Ousama Game

This is the type of manga you will end up hating sometime from the start but you'll still be up reading this continuously (not until the translated chapters end).

At first, the manga seems promising for its premise, but I should know better. The characters are overly dramatizing and so engrossed with the prospect of living that it seems too incredulous and stupid at the same time, though this may pass to some who aren't keen on the fact but this overall mashup display of cliche emotions expressed by the characters aren't that fitting.

And the art wasn't that all great, considering how cutesy and unpolished it is. Good thing there was no more translated chapters otherwise I will be throwing my laptop anytime sooner...

Ousama Game!

Story: 7

A group of school students are given orders which they must complete within 24 hours. At first, the orders are childish like kissing each other and licking feet (foot fetish much!?), although it soon goes downhill for the students as the orders become increasingly harsh and violent. What I really like about the story is it's unpredictability; you never know what order is coming next and with the manga constantly giving slight hints about the true identity of Ousama, you'll want to know what happens next. Will the students kill one another to betray their friends? Or sacrifice themselves to save another friend? That is the beauty of the manga. The only main downfall is the pathetic which makes no sense.

Art: 7

I really liked the art in this manga, but it's nothing you haven't seen before. A lot of dramatic facial expressions to keep you guessing. The quality of the art is generally consistent, but not excellent.

Character: 5

Well, what can I say. Unfortunately this manga has very little character development and focuses solely on plot (none of them seem to have any family!) A lot of characters are dull enough to make you skip several pages of the manga. The main character is a very typical 'do gooder' who wants everyone to get along, which clearly isn't going to happen. Girls are portrayed as damsels in distress or psychopaths. There was only one character I liked.

Enjoyment: 9

I enjoyed this way too much. I'm a sucker for manga where students kill each other so this was right down by street. Blood and gore is always great to see!

Overall: 7

Not a bad manga at all. The low scores on here tend to be due to the terrible ending, but definitely give it a shot if you're interested by the prospect of students killing each other, provided you can put up with some gimmicky and annoying characters.

This is honestly one of the worst things I've ever read. A youtuber I like recommended it, so I read it in a few hours.

Story
It starts out interesting, but quickly just turn into nonsense. There is no real objective besides surviving, then suddenly at the very end there is an info dump with a very unsatisfying ending.


Art
The art was really good, and one of the only things that I actually liked. It was slightly cutesy, which I thought was a good contrast to the situation. I also liked that they didn't add pointless fanservice, even though they could have at times.

Characters
The worst part. The first few deaths are mildly sympathetic, but as soon as they understand that the game is real, everyone turns black or white. They don't act like they want to survive, and will do things very unrealistically. The characters that do seem to want to live always are portrayed as evil, so it isn't sad when they die and those portrayed as "good" just sacrifice themselves. None of the characters are given any backstory or development, so we don't know anything until they die. After that, there are always like 10 pages with the main character brooding over them, even when they acted completely evil or stupid.
----
In conclusion, I really didn't enjoy this. I had a similar feeling when I finished the Another anime and the Battle Royal manga, so if you enjoy those, you might like this. It did have an interesting premise, but that's about it. Perhaps the book is better?

Well then. That's three hours of my life I'll never get back.

I've always had a soft spot for the survival game trope. Battle Royale, Hunger Games, hell, even Mirai Nikki - for all its ridiculousness and flaws - managed to keep me entertained right until the very end. There's something wholeheartedly fun about the idea of a group of people pit against each other in psychological/physical warfare to the death, nor is it a very hard thing to write and write well; so why is it that Ousama Game failed?

It all boils down to one single fact: Ousama Game takes itself way too seriously.

There's this desperation interwoven within the writing and art - a plea of "this manga is saying something deep about society and life...I don't know what, but something at least!" From the bloated cast of characters that go from one extreme emotion to the other to the exaggerated screaming expressions you'll become desensitized to due to overuse; all of this, and more form the foundations for a manga that will have you rolling your eyes more often than not.

It's stupid. I understand that's a pretty blunt thing to say, but that really is the only word to describe it. And I'm not above enjoying ridiculous entertainment for the sake of ridiculous entertainment; I love turning my brain off, chilling back, and watching something dumb to end the day on. But this kind of thing only works when there's a self-awareness contained within the work that keeps your logic from jumping in to ruin the fun. Here, Ousama Game is so convinced it's telling an epic survival tale that its shock value runs dry past the first two chapters, and it ends up tangled in too many threads and convoluted twists that result in an ending that just...stops.

Yeah. It just finishes. As if even the author can't wait to be done with this work.

In the end, I give Ousama Game a

3.3/10

POOR

With a recommendation to Skip It

Look, there's better survival game material out there than this. Better stuff that at least treats its audience with respect, or has even the slightest hint of subtlety to complement its art and writing. Reading Ousama Game was the equivalent to being beaten over the head repeatedly with a spiked hammer: I get it, people can be assholes when they find out they're going to die, but you're going to have to try harder than over the top constipation faces and one-note characters to get your point across.

GOOD; Only the most hardcore of survival game fans will find anything good here. It has its brief moments of entertainment and unintentional hilarity, but it's not worth the painful ride to get there.

MIXED;; The art is serviceable, but its dragged down by just how over the top it becomes. Be prepared for a dozen panels of people screaming with spittle hanging off their lips. After the first two times, it becomes funny, as opposed to shocking. Could have been a cool idea, if executed right.

BAD;; Bloated cast that fluctuates between 'angelic' and 'asshole.' Ending is not only rushed, but confusing and downright "whaaaat?" Poor writing that garners no sympathy for its characters.

The concept of survival has been heavily explored in nearly every form of media imaginable. A product of this concept are games that pit people against each other such as the hunger games and Battle Royale. However Ousama Game is a bit different. Despite Ousama Game having great promise, it clearly spiraled into a disappointing mess to be perfectly honest with you.

The Story of Osama game is easily the best part. It exentuates intrigue in the reader and you definitely want to know more. The author also does a great job of actually telling the story and building up great suspense. This is expected due to this being based off a series of Light novels. The central mystery to Ousama game was quite well executed and I wanted to know more about who the King was and why this game is being played. The transition between the light hearted beginning of the story and how it spirals into something much more sinister was well handled.

However unfortunately this great story is hardly supported by the cast of characters that are present in this manga. The characters were outright bad in this story. For a class of 32 people being present I only genuinely liked one of these people. However in one way the characters triumphed was there realistic relations to each other. However this was literally their only redeeming qualities and it seems just like in Doubt( though probably worse than doubt) they just seemed like devices used to carry out the events of the plot. There's no depth no development they're all just one dimensional.

Our main protagonist was probably the most boring one out of all of them. He's the standard cliche: I want to save everyone without everyone getting hurt. He's also a bit of a Mary Sue and none of the characters including him take the initiative to try to solve the Osama game. The only interesting character was probably Ria. Maybe it was because of her mysterious and aura and the fact that we got some background detail on her. And do you know what the worst part is? So many of these characters died and I couldn't even care less.

The art in Ousama game improves as the series goes on due to its 5 volume length. Many frames were reasonably detailed. However I'm not really a fan of the character designs and this was especially apparent during the first half of the series. The death of the characters
were also well drawn. The ending to Osama game was decent but there is a sequel which has not been translated to English yet unfortunately.

In the end Ousama game is a manga that went from something good to only an ok manga. It kind of fell under the weight of its concept and the characters were very bland. However I can't deny the great story and the fair artwork and also the fact that I read this in two sittings due to the heavy suspense. So read this if your interested it's a fine read but certainly not the best out there.

I actually read this story's prequel (Ousama Game: Kigen) before I read this. The prequel was fairly average, so I had hoped that its predecessor would have been about the same or perhaps a bit better. Sadly, I was disappointed.

The story follows a high school class as they participate in "The Ousama's (King's) Game". The Ousama gives an order, the class obeys or else suffers the consequences. While this setup seems promising, the execution is rather lack luster. The early orders are very immature, involving sexual activities between the boys and girls of the class. While I have nothing against sex in my manga and anime, when characters are forced to have sex with each other for a ridiculously contrived reason it feels needlessly gratuitous. The later orders ramp up the intensity, being more centered around choosing classmates to kill and the like, but the poor writing persists for the entire story so the effect is ruined.

Furthermore, all the characters are too over the top. Their characterization is unrealistic and there's no progression. The characters who are terrible humans are immediately terrible, and the characters who are good people are immediately good (and they never change). In this type of story its fun to watch characters slowly lose their minds, succumbing to despair and paranoia, but when you have characters acting crazy immediately it has no effect. Furthermore this suffers from the problem many other poorly told horror stories do, that being the characters continually make stupid, illogical decisions. This may keep the plot moving, but its annoying to watch characters act in a way no human in their situation ever would.

I won't give away the ending, but I will say that the climax feels rushed and the reveal is pretty lame. The sequel was decent enough, but this was a tedious read with its sloppy story telling and sloppy character development. I neither enjoyed nor would recommend this manga.

I found Ousama Game to be quite entertaining. It's not a brand new idea, like it's truly your run of the mill "Follow my instructions or else", "We have to find the bad guy" kind of stories, but it was executed well enough to keep me wondering "Who is Ousama?" The art was well done and wasn't overtly gory like I know these kinds of ideas can be; All in all it was quite tastefully done. Each character was fleshed out enough that I actually cared about some of them and the others I wished would die. Overall I enjoyed this series to the point that I couldn't put it down and I would really recommend this if murder mystery is your thing.

Ousama Game is ambitious. It strives to be character-driven. And this clearly becomes challenging as we delve further into the story. With the mysterious entity "Ousama" being the prime antagonist that is responsible for the story to continue on as it is, the manga often tries desperately to keep the story intense by having melodramatic conflicts between characters, sporadic killings and the question "who is the Ousama?" hang perpetually over the heads of the readers. The story handles the first two issues surprisingly well and unfortunately, disappoints with the latter (which is the main complaint of most readers as well).

Ousama Game involves a variation of the King's Game, except this time, the "King" reigns for the rest of the story and the people who're chosen for the challenges are revealed right off the bat. As usual, characters lose their shit and the inevitable philosophical soliloquies of "who can I trust?" and "who are the real monsters" begins to stir as the bodies start dropping. As far as a survival horror goes, its story runs pretty much the way you'd expect. As I mentioned before, there is a mystery as to who the "Ousama" is but it's disappointingly resolved with some pseudoscience. I'll go as far as to say that the resolution is its weakest link.

What Ousama Game surprised me with was its set of characters. They're students who behave like students, which is what mainly makes the manga so exciting to read. Their actions are reasonable given the context and even so, the manga still manages to be completely unpredictable at times because that's really what humans are like in the face of their impending deaths. They're irrational, fearful and desperate. Unpredictable. Even the MC himself is not an exception, which is something I'm quite happy with. As a result, their emotions feel real. They feel real. This is something that I think is integral in making a survival horror work and Ousama Game succeeds beautifully in that regard.

The art is crisp and clean. Being someone who's been drawing for over 7 years now, I'd say it's as good as your average shounen manga, which is - pretty good. The artist is able to depict grotesque scenes well without making it look too awkward, which is more than what I can say for most survival horrors.

Ousama Game is a refreshing read that falls short of what it wants to be. It's not clever and not all that enlightening. However, the people and the story itself is gritty and unforgiving.

I want to preface by saying I received Ousama Game from a Secret Santa during 2016's Christmas event. I am so thankful and it feels so great to know that someone looked at the things I enjoy (horror manga!) and picked something out for me. I know my score shows that I found it rather foul and tasteless but I am still grateful that someone offered this to me. It means a lot to me, even if I think this manga was, well, real bad.

So, without further ado~


Story:
Really quite horrid. It's exploitative, abusive, and offers nothing in return to the reader. It's constant abuse on the characters as well as the reader who is left wondering why this was ever created. Maybe the mangaka poorly translated the source material, but I don't think that's the case. This story is absolutely horrible. I mean, it's one thing to have a strong introduction, but it's even worse to constantly repeat the depressing acts of the first few chapters over and over without substance.

So, constant horrid barrages on the reader and then you finally get to the ending and learn there's no resolution what-so-ever. Yes, this is a finished manga and yes there is, in fact, a climax, but no it's not worth it. It was all a waste, and the original writer shouldn't write another story ever again.


Art:
The artwork is overly dramatic. I mean, everyone's screaming and yelling all the time, and the facial expressions are ridiculous. It's hard to tell if it's a parody or if it's a legitimate choice by the mangaka to just go over the top with everything. Perhaps the source material had a lot of yelling? Well, the mangaka doesn't need to interpret yelling as a huge open mouth with beady eyes all the time. Goodness gracious.

Backgrounds are blank and spacious. There's nothing all that specific or special about each scene. It's like reading the funnies on Sunday but worse because it's not funny, it's exploitation.


Character:
Pretty dang bad. I mean... Alright I'm just gonna admit it, I've been drinking 100 Proof Captain Morgan and it's so hard to focus on this. I mean, let's be real here, the manga itself is so hard to focus on because my mind kept thinking, "Why don't I just read some more Dragon Ball?" or "I started 20th Century Boys 2 years ago. I seriously need to finish it. It's great!"

Yet, here I am, sad and tired, hunched over a desk while I type out a review for a present that, while I do appreciate, I question the general morality of the mangaka, the individual who sent it, and myself for finishing it.

I'm not cutting corners anymore, I'm forgoing my normal review pattern of breaking everything down, I'm just gonna get serious here. This manga is disgusting. It throws people into no-win situations without recourse. I don't mind that, in fact I like narratives like that. But, here's the thing, nobody does anything right. Let me compare this to Gantz, a manga that I actually quite enjoyed despite it's depressing and no-win-esque nature.

Gantz starts out heavy and everyone's dying left and right. You don't know who your main characters are and you don't know who the focus will be in the next chapter because everyone will die. That said, everyone fights to survive, and there's something beautiful about fighting adversity with tooth and nail. It's just awesome. And, while every character is at fault and really deserves to die, they recognize their faults and seek to correct them. Sometimes they don't, and that's sad, but sometimes they do, and that rocks.

Ousama Game has characters thrust into equally unwinnable situations and everyone kinda does some pretty nasty stuff. However, nobody is trying to do the right thing. For instance, although this doesn't happen in the manga, this sort of thing fits in well as a metaphor. Imagine your class from High School was trapped in a cave. Only 90% of the students can get out in time before the cavern finally closes. What do you do? This is what Ousama Game is about and each day there's less and less students to basically play this game.

Now, if you've ever played this philosophy game, you've probably heard people say, "Well, I have a family." or "My mother is in the hospital and only I can care for her." although people all have proper and morally understandable answers, the answer people would most connect and almost feel rejoiceful is the answer, "I'll stay in the cavern and you guys go out without me."

Gantz has characters like that. Gantz has characters where people, in the face of adversity, seek to sacrifice themselves. Sometimes it's in vain, but they still sought to do the best for others. Ousama Game has no one like that. Everyone is selfish, disgusting, horrid, and the events that takes place to these characters amplify how gross they are. It's on a degree that is unrealistic and not able to be connected with. I hate it. Not because the story is so immoral, but because it's also exploitative of horrible acts like Netorare and sexual abuse, let alone murder.

That's about all I can say about Ousama Game. There's other issues like the insistence that the police will not get involved despite Death Note doing a great job of convincing the reader that the police could TOTALLY investigate what seems like PARANORMAL killings. If Death Note could convince me, Ousama Game should have, too. I would have loved to read about the police investigating these games rather than watch a bunch of stupid high-schoolers (or, even worse, were they middle schoolers?) try and "solve" this case, even though they don't pursue solving it at all, they just suffer and die and it's miserable and stupid.

Man I hated this manga.


((If you liked this review, check out my other reviews by going to my profile and clicking the 'reviews' tab. I review virtually all anime and manga I find!))

I loved GANTZ, Berserk and Battle Royale. Horror/torture porn/emotional roller coasters and gore fests can be interesting and worth watching. This isn't. It's not going to become hentai or titillating. There's no payoff. The gimmick is pointless and there's no explanation.

Story: 1

The synopsis says it all. Kid's dying. There were a lot of creative things they could have done with punishments, the backstory could have gone somewhere, the way it plays out could pay off....but it doesn't. And the last few seconds confirm that the entire story is a gimmick: there's no story, just a lot of kids to kill, in boring ways.

Art: 3

There's nothing special. It makes me think of pain't by numbers hentai work. Pathetic for anime. The gore isn't even good. It's sad.

Character: 2

They start off one dimensional and gain...nothing. Nope. Everything is contrived and the interaction and tear-jerking stuff they try to pull is pathetic. Ooh, and the angst...

Enjoyment: 3

I watched the entire season. Enjoyed the first episode. Got through the rest waiting for a payoff that never came. And the finale ruined it. If you like simplistic torture porn, you'll probably give this a 6

Overall: 1

This entire project is the product of an unimaginative writer, commissioned for a school principle with sadistic dreams about killing his students. There's no creativity, no heart, no point and no payoff. It's just repetitive and phoned in.