Gakkyuu Houtei (School Judgment: Gakkyu Hotei)

As bullying continues to run rampant in the education system, the government implements the School Judgement System. All disputes shall be settled in court, with students acting as prosecutors and defense attorneys. To ensure this system runs fairly, certain students train in the arts of law, traveling from one school to another to take part in trials.

Accused of dismembering a beloved member of Tenbin Elementary's Class 6-3, Tento Nanahoshi finds himself in dire straits. Due to an established motive and foolproof evidence, the prosecutor prodigy Pine Hanzuki is sure to secure a conviction. Will Abaku Inugami, the transfer student sent to defend Tento, prevail against the odds, or will Tento be branded a criminal?

Illustrated by the artist of Death Note and Bakuman, Gakkyuu Houtei follows Inugami's efforts to exonerate his clients, utilizing his aptitude for "ronpa" —the ability to verbally destroy an opponent's argument.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Gakkyuu Houtei was serialized in Weekly Shounen Jump up to its penultimate chapter published on May 11, 2015. The final chapter was published in Shounen Jump+.

VIZ Media simultaneously published the series in English as Gakkyu Hotei: School Judgement in their digital Weekly Shonen Jump. The publisher physically released the series as School Judgment: Gakkyu Hotei under their Shonen Jump imprint from February 2, 2016 to June 7, 2016. It has also been published in Spanish since May 5, 2016 and in French since November 4, 2016.

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Characters

Inugami, Abaku

Main

Kijima, Yui

Main

Higashide, Shuuichi

Main

Nanahoshi, Tento

Main

Hanzuki, Pine

Main

Sarutobi, Kotarou

Main

Lolimatsu

Supporting

Akimoto, Akane

Supporting

Reviews

Jan 30, 2019

TheFutureIsAni1

Recommended

So Courtroom Life With School Twist?

This title says it all doesn't it!! This manga was very stead throughout it making it one my favourite series. I love the notion of children being defenders/ prosecutors/ judges in there own classroom session. There was sight comedy with mix of seriousness in the background story-line. I actually learn a lot about the courtroom and different lawyer language in the manga series which I really enjoy, sometimes it fun to read for enjoyment but also to learn too. That being said this great manga series for middle age to teens to have fun way to learn about ...

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May 14, 2025

Julielist

Recommended

I love this series! It's a really great mystery and end was satisfying to me. I predicted some of the twists but not all of them and not the ending. The art is impressive. Each character is unique from each other, and I liked the realistic tone of this story. I could imagine liking it even more if I was the same age as the protagonists, but it was still really fun to read as an adult. If you like puzzles and mysteries this is a must-read. It really makes you think about the world. Even though it's only three volumes, it's jam-packed with content

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Jul 29, 2015

Z_Tetriminos

Mixed Feelings

Gakkyuu Houtei is somewhat difficult to classify. It belongs to the mystery, psychological, and (dark) comedy genres, and is a very unpredictable work. If you like Phoenix Wright, you came to the right manga. It follows the line 'yeah, advocacy can be very cool, entertaining and shonen-like!', and mixes serious themes (just wait to see as the end of the story approaches) with childish themes and elementary school problems.

The author uses irony and changes in the points of view to deceive the reader to always think something a lot darker than what is really happening. You'll understand me when you read the chapter about the ... 'white powder addiction'...
And if you think this way, 'everything is NOT as dark as I'm guessing', you will got everything wrong, too. This story never ceases to surprise the reader.

The story revolves around an incident that happened years ago when an entire class of small kids and their teacher was murdered, and just three people survived. The three were taken to a school for delinquents, as they were blamed for the murder. One of them was our protagonist, Abaku Inugami. Now that he's in another school, he has to solve many cases in the school court.

The manga overall is so funny and full of kids that in some point you start to think that there will be no 'serious' cases (murder, drugs, fights etc), and when some of those things actually happened (especially in the end), I felt somewhat uncomfortable, like the tone of the story had changed too quickly. GH tries to criticize the school system a lot of times. Abaku takes a lot of chances to criticize the funcionality of the human mind in pressure and fear, and the way adults see kids. That's why I think about this manga as a psychological title too, though a mild one.

The art is wonderful, Obata surprised me again. He's as good with shonen-type art as he is with seinen-type, like in Death Note. You can feel like you're playing a Phoenix Wright game.

The other points (characters, story, enjoyment etc) got mediocre scores from me because this is a good manga, not an excellent one. It serves its purpose well and amuses the reader, but there's nothing especially memorable there. At least it ended with only 22 chapters, or it would become repetitive; it has exactly the number of chapters needed for the story. The fast pacing compensates over the simplicity of some situations.

***THE NEXT PARAGRAPH CONTAINS SPOILERS***

I just couldn't like the ending. It may surprise some people, but for me it was a conclusion so simple and silly that got me frustrated. I also couldn't think the teacher murdering all the students was in harmony with the feel of the story as a whole; it was too heavy. The teacher had a nervous breakdown?? What kind of reason is that? Too silly to justificate something so serious as a school massacre in a shonen with 11/12-year kids. If they wanted to talk about a serious theme like stress in people who work with children, I don't think this was the right way. It was a disservice.

***SPOILERS END HERE***

Gakkyuu Houtei deserves your attention. It's a perfect manga to read in 1-2 days to have fun and some surprises. I'm looking forward for an anime adaptation, GH would look very good animated. And please DON'T expect this to be a Death Note with kids. I said DON'T!

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Poll: Gakkyuu Houtei Chapter 2 Discussion weepingtendons - Dec 8, 2014	11 replies	by nidoqueen106_2 »» Jul 11, 2024 9:14 AM
Poll: Gakkyuu Houtei Chapter 22 Discussion Tanma - Jun 26, 2015	1 replies	by ReaperCreeper »» Dec 11, 2022 10:52 PM
Poll: Gakkyuu Houtei Chapter 21 Discussion KumaKing - May 11, 2015	2 replies	by KumaKing »» May 11, 2015 4:08 PM
Poll: Gakkyuu Houtei Chapter 20 Discussion weepingtendons - Apr 27, 2015	0 replies	by weepingtendons »» Apr 27, 2015 10:37 AM
Poll: Gakkyuu Houtei Chapter 19 Discussion weepingtendons - Apr 20, 2015	0 replies	by weepingtendons »» Apr 20, 2015 11:04 AM

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