Deathtopia

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An intriguing story that could have used more chapters.

The first half of Deathtopia is fantastic. It has a great atmosphere with some good mysteries sprinkled in as the main character is learning about the monsters known as "Cheaters" and trying to stop their murdering rampage. The book is very gory. Super detailed regarding the deaths. There's some nice fanservice, but it's mostly a horror manga that's not afraid to show boobs.

During the first half of the series, I noticed that it's very fast paced. Deathtopia is more plot-driven than character-driven, however, it does have good character work that other plot-driven manga skip over. However, it ... still falls into the bad habits of plot-driven stories and there aren't enough chapters or scenes where we can sit with the characters and explore who they are outside of their job. As it is, the plot of Deathtopia follows case after case of the cheaters and their victims. Once a cheater is captured or killed the team is immediately given a new cheater case. There's hardly any downtime.

The second half covers more of the backstories between each character and finally reveals who everyone is and the mysteries surrounding their whole predicament. I didn't think this was handled well. The villains could have been interesting multi-faceted characters, but in the end, they were reduced to the whole "MWAHAHA I'm EVIL!!" schtick with some eye-rolling twists. The series does pull off the type of "reveal" that really pisses me off in stories when either the author wants to continue a story past its endpoint or when an author is trying to make more of an impact with twists. It's really annoying, and most of the wrap up didn't feel satisfying.

In the end, the series did end okay, but I wished there was more finality to character arcs and what they did after everything that went down. It's really frustrating when it had such a solid foundation.

It was fun.

I would recommend.

The first 4 volumes are intense.

A young man is caught in a traffic accident and is rushed to the hospital, where an attempt on his life is made following his hospitalization. After surviving two sequential brushes with death, he is released from the hospital, whereafter he begins to see the evil in others.

Deathtopia is a relatively short supernatural mystery series with strong ecchi themes. The premise is that there is a special division within the police force that is tasked with tracking down and apprehending supernatural criminals known as "cheaters", who are called such as they are capable of committing horrible and violent crimes with strange powers that no ordinary ... person possesses. Each member of this special division task force has their own reason for being a member, and the common ground among this unusual team is that every member has the ability to sense (or otherwise see) the malevolent nature that is unique to "cheaters."

The art is fine, relatively tidy; it is something of a writerly weakness more than a compositional one, but the story has the habit of fast-forwarding through and otherwise glossing over some of the detail segments that could have made this a more compelling read. On the subject of writing, the premise and some of the ideas presented throughout the story are interesting but shallowly developed. The story itself has several twists and turns, the likes of which no-one is likely to see coming - truth be told, I doubt even the author saw some of these on the horizon, and that these were more spur-of-the-moment (perhaps editorial) additions to the story.

This is not a great story. There are sizable holes in some of the characterizations and plot developments. It's a dark setting, but it is a challenge to take it as seriously as the story tends to take itself. It could be said that everything ends up working out for the best, but how the narrative gets there is certainly nothing to write home about.

There is action, gore, violence, nudity, and suggestive tones throughout this adventure. If this all appeals to you, I recommend Deathtopia to you. Particularly, some of the gore looks like it could have come right from a Junji Ito spread, and that's about the best compliment I can give this series. If you are looking for something with strong writing, look elsewhere.

A dude suffers an accident and, while he's in the hospital, he almost gets murdered. From then on he begins getting hunted by superhuman killers that are targetting him because he apparently has something... "special", you know how it goes. Honestly, what can I even say about this? It's generic, predictable, characters are paper thin and the author is horny enough to want a naked woman on every chapter no matter what or how unfitting it might be.

Our cast of female characters are a bunch of teenage/young adult women that aren't old enough to be in the force and, even though it's explained why ... they're there, it just doesn't make any sense still. Regardless of age, they still fit into the usual tropes: angry/energetic girl, stoic/smart older girl and love interest girl. That's their whole personality added to a sad past that won't be relevant for most of the story and their bonkers that will be on every chapter. The protagonist is the usual goody two shoes without any depth that wants to help and save his friends and others. The villain is an idiotic guy with an idiotic plan that he definitely didn't need, he purposefully made things harder on himself for no reason whatsoever. Just a weak and flimsy excuse of a plan to have a story written over it.

The plot is bland and predictable and what made me get through this was the question: "Will I be wrong about any of my predictions regarding the characters, the villain's plot and how this will end?" Surprise, surprise... I wasn't.

Even if you're just after action and tits, there are better options than this.