Synopsis
Bored of his average everyday life with no change in it Takahata Shun’s whole world is flipped when his teacher’s head suddenly explodes. He and his classmates now find themselves playing a game of Daruma ga Koronda with deadly consequences.
Story
Kamisama no Iutoori is by no means a very original idea for a story, it seems like the writer Kanshiro Muneyuki just watched the movie Cube which had been released in 1997 depicting several people who find themselves stuck in a cube where most rooms are traps and very few are safe. Their goal was to escape the cube, in regards to that Kamisama no Iutoori is more entertaining to read as it is not as predictable and is overall better written then what Cube was. The puzzles where clever yet after the first two it seems that Shun survived only through pure luck by either being selected last so he had more Intel on the game or he stumbled across people failing at their puzzles. When things just happen because coincidence it makes for a less appealing story, when going into Kamisama no Iutoori I was hoping for more psychological aspects to be explored and even though it had been dabbled in it still really wasn’t enough to suffice for all 21 chapters. This manga also happens to be a slaughter fest as they will kill off as many people as they like just to cause a reaction, to be honest this wasn’t a bad trait as gore and slaughter was the main aspect to this story. It surprised me when in the first chapter you witness 20+ people get their heads blown off and it sets the tone for the rest of the manga very well. A disappointing aspect of the story is the idea that Shun has the same scent as Amaya Takeru who happens to be a high school student who enjoys to kill people and use them as bait to pass any puzzle that faces him. He states that Shun has a similar scent as him and that idea doesn’t get explored until the very end of the manga. The ending was very anti-climatic as you can compare it to a little kid getting shot by a toy gun and then saying that he has a shield because of magic. Overall I give the Story a 6/10
Characters
The characters is kamisama no Iutoori have average designs to the characters but considering that the characters are “regular” school students it’s some what appropriate for the designs to be average. On the other hand the personalities are something different, depending on the characters. Takahata Shun who is the protagonist of the story has a personality focused around protecting his friends, through out the manga we see him develop as friends are killed in front of his eyes. Being a good analyzer allows him to play an important role to help develop strategies that can help him and his friends survive the puzzles. Ichika Akimoto is friends with Shun, as the puzzles go on she ends up learning that she is a “mega hentai” someone who gets aroused by the thrill of having their life on the line without a sure way to get out of danger. She tends to help try and get through the puzzles and expresses a love interest for Shun. Christopher Kento Akimoto is an unusual character as he really doesn’t contribute anything to the team, he is later shown as a self obsessed character who realizes that when his life is in danger he has to fight for himself to survive. Takeru Amaya is the bloodthirsty member of the team who gets sexually aroused about the concept of dying, this is similar to Ichika Akimoto. Yukio Sanada is the athlete of the team being fast and strong, being able to pull his weight on the team. The characters develop very little through out the manga but have a strong bond with each other as they have been through the puzzles and survived together which makes it even more dramatic when someone dies. Overall I give the characters a 6/10
Art
The art in Kamisama no Iutoori focused a lot on the slaughter of the characters or players if you will. There’s a lot of detail being focused on the dismembered limbs and wounds that characters have and its really satisfying when you look at it. One thing that the manga does right is expressions, there’s something about manga that doesn’t really get expressed in anime as well and that’s facial expressions. Kamisama no Iutoori has some really powerful expressions that are made through out it that invoke feeling every time you see them. It isn’t just facial expressions that are great it is also the capture of emotion and how it is presented to the reader that really makes the art shine. Even though its a still form the motion feels fluid, you can tell that a character is running fast or that someone is making a desperate dive, the movements are so natural and feel great when you read it. Any fighting that went on looked good especially if it involved Amaya, other than these examples the art was average including the scenery. Overall I give the art an 8/10
Final Thoughts
If you like survival manga with a lot of brutal deaths and a psychological aspect to it than I recommend that you read Kamisama no Iutoori. It might not be the best manga but it’s enjoyable to read and is rather short only being at 21 chapters. It can be read in a day and is good to have for a rainy day where you have nothing to do. Overall I give Kamisama no Iutoori a 6.5/10.
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