Tsuiraku JK to Haijin Kyoushi / 墜落JKと廃人教師, Volume One : Manga Review and Thoughts

**WARNING** this series is a dark comedy. There are themes that can upset some people, so please check the trigger warnings prior to reading the rest of my review.

Spend a day in the world of Colette Decides to Die with my interactive story here!

To get to the point..:

Do I recommend this manga? Yes, but only to those that enjoy unique characters and dark comedy.

Will I be reading on? Yes! I will buy volume 2 the next time I make a big manga purchase.

Trigger warnings: Suicide attempt, smoking, inappropriate student – teacher relationship.

Information About the Manga

Who wrote Tsuiraku JK to Haijin Kyoushi?

This manga was written by Sora!

You can check out the official X account for this series here.

How many volumes are out?

This series is complete at 20 volumes in Japanese.

While there is sadly no English version of this series, there is a drama! While I haven’t seen the drama yet (waiting until after I finish the series), it has very good reviews.

Where can I buy it?

For those looking for the Japanese digitals…

Volume 1

What genre? What are the vibes?

Complex high school relationships
Suicidal FL
Formerly suicidal ML
“Noo don’t kill yourself you’re too cute to die”

First Impressions and thoughts

I actually only found out about this series when its final chapter was published in the Hana to Yume magazine. I really liked the art, and appreciated that that specific volume of the magazine came with a bunch of prints from this series. While I really didn’t know much about it, I could more or less guess by the title, and I bought volume 1!

If we were to directly translate the title into English, it would be something like ” The Falling High School Girl and Irresponsible Teacher”. From this title, I had imagined it to be a story about a teacher who maybe lost his job, and began dating a former student. While I wasn’t right about the exact premise, I wasn’t all that wrong either.

This is the sort of story that you feel a little bit weird about enjoying. As the subject matter is rather dark, it goes places that most stories would not. The author does make note at how dark it is in the story, and this does lighten up the tone a bit. While I did overall enjoy the story, I would advise some caution when reading.

What’s it about?

We begin this story with our protagonist, Mikoto, standing on the edge of her school’s roof, preparing to jump off. Before she can though, one of her teachers calls out to her and they start chatting.

Mikoto explains that she confessed to the boy that she likes, but was turned down. The embarrassment and pain she feels is too much to bear, so she just wants to end it all, she tells the teacher. But, rather than embarrassment for herself, she seems to feel more embarrassed for the boy that she confessed to – she doesn’t want her feelings to cause any inconvenience for him.

The teacher, Haiba, spends quite a while chatting with her. And their conversation really doesn’t feel like one that someone would have when talking someone off a ledge.

To end it, Haiba makes a strange request of Mikoto: if she wants to fall (off a roof), why not try falling for him first?

*INAPPROPRIATE FOR A TEACHER TO BE DOING*

While from Haiba’s side this was an actual confession, from Mikoto’s perspective he was trying to be a kind teacher.

We start most of the chapters with Mikoto seemingly attempting to either kill, or injure, herself. Each time, Haiba is able to save her just in time. These moments aren’t exactly scary, as you never have to worry that she will actually succeed.

I actually found it a little difficult at times to read the mood of some of the scenes – was Haiba doing what he was doing to distract Mikoto and to do something good for her mental health? was he doing something because he has inappropriate feelings for his literal student? probably both, but I couldn’t tell sometimes.

We see small glimpses into Mikoto’s relationship with some of her fellow students, but these glimpses seem to only be there to strengthen the readers opinion of Haiba. As in “while Haiba may be a teacher, at least he’s not betting money on who can sleep with Mikoto”. I’m not falling for it – all of these men are scum.

In another incredibly unrealistic scene, Haiba is able to get the former lead actor in a play to back out so that he could take his place, and performs in the school play with Mikoto. Again, INAPPROPRIATE.

Long story short, this is a story about unhealthy, inappropriate relationships. But! If you can get past them, I do think the author is trying to pass some interesting messages along.

My Favourites

The humour – Personally, I do enjoy dark humour, and there were some parts of this manga that I found to be very funny.
Mikoto’s odd level of empathy – I just find her to be an interesting character. The poor girl literally tried to kill herself because she thought she caused her crush stress.
Haiba’s understanding of Mikoto’s suicidal tendencies – It’s heavily hinted that Haiba was suicidal when he was Mikoto’s age, and it was nice to see him recognise the patterns and try to help her.

My Least-Favourites

Haiba – The man should be in jail.
Haiba – He literally allowed himself into Mikoto’s apartment under the guise of “teacher home visit”.
Haiba – Bring back the guillotine for him.

The Main Characters

Ochiai Mikoto

A sweet girl who pays attention in class.
She rather gloomy, but very pretty.
She lives by herself.
She develops questionable feelings for her teacher.

Haiba Jin

A man that should never be allowed near children.
A predator, if you may.
A young teacher who is looked down upon by both teachers and students.
Gets in trouble with the principal very often.

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