When it comes to horror in the anime and manga world, Junji Ito isn’t the only creator who has been trying to put some scares into the medium. Earlier this month, My Hero Academia creator, in fact, tried his hand at creating a horror story of his own, releasing a one-shot story in the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump. While Don’t Laugh, Shijima-San had some creepy moments in tow, it has a big legacy to live up to in the horror manga department. One of the biggest creepy manga tales arrived in the 1970s and has since made a comeback in a surprising way in Japan.
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The Drifting Classroom first arrived as a manga in 1972 from manga creator Kazuo Umezu, focusing on a creepy story involving a school of young children transported to an unfortunate landscape. Over the course of its two-year run, Sho Takamatsu found themselves arriving in a post-apocalyptic landscape where they need to struggle with a lack of resources, adults, and even monstrosities that are a part of this unknown environment. In Japan, despite the series ending decades ago, a new “haunted house” exhibition is now open to recreate the terrifying locale. The “Umezz Horror House – The Drifting Classroom And Thought Experiment Exhibition” opened its doors last month on July 17th, but an even more terrifying version is arriving on August 19th. You can see the promotional images for this real-world experience below.
An Anime Haunted House For The Ages
The haunted exhibit is currently taking place at the Gallery Zenon in Tokyo, Japan, and will run until September 6th for those brave enough to check it out. Ticket prices range from $30 to $40 USD for attendees, as the real-world locale attempts to capture the terror of The Drifting Classroom. Gallery Zenon confirmed that the scarier version, which is set to be unveiled later this month, will have additional “jump scares” to freak patrons out even more.
Shockingly enough, despite The Drifting Classroom becoming a legend in the horror manga world, there has never been an anime adaptation of this tale. Ironically, there have been several live-action adaptations, with a live-action movie made in 1987 and a mini-series dropped in 2002. The former recreated the story with a far less brutal adaptation of the source material, bringing together an international class that found themselves transported into the far future. In the live-action television series, The Long Love Letter, far older students were used to convey the story, making for a major change from Kazuo Umezu’s original story. Unfortunately for Western fans, this exhibit hasn’t been confirmed for North America, though the rise of anime always means that physical events like this could arrive in the West.
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