Publisher: Kodansha
Volumes: 21/21 (Complete) (Digital Only)
Shounen
Genre: Life and Death Games, Survival Horror, Supernatural, Ecchi, Harem
Summary: Life seemed ordinary for high school seniors Akashi and his best friend and soccer teammate Aoyama. They had an argument about whether to pursue their dreams of playing soccer professionally together in college, or just Aoyama alone. Akashi felt like they lost their chance to play pro forever, ever since Aoyama lost that fateful game that would have taken them to the national tournament. Akashi runs out in a huff and skips school, while Aoyama stubbornly stays behind. But the two of them never get a chance to apologize to each other, as the school is soon attacked by deadly Daruma dolls!
The both of them, plus somehow every single high schooler on the planet, gets swept into a series of deadly children’s games for some unknown purpose. Can Akashi and Aoyama survive to apologize to each other? And what are the games even for?
Review: The overall main plot is based on a series of mostly Japanese children’s games combined with wordplay that have been reinterpreted into games of life and death. Thankfully there are many translator's notes in the margins explaining the games and the puns. And some of the games are more familiar and don't need much explanation.
The overall theme of the manga is high stakes of the games acting as a sort of pressure cooker that can bring out the best and worst in people, as well as a sort of ongoing debate whether it is better to be selfish and ruthless or be more of a team player. But it’s a bit more of a guilty pleasure of a manga for the life and death games, as the death toll is ridiculously high, and basically almost none of the characters deserve their gory deaths. They were all drafted into the games and refusing to play results in instant death.
First thing to get out of the way is how annoying it is that Kodansha has licensed only this series, which is subtitled the Second Series because it's a sequel to the First Series. There are two prequels starting with 0- Zero which is 4 chapters long and contains spoilers for the entire series and explains why the games are happening. Then, the First Series is 5 volumes long and covers Shun Takahata and Amaya's journey before meeting up with the characters of the Second Series. Luckily both series have been scanlated fully and can be found by searching Kami-sama no Iu toori and 0- Zero. It is not necessary to read either of them before the Second Series, but I would recommend at least 0- Zero because it keeps the answer of why the games are happening until volume 17, and I felt like the answer was kind of a let down and not worth waiting so long for.
Plot Overview:
Volumes 1-3 was a strong start to the story, as they try to figure out the games, the rules and how to win based on the clues they are given.
Volumes 4-7 the school mysteries arc, was kind of so-so. On the plus side the strategy of the two teams trying to work together to save as many players as possible was kind of neat, but the actual ghost hunting was boring.
Volumes 8-10 have a sort of side story where the characters are given special powers, but this plot goes mostly nowhere because they lose their powers at the end of the arc.
Volumes 10-12 After a short interlude, the story goes to a game of sky high Hopscotch with a twist.
Volume 13: A volume of Hell Labyrinth, and the reunion with Aoyama.
Volumes 14.5-17.5-ish Then a 3 volume long arc of Cops and Robbers (a tag-based game), but this arc was awful as Akashi turns into a total idiot, other players are introduced who can break the rules and not die, and then somehow a lot of the winners die anyway.
Volumes 17.5-ish-20 Then finally the story heads into its final arc, as the finalists play a game of Old Maid with a twist.
Volume 21 The ending.
This series is an Ecchi Harem manga, which is a genre of manga with a lot of fanservice (most often cleavage and girl underwear shots) and where multiple characters confess their love to the main character. I had mixed feelings about this. On one hand the ecchi is worse than usual and I really disliked how the blatant fanservice would interrupt tense and dramatic scenes. Like in the very first chapter when the Daruma doll kills a teacher, a random girl falls over with her skirt flipped up and her butt straight in the camera. There’s a lot of that kind of stuff, and it’s kind of dumb. But the Harem part was surprisingly not terrible as Akashi sometimes does show admirable qualities of trying to save others or trying to get everyone to work together to survive, so it worked out somewhat better when his girl teammates who are trusting him with their lives inside a crazy and dangerous situation also fall in love with him.
That being said, this manga made an odd decision to include a number of LGBT characters, including a bisexual main character who is gay for Akashi. That in itself wasn’t terrible, but I disliked the fact that this character is really over the top and basically insane but also somewhat redeemed by his loyalty and friendship. And adding another minor character who is a lesbian, who is also stalker crazy, felt meh. To be fair, a lot of the regular characters are crazy too. The only thing that redeemed this manga somewhat here was the addition of a transgender girl, who is thankfully normal.
Overall the games are interesting and dramatic, and a few of the games have interesting twists that are figured out in a clever way. But while I was reasonably content with the resolution of Akashi and Aoyama’s central friendship plot, like half of the other minor character plots go nowhere and are never resolved. So basically, read it for the games and not for the characters. And finally the ending, was a terrible disappointment. At first glance I thought the author left it open for a sequel, but after much thought I think he was trying to go for a bittersweet victory but ended up much too bitter. Personally I would skip the ending completely (volume 21) and make up your own imaginary ending, and you’ll probably be happier.
Recommended: TLDR; This manga about a series of Life and Death games based on Children’s games and puns is very entertaining overall. Although it is a somewhat of a guilty pleasure, since all the characters are forced to play these horrifying and deadly games. On the plus side, the games and the way the characters manage to survive is very overall very interesting, but the manga is lackluster in other respects like character development and romantic subplots, and so on. And also note there is also potentially objectionable content with the inappropriate fanservice and a couple crazy LGBT characters.
Age Rating: R: plenty of deaths, blood and gore. Also lots of fanservice, underwear shots, some nudity, some implied offscreen sex, also some random groping and etc.
Other Notes: The first 15 volumes are currently free to read with a trial Kindle Unlimited or Comixology Subscription.
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