Around a month ago, I was randomly browsing through a Discord server just looking to see if anyone had mentioned any good manga or anime, and instead I came across “Children.” I looked at the messages, and was immediately interested because what I understood was that the gore was very bad, and so I was excited to see if it was truly gorey. But, I was unfortunately only 3 chapters in when I realized that it wasn’t as gorey as people make it out to be. And that wasn’t the only flaw of it, either. So, what did I truly think about everything? Let me explain.

Story - 4, or Decent
One of the biggest things I want while reading or watching a horror is a great story, but “Children” had an incredibly weird and confusing story. The story felt as if it was just about a bunch of kids murdering others, and their hatred for adults. Other than that, it felt as if the story went nowhere else. Sure, the plot twist was impressive and I didn’t expect it, but the story was nowhere close to good. It just felt like more things should’ve been explored, such as the backstories. The backstories weren’t interesting at all, and they felt like they could’ve been a thousand times better. The story also felt sort of rushed in some parts, especially when it went from chapter 12 to 13. Of course, it was an interesting idea for a story and it was pretty decent. Like it felt unique compared to what I usually read, but the flaws outweigh the pros, so I personally wouldn’t consider it anything more than decent.

Art - 3, or Poor
Now, the art is something I personally didn’t enjoy. Honestly, if anything scared me while reading “Children” it was the art style. In some scenes, it just looked incredibly weird. The faces were a big part of why I disliked the art. Like, the eyes were incredibly big and they looked kind of odd. Another thing related to the art that annoyed me was that the character designs didn’t really fit the style. For example, the main girl (I forgot her name, but I’m talking about the one on the covers) had a hairstyle that looked odd with the art style. But, there were also some characters like Rinko, Shiiru, and the guy with the gun (I think his name was Natsuhi?)
So I believe the art wasn’t the worst it could be, but it was still pretty bad. Of course, it felt like it was mainly due to the character designs.

Character - 3, or Poor
Once again just another 3, the character development was extremely poor. And as I’ve pointed out before, the designs for some of them were extremely odd. My personal favorites were Rinko, Shiiru, and Natsuhi. Of course, it felt as if they should’ve had way more development, and scenes in general. A lot of the characters felt like they were added just to be killed, and before they even got proper scenes or backstories. It was a shame, because most of the ones I was interested in immediately died. Some of the characters were extremely annoying as well, such as both of the main characters. The two of them were honestly not interesting at all, and I genuinely did not care about them. So, I personally consider everything about the characters poor.

Enjoyment - 2, or Dreadful
I was really hoping to enjoy the story, but everything seemed way too rushed for me to enjoy anything. The gore was extremely poor, and a lot of boring and bland characters died. There were only around 3 deaths that actually got a reaction out of me, 2 of which were sad and the other one was just funny. I was very bored while reading the manga, and I just kept hoping that it would get better. The only 2 chapters that I actually enjoyed were 12 and 13, but they had a really weird transition, which kind of ruined the enjoyment for me a little.

Overall - 3
While I did go into this story excited to see exactly how gorey it could get, or whose death I’d be laughing or crying over, I instead came out extremely disappointed. The story, characters, and art were just not my cup of tea with how badly everything was done. Sure, if it was longer I’m sure it would’ve been done better, but that was not the case. But for now, I’ll be keeping my score a 3.