Dokumushi

Wow! This was not what I expected. Like most people, I learned about this manga from the anime man, but from his video my impression of the manga was that it was gonna be some subpar garbage "edgy" story with little interesting aspects. Boy, was I wrong!

The only reason I started reading it is because I am a huge horror fan and I was excited to see all the gore and over the top graphic scenes that were hyped up to be there. So far it has been rather tame actually. There are a lot of things that I ended up liking. I liked the whole countdown which gives us a cool sense of progression, I liked the character backstories that fit in with and make sense of their ridiculous personalities, I liked the different interactions, relationships and betrayals developed between the characters, I liked how the plot progressed, I liked the artstyle from how realistic the backgrounds are to how expressive the characters could be when overwhelmed by emotions, I liked the whole poisonous insect folklore thing. And while this manga definitely has a lot of room for improvement (somewhat-generic character designs, not-so-original plot, unrealistic behavior) there are no aspects of it that I would call straight up "bad".

In short, this manga is a lot less messed up, and a lot better than I expected. I read both volumes in one go and now I'll gladly wait for the others to be translated. I actually recommend this manga, it doesn't deserve the low rating or the hate for it's "edgyness", which is a criticism I have never taken seriously, especially for horror series.

I kid you not when I tell you this manga is pretty much perfectly legible no matter what language you might speak. Having not translations of any kind past chapter six but realizing the lack of quality of this work, I attempted to read the original scans and dear Lord, the Anime Man of the YouTube planes disappointed me for the last time with this terrible recommendation (of sorts). When you can read a manga without reading it at all, you realize there is a thin, thin, THIN line between a masterpiece and an utter piece of shit.

Or, in other words, you can use cliches to your advantage very effectively, because that's how you can read the vast majority of this without requiring the knowledge of English (or any!) language. Seriously, the scenes are so by the book that it might as well effectively be a textbook example of how to write your very first story (because it's your first, and of course it's going to be bad), and how not to write a story at all if you're at all concerned about making it too cliche.

As for the rest of the product itself!
The basic setting is where this manga both starts and stops, and from then on out, there is nearly nothing but rather close-to-explicit porn and some gore so disappointing that it's clear the mangaka just wanted to do draw very questionable tabboish sexy-times. If there are any redeeming points in this read, I doubt I would find them upon my second read because by God, just draw porn, won't you?

The art is OK, the characterization non existent, and most character archetypes used in just about the laziest possible damn way. Each and every character is clearly deranged or traumatized or both in some way, and it shows very early on that they are not what they seem, which just makes it so easy to see where it's going that I don't even know why I gave this a chance. Call it a morbid curiosity, far greater curiosity, mind you, than I had for the story itself.

Plus point for some very nice nudity. Not many plus points for 'yikes' content, but hey, that's what this manga is all about. Extra minus points for very disappointing gore.

... Just read Pumpkin Night already!

I heard about this monger through the anime man and once I heard him compared it to the likes of Saw and Battle Royale I knew I immediately had to check it out I'm a huge horror junkie so I wanted to see what all the fuss was about and I was disappointed. I don't get very much horror vibe from this there's no good atmosphere the seven main characters range from despicable and unlikable especially in regards to the lesbian character who I couldn't wait to watch die I to just bland or okay, the art style is just very serviceable and nothing really all that special there are times where the arch really shines especially during the sex scenes conveniently enough are actually times where the art can look pretty good but due to a lack of proper horror atmosphere it's almost pointless. There are some scenes that put a smile on my face such as some of the actions of the hostess character and the guy who is a cultist is the closest thing to an interesting character, and the death of the lesbian character was extremely satisfying alongside the death of the unlikable lesbian character in her flashback was equally as gratifying, however the final nail in the coffin for me and what really kills this manga for me is only two out of the six volumes are translated so I actually can't read the other for so I can't continue the story I don't understand how this manga has been around for almost 2 years now and it hasn't been fully translated BULLSHIT.
my personal recommendation skip this at least until it gets fully translated and check out Elfen lied and Another they are much better or experiences and are worth your time.

Came from The Anime Man once again lol and yeah he was a bit inaccurate with the otaku and little girl scene. No, the otaku did not hit it with the little girl, but did partake in child grooming technically. Still disgusting nevertheless.

Although there are only 6 chapters translated in English, the Chinese version had all 50 chapters translated, and I'm lucky that Cantonese is my first language.

I did not like nor enjoyed this series at all.

No, there's no necrophilia or pedophilia (maybe slightly for pedo? but that's like towards the end) so don't worry, you don't have to tamper with your moral compass to justify reading this series

Story: 2
It's just basically a watered down version of "Danganronpa" and "Doubt!". 7 people get trapped in an abandoned school with no access to food and contact to the outside world. There is also a timer in the main room that counts down to 7 days, and there is also a room with a cooker and a butcher knife. You know how the rest would go.

My thoughts on the story is located waaaaaay down below, after Overalls, because it is impossible to talk about my thoughts without spoiling the story.

Art: 8
All these lesser known small horror mangas have this distinct artstyle and I lowkey like it lol

Characters: 5 -1
This is basically a scenerio where ESH applies. I won't go into spoilers, but given the nature of this manga (in which to expose or reveal the cruelty of human nature), I'd say characters behaving in certain ways are justifiable. But at least the MC isn't just some "no, we have to leave with everyone alive!" like every generic MC in any horror mangas do. So I'll just leave it at a 5

On second thoughts, the fat otaku still creeps me out. So I'll knock the score down by 1 lol

Enjoyment: 1 (SPOILERS)
At least for deadtube, it was somewhat enjoyable due to the fight scenes and had clear resolutions. However, this series is just a pain to get through. There is no defining arcs where the outcome leads to a resolution. What do I mean? Deadtube had different arcs whenever a new video contest event rolls out, and the end of each arc had a somewhat satisfying yet tragic resolution. There is a clear resolution before moving onto the next arc. In Dokumushi, it's just one big slog. You can say each character dying could be counted as an arc, but theres no clear resolution after each character death. It's just problem -> solution -> problem -> solution rinse and repeat until you reach Chapter 50 with a resolution. I do not enjoy this formula in any sort of entertainment.

Overall: 2
This is one of the few times where I'm giving an overall rating not following my enjoyment score. It HAS some redeeming qualities (the MC not being as pathetic), but at the end of the day, I just did not like this series.


STORY SPOILERS + MY THOUGHTS:
The ending of Dokumushi is literally Doubt! (extremely simila, at least), with the MC being the next Dokumushi game champion. Who is the previous champion? It's the little girl.
The reasoning behind starting the game is extremely vague and does not make too much sense. It was said that all 7 of them had something to do with the creator, but in reality, only the MC had a direct relationship with the creator to cause him to be drafted into the game. During the flashbacks of the MC, the MC and his then-still-alive girlfriend are braindead, whilst the girlfriend's father has the most unpractical solution to deal with the MC because he didn't aprove of him dating his daughter. The solution? Making the Dokumushi game. Yeah, the dad is the creator. What a shocker.

ENGLISH IS NOT MY FIRST LANGUAGE IM STILL FLUENT PLS READ MY REVIEW DESPITE MY GRAMATICAL ERRORS
i have read this so you don't have to srly

This manga is about people who have NO FCKING SELFCONTROL, no one has a control in anything and as a result of this they take THE WORST DECISION POSSIBLE always this makes the story very boring as you will always know what will the character do next. Also you can pretty much skip all the dialog as even in the translation is nonesense most of the time (or at least in the translation i used) . This means the story is predictable at best which is quite a shame.

Another negative point is how steriotypical this story is, from the moment it start you know the twist of every character except for one. Worser than that is the power of their "artillery" in such a situation wich means this story will end up as your generic hentai at some point.

Adding up the art is quite amateur and i don't belive it was very well used, I belive you can do amaizing things with a really basic understanding of art but this manga fails to get outside at least i know whats happening. Positive point to the art for being clear enough i could understand it always

In the end Just go read some hentai it's less pretencious

At first the premise seems like something that I would enjoy especially when it was recommended by a popular youtuber. However, upon reading only first few couple of chapter, it was really obvious to me that this is just another manga where the author tries to tackle a genre which he is not very good at. As a result, all you get is a story that tried to be psychological but only ended up being just surface level and predictable. There's no such thing as uniqueness or identity to it, it's just plain. To make it worse, there is a typical character who are created just to explain everything in the story without leaving any subtlety or mystery to it.

However, what really cause me to drop the manga is due to author silly decision to write backstory too early. Remember when you were reading an amazing manga and turned to a black page, you realized that was the time for an epic flashback backstory for the favourite character your love. In this manga, the author did that at chapter 4. You are still not attached to any of the character to care about them, but you already got their flashback and it was a whole chapter of it. I realized that I start skimming through the pages, just from drawings alone I can tell that its a basic backstory for that character trope. I decided to not waste time on it anymore.

Like many other people, I’ve heard about this manga from Joey. So when I saw that he made an entire video on it, I decided not to watch it and first read the whole thing instead. I’m glad I did. I hate knowing too much (honestly, I hate knowing anything) about a story and in which direction it goes.
Imagine not knowing anything about your favorite manga or anime or whatever and experiencing it for the first time. You’re gonna be way more involved in what’s going on, because you’re gonna anticipate WHAT. Is gonna happen next, you’re not anticipating ‚that epic twist‚ everyone keeps telling you is about to happen etc., and that is exactly what makes horror or suspense exciting to read.
Which is why you shouldn’t read too many review first because what the hell do we know about YOUR taste.

So…I don’t completely disagree with Joey when he says that this is very brutal etc., but in terms of the story or art, it is completely…average. That’s all I can say. Nevertheless, I was really excited reading this. Maybe I’m a boring person but I was on edge the entire time? Something about this manga just made me read it like an addict…or something.
Apparently there is no English translation of the whole Manga, so I don’t know how people are reviewing this who speak only English…but again, even though it’s not a very original concept with mediocre art, I’d still recommend it, but without hyping it as much as Joey did. By the way, I have no idea how many chapters are in the six volumes, so I just wrote 24, assuming each volume has four chapters. Sorry.

The higher your expectations, the more disappointed you’re gonna get. So don’t think too much about it going into this, make it your own experience and see for yourself.

One last thing: if anyone has a theory about the very last pages, let me know.

I actually read the whole book in Japanese unlike 90% of anyone that said anything about the story. I went the extra step and bought all the books from a manga store (PS: I live in Japan) look here--> https://drive.google.com/open?id=1bRZFyxL_H_rveOhda3oMotFXSuqbBFdW <--

first of all I would only recommend reading it once it's been translated or just reading it if you know Japanese. I will make only a short review as I plan to make a video review of it.

This is not for the faint of heart by any means. I know most people want to know the story as a popular YouTuber made a video about it. Many taboo things happen that may turn people away but in reality it's not much more gruesome than what you would see in any slasher films. As I did really enjoy the story somethings happen that made me quite confused as to WHY a character did some stupid ass thing, and this happens enough to make me slightly annoyed and any seemed like a reason to have some people fight each other. There is actually another Dokumushi, an indirect squeal, that is ongoing with no section here on MAL however I plan to make an entry about it and read that one as well.

Me and some friends are currently translating the books to English so that everyone can enjoy the story that I was able to enjoy.

So I was told by a famous YouTuber that this was the most brutal and gory manga ever. That couldn't be farther from the truth. To be honest, I've read more brutal mangathan I can count and this doesn't even reach the top tier.

Not only is the plot formulaic, but it's also very predictable. So you have a bunch of people in a lockdown building and they have to survive for 7 days. Basically the plot of the ring and saw blended together. Then we're introduced to a character, we get a flashback, something happens to said character and repeat the whole process.

I will admit though, I couldn't stop reading until the end. Despite its repetitive structure, it does know how to keep the readers hooked. However, I don't think this is the kind of manga you'd want to re-read after finishing it. Once the manga ends, it just... ends.there was no catharsis by the end of it. But for the sole reason of keeping me hooked 'till the end, I still gave it a decent score. I'd score it 5.5, but MAL would just round it off to 6, so there you go.

Like many others here, I got recommended this by the henti man, and since I wanted to practice my japanese I gave it a go.

As a summary, don't waste your time. This is a dumpster-fire, which gave me flashbacks of School Days, in the sense that you end up hating the main character from the bottom of your heart. The only things to praise here is the concept (I never heard about locking people with no food for a while and see who survives concept, but from other reviews seems is not that rare, so if you are familiar with this concept story might be predictable for you), the artwork and how explicit some scenes are (glad the mangaka didn't tone them down), and how this manga teases you with morbid curiosity to see what fucked up thing comes up next, which was the only motivation for me to keep reading till the end.
On the bad side we have stupid characters making stupid decisions, and a cast of awful people to hate (although some of them more than others). I have to say having backstories for all of them was a nice touch, and made their behavior more understandable (except for the main character, fuck that guy).

Overall it made me feel sick on some parts, which is more than you could say for many other works, that's why I gave it a 4 and not a 1 or 2, but I wouldn't read it again nor would recommend it to anyone. Some scenes are freaking depressing.