Route End

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Every mystery novel fan knows about Agatha Christie. If you are a hardcore fan, you would even know about how her quality of writing started declining until her last book was published, which of course, was written by her 40 years ago.

Anyways I felt the same feeling of reading that book after reading tons of mystery manga. To be honest, it's hard to find a good mystery manga as all manga writers tend to use supernatural elements more, but this one is a unique story.

I don't understand why this manga is so underrated here in MAL, but let me explain everything about why people must ... have had a bad opinion on such a beautiful manga.

The story starts off with our Main character Haruno who is a specialist cleaner who cleans dead-body and the stains remaining. It might be normal death, suicides, or murders. Suddenly there are a series of serial murders being all over his place, and our Mc's close associates become the victim. So our guy starts investigating on his own, he vows to find the killer in the name of justice, he is even prepared to kill him if necessary.

You see, almost all characters are flawed, but the main essence of the manga has brought out the feeling of reading a mystery thriller novel like that of famous authors. It also has portrayed the concept of suicide, the amount of trauma that gives to the people who are left behind due to it. Like to what extent people can stoop to if they have experienced such trauma of seeing their loved ones die. The main flaw in this story is that, it has vast amount of cast and less character development and also a new development in the murder case every chapter and tons of people dying like a joke. I understand the frustration but everything is explained at the end about the reason why things happen that way.

At the end of the day, this is one of awesome manga, which kept me on edge even though I partly knew the spoilers. So don't be bothered by the ratings here, just go and read it, I am sure you won't regret the time spent to read.

peace

(EDIT April 24th, 2019: Now that Route End is completed, I want to say that I am not changing anything to this review from May 3rd, 2018. Even with the ending and what I speculated about a rushed up story, I still think I am partially right.)

I wanted to give more exposure to this great manga, so here is the first review on MAL.

What makes it a great manga? First of all the art. The author seems to be relatively unknown (at least to me) but there is no doubt that he is quite talented. The characters look different from one another and it helps ... memorize their name. The thing is, this is a realistic setting so there is no character looking weird. Then why not a perfect mark? Because as outstanding as it can be, the faces are mostly the same which is why the author needs to add some details specific to each character: a mole, blonde hair, goatee, buzzcut, wrinkles, bangs... You could easily give a nickname to each character based on physical appearance. And some drawings look rough, it could be from aesthetic sense but still, it is uneven.

As a thriller story, the suspense is crucial therefore the more you read the more it should draw you in. I believe it is quite successful on that part. In fact, I cannot wait to read the next chapter as the story starts with a serial killer but then brings the drama of characters and even side characters. Flashbacks, drama, and tragedies cemented together by a horror that comes and goes. You would think this is about a serial killer and cops trying to catch the bad guy but it's not. The psyche of each character is much more interesting than an unknown killer with sporadic appearances. The keywords here are "barely fleshed out characters" and "a killer you don't care about".

So the story, art, and character development are all great. What makes it so enjoyable? Well, it's the fact that you've never read anything like ROUTE END before. I am fairly sure it is the first of its kind in terms of drama, psychology, and setting. Where do you find a manga where the protagonist is a cleaning specialist of the deceased? Apart from that, ROUTE END brings a type of storytelling in mangas that is similar to movies and this is very well done through beautiful transitions.

ROUTE END is imperfect but it gets better. I have only read 19 chapters before writing this review but so far so good and it fully deserves a 9, close to 10 with little room for perfection. Yet I worry about the quality of the story because right now it's very high standard which might not suit a bigger audience. Then there's the risk it gets canceled because it's a niche. While I can understand how publishers think, it's still annoying to complete a manga with a rushed up and unfinished story.

Romantic and Refreshing.

I don't like people killing people and treat it as art. Even if its for the greater good... If that person needs to die to progress humanity so be it! Let the proper authorities deal with it. Let the professionals do their work. Man don't go out and start killing and then spelling your name with a corpse... just dont....

But I don't deny that its a compelling plot device. Mass murders and serial killing is very romantic coz it begets intrigue, fear, motivation, trill, and stimulates high level of problem solving.

As a reader of this trill ride, I felt excitement and a ... blood thirsty curiosity on each and every chapter on a level that trumps most mystery thriller I have consumed, which are few. It was refreshing to see multiple different sides of a murder than that of the main character's point of view or of the killer's. The MC's outlook is still prevalent but its not like most mystery themed stories, he mostly takes the back seat and every time he tries to lead a bunch of training wheels are placed and others keep telling him that he sucks and needs to stay out of the way. Most of his interaction with the case is by cleaning the remains of the corpse, which is his job. But later on the crimes circle in close to him due to his line of work.

Its not perfect or a masterpiece (yet) but its freshness and romantic pursue of truth and revelations got me tuning for more. Check it out!!