Fifteen years ago, the Mayor of the Education City was presented with an
unwelcome surprise by his superiors: twin six-month-old boys. As the Mayor
reluctantly accepted the two babies, he had no way of knowing that they would
change the city forever… Raised in the comfort of the Mayoral mansion, Umasi
and Zen are as different as two brothers can be. Umasi is a good student; Zen
an indifferent one. They love their adoptive father, but in a city where
education is absolute, even he cannot keep them sheltered from the harsh
realities of the school system. But when they discover that their father is
responsible for their suffering, affection turns to bitterness. Umasi and Zen
are thrust onto two diverging paths. One will try to destroy the City. The
other will try to stop him.
Truancy Origins is the prequel to Truancy
written by Isamu Fukui. Truancy, which I read earlier this year, was
written when Isamu Fukui was still a senior in high school, and I was
impressed. Truancy Origins takes you back to when everything first started and
it reveals so much more of what had to be assumed and neatly connects several
threads.
Origins begins with the story of the two boys, Umasi and Zen (Zen later
changes his name to Zyid), and is set 15 years prior to the events that set the
Truancy movement into motion. We learn about how the Mayor became the father of
Umasi and Zen and who it was that put the children on his doorstep. But what I
really enjoyed was learning all about the Mayor, about how ruthless a person he
was and that making the students life as hard as possible was something he took
pleasure in. When Umasi and Zen find out what their father actually does, one
of the boys, Zen, flips. He freaks out, finally understanding who is the cause
of the student’s harsh lives and he swears to fight the unjust education system
and start the Truancy.
It was a great treat to read about Zen’s and Umasi’s early years and how
they were as boys. Both were pretty smart but had a completely different
outlook towards school: Zen was doing just enough to get by whereas Umasi was
aiming to be top of his class. And it was fun to see Umasi growing from a
“nerdy” student into the pacifist that we saw in Truancy – cool and collected,
and also how he got his kick-ass martial arts skills! As well as the
characters, we also get to learn a lot about the organization of the City
itself, the roles of the Educators and it really allows a lot of things fall
into place.
Writing a prequel was a great decision, it adds a lot of information that
you previously had to guess at. There is much information about the two boys
and how they came to be how they were in Truancy. This is a book that you
simply have to read after you have read Truancy itself.