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Alternative Titles

Japanese: BTOOOM!

Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 27

Chapters: 125

Status: Finished

Published: Jul 3, 2009 to Aug 9, 2018

Genres: Action, Suspense

Themes: High Stakes Game, Psychological, Survival

Demographic: Seinen

Serialization: Comic@Bunch

Authors: Inoue, Junya (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 7.49¹ (scored by 32,388 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #3013²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #187

Members: 80,759

Favorites: 1,994

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Reviews

Filtered Results: 19 / 20

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Sep 29, 2011

Psyxwar

Recommended

Preliminary (31/125 chp)

BTOOOM! is a story about Sakamoto Ryuuta, a 22 year old unemployed person who lives with his mother and plays video games online everyday. Although nothing special in real life, he is a world ranked player of the video game BTOOOM! One day however, he awakes in a tropical island with a case containing what appears to be bombs with no memory of how he got there. .He realises that he is in a real life version of the video game BTOOOM! and he must survive long enough in the Battle Royale-esque battle.

That's a basic summary of the plot. Our main character, Sakamoto, isn't your ...

Aug 5, 2012

bunny1ov3r

Recommended

Preliminary (60/125 chp)

*Review Updated
Btooom! is one of those relatively not-well-known manga. Most people would probably not be interested in this manga just by seeing its cover page, which is in the format of a video game case. I know I almost did. Nevertheless, this manga has amazing plotline, characters, and artwork. If you would want to see what happens when a gamer-shut-in is thrown into a merciless game where a bunch of people hated by the society use bombs to kill each other, and this survival game just happens to be the same as the one he always plays. Furthermore, he meets a busty teenage girl who ... just happens to fall for him. Together, they must use every inch of their cunning to avoid being killed by other participants. Yep. By combining all these different elements, you get btooom!

Story: 8
The story is refreshing and full of mystery. There are a lot of plot twists and the reader will never know what will come next. This manga is narrated solely from Ryuuta's view (the protagonist). We slowly discover the mystery to this cruel survival game as Ryuuta learns more. This creates a sense of anticipation and makes this manga enjoyable. Furthermore, one thing that this manga excel at is the use of back stories, for both main and supporting characters. These back stories are flashbacks that explain why the characters act the way they do. However, they are not as fully fleshed out as I would like.

Despite the amazing start, this manga, through its slow updates, is slowly degenerating to the realm of mediocrity. Maybe that's an exaggeration, but we will see how it plays out.

Art: 8
I am not much of an art person, but suffice to say that I find the art in btooom! well done.

Character: 8
The most notable aspect of character portrayal in btooom! is realism. This is evidently seen in our protagonist, Ryuuta. Although he is a neet, an anti-social, and has anger management problems, he also possess incredible compassion to help others, an observant and calculating brain that enables him to survive, and a strong sense of morals. This manga is not only told in his perspective, but we can also hear his complex thoughts on every page. This is what made this manga really interesting.

Enjoyment: 9
As you can see, I enjoyed this manga a lot :D I definitely recommend it.

Overall: 8
Btooom! Is a refreshing survival game manga that deals in various genres, such as mystery, action, psychological, romance, ecchi, and seinen. Some would like to claim that it is a rip-off of battle royal, but personally I don't see why that should even matter.

Here is to wishing that future chapter releases would continue to keep up the good work.

Jun 12, 2020

anim3y

Mixed Feelings

*MINOR SPOILERS*

A quick note: this is my first review, so if it seems like I don't know how to write a review, it's because I don't.

I'm going to have to give this manga a 6 in all categories. If I were to rate the first half, I'd give it an 8, but the second half gets a 4 for me. Thus, it has an overall average score of 6. Because many have already written reviews on the first half of the manga, I will be focusing on the flaws of the second half (if you want to know why the first half was good, read ... other reviews).

The main reason that I didn't enjoy the second half was because of this certain plot device called Kaguya. Kaguya is a child and cult founder with the supernatural ability to see and hear spirits. Essentially, her role in the story is to tell characters around her about what spirits are saying about them, which often channels emotional responses which lead to drastic actions. In other words, Kaguya is an immersion-breaking supernatural character and a cheap plot device for sudden character changes.

Kaguya's antics eventually just stomp over your moral compass, because every criminal around her gets instantly forgiven as soon as she spouts something about spirits. I'm not going to say anything specific to avoid spoilers, but she is part of the reason why I don't really feel like this manga was ever resolved.

This brings us to the last point - the resolution. I feel like nothing was really resolved by the end, because we didn't find out what happened to anything or anyone except for the players. However, even what we are given about the players is not fulfilling, because there are still many questions to be asked. Again, I'm not going to pick out anything specific, but let's just say that the players' actions on the island demand some sort of consequence, yet we are not presented with anything specific. Also, we never find out what happens to the company that created the game.

There is another reason why I disliked the second half, but to avoid spoilers I'll just say that Himiko's mental fortitude is godlike.

With all that said, the second half of the manga was a bit boring and disappointing as such. However, the first half was pretty good, so if you want to know what happens by the end, give the second half a try, I guess.

EDIT: I originally wrote this review having only read the light ending, but now I have read the dark ending as well (yes, this manga has alternate endings). It explains more about the behind-the-scenes of the game, but is, to say the least, incredibly absurd.

Dec 21, 2011

irinthony

Recommended

Preliminary (Unknown/125 chp)

Btoom! may have taken some ideas from Battle Royale in the sense that it's about a few people being transported into an island where the contestants have to kill each other to survive, however it is slightly different becaus the rules set are the same as those found in the popular online game Btoom.

Personally, I don't think it's a rip-off of Battle Royale because it is quite different. Battle Royale is still greater because it is more emotional and it is not ecchi, however Btoom! is a decent manga and deals pretty well with the problems dealt with the characters. Characterization is good so far, ...

Jan 27, 2021

VankataKirkata

Recommended

This review contains light spoilers.

BTOOOM! has been a really wild ride. Admittedly it has its problems but you can get over them if you just suspense your disbelief for some of the things happening.
I know its not important to the review but I really want to mention that I had to wait two years for every chapter to come out then I looked for this manga everywhere and I almost thought it was lost media, but thanks to the (for now) only other reviewer of the btooom manga I found it. Note that those circumstances may make me biased toward liking it.

Art 8/10
An Interesting ... thing about this author is that he likes to draw faces really round to the point that they look like melons, but still I think he has skill. The backgrounds are outstanding, I really like how by the end of the last chapters the mangaka tells us about all the places he has been to to take reference photos. The guy has traveled half of the world just for the sake of making backgrounds. Absolute madman.

Characters 9/10
I like it how in this manga almost every character on the island gets a backstory. Exploring the reasons of why they were sent there, their motivation and resolve really adds to the depth of the whole story.
The only slightly annoying thing is Ryota's edgy phase (I won't go into detail and will refrain from spoiling you) but by the end of it I sympathized mainly to Himiko, because she did nothing wrong to deserve to be sent to the island and even her actions on the island were not criminal in any way.

Story 7/10
The things that happen are pretty wild but sometimes come out as plain silly and that makes you a bit less invested in the story but still I think its really fascinating. The author tries really hard to redeem the characters and make us forgive them for the things they have done, which may come as annoying to some people but I still think he did a good job.
Again use your suspense of disbelief because there are quite a few supernatural things happening. I don't know if the author is a fan of conspiracy theories or if its just a meme but I have never seen a manga or anime in which politics play such an important role to the story. So BTOOOM takes an original turn and has two endings, as the author puts it at the end of each ending, one is to pander to the readers and the other is the actual ending he wanted.
I think the ending he wanted is more well thought out and feels like the real ending to the story but unless you are a heartless person you will feel really bitter reading only that, so...
There is the another ending, I recommend reading this one last to feel better. Its not as well thought out but it makes you feel good which I think is more important.

Moral of the story:
Death to capitalists!!! The working class will rise up!!!

Maybe I am redundant but I still want to say that it has been a wild ride.
I get this feeling of sadness that the manga has ended and I no longer will be part of Ryota and Himiko's wild story of fighting for their survival with everything they've got. Miss you guys. 10/10

Jun 30, 2014

Yugane

Recommended

Preliminary (66/125 chp)

The manga is mostly about survival and action.
It's a manga that I enjoy and still waiting to get to the next chapter.
The idea is that people are being sent to play a real-life game called BTOOOM! In which people really kill and die. I think it's good because the plot in where people get transferred into a game is getting mainstream. This one is real, and the weapons are logical.
I've always liked a survival manga like this. It also gives out some strategies on how to deal with the enemies, which is good.
The manga also holds some good meanings inside it. Which I think-- is ...

Oct 7, 2012

Were_Vampire

Recommended

Preliminary (50/125 chp)

I don't easily give 10/10 to mangas or animes. Surely I can find elements that could have developed better or flaws that could be fixed, but that's not the case with Btooom! Why? Because it really outstands most of the animes/mangas that we have around, and reflects the best and the worst of human race in an extreme situation.
The plot is very straightforward: people have been selected for a death game based on a video game named Btooom! and they must fight ala Battle Royale to survive. Has this plot being used before? Yes, but it hasn't been developed as good as in Btooom! and ...

Jun 5, 2021

ZeroNow

Recommended

I greatly enjoyed this series form beginning to end, and like other seinen manga like Gantz and Battle Royale, I found it to be great in all the ways I like. Very Good+ art (not Gantz great, but VG+), multiple engaging characters, huge complex storyline, just enough fan service, and a protagonist that starts off misguided but grows into a great character.

I really liked Sakamoto and Himiko (I want figures!), and strangely identified with their conscience-driven nature throughout. The gaming parallels and adjustment to the real world made for some interesting commentary, and (almost) all the supporting characters had their stories fleshed out in ways ...

Dec 21, 2013

manga46

Recommended

Preliminary (63/125 chp)

One of the best series I have ever watched!

Pros:
This is similar to the battle manga such as Battle Royale. But I love the new twist which is only using Bombs! Amazing! The plot itself, is amazing, with charters to support it. The main character is brilliant, smart, clever, just enough good and bad. The supporting characters are interesting too. I really like the progression of the story, and how time passes by. I love that a lot of things are explained and don't just happen because it's manga.

Cons:
The main supporting female character. She is cool, with a dark past that explains her ...

Mar 14, 2018

Khoanamy

Recommended

Preliminary (93/125 chp)

I didn't know about Btooom! until a friend recommended it to me and I found out that the anime adaptation was overshadowed by SAO's popularity a whole season before in 2012. I picked up the manga after watching the anime adaption and this manga is something on an entirely different level. The story, characters, and escalation with each chapter make this manga one of my favorites.

Despite the wide pool of anime that has the main character trapped in a video game, BTOOOM! separates itself from the other generic titles by really progressing through many hardships. The events happen simultaneously and there aren't any time skips ...

Mar 19, 2016

tomateunmate

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (82/125 chp)

As it tends to happen, this is a manga that stands almost entirely on its premise. A battle royale situation with people of different ages and experiences sent to an island with certain weapons provided and not so clear rules to follow. Another review called it Battle Royale meets Xbox360 and that feels pretty accurate.

The main problem I had with it was that the rules (both general and the very specific functions of the few weapons provided) were presented as overly important when most of the strategy comes from external factors. The general way the characters "play" is much closer to how you'd act in ...

Feb 6, 2024

MashirooYT

Recommended

As the manga messiah its my goal and passion to take out the trash now lets begin the review

*slow clapping* I'm impressed. This was a slow cooker...
Coming into this (pause) I assumed it was going to be another generic thrown on a island survival manga but to my surprise it was a thrown on to a island by people that hate you instead *chefs kiss* ah plot.

Our main character is Sakamoto a 22 year old with no job or desire to get a job that games all day living with mommy that struggles to pay the bills. Hes the 10th best player worldwide on the ...

Feb 19, 2021

hexashadow13

Recommended

tl;dr: A manga with really good action, a messy but interesting cast, and really good art, though a really weak overarching story tying things together.

This manga is one primarily centered around people playing a combat-oriented game in real life, and the manga does a good job at using that for really good action. Everything literally being a game allows for the implementation of various game like mechanics to spice things up. The bombs used as weapons are clearly designed to have their own strengths and weaknesses. There’s a radar like system that can track players that has intentional limits placed on it for the sake ... of more exciting combat. And the game masters change up the rules on the fly at times, which changes things up and keeps things interesting. Since the plot is straight up that everything is being set up for interesting fights, it should be no surprise that as a result the fights were all interesting. They’re really thrilling with a lot of variety to them and a lot of interesting tactics. How the mechanics in play keep changing also results in the action never feeling like it’s getting repetitive or dull either and thus the pacing is great too.

Furthermore, the cast of players in the game are mostly all interesting and add another layer to the action. The players in the game weren’t chosen at random, but rather the group chosen was one that especially had a lot of emotional and psychological baggage. There are also cases where players know each other. All of that effects how they participate in the game, and the manga does a good job of fleshing out their background and how it’s effecting their actions in the game. With that said, the cast of characters themselves and their stories independent of how it affected the action was a mixed bag.

The protagonist Sakamoto and the heroine Himiko were pretty great characters. Sakamoto is somewhat of a mess, but a believable mess for the most part. Him being an action hero isn’t really all that realistic, but how the manga portrays his mental state and how he essentially suffers from and recovers from a mental breakdown as a result of everything going on on the island and grows a lot as a result felt pretty well written, even if it was intentionally ridiculous a lot of the time. While he has his issues, he’s also pretty reliable when it counts, and is thus overall pretty likable. Himiko’s character arc is centered pretty much entirely around her relationship with Sakamoto in her finding something to live and fight for. But the romantic development between the two felt pretty strong so that felt enough to make her a pretty decently developed and likable character.

Everyone outside that was a mess. As mentioned, everyone on the island has issues and many have both done terrible things and do terrible things over the course of the manga. But it really doesn’t do a good job of tackling that at all most of the time. As a result, how characters are treated by other characters and by the story itself feels pretty inconsistent at times, especially towards the end. It was also really weird how a single character just had supernatural powers as there was nothing else supernatural in the manga at all.

In terms of the overarching story regarding why they’re on the island playing the game in the first place, that was just all around pretty stupid. Writing a good and complex story for why a bunch of people were thrown into a death game isn’t all that easy so I am especially fond of when it is done well. This was not done well. It seems to try to be overly complicated and say things about society and such, but none of it really works at all. It works well in terms of justifying the various twists and changes that occur on the island that change up the game, but beyond that I didn’t find it all that interesting or enjoyable to read about at all.

As a result, I suppose it shouldn’t be surprising that the ending, or rather endings, were pretty weak. This manga does something pretty rare in that it has two endings, Light and Dark, wherein they represent a good end and bad end respectively. Unfortunately, both felt pretty lacking, though strangely enough each felt lacking in different ways. Thus, even though I don’t think it was really all that possible to give this manga great ending, I think if it took the best of each ending it may well have been possible to produce one that was satisfying. As is, the ending was wholly unsatisfying either way. Still, the ride through was interesting and enjoyable enough, and this felt like a manga that’s much more about the journey than destination anyway so the lack of a solid ending didn’t detract from the manga all that much.

The art was incredibly high quality from beginning to end with a good art style that showed off the action and character’s quite well. It also managed to have a couple really good character designs despite its setting not really allowing for all that much creativity.

Mar 25, 2013

Buster01

Recommended

Preliminary (54/125 chp)

Manga is not something I can appreciate to a high extent, no matter how hard I try. That said, it's quite rare for me to run in to one that I can rely on to completely take me away from reality, and in that area Btooom! , for me was just amazing.

So:
Story 9/10
The story is, I feel, the strongest point of the series. There was never a moment of boredom and if there's anything I can complain about, it's that it sometimes goes overboard with flashbacks.

Art 10/10
Everything is drawn near-perfectly from the background to the facial expressions and, obviously, the explosions.

Characters 9/10
Every character that ...

Feb 7, 2018

PharuanUndearth

Recommended

Preliminary (89/125 chp)

Does Battle Royale ring any bells, but to be honest I've never read the mangas nor watched the anime but i did read the original book in '08 and watched the LA movie within the last 5 years, this is the exact same plot as the book. Damn near exact with slight variations very slight. As in all ages are here not just confined to high schoolers but most are pretty close, ~70% of people are high school/college age(14-23). "Oh, I don't want to play can't we get along/Kill others or you'll die" is also included. Boyfriend/Girlfriend let's join forces and live; predictable.

This predictability detracts ...

Apr 7, 2022

Cutest_Octopus

Mixed Feelings

I wasn't invested in this manga at first, but as the story started to ramp up, I became interested. I was starting to enjoy myself. I would go as far as to give this a high 8 or even a 9.
But then the ending happened, or, should I say, two endings.
AND BOTH OF THEM ARE SO BAD
I'm so conflicted, because the rest of the manga was good, but I cannot rate individual chapters, so I can't give this one a high grade
Just like Death Note, this manga was very interesting, and had a lot of potential. But man did they fuck this up

My advice? Read ...

Feb 10, 2022

Wikkushi

Mixed Feelings

WARNING! This review is written by person who usually only read/watch positive and lighthearted works. May not be well-versed in the genre.

*SPOILER FREE, really minor spoilers included*

Btooom! is a manga which you may not find very unique. We already have stories with very similar concepts, but I really enjoyed it and can recommend it!

Right before that I tried to read "Battle Royale" manga. One of the first if not the first works in this genre and it was a total absurd and grimdark mess. My main complaints were grotesque evil characters, exaggerated darkness of the whole story and overall "I don't believe in it = ... I don't care about it" feel.

So when I started reading Btooom! I didn't have any expectations at all, but I was pleasantly surprised with how well the story/setting was written.

First of all we meet our main character Ryouta Sakamoto, NEET, has bad relationship with his family, only cares about computer games and online stuff. Full package of typical protagonist for this story. But the further you're into the story the more likeable and relatable he becomes. And don't worry he is likeable enough since the very beginning, so you don't need to read half of the story before you'll start to like this character.

One of the main strengths of this story is characters and their realistic behavior. All of the chars really fleshed out and you grow to like or at least understand them the more you read and I'm talking even about side characters now.

The setting and rules of the game itself are quite interesting too, I really liked it, tho sometimes I had questions about minor moments.

Since this is spoiler-free review I won't indulge in the story itself, who'll die, who'll survive and what twists and turns this story will make - read the manga and you'll find out.

One of the most problematic parts of this genre is explaining "HOW THE HECK THOSE BATTLE ROYALE GAMES ARE EVEN POSSIBLE IN OUR WORLD?"
Some stories don't even try to give us explanation, some do try and fail miserably. This work tho, hm, I would say it tries harder than I expected, it still sorta fails to make the whole "big evil corporation stuff" truly believable, but it still gets point from me for really trying. Big corporation thing is actually big part of the plot especially near the end.

Talking about the end, ohhh welll, it's really disappointing ending to see after this really interesting story. I've read light version btw. It's nice ending to wrap the story up. Our main characters alive and happy, but for some reason it feels rushed and not that satisfying as it supposed to be, but the story itself is still very worth it, so don't let my opinion to stop you. (and maybe the dark ending is more compelling, because author seems to like it more)

My last part is about level of darkness in this manga. I'm talking about gore, emotional and physical abuse, of course. It is on perfect level imo, not too absurd and dark, but dark enough. Author is not sadist and not tries too hard to make our characters suffer, so even if dark stuff is not your cup of tea you still can enjoy this. The story even has romance as pretty big part of the plot, wow.

Overall, I recommend it, but imo you shouldn't expect masterpiece.

May 9, 2022

oswalld

Mixed Feelings

This review will be written in English and Portuguese [PT-BR]
Essa resenha será escrita em inglês e em português [PT-BR]
____________________________________________________________________

Btooom é uma alegoria ao nada que tenta disfarçar sua natureza vazia

Preguiça intelectual
Btooom é um mangá que foi escrito e desenhado por Inoue Junya, e não tenho muito mais a comentar sobre o autor em si, não fez nenhuma outra obra tão conhecida como Btooom, e pelo que pude ler dessa obra, pretendo não ler nada mais de Inoue tão cedo.

A experiência da estrutura narrativa de Btooom
Bem, em uma coisa preciso der sincero, Btooom, ao menos no começo não tenta ser algo que não é, ele se ...

Oct 28, 2022

EyeAmTheI

Recommended

This is something else. I really wanted to write a review about this, but I realized I cannot really write anything meaningful without spoiling something, but I tell you this. This is a meal what you will digest for a while, if you don't shy away from it's content. I mean, it's worldview is quite nihilistic, disillusioned and it shows the ugly face of our nature. So as a fair warning, if you would like to escape the reality don't read this.

Thus, I can only give you some random impressions without claiming completeness:
-Battle Royal with 32 despicable charaters (so keep in mind no self-insert here). ... Most manga cannot even put together a main cast which is at least somewhat interesting, yet this one was able to present 32 characters with identites, unique characteristics and traits, and despite they are all scums most of them are relatable in their own way. Amazing backstories even for the most irrelevant ones. Sometimes I couldn't even decide which side to root for. (As a sidesnote: The background staff were kinda 1 dimensional, but I'm not complainging)

-I really liked the MC and the main heroiness. They went through a hell of an emotional rollercoster. Quite understandably. Despite the MC was OP as hell, it was quite refreshing to see, how his naivity, and indecisiveness caused him trouble quite often... Thankfully, the character development and the redemption arc is real here.

-The main storyline has 2 layers. One is what happens on the island where the characters are fighting for survival, the other is the overarching background arc. The overarching background arc was full of conteo, and was kinda mediocre, but because the main focus was on the characters and the battle royal it wasn't a big issue, especially since it served quite well as a frame for the events.

-Emotionally grueling experience to read. Pretty dark, the suspense is touchable, so you will bite your nails. Especially since the events are so chaotic that you cannot prepeare what will comes next. It really well captured this feeling of "every moment can be the last". Despite this chaos though, I didn't feel like the whole story is driven by "deus ex mahina". There is always a reason, but sometimes the reason is unknowable from the perspective of our characters, but it is always logical and reasonable, hence they can deduct what have had happen, and why.

-Kaguya: Her abilities were off a bit for me, so I went with the "cold-reading" explanation. In a situation like this it is kinda understandable that people tend to belive everything what gives them hope. Also they went mental so the halucinations are understandable...

-There is two alternative ending for this manga along the following question: "When you follow your ideals, what will you lose, and what will you gain?" In other words what you can achive if you are stubbornly stack with your ideals, and what you will gain if you focus on your personal happiness. I leave it up to you to decide which one do you prefer.

In summary: Obviously this isn't perfect work either as nothing is, but highly-highly recommended.

Miniscule kinda spoiler (not really but I warned you anyway):
I wanted to mention this to illustrate why this manga is so good. It is full of these small details (tropes) which would be annoying elsewhere, but it is written in a way that is reasonable and understandable here. So for example I usually tear my hair out when the mc plays the "let's wait with the sexytime until we are ready" card, despite the girl act like "give my the D now, or I'll kill myself" (My dress-up darling vibes anyone?). On the other hand, in this manga it was really sympathetic instead. I mean the unlucky girl was head over heels for the MC, and kinda gave off the "give me the D vibe", but she was like a trembling jelly when it came the action time (quite understandably! you will understad why, if you read the manga). I was like: "You know what my dude, you are not a loser, you are a gentleman. The concil of men approves." So even the usually lame behavior felt mature here.