano and instead kidnapped a much younger girl.
  • Turns out Makoto’s friend was kidnapped by another middle school student with a crush on her and he TIED HER UP IN A SHED AND SHES JUST BEEN THERE FOR DAYS. They rescue her and resolve the plot of the series but it’s only chapter 2.
• 
  
  • So a long time ago an art student killed herself and the image of her hanging created the perfect composition so the teacher drew it, and they try and scare him by dressing up the girl’s grandson or nephew depending on the translation but it turns out that the kid was actually Yotsuya’s target here because they were trying to get the teacher to kill himself so they could see another perfect composition
  • None of this is relevant to anything
  • Yotsuya and Makoto scare a teacher who wants to remove Yotsuya’s class desk cuz he’s never fucking there, but whatever.
• 
  
  • A new guidance councilor who looks like a fox appears and starts spreading rumors about a ouija board-style ghost called Kokkuri-san that answers yes or no questions which leads to everyone going fucking insane cuz it tells kids to steal hair and tells teachers to be abusive and they all do what it says for some reason. Yotsuya spreads an alternate rumor about it. Who fucking knows.
  • Finally a student’s sister turns up decapitated, killed by the principal, a brand new character who suddenly went fucking insane and wants Yotsuya to write a story about how scary he is so people will remember him? Yotsuya says he will but won’t use his name, thwarting his plans I guess.They scare him until he gets arrested and everyone cheers up the victim’s brother by finding a birthday letter she wrote to him on the back of a receipt like right before she died.
  • Then there’s a time skip and they’re in high school except Yotsuya is missing kinda? And then he isn’t. BOO! Gotcha.
• Characters
  • Yotsuya Buntaro
    • Supernatural detective
    • V tall
    • Collects stories
    • Loves horror
    • Is senpai his last name? Kendra: It is buntaro
  • Nakashima Makoto
    • 8th grader
    • Food hungry
    • Easily scared and bamboozled
  • Shinamo
    • Sub teacher
    • Kind of an asshole
    • Helps with mysteries
    • Seems to hang around way longer than the school trip he was there for
    • Asshole with a heart of gold
  • Tadanobu Kudou
    • Evil senpai/counselor
    • Thinks humans are gross
    • Helped set up murders?
    • Fuck idk

Not important people lol

• Hinano
• Kidnapped friend who comes back and helps out with the stories plays the ghost a few times

Komachi Sensei- a nce teacher who is a bit of a pushover becomes a hardass thanks to the fox game slaps a student returns to normal, was possesed by the kokkuri game

Seita Hasagawa- brother of murdered Hanako, loved her but they weren’t close, not sad lonely. Anniversary of his mother’s death is his birthday ans they cheer him up! He gets to see what a normal family is like when visiting Makoto’s family. Kind of an accurate reaction to someone getting murdered helps humanize the victim so she is more then just a Hanako in a horror story is reminded og his sisters face and voice it is very sweet

Why it failed

• Something feels off about the presentation of the chapter like I’m a bit confused by what’s going on
• I feel the chapter kinda meanders like I get there’s a mystery but its pacing seems weird
• This is not scary
• The author isn’t talented enough to write PG-13 horror
• Nothing happens half of the second chapter is like some weird mood setup
• It gets boring for literally every teacher to be a badguy
• The horror is the same tone every time, there’s really nothing beyond bland psychological horror
• We literally learn nothing about the characters like what they do for fun, family, goals, etc
• The series literally started with a murderer and then it goes back down to minor things
• The world feels insanely small since it’s all literally at the schol at all times
• There’s 0 staying power for psychological impact like wow the teacher that got kidnapped is acting weird afterwards, crazy wonder why!
• It wasn’t sure if it was a detective story or a horror, it was always obvious who “did it”
• Horror in Jump in general is not something you see often/not really true it just didnt do it well lol
• Where are the police
• Middle school instead of highschool
• Talk about it being an over exaggerated horror story

What it did well

• This has some good art, def has an Okubo vibe to it
• I like the use of gray tones
• The female MC wasn’t super useless or sexualized
• The empty desk because it’s spooky joke was legit funny
• The fucking with the sub plot actually was decent
• Some imagery that’s spooky but he has like 2 creepy faces and that’s all there is
• Good scary faces
• Good female protagonist
• Characters came back! Hina comes back and helps with cases
• Women not just being dead bodies they have feelings and their own stories like the girl who didn’t want to talk to her brother but wants to buy him cake More then just a spooky name Hanako
• Breaking down a horror story and how it is told
• Only telling seven stories a nice bow at the end
• The rearrange letters is just her and get her friends help is cute

Where it could have gone

• Make the MC an author and perhaps this is him telling stories from his book so the lack of connection made sense and you have a cool meta plot about everything he said actually happened
• Had a rival horror story gatherer
• The cops looking into why this school and area HAS SO MANY MURDERERS AND KIDNAPPERS, literally anyone call the police (the cps help with the principle one but are useless jsut lke in real life
• Make the supernatural stuff real or at least have something unexplained a bit
• Go full scooby doo

Misc Thoughts

• The paneling is kind of weird, it doesn’t really follow a grid and it seems to split a lot of pages into two halves
• Translation for this is rough
• I feel the creator of red hood liked this manga
• This feels like a fake manga in bakuman
• The implications of a 13 yo having a 41 yo grandma are really fucking weird why not make it his aunt or something
• 
  

Final Verdict

• Six Word summary
  • Jordan: Drives you insane like the characters
  • Twolfwood: I got Bokke-San flashbacks, help me.
  • Tucker: What an ugly-ass, unscary Duwang
  • Adam: The Real Horror was Reading This
  • David: It’s half spoopy but all poopy
  • Kendra: The horror to volleyball pipeline ™ or How to not write horror ft Scooby-doo please read haikyu instead of this
• Flop or not
  • Flop
    • Watch drag me to hell to see PG-13 horror done well
• Is this the best/worst series we’ve talked about
  • This was painful to read, the best part about it was the scan group used a piece of art from lucifer and the biscuit hammer at the end