Suicide Parabellum

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Dowman Sayman is know for their eccentric style. Their manga tends to be a mix of urban fantasy, emotional storytelling and dick jokes. This is the winning formula that “Suicide Parabellum” follow. Unfortunately this work falls flat.

Story: 4/10

This manga is far too short for what it tries to do, resulting in a confusing plot and a weak ending hampered by the lack of time spent with the characters.

While the big reveal and the end itself is very good, it loses much of the impact it may have had due to the short run of the manga and the confusing nature of the world. The plot ... itself is also very slapdash, with a serial killer thrown in, then a plot twist and more spoiler-y stuff. It feels like DS slapped every idea they had into this and it shows.

Characters: 4/10

The characters have exactly as much substance as is necessary to make the premise function, Chihaya chases and Ouka runs and that;s all there really is to both of them. DS manages to fit heaps of personality into characters in a few pages in previous anthology works so they're clearly capable of better.

While there is some humour, I feel this manga is not nearly as funny or charming DS's other works. The random drag queen/trans-women character was very strange. I don't understand what the point was other than a ha ha "man dressed as women" joke.

The name of this manga is derived from the Latin phrase: “si vis pacem, para bellum” (if you want peace, prepare for war). What? What does that mean, in the context of this manga? This kind of incomprehensibleness is why I can't recommend this manga.

Art

same style as usual, pleasant to look at with cute characters as well as gore. If you like DS's usual art, you'll like this, i definitely do.

Overall: 5/10

I'm a big fan of DS's quirky, oddly endearing works but I really can't recommend this, it's definitely a dud among DS's bibliography.