Dolls Fall

This manga seemed really promising for about the first third or so, but then it went downhill fast. The ONLY consistently good aspect of this manga is the art. Character designs, environments, gore, and nudity are all well-represented artistically. Unfortunately, that is ultimately just another aspect of this manga's wasted potential.

I thought this story might be pretty good at first, not mind-blowing elite-tier stuff, but solid and enjoyable. The exposition escalates things quickly, there's some twisted, fucked up scenes early on, our protagonists are fairly likable, the villain is a generic horror super-sadist. All that needed to be done from there was to keep the focus on the characters and put together a coherent beginning, middle, and end for the story. Then you'd have a good, but not great manga (in the 6 t0 7/10 range).

Unfortunately that doesn't happen. New characters I couldn't be bothered to care much about continually get introduced, the plot takes a turn involving pointless super-powers that often don't even come into play when the characters would need them, and confusing and seemingly completely unrelated plot-points are introduced as well. In short, the back half of this manga is a completely convoluted mess in terms of story and characters. I couldn't even tell what the hell was going on much of the time.

Scores:
Story 2/10
Art 8/10
Characters 4/10
Enjoyment 4/10
Overall 4/10

*Scores are based around 5/10 being considered "average"

Ultimately, the only things keeping this manga's score out of the cellar for me are the very good art and the fact that it did show some promise in the beginning. Would not recommend though. Although you may get some enjoyment if you just want gore and twisted shit and don't care if you're able to tell what is going on.

This was the first gorey manga that I read, and boy did it leave a strong impression on me. In fact, I still consider it one of the most twisted series out there.

The strength of this series doesn't lie in its gore. The strength of this series lies in the fucked-upness that it achieves in both story and characters. Some of the characters and their actions are truly disgusting and pretty sickening. The fact that the recipient of such actions are little girls makes it worse.

This doesn't mean this series has bad gore, either. In fact, the gore in this series, although not the most extreme, imo is one of the best in terms of quality. The guts are not only detailed, but even have a glistening quality to them. You can really feel the love the author put into drawing them.

Art: The art in this series was spot-on. Although at times the faces of some characters looked like squished play-do, the dark and twisted art style really complimented the series.

Story: The story could've been better. Most annoying were the many things introduced and then ignored for the rest of the series. Superpowers were introduced, then all but forgotten. The "Dolls Fall" game wasn't really explained, and it was never really explored. Girls having some kind of past was hinted, and then generally forgotten. At times the girls figure stuff out, but they take little to no action regarding it. Seriously, the author tried to put in way too much stuff, which left everything half-assed. The random stuff not only distracted from the plot, but also left big breaks in gore, which was a damn shame.

Overall: 7/10. The story could've been a lot better, but the gore + fucked-upness really shone through. And ultimately, that's what I look for in a horror manga. This isn't one of those horror manga that make you jumpy and paranoid. This is one of those series that makes you lose a bit of faith in humanity. While not the most shocking, some of the scenes in this series left a strong and lasting impression. Overall good read, and would recommend.

First things first. My "reviews" system is explained on a blog entry. Which can be found through my profile.
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✦Story
Interesting premise about witches and orphanage. First time seeing this type of combination. Story was a bit conglomerated and confusing but quite intriguing. I lost track at some story aspects and the "Background" of the whole situation. As well "powers" were a bit random. But aside that it was pretty cruel and gruesome story with some surprises. Since short manga, it was somewhat fast paced and the way it was wrapped up felt a bit weak.


✦Art
Cute moegirls, great designs, great scenery and gruesome gore. Found art quite good.


✦Character
Many different type of moeblob girls with their own tragic past. Witches with twisted view and few side-kicks that have odd purpose. Aside that I cannot say much without spoiling. Characters were good enough, but not too amazing. Probably the cause would be the length of the manga.


✦Enjoyment & Overall
Cute girls, edgy plot, gore in a disturbing and sad manner. Quite enjoyable piece of work. But sadly suffers from lack of information. So for plot hunters, it's probably bad. But in general, it's good enough.

From the author of corpse party comes another gory manga with loli's in dire situations coupled with constant panty wetting and with sheer gruesome scenes at times.

Though having said that this manga wasn't by any means a good read and many a times left me scratching my head trying to understand what it wanted to say.

Story 3/10

Well the synopsis pretty much sums up the whole story without much to add.There aren't many plot twits to make you fall out your seat.(The last chapter had a plot twist but at the end of the day it seemed very underwhelming). The story mainly revolves around the gore and that's pretty much it. To sum it up. If you see a new girl in a chapter chances are she is most probably gonna die and that is what this manga mainly revolves around.

Art 7/10

The art is the only redeeming fact about this manga.Not at a masterpiece level but it goes very well in depicting the gruesomeness the author wanted to portray. Being drawn by an artist which has mainly focused on hentai the art truly does stand out and many a times has brought light to this otherwise dull manga.

Character 2/10

This is the weakest link in this manga and the reason i don't like this at all. Some of the characters are just introduced as slaughter goats to depict how gruesomely the author would kill her. The main character and 1-2 others do have some stories to tell but in most cases you won't give a damn about the character and would just be waiting just as to how she is gonna die. Mid way through i didn't even try to remember who is who cuz she gonna die next chapter anyway.

Enjoyment 2/10

The manga does start of well.And the early chapters do have a lot of promise.But that is totally destroyed as the manga moves on to the further chapters.Not to tell the ending was extremely rushed and made no sense whatsoever at times.

Overall 2/10

To say as a whole this manga wont be a big plus in your list.Though if you love gore you could enjoy some parts as that is where this manga excels at.If you have all the time in the world, love gore and don't know what to read next give this a go.