Oh, also. This review might contain spoilers. Not too much, though. I believe.
There's also a TL;DR in the end, because it ended up being too long of a review.
--STORY-- 6/10
The synopsis seems to be a little vague, so I will try to explain a little about the premise. I might spoil, but most of these things are explained near the beginning.
It starts with a young guy who is meant to be seen as a freak, since he is obsessive with cleaning. We see him around school, trying to confess to his childhood friend who everyone loves too! Either way, after some time, he realises that his love has turned into... bloodlust?! What?!
Apparently it's a virus that has been going around that turns your love into bloodlust. (That's it. How do you get infected? Through the air? Through touch? No idea! It is never addressed.) They also get incredibly strong and get an "unexplained ability" depending on who their loved one is.
Overall, an interesting premise that I haven't seen before but it wasn't really that attractive.
-After chapter 9, the school setting is dropped and we have to deal with a fight between two organizations that head towards the same thing: finding a cure to the virus. This, of course, isn't a new thing seen in manga, but at this point I really didn't care. It also changes from a gore manga to a shonen style.
--ART-- 7/10
The art is probably one of the good aspects of this manga. It is quite polished, well defined and detailed in gore scenes. The expressions characters made were alright. I liked when the protagonist smiled in the gore scenes, he really seemed to be enjoying himself. Backgrounds looked really nice too. Later on, the gore is almost completely dropped or changed to your usual shonen amount of blood.
It's nothing from another world, especially in parts centered in dialogue, but I might say it's, generally, above average..
Fights are easy to follow, and are just alright. They usually get a power surge from bloodlust or love.
--CHARACTERS--
This is where things get... a little more complicated, I'd say?
Now I'm gonna talk about protagonist, members of his team, members of the enemy team, and lastly, love interest and Mastermind. Most of these guys appear after chapter 10 so watch out for that, I guess? It came out really long, so I will do a TL;DR at the bottom.
⨀Kamishiro, the protagonist, has an okay introduction. We are supposed to see him as kind of a weird, weak, and scaredy guy. He is afraid of confessing, he likes cleaning a lot and might be pushed around but he is the janitor of his class. He is also seen as timid in comparison to his best friend and love interest, Hanazono.
-Character development: He gets some development, but it feels like it comes out of nowhere. After chapter 10, aka only a 1 month timeskip, he is suddenly more serious, not scared by anything at all, nor is he afraid of confrontation. He now believes in the "power of love" and friendship and basically becomes way more average of a protagonist than before. If I recall correctly, we only see him cleaning like three times (even when that used to be his main character trait), so he even lost that.
-Character design: average hair, average height, average weight, average face. He likes cleaning though! 3/10
⨀The members of Rudiment, or the protagonist's team, are also a bunch of stereotypical or average guys. We have the energetic, short tempered guy who believes in friendship and has spiky hair. The quiet, intelligent, glass wearing guy who is the strategist. The short girl who had a traumatic past and looks kinda average too but loves the protagonist. The doctor is also the "older woman who drinks but can be serious" type. Then we have Neibu, who is probably the only interesting guy in the team. He is foreign, has kind of a weird hairstyle, is the leader and is really smart but isn't afraid to show his feelings for his teamates and always seems to think ahead. Before chapter 9, he is seen as a very dangerous man, someone who is linked to many deaths and also makes a scary and threatening face towards the protagonist. He never makes this face again. He also has some kind of... keychain thing? It is never explained but it is shown a lot.
-Character development: I don't think we ever saw any development. I guess the glasses guy learnt to forgive the one who hurt his love and to control his bloodlust, and the girl was starting to leave his ex behind and started loving the protagonist. Is it really a spoiler? It's obvious the second time we see her.
-Character design: Besides Neibu, who I already described, the doctor is the second one in terms of interesting design. And that's because she has a black lock of hair! The others are very average. Character tropes that I've already seen countless times. 5/10
⨀The members of C.I.D, or the enemy team, is actually the only interesting one in terms of design. The leaders are almost never seen, except the head of the organization and the fact that they know Neibu. I don't remember if their connection was actually ever shown. I will be talking about the Zero Squad though, since it's the only one we actually ever really saw. We have Hayashi, a girl who has been apathetic her whole life, and was never bothered by killing. A guy with no name who goes by "Human", Punkyuu a goth gamer, and the weird doctor. None of them are infected with the virus. Weird, since they are always in contact with the infected. Again, how people get the virus is never really specified.
-Character development: Hayashi, the main character from C.I.D learns about her own feelings, and becomes some sort of... Yandere? But she wants to kill her beloved who, gasp! Is the protagonist. Punkyuu also seems to have some feelings for him after losing. She doesn't know why, and it is never really developed. Human is shown to be a *spoilers* cyborg who was heavily experimented with. Besides that, nobody really gets much backstory or development.
-Character design: Seems like the author finally decided to let go with creativity and ended up designing some cool characters, at last. First, Hayashi. She does have plain black hair and bangs, but she has really deep eyes and seems to be forcing her smile quite a lot. She is always rubbing her cheeks which I find kind of... intriguing? Punkyuu is, quite literally, a goth gamer. I love that definition. She spouts game combos while fighting, and she can see her HP levels and Power ups and stuff. I like her. Human is also an enigmatic character. First, his name. Well, he doesn't really "like names" so he calls himself human. He doesn't have a reason to fight and is so often bored by it, stopping in the middle of a fight. He is incredibly strong, since his body was modified to have "12 different attack strategies", from guns in his fingers to knives and a weird vertebrae tentacle thing? He also has a knit chullo hat. I like his design too. The doctor is quite fascinating too. He has a mohawk, and seems to know about everything happening around. He doesn't really interfere, he is just there to see what's going on. This type of character is not uncommon, but it is well executed. 7.5/10
⨀Hanazono, the main love interest, is plain. Her introduction shows her to be strong, she just kicks Kamishiro in the back, and we get an idea that she is sporty and a childhood friend. Everyone seems to be attracted to her, so naturally, most infectees want to kill her. I guess that was the sole point of her existence in the first place. After chapter 9, it is revealed she is also infected! (Big surprise!, especially since literally everyone is infected over there.) She then needs to be saved by Main Character. It ends up being the "I used to protect you when we were kids but now you (mc) ended up saving me" situation.
-Character Development: As I stated, she starts being quite energetic, forcing Kamishiro to go out and being nice to everyone who confesses to her. Basically, perfect popular girl. After chapter... what, 2? She ends up getting partial amnesia; after chapter 9, she gets infected and is terribly strong. She is then quiet and reserved and is barely seen, since she needs to be rescued from the hands of The Mastermind.
-Character Design: Just like Kamishiro, Average face, average weight, average personality. She has blonde, medium lenght hair. That's.. what else can I possibly say? 3/10
⨀The Mastermind (so as to not spoil who they are, though at this point I guess you don't really care about spoilers). When we are given a hint about his identity in chapter 14 I just found myself yawning. If you have read any manga similar to this, you would inmediately know who he is. It's not a surprise at all, and his character is unoriginal. He is the usual "bastard" character. His visual design is plain too. He is shorter than average though! 1.5/10
--TL;DR--
Story is above mediocre, at best. Starts out like a gore manga, ends up being average shonen. Art is above average too. The fights are alright. It has "power of love" shenanigans . Main characters are very unoriginal. The "villain" team has very good character designs, but no backstory whatsoever. Many small things are left unexplained. Yes, I am aware there seems to be a sequel, but as of now, I will not bother reading it.
Is it worth it? Depends. If you're here for the gory, well drawn scenes, then I would recommend reading up to chapter 9 and then the one-shot in chapter 13.
