Deathtopia

I will come back to the title and explain it but first few words about author, Yoshinobu Yamada. Hi is artist and writer in all his works and that's kinda normal in the world of manga but not that much normal in comic world where sometime few artists do same art. So from my point of view, his soul (as an artist) is in each manga and i like this new one. Perhaps you have already met with some of his works, first there was Young Castaways in 1999, Chanbara 2003, Cage of Eden 2008, Charon 2013 and now Deathtopia. The first chapter is issued, contains 52 pages and is published by Kodansha. There is not much of plot you can check, most of info say just few words about what to expect but after reading first chapter i will just tell you what kinda manga it is or is not.

The weird

The main protagonist is Fujimara Kou, a 19 year old student, while trying to catch thief, car hits him and he ends in hospital. Incident with the car broke his bones around the eyes and he must go immediately to surgery, after it finished and while resting was attacked by a girl named Laura. Before the incident, he wore glasses but after he see perfect, maybe too perfect, because some people don’t have facial expressions. So for now I see him as a weird one.

The Bad

Antagonist is Laura, was introduced to us on page 12, for now we don't know why Laura hate Kou but she want to take his eyes and while fighting, Laura told Kou “You see, this is because you're an extremely dangerous man…!". He almost died there but then three more girls entered room. The strange thing about her is that she was shot, crashed through the window from the third or fourth floor and remained alive, she is not human but from that point we don't know more info.

The good

I bet you already waiting to check who's good here, ok ok Kou is good but we still don't know nothing about him. And for now he got saved by three girls who shot Laura, tried to kill her then vanished without trace so for now they are „good“ side. They also appear on the last page but who are those three girls?.

Action is dynamic and there is a good balance of scene… i am talking about the scenes that contain a lot of detail and those containing less. Further more, Yamada constantly attracts us to keep track of the action and discover more about Kou. My only wish is for Yamada to bring forward some cool abilities. What we have before us is only the first chapter, therefore i can't evaluate the manga but I have a feeling I'll be sure to check the next sequel.

An intriguing story that could have used more chapters.

The first half of Deathtopia is fantastic. It has a great atmosphere with some good mysteries sprinkled in as the main character is learning about the monsters known as "Cheaters" and trying to stop their murdering rampage. The book is very gory. Super detailed regarding the deaths. There's some nice fanservice, but it's mostly a horror manga that's not afraid to show boobs.

During the first half of the series, I noticed that it's very fast paced. Deathtopia is more plot-driven than character-driven, however, it does have good character work that other plot-driven manga skip over. However, it still falls into the bad habits of plot-driven stories and there aren't enough chapters or scenes where we can sit with the characters and explore who they are outside of their job. As it is, the plot of Deathtopia follows case after case of the cheaters and their victims. Once a cheater is captured or killed the team is immediately given a new cheater case. There's hardly any downtime.

The second half covers more of the backstories between each character and finally reveals who everyone is and the mysteries surrounding their whole predicament. I didn't think this was handled well. The villains could have been interesting multi-faceted characters, but in the end, they were reduced to the whole "MWAHAHA I'm EVIL!!" schtick with some eye-rolling twists. The series does pull off the type of "reveal" that really pisses me off in stories when either the author wants to continue a story past its endpoint or when an author is trying to make more of an impact with twists. It's really annoying, and most of the wrap up didn't feel satisfying.

In the end, the series did end okay, but I wished there was more finality to character arcs and what they did after everything that went down. It's really frustrating when it had such a solid foundation.

It was fun.

I would recommend.

The first 4 volumes are intense.

I must say that the story was one of the many that got me hooked in. It has a lot going on, but at the same time the structure of the story flows well, and its easy to follow through. With a great variety of main characters, as well as new cases that the group has to solve in every chapter, is really worth the time. Considering, that each individual character is so unique, you will certainly enjoy reading this. Also, I want to add that the art style of this manga is great, and it really captures each individual scene, especially during the times that Kou, helps out fighting the bad guys with the female group. I highly recommend it to anyone, who wants a great action, and horror filled manga, that will keep you hooked in until the very end.

tl;dr: A manga with a plot that starts getting overtly messy once it starts coming together and lacks good character/relationship development, but looks really really good. 

This manga's plot has good concepts, though ones that aren't all that original, and was pretty solidly for most of it when it was focused more on smaller episodes in dealing with individual cheaters with only hints at what is going on in terms of the larger plot. However, as it got closer to the end and the overarching plot started coming more and more into focus, it started getting really convoluted with too much happening in too short a time with random twists and the introduction of a good amount of plot holes. The ending was still decent enough otherwise, it just felt really messy. A bigger problem was that while the characters had solid enough set ups and concepts, the character development was weak and the relationship development was even weaker. I was waiting and hoping the entire time for it to go somewhere, anywhere, but in the end nothing ever really materialized, which is a shame because it really felt like it needed something, wherein anything, even something weak, would be better than nothing.  What makes this worth reading though, is primarily the art. The combat isn't all that deep and rarely has much strategy to it, but it looks really cool. And the character designs were great, and how they were portrayed and just the general style and focus was really great, especially with the covers and color pages. That alone makes it well worth a read. 

Also, it was weird in that it took characters from Eden no Ouri, another work by the author, and just threw them in random positions, often as Easter eggs, but a couple of major roles as well. I didn't really like that or hate it, but did find it kind of strange. 

This manga was fantastic!

When I found this story I had just caught up to DEAD Tube and was looking for anything that could somewhat live up to the beauty of that masterpiece in terms of gore and art.
This manga encapsulates a horror genre. There is a good amount of gore and, but the overall story somehow manages never to get taken out. The ending, unlike many horror manga, ends on a great note with the hope that the story will never really end though it is over now.

Highly recommend this for anyone looking for a great story that is about long enough to keep you occupied for a week

Happy Reading