It was reported that one of the giants of Japanese manga, Kazuo Umezz, died at the end of last month at the age of 88. Among the numerous masterpieces he left us, "The Drifting Classroom" is genuinely monumental. It's a tale of adventure and power conflicts amongst kids who, along with their entire school, were transported through time to a post-apocalyptic future. I grew up reading a lot of manga and this is one of the top three.

After hearing of his death, I read some of his interviews and learned that Kazuo Umezz himself had initially intended to give the work the title "I'm Home" instead of "The Drifting Classroom". That made me cry. It's a story about a mother and a kid, too. If you're a manga lover and curious about whether kids can return home from the devastated future world or not, give it a try. Although the hard cover edition set is pricey, it's well worth the money.

FYI: His name is かずお うめず, which is generally written in romanized form as Kazuo Umezu, but he himself wrote it as Umezz, so I did the same.