Jinsei Kataoka

The outlook of this show is so close to embracing nihilism and nearly endorsing suicide that I cannot recommend it in good conscience. I understand that the premise of this series is "soul investigators helping people at the end of their rope," but there are two suicide stories where the protagonists outright fail to convince people their lives are worth living. I don't require sunny resolutions to every story, but the humorous bits lose a ton of their value if harvesting"Livingstones" is show more the end and our deaths are the means.

"If you wanna die, then you should probably go through with it" is a terrible message, and twice as terrible for appearing twice. show less

I had some trepidation about checking out the first three volumes of this series from my local library when I saw the cover tag, "From the creator of Deadman Wonderland," since that series, while intriguing, had a storyline that was too much of a hot mess for me. Fortunately, the artist is the creator in question, and this series has a different writer who is very much in control of his story. Or I should say stories, as this Livingstone consists of many self-contained stories that build show more together to flesh out the central concept and its consequences. An odd couple pair of agents (one is uptight and overthinks everything, the other speaks bluntly and acts spontaneously) investigate a new case in each episode and provide a through line that gradually grows into its own story. Livingstone is a little bit X-Files and Twilight Zone, but mostly reminds me of [b:Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit, Volume 1|4036916|Ikigami The Ultimate Limit, Volume 1 (Ikigami, #1)|Motoro Mase|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1387173146s/4036916.jpg|4083523] in its structure. show less

I have no idea what this manga was about. Not really. And this is coming from someone who read ALL of Gantz/1 as it came out. Yeah, I am not easily confused.

At the beginning I thought I knew. This review is for the entire manga, so I'm putting it in a spoiler since there is no tankōbon.

The first few issues are about "Thunderdome" style fighting that takes place inside a prison for young adults and older teenagers. There is some side information about a giant earthquake and the need for show more housing dangerous criminals because society has broken down, hence the creation of Deadman Wonderland, a profitable theme park where you can bring the kiddies to watch teens/young adults kill each other. Deadman Wonderland helps pay for the reconstruction of Japan.

With blood. Yeah. They can do deadly tricks with their blood. When the manga opens up, the main character is watching his entire high school class being slaughtered by a hooded and masked person. The mystery killer does this by cutting or nicking themselves and then hurling the blood away from themselves where it forms deadly blades/spikes/disks. Our main character also has this ability, although he doesn't know it yet. So off to Deadman Wonderland he goes.

Okay. That's a pretty good premise. I'm used to the conventions in manga about blood typing and personality, so I can roll with that. The first few issues are about our hero honing his new skills and moving up in the prison rankings. Some by accident, but most because of his natural talents and hard work. Not bad! It has potential and the fight scenes are pretty nifty with each of the fighters having unique abilities. A bit gamerish, but that's okay.

Then it became about a power struggle between the elite. The fights become less about the prison and more about personal relationships. One of the blood fighters was able to set his blood on fire. Wat. A military general didn't seem to mind her subordinates making jokes about her huge breasts. Okay.

By the end of the series it was about insane scientists doing experiments on children, some guy trying to live forever by transferring his memories, and individual battles that made little sense.

By the end I was frustrated and skimming over the fight scenes, which were redundant and kind of annoying. The relationship between Ganta and Shiro was too bizarre to contemplate. I wanted to stop reading, but I was on the last issue.

So, in the end, this had potential but slid off into bizzaro land with no hope for it. show less

Prison escape stories are always fun to read and one just has to ponder the kind of security measures that Tamaki needs to keep several hundred people with the ability to turn their blood into powerful weapons inside of a hidden basement of his prison. Ganta is starting to come to terms with his somewhat more comfortable living conditions of Sector G and the peculiar Deadmen inmates that have taken a liking to him. It doesn't take long before the mentally unstable Nagi wants to recruit him show more to join Scar Chain and flee the prison with the purpose to expose the human trafficking and
massive manslaughter of inmates that are serving terms for lesser crimes in the hopes of closing the prison once and for all.

Tamaki knows about Nagi's plans and has a traitor in his ranks that will ruin Nagi's plans.

I like Nagi's damaged and faulty character that was pushed to the edge after living through some particularly cruel atrocities that are revealed in this volume. Ganta seems reluctant to join his group because he believes Nagi is overzealously idealistic but a promise he made to his odd friend Shiro to ride the ferris wheel together convinces him to follow suit.

The group is faced with huge hurdles with deadly consequences but its Tamaki's prized undertaker prison guards that make this volume borderline ridiculous. I am sorry, but what kind of 6 year old girl can wield a 100 pound electronic sword that is 6 feet long like a pro?

The manga tries to go for shock value without respecting logic. I also scratch my head when the final battle with the undertakers takes place in an apparent part of Sector G that is just beneath the surface. I think I need a blueprint of the prison. The artwork like always is great and despite my gripes with the unrealism of the plot, I'm truly enjoying where the story is heading. show less