Darwin's Game

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With the anime adaptation of Darwin’s Game being announced, it felt like the time to write a review of the manga so far.

First off, Darwin’s Game is an engaging series. The story draws you in quick, and while it might not be an innovative series, it is an interesting combination. The action scenes and use of “Sigils” (basically superpowers) are well drawn and make for entertaining fights. The combination of fighting styles including martial arts, guns, and other powers also add a nice change of pace compared to an classic battle royale series. There is little downtime between arcs so the pacing can be ... a bit fast, but this only allows for easier binge-reading.

As for the characters, they are explained well and develop at a good pace over the course of the series. Most motivations and backgrounds make sense in the story, and you can easily form opinions of them.

The art is consistent and some of the gorier scenes are extremely detailed as well. Action scenes are easy to understand and the transition between subdued scenes and intense battles is very well done.

Overall, Darwin’s Game is an entertaining series with good action and characters, and it’s managed to stay that way to this point

By the time I submit this, Chapter 27 will be out for a couple days. This manga is a fairly active manga, being updated about once or twice every month due to the scanners. I don't write reviews often, so I'll cut to the chase. This manga is a perfect ten in my book.

The story is completely unique, and portrayed beautifully by its gorey art style. The story had me hooked at all time. I plan on rereading it while I wait for the next chapter (as I just picked it up again from where I left off, about 6 months time had passed).

The ... art is amazing. Both blood/gore and character design is amazing in this novel, and is full of guns, swords, a loli, and a slight romance that isn't a romance but still kinda is. Because Manga.

The character would have had a 100/10 if I could pick bigger numbers. I loved the characters design, as I'm sure you're going to end up liking at least one character specifically, even though all the characters are great. There is huge character development and each and every character is unique.

I personally enjoyed the manga and can't wait to read more of it; that's why it has a perfect 10 in my review.

Darwin's game is yet another survival/battle royal manga, but what makes it special? Well the conditions and setting. Yet while it is still to early to compare this with other examples of this genre, it is already apparent that this manga has lots of potential. Though it is full of cliched character and unnecessary fan service still the premise makes it shine and gives a hope for future.

This starts quite suddenly as the protagonist is invited to a mobile social networking game/mmorpg and he decides to give this a try. Then the chaos starts as he is thrown into a world of battles, of various ... unique abilities and a way to get rich by means of killing others. The system of converting points by defeating others into money gives it that much edge of intensity and the subplot of police investigating the consequences of this game on the real life were really enjoyable too.

The art is gorgeous: each characters are drawn with care and has certain uniqueness. The action scenes are fluid and intense. This really gives the overall experience a total boost as each sequence is easy to understand.

The characters on the other hand are not anything to write home about. There is a typical only 'wanna do the right thing' mentality protagonist and a loli who seems to be the heroine, the villainous are characters are as such and there is not that much delving into character psychology and variety in the characters as I would have liked to have here. Some of the side characters specially the investigating duo gives a hope for some enjoyable sub plots in the coming plot-line though.

While this is still early days for the manga and any speculation would be premature, yet I hope the author does identify the strong points of the series and improves upon it to deliver fun ride at least.

[PS: Still very early into the manga, so the review is to be revised and edited upon ending or significant number of chapters]

A refreshing approach to the power-user genre. Where users get sigils, powers, that are not overly powerful and have drawbacks/cost to the users which results in interesting battles. These battles are not won by who can throw the strongest punch using their sigil and brute forcing a win but instead through tactical means. I think this gave it a strong start to the manga but declines slightly as the main protagonist gets stronger.

I have mixed feelings with the supporting roles of the characters, as they have quite stagnant development. In a way it feels like their are simply cogs for the protagonist just to ... ease the story forward. On the other hand I like how it helps focus the story around how the protagonist got into this game, how it affected him, and how intends to respond the origins of this power and the game.

One common dislike I tend to notice from other people is the fan service/loli art. Personally I don't dislike or like them. I see them and simply continue reading on. It doesn't strike me as excessive as some people claim.

If you like Darker than Black, Law of Ueki, or Boku no Hero Academia you would enjoy this.

I just watched the anime, and liked it enough to read the manga. If you want my complete review, probably just read that one first. This will just be my review on the manga.
Honestly, I did read bits and pieces of the part that was already adapted, and I can easily tell that the anime was a little too fast paced compared to the manga, cutting out scenes that weren't important, but definitely messed with the "wholeness" of the story a little bit. However, other than that small tidbit, I'd say the anime did a pretty alright job at adapating.
Alright, onto the unadapted part. Honestly, ... Darwin's game, in terms of fight scenes, are very average compared to other fighting manga. That said, I never found the art to be the selling factors of the manga/anime. After reading up on the lengthy chapters, I've slowly began to realize Darwin's Game's strongest points: story and character. It's very normal for a death game title like this to have mystery towards what the actual goal is, but Darwin's Game definitely makes it something to look forward to. All of the story arcs, events, and slow placed (relatively speaking) story that we are exposed to are all very well made. Every story arc is very fun to read, and catches my attention. I will admit, many situations become pretty convenient for the MC, but honestly, what type of MC are you if you aren't lucky?
Characters also die a lot less than you'd expect. Darwin's game honestly is a lot less gory than you'd imagine from the genre. The rules of the game and the story that it takes on makes it a much more "neutral." As a result, characters become a lot more developed, and as a direct result, more likable due to their personalities shining through. The fact that there are many characters that are multi faceted, villains, good guys, and neutral, make the story that much more enjoyable to read.
In the end, the manga has the same flaws as the anime adaption other than the story, which is a lot slower paced since it's not on a schedule to adapt material like the anime did. Romance is just cliche ecchi, with women conveniently falling in love with the MC. Cliche's in general are used, less so in the later stages of the story, thank god. I would slightly prefer the manga due to it's superior pacing, but honestly, both are pretty good to read/watch.

I ill try make an easy way to understand without actual spoilers so here how it goes:
-If you like Gantz, you will love this manga. Trust me.

The story gets deep as they advance the manga, easy to enjoy how the drama develop. Its fun how you think they can't advance more and they give you new stuff to hope for. Even without cliff hangers, they still make you want to read the next one. Its easy to love the characters and to get sad and happy how things happens all around them. Its also pretty easy to see yourself in the story, wondering how would ... you react if you where there.

For me, its one of those manga that you get sad when you reach the last manga released.