Kamisama no Iutoori 2
As the Gods Will: The Second Series

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One of the most satisfying survival game manga I’ve ever read.

As an avid fan of survival manga, I believe Kamisama no Iutoori stretches the potential of a survival game. The plot is predictable with level by level progression, but the character growth shows the true value of being constantly forced through life-death situations. Instead of being attached to the distant ultimate ending, you become close to the characters, get invested in their lives, and watch them get slaughtered. The character-focused story takes the importance away from the fallacy that the games themselves need to be interesting. Overwhelmingly complex rules and convoluted strategy are boring. I ... read survival manga to suffer, triumph, and love as though I'm a character in the story.

Friends die. Enemies die. Your beloved dies. Play stupid game after stupid game. A miscalculation, mistake, defeat means another friend dies. There’s no time to mourn. You’re welcome to breathe that sigh of relief when you survive, but it’s not over yet. It’s never over. When you find yourself out of friends, you have to open your heart again. Feel free to trust strangers because they will become your dear friends until death do you part.

There's no true divine protection that you can rely on. Strong or weak; lovable or detestable; beef or chicken. Ultimately death is unavoidable. You can’t always hope for a savior to gallop in at the last second. Eventually all you can do is wish for a beautiful death - too bad that may be asking for too much. Some are fortunate enough to shine like a star before being extinguished. Others are unceremoniously swept away like trash. But supposedly it's better to lived and lost than never to have lived at all.

Survival is an actual achievement. When you meet other survivors, you can understand what they went through. Players are forced to continue to play game after game while carrying the hopes and dreams of their fallen. In order to survive, you betray who you thought you were, fight against every human instinct, and grow closer to the true you. The journey to victory and godhood is paved with the sacrifice of those who believe in you the most.

Kamisama no Iutoori does a great job at avoiding the annoying compromises that other survival manga make to the idea of survival. Perhaps you can call me a sadist. I love watching well-written characters die. Unlike in other survival manga where writers become too attached to their favorite characters or fear backlash for killing off someone popular, there is no true mercy. Not everyone gets a hero's drawn out blaze of glory. There simply isn't enough time for that. Sometimes, a beloved character's death is a just few panels, just a momentary realization that they died. But it makes you appreciate them for how much they changed and far they came. Remembering the lives of characters who have died is what makes survival stories fun.

And let's just say I had a lot of fun. Enjoy the games :)

Kamisama no Iutoori Ni is the second story in this series, which intertwines with the prequel, Kamisama no Iutoori.

"Oh, my god. My life... is boring. Today, this one day... Began just like any other. And this one day, which started like any other... Was about to end. It was supposed to happen... " -Takahata Shun, Kamisama no Iutoori

Imagine a seemingly normal day in high school: everyone's conversing about trivial matters, getting ready for class to start, and sitting at their desk patiently. Now, what exactly happened that ruined the usual day for every teenager that had attended class?

Sensei's head was blown up, ... followed by a Daruma doll sitting in front of the class, and the homicide of anyone who moved at the wrong time.

This gruesome tale puts you through a series of compound emotions: Bitter-sweet, exciting-anger, suspenseful-sorrow, and many more fusions of sentiments have had me captivated by this story from chapter 1.

I couldn't help but think, "the kids who didn't attend that day sure did get lucky..." NOT.

Kamisama no Iutoori Ni is a beautifully drawn sequel in modern day Japan that follows the adolescents who had been absent for the sick, horrendous, and unrelenting survival games. But, just because they hadn't made an appearance at school didn't mean that the absentees escaped the fate that awaited them.

The story follows Akashi, a simple-minded juvenile who possesses a credulous and naïve nature. He leads the readers and other characters into a series of games that force morality and life against each other. Knowing of the incident that his school experienced from media, Akashi couldn't help but be worried about his childhood friend, who he had gotten into a fight with that morning. The small conflict resulted in him storming off before class had started and avoiding that day's nightmare. Mind-boggling and idiotic for a few of the more complex personas, I can't say I always escape their resolve.

The story continues testing the characters with childrens' games, such as red-light-green-light. The art doesn't lack in exquisite scenery and changes appropriately with each game, of course having their twists in order to be gut wrenching thrillers. Diversity of setting goes from a haunted school classrooms to a realistic bird eye's view of Tokyo's ground. The realism of the art reminds you that all of these students are just, well, students. The variety doesn't stop there; characters' unique design styles are used wisely from personality to personality, even changing throughout the chronological timeline, and some characters are very effectively drawn with more of a cartoon-like edge.

Exploring the theme of friendship and trust is a consistent overall theme for this manga and one of the reasons I love it so much. But don't let that statement allow you to believe this is some happy ending fairy tale. The story has had me at the edge of my seat a number of times, wondering who and who won't live to the next chapter. Character after character is disposed of, some even being my favorites and well developed. (Avoiding painful flashbacks and spoilers.)

This series is amazing and a must read for anyone who enjoys a survival game. Don't take my word for it and explore into this traumatic tale.

Kamisama no Iutoori Ni is a sequel that lacks the thrill of survival of its prequel, and the reason for that is because it turned into a more Shounen battle manga.

Focusing on those students that skipped school while the games were occurring, the story begins at the same time as the previous one. It has its highs and lows, but the games here are not that interesting, there is no sense of worry or fear of what's going to happen, as most of it plays out just as you'd expect or it's just unpredictable for the sake of it, with no real purpose. The story ... went a bit nuts with the whole Tomfoolery and Cops/ Robbers arc, but the final arc is definitely the high point, having what was missing for the most part in the early arcs, the thrill.

The art is just amazing and a great leap in terms of skills compared to the prequel, the last 50 or so chapters are really eye candy.

The characters are a hit or miss for the most part, the main character Akashi is just not as interesting as Shun, but the chemistry he has with the rest of the cast is something worth appreciating. My main complaint is that the characters from the prequel, are just forgotten... excluding Shun and Amaya and maybe Akimoto, the rest don't really do anything, maybe it's because the number of characters introduced where huge, but they were wasted, and that's a shame.

Overall the series is a fun read, but i did miss for the most part the serious tone of its prequel.

"I don't want to die!"

-->If you are unfamiliar with the prequel and were wondering if you need to read it beforehand, worry not, I will answer all your questions.

As the Gods Will is a manga about tests of courage, intelligence, strength, teamwork, and friendship.
One day, all high school students around the world were given certain tests and games by a mystery man in order for him to single out "god's children". Most of these tests were simple childhood games like red light/green light, left hand/right hand, or hopscotch, but with deadly stakes.
Unlike it's prequel, the kids in this story never made it to school ... when the "darumas" started the deadly games due to many reasons like sickness or skipping school, but their goal is the same: survive.

Like it's prequel, the story adds many elements of horror and gore to keep the reader engaged in a guessing game on which character will survive and who will not, and it's real life similarity feels fresh when kids face life or death choices "should I risk my life for a stranger? "should I risk my life for my friends?" "should I risk my life for love?"
Teamwork and unselfishness are put to the test and many kids' true nature will come out when their life is against the wall.

The character development is superb. Everyone gets a backstory and you will definitely get attached to some characters, which isn't always a good thing with survival genres...
It was even comical in some parts, to understand a character's ideology and determination just to see their dreams come crashing down when their luck runs out.

The art definitely makes you feel a certain degree of empathy with the aggressiveness of their facial expressions. The character designs fit their personalities, and the antagonists are complex and very creative.

This manga has it all, from romance to comedy, from mystery to supernatural. It's shounen elements are very noticeable, and the ridiculous outcomes, character relationships, and the witty, eccentric, and bizarre character personalities make this underrated manga an enjoyable ride.

-->You "don't have to" read the prequel, but it's recommended to do so in order to understand and recognize many characters and plot developments that crossover to this story.
Still, this sequel falls a bit short of it's predecesor with it's lack of character resolve and plot fluidity.

Please note this is from my website where I write anime and manga reviews. So I haven't stolen anything.
Story
Kamisama no Iutoori Ni, cool a second series set at the same time as the first, this is totally going to be different. At first I thought that this was going to just be a repeat of the original but after getting into it Kamisama no Iutoori Ni is leaps and bounds superior to the original. The story telling is so much nicer, the pacing is smooth and nothing happens no where near as quickly as the original. The solving of puzzles were no longer coincidental, ... there was a plan of action that allowed for them to survive as long as they can. Obviously the end goal is the same, to survive until the end. Unlike the original the winner doesn’t become a God but instead fights the winner of the students who were at school to obtain the powers of a God. With the trials and tribulations that are presented in front of them it really feels like a do or die situation and at times it really does seem like there’s no way out. Romances between characters and deaths hit you hard as you say to yourself ” no, no this can’t be happening.” The chapters aren’t predictable, there are points where they give you hints of whats going to happen and then it hits you at the moment before it happens and it just wrecks you hard. Kamisama no Iutoori Ni has everything I like to see in a story. Overall I give the story an 8/10.

Characters
The characters in Kamisama no Iutoori are a lot more relatable, each character gets their own back story for why they are how their like in the present situation, a lot of the characters skipped school because they felt unwanted or unneeded and suffered from depression and used the situation to play into the puzzles willing to die at any moment. Its really interesting, Kyioshirou Ushimitsu is a character that at first you dislike and think he is no where near as good of a psycho character unlike Takeru Amaya from the original, that’s until you learn his back story and at that instant you attitude towards him changes and you begin to like him just as much if not more. The character designs were average yet when it comes to school students you don’t have a lot of room to work with to make them interesting. The personalities of the characters differ a lot as time progresses, you could say that a lot of the personalities are just modified variations of one personality but that’s a very bad way of looking at it, when you look at the larger picture you can see that the personalities differ quite a lot. The development of characters happens a lot as the games and puzzles go on in time, you see the characters change in attitude by either becoming more scared and paranoid or taking a role of leadership even if it means they lose their sense of self worth and original personality. With the large quantity of characters that either die or become less important as time goes on your idea of who is reliable as a team member drops as you no longer have as much contact with them while other characters become better because they do have more face time. Overall I give the characters a 7/10.

Art
Kamisama no Iutoori Ni potentially has better artwork than the original, I phrase it this way as the backgrounds don’t really go up in standard yet its the emotions, the expressions and the actions that get better. There are panels where you are just awing at them as the characters expression is just so beautiful and brilliant to look at. Once again this is the strongest point of the art. The emotions are no different, the art really displays a sense of peril or fear in the faces of the characters when they find themselves in unfavorable situations, when you see important characters die to see the expression before their death and the ones who mourn for them it just makes you stop and take a real good look before you go to the next page. Motion is captured really well and you truly have a sense of motion, whether everything is going fast or time is going slow. Overall I give the art an 8/10.

Final Thoughts
Normally with sequels reading the original is a mandatory thing that has to be done in order to understand the story yet Kamisama no Iutoori Ni is different in that sense. Since the story starts in the same time period as the original it’s not like you are really missing on a lot yet I still recommend that you read the original so then you have an understanding of what is really at stake in the early games. Overall I give Kamisama no Iutoori Ni a 7.6/10 and I recommend you read it if you enjoy the slaughter of a lot of characters, smart strategies and planning and a psychological aspect thrown in.

Kamisama no Iutoori Ni, like many other psychological death games, seeks to solve the question of why we are alive. Does it succeed? I honestly have no idea.

I don't write many reviews, but after finishing this I felt motivated to type something out. The author, Kaneshiro Muneyuki, is the mind behind several other works I enjoy, including Jagaaaaaan and Bokutachi ga Yarimashita, both of which are pretty messed up and show the raw tendencies of human nature. However, the prologue/prequel to Kamisama no Iutoori Ni, called Kamisama no Iutoori, fell far short of my expectations. I read Kamisama no Iutoori Ni roughly half a year ... after finishing its prequel, and I can say that it far outshines the first installment. We follow our main character, Yasuto Akashi, through a series of games based off of traditional Japanese playground games. The plot doesn't stand out as particularly different among death game stories: survive all of the games and you will be given the ability of the Gods. However, the typical survival game genre is executed not flawlessly, but with great skill. The simplicity of most of the games helps to show this: the rules are basic but there's always a twist which helps the characters to grow and develop.

Although the characters are also relatively predictable, the way the plot yanks them around really helps each to shine. Most are given enough time to showcase the dreams and beliefs, before cruelly being shut down. In fact, even when you know they're coming, the character deaths are well-placed, some with dramatic exits, some dying from a simple game of rock-paper-scissors. The fact that anyone can die at any minute is always a given.

Of course, this generally excludes our main character who is protected with an incredibly thick layer of plot armor. Akashi is a generic shounen hero: selfless, brave, and trustworthy. He goes through the ranks of the story motivated by his friendship with Senichi Aoyama, a fellow soccer player, Mochida Rui, the first girl he meets in the games, Natsukawa Megu (Nutmeg), a girl he later falls in love with, and Ushimitsu Kiyoshirou, an eccentric guy who takes to our protagonist. Akashi doesn't really stand out in any way or another as exceptionally different from the average hero, but he certainly serves his purpose as the ultimate selfless being. As his friends die, Akashi somehow manages to survive, against almost impossible odds, but carries all of their feelings within them, a trait essential to a truly shounen hero. Until the very last battle, he refuses to give up, and truly believes that he can save everyone and bring them all back to life when he becomes a god. Although this attitude makes him obnoxious to some, it ultimately serves as a shining light that many within the games are drawn to, leading to his large group of friends and consequently the large base of decently important characters. This group of characters is crucial to establishing the many answers to the ultimate question: why do we live?

For Akashi, the answer is clear: he lives to carry on the hopes of everyone around him, and to save them all in the end. But the answers vary for everyone. Akashi's foil, Amaya, lives purely for selfish reasons and wants to destroy the world. Ushimitsu lives for the sake of Akashi. Takahata Shun lives to kill the god of the world. While the answers are different, they all aim to portray the idea of doing what you want to do. Whether that means sacrificing yourself or living in fear or just going about causing mass destruction, it is important to follow your own beliefs until the very end. This is shown time and time again: with the tomfoolery powers the characters are given in the middle, or with Akashi's decision to save Natsukawa over killing an enemy. Live for yourself. Or, in Hanna Felix's words, "Just live how you want to live."

Does Kamisama no Iutoori Ni succeed in its goal? I don't think I can really say. But it certainly makes a point. In the biggest mess of a world, the most important thing you can do is stay true to yourself. If you're interested in death games, I recommend that you give this one a try. While it may not be perfect, it certainly shows the struggles of man and that hope can arise in the darkest of situations. In true shounen death game fashion.

This is my first review ever so here it goes. I'm mostly doing it, because after I finished catching up to this I though "How the hell doesn't this amazing series have a anime yet".

This is a two part series. Read the first part before reading this. The second part is superior, but only because, the first part gets you used to the concept of the series and introduces you to quite a few characters that end up becoming a part of series two.

When I started reading this I was disappointed, because part 1 had different characters and was ended on a cliff hanger and ... you did find out what happens to those characters until around chapter 100 with only getting brief glimpses of them up until that point. I must say it didn't take long for me to get over that and enjoy this series, because as much as I liked part 1 this one introduce a lot more characters and had way better character development then the ones in part 1. (Though I think it mostly, because this one has such a wide variety of characters.)

What is the Story - A unknown person shows up with supernatural godlike powers. All children from 15-18 are forced to play deadly children games (Jump Rope, Red Light/Green Light, Musical Chairs, etc.) until according
to them someone replaces them as god. At the start of the series you don't how many people can win these series of games. The only thing we know is that all across the world these children have to play.

Story and Art 8/9 - The story is good as of now, but it could be even better in time. The author is holding back a lot of information and focusing more on his characters. The best part of this story is how UNPREDICTABLE it is. Character plot armor is non-existent in this manga. The art is fantastic. I would give it a 10, but very rarely some character designs aren't as good as others. I will say it has some of the best visuals I've ever seen though.

Characters - Death. There is a lot of death in this manga. So you think it would be filled with fillers characters to get killed off. Once and awhile he gives you one, but almost all the time all these characters backstory are filled out eventually, or their personalty is shown to the reader. He flesh's out all these characters so well. Sometimes they die right away, or survive for 100's of chapters for a shocking death later on, but so many deaths have so much impact not just because they are sad though. Somehow in a manga filled with death so many deaths come across hopeful, or the character who dies stands tall with no fear in face of the cruel godlike beings. It tricked me at the start with having many characters come across as bad/evil, but the real bad guys of course are these so called "gods". Some of these characters come across as psychopaths or insane people, but 100 chapters later you can't believe how invested you are in the characters you initially hated. So many memorable deaths and character moments of bravery I can't even count.

Shun is the MC of part 1. He has one goal to kill the god(s). Akashi is are MC in part 2. While the first part lacked hope part 2 has hope because, Akashi has one goal. Win so he can revive everyone that died.

Enjoyment - At first I was reading the manga for the shock value and how unpredictable it was, but the ending for part 1 was so good I had to start part 2. Part 2 is a slow start, but then blows part 1 out of the water with its characters and the eventually crossing paths of the 2 parts is so satisfying. It goes from being depressing for seeing characters die to moment after moment of these characters defying the odds and going against these so called "gods". All the arcs are good, but two arcs in particular stand-out.

Rock, Paper, Scissors is the most intense arc I've ever read. It was at this arc which is about 50 in did I understand how good this series was.

Cops and Robbers - One of my favorite arcs of all time. Characters get split up, but this arc not only has them all in one place, but introduces many more exciting characters.

That's it. Read this. It needs a anime. This also had the most rewarding punch in any story ever. You'll know what punch when you get to it.

Alright, first up I'm not the person to normally write reviews, but seeing the reviews for this title I thought a few people might want to read a review from a different standpoint. In my opinion this manga is mediocre at best and awful at worst, let's get into why that is.

1. Characters: As most of you should know, characters are normally not the strong point of survival games, therefore I will not waste too much time here. The protagonist a very basic shounen protagonist, nothing too special and kind of boring. Some side characters are written decently, but nobody stands out a really well ... developed character. What really annoyes me though are the female characters. Most of them start out alright, but after eventually falling for the protagonist they feel bland and their character gets reduced to “in love with main character“. It feels very cheap and honestly is kind of insulting, I can't remember the last time I've read worse female characters.

2. The story: Very basic story, some plotpoints get dropped or feel rushed at times, but not much worse than other storys from this genre, nothing dpecial but alright.

3. The art: Basically the same as the story, the art is pretty average and nothing too amazing but definetly not the weak part of this manga.

4. The games: Alright, let's get to this mangas biggest weakness compared to others of the genre, it's games. Sadly, most of the games were very bland and boring, with the ecxeption of exactly two games. Especially the two longest games felt very, very bad to read through. Imagine a game taking up close to if not more than three volumes, draging on and on, and after it is finished and done and we know who survives after all of it a supernatural being comes down and just sorts out the contestants even more in about a chapter. It really feels like the author didn't want to deal with too many characters and just sorted through them after the main game was done to have it easier in the next game. And this actually happens twice. It doesn't really help the suspense if you know that a being more powerful than god could just come up to the winners of a game, say lol no and pick the main characters. But that is just lazy writting. It also feels like a lot of the time the author just set up a game that he thought was cool but had no idea where to go with it. And that often shows.
TL;DR: Most games are boring or too long and the payoff is done badly.

Overall I had fun reading this manga, but mostly in a so bad it's good way. If you can enjoy stuff in this vein I would recommend it, other than that I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

I judge a story with its ending becuase an ending makes a story whole and strong. Kamisama Iutoori Ni disappoints me with its ending but I can't think of any possible endings that could fit with the story after everything that happened there. But before we talk about the ending (I'll not give spoilers but just describe how it feels), let's talk about what makes it cool. This contain mild spoilers but kinda helpful for you so you won't say that you're not wasting your time if you decide to read this.

I appreciate the sense of freedom of the author to extend his imagination of ... killing and destroying everything mercilessly. You better expect the unexpected here since lots of things will surprise you especially this: Character deaths. Never stan or favorite any characters. That's what I've learned in this story and it hurts when you see your favorite character died in a grotesque way. Even interesting characters, whose story is unknown and forever will be unknown, died without showing how cool they are. It's strangely entertaining for me because it gave me more thrills. If you're not into gore and character deaths, this manga will be kinda hard for you. Aside from that, the arcs never fail to amaze me because there are lots of twists and turns of events. The story became more nerve-wracking and nail-biting as you go on. It's like you are riding a roller coaster as you go on reading and then suddenly your ride crashes as you reach the ending.


Now here comes the ending. I mentioned that I appreacite the arcs of this story because of its awesomeness. The last arc was really epic a perfect climax for me and then the ending hit me. I was like "Wtf. So what's the purpose of those things?!" Everything became pointless!! I know that this kind of manga doesn't usually end with a happy ending but this kind of ending which turns everything pointless for the characters and readers, it's frustrating and not deserving. It was like the story was on the top of the cliff ready to jump in heaven but unfortunately fell in the deep ocean. The ending will make you regret and say "Why did I read this? I just wasted my time." I think the ending ruined the story but like I said I don't know any other ending that could fit. If only the author change some certain parts of the story, the ending could be different.

The journey of reading this is fun and if you're into gore, you'll gonna like this. However, I've warned you with the ending. It's not a good one.

Non-spoiler review

Story: Similar to Gantz in terms of if being revolved around the death game. Minimal plot armour as most events are left to logical reasoning. Ending may be good or bad depending on how you interpret it. Personally, I felt like the ending was a big middle finger to the face and goes against one of the most important rules in storywriting. (Not gonna elaborate more on that as it would be spoiler worthy)

Art: Consistent good art style, but not anything extraordinary

Character: Wide variety of character personalities. However, some character tropes were left unexplored, possibly due to the surplus of characters at certain ... points in the manga. So some discretion is required.

Enjoyment: If you enjoy thrilling psychological warfare, this is a must go. There is physical fighting in itself, but not on the level of the aforementioned.

Overall: A solid 8 as there were few loopholes, consistent pacing, and some epiphanies that I gained from this manga.

Tip: DO NOT READ THIS NEAR EXAMS, preferably during holidays as its quite addicting. Managed to read it in 2 days at the expense of my sleep.

Kamisama at iutoori Ni was a very positive surprise. So the first series was fun, but with weak characters and okay keeping interesd only for the curious games and the mystery in the meantime, the second series invested much more in its characters which greatly improved the story.

The characters are the highest point of this manga, because they are well written and developed making us, readers, get attached to them. This happen is great for a story because the level of tension is always high due to having a charismatic character at risk.

The protagonist is a positive detail apart. Akashi is a standard shounen style ... character to trust others and sacrifice for them, but this is also done in a competent way by the author because instead of this being just something positive about the MC it is actually constantly questioned by the other characters who like it from him and hope that he will also trust them to solve problems. This event is particularly cool as it still reinforces the bond between the characters making them even more enjoyable, especially natsume and Ushimitsu.

The story is very nice, but it is not well written. So, she is super fun due characters antagonistic to the MC to be something like someone with ideas identical to him, but she believes in getting her hands dirty to achieve this or someone being the individualist type and only believes in using others this is much cooler instead of pattern of Survival game psychopathic villain who just likes to kill. However, the reason for saying that it is not well written is due to the author suddenly changing or putting very different concepts like a fight with super power or Battle royale and the story begins with a focus on mind games.

Art is a very fickle thing. There are times when it is ugly and crooked, while at others it is very detailed in expression or fights and punches. There even is scene that from punch that is so magnificent for history
as for art

Speaking of the ending. He is disappointing, the series has 185 good chapters, but 186 closes everything this a bad way. I believe that the author may want to do part 3, so that ending explicated, but it is still a disappointing ending.

Finally, Kamisama no Iutoori Ni is like a continuation of an improvement on the first series, in short a series where you can see well-written characters and well-made ties dying.
Final grade: 8.5

If you're looking for the EPITOME of psychogical-horror-thriller-mystery-action seinen manga, Kamisama no Iutoori(ni) is the perfect one that you have been looking for. This manga is by far the best manga I've ever read yet because of it's amazing job at portraying characters, their POVs, the complex plot, well-written storyline, the horrifiying art that just makes you feel not scared but uncomfy and make you want to run back to your mum and tell her to shield your eyes so you won't ever have to see that ever again (said the 13-year old me that read it at night some years back haha). This ... was my first non-anime manga that I read and I am so glad that it was because it really brought up my standards in anime + manga plots.

Story:
The storyline is very much far from typical. There are frequent plot twists, deaths you never knew would happen, successes you gave up hope on, hopes being crushed, the most despair inducing moments happen and just swallow you whole because of how invested you become into the manga. The plot development was so well-made and by the end of the manga, you feel like you just read a masterpiece and you want to read more.

Art:
The art is amazing; detailed and horrifying in its own way. You wouldn't expect seeing black-holes for eyes (/m) appear in the next page and the character designs are awesome for the students, too. The intricacy is what gets me the most, though.

Character:
The character development in this manga is amazing. We almost feel like we got to meet the characters ourselves by the time we finish the whole story. We feel so emotionally connected and invested to the characters that we either never want to leave them behind or we utterly despise the character so much that you yourself wish you were there to get rid of them once and for all. Meeting new characters is like an adventure for us.

Enjoyment:
Every page of this manga keeps you at the edge of your seat. The plot is so complex that when you start piecing things together and finally solve the puzzle or at least understand the characters' comprehension of the event at hand, you feel like the biggest-brain human in history. When you finish an arc, it feels like you've just won an award or accomplished something huge. The thrilling moments really keeps you on edge and plot twists push you right off the cliff. This manga was so enjoyable and is a 10/10.

Overall:
Since this manga never got an anime, I really hope it does and if it ever does, I hope the art follows its amazing detail. I know for a fact that this story is very much worth your time and is probably the best psychological thriller manga I have ever read yet. I really hope you all give it a try since this is such a masterpiece of a manga.

Just finished the series and I must say, while Kamisama no Iutoori isn't a top-chef gourmet experience, it is more like a tasty, lunch-special, assorted 10-piece sushi. Fun, flavorful, and accessible yet sophisticated enough when you go through every fish on the plate.

I will talk briefly about both parts of the series, then get into the details on the controversial last parts of the Part 2.

(SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD)

The whole series revolves around difference characters playing various games with the rules set by Kamisama (god). A lot of these games are familiar to an average person, but the twist is that the consequences are dead ... serious. And by that I mean you can seriously die if you lose. What do you gain if you win, though?

Part 1 answers this by allowing the winners to survive and play the next game. Simple, yet still engaging.

Part 2 answers in a similar way up until near the end. Things start getting more philosophical, then it deepens.

While I could probably nitpick here and there, I was still with the mangaka (Author) until the very end, then SHBAM, in comes a gaping logic hole that makes the whole story feel rushed towards the end (nobody likes a negative after-taste). I go into details here,

https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1582217#msg58109126

Anyway, the logical fallacy surrounding 3-kami game made it slightly less enjoyable, but ultimately did not change the core of the series. That we are born into a series of games, with everyone having different starts, then every action you take, every choices you make, changes you, and the ones who become stronger and/or blessed by RNG get to play the next game, but in the end, everyone plays their final game. Except those who don't.

Everyone has different interpretation of what this all means, not just the characters in the story but also the viewers who are reading the story. But some ideas are presented stronger than others, like how love and friendship prevails, how death gives life value, how RNG is a bitch, etc.

Unlike the commonplace Western philosophy with the idea of hell and heaven / good and evil, Kamisama no Iutoori leans more towards the Eastern concept of cyclic life, that everyone's inherently equal, and we are all interdependent. That we are who we are in relation to everything else around us. I experienced all of this in my head, but I've had hard time FEELING it in my heart. I'm guessing a lot of people would as well, either consciously or unconsciously.

All in all though, I enjoyed it.

I'd like to add an extra rating category of my own:

stimulation : 7.5/10 (breakdown below)
-fun : 9/10
-brain : 8/10 (that logic hole at the end... otherwise 7.5)
-heart : 7/10
-lesson : 6/10 (strong contents, weak delivery)

As I said in my review of Part 1, this is Part 2 and a direct continuation of the previous manga, so go read that first. I also said that if you ever enjoyed Kaiji, Squid Game, Alice in Borderlands, Battle Royale, or anything in that genre, then you should definitely check this out, especially if you enjoyed those but thought to yourself "I wish they would focus less on a coherent plot and characters and just add more games and more supernatural elements", then you will absolutely LOVE this manga.

This is a bro version of Survival Game, there is simply no better way ... to put it. For one thing, the main character is a fairly average male high school student that for one reason or another (or no reason at all) seems to become universally beloved by everyone they meet. I honestly think that at least five different female characters, and at least one male character, openly declare their love for the MC at various points in the series.

Secondly, this manga is really not about the games themselves, but is evidently and quite explicitly about the relationships between the characters. I won't spoil it because it will become apparent over time, but the interplay between these characters, and how much or how little you care about them and the dynamics of the ever-changing cast, will determine how much you enjoy this manga, and probably will determine whether you will care to finish it at all.

Unfortunately the plot of this manga just makes no sense. If it does make any sense, then it is from a one-page, two-sentence info dump for the premise of a manga with 186 chapters and two prequels. It's unsatisfying, and it honestly is a bit insulting to the intelligence of anyone that cares about the plot making sense, even a little bit. This manga does a very poor job of pacing out the overall plot, and it is almost completely unclear at any point what the causes of the plot are, and why any of the events of the story are happening. That can be mysterious early on, but later it becomes this huge underlying plot hole which as I said, does not actually get a satisfying resolution, at least not in my opinion.

We are essentially told as a reader that the motivations do not have to make sense, we just have to believe in the strong feelings of these characters because that's what they're telling us, but because the cast changes so much by the nature of a survival game manga we are only really convinced of the feelings of the main core cast which is precisely two people, and my point in all this is that if you love those two characters and their dynamics with each other then you will be happy or at least happy enough until the bitter end.

So why is this manga a solid 8 (Very Good)? Well for one thing, I happen to love the main cast, I love the dynamics between them, and how they are awkward and uncertain as real people might be. Also, the art and the writing will absolutely compel you to turn the next page, keep reading, and if the ending is unsatisfying it's at least partly because we read so far to get there and didn't get the payoff we were expecting. The art is far from perfect but does serve the purposes of showing us clearly the emotions of the characters, emphasizing dangerous and scary moments, and also keeping things surprisingly light and humorous.

Most of the best manga don't have a lot in common, but what they do tend to have in common is a cast of characters that feel like they have real relationships with each other. Characters in this manga show real depth of emotion, they have personalities that change and grow, their relationships with each other evolve, change shape, wither away, and otherwise accomplish things in a difficult genre that many other genres aspire to but do not get there. The character design leaves a bit to be desired, but this cast is truly what makes this manga great. That might not be such a bold statement in a typical shonen manga, but in a survival manga I think it really says a lot, and is what makes As the Gods Will Part 2 a manga worth reading.

As you can easily see, this second part of the series is incredibly long compared to the first part which made me wonder how they would pull it off. After reading it all, I can answer this very easily: they took from the survival genre to put it on shounen genre. Indeed, Kamisama no Iutoori 2 is a hybrid of survival and shounen genres, unlike it’s predecessor which was more focused on the survival aspect. Is it a bad thing? Not exactly... But you might find yourself partially blinded by the illusion you’re seeing a group of friends on an adventure on certain parts ... (generally the longest parts). Personally, my favourite games were the shortest ones, that give more of tha thrill [spoiler ahead] See no Evil; Rock/Papers/Scissors; Sky-High Hopscotch and Judgement Old Maid. [end of spoiler]

The majority of the time, you can predict easily what is going to happen, what doesn’t mean I didn’t find satisfaction from seeing things develop as I thought they would. And it had enough minor twists to keep me entertained enough.

I want to also briefly refer the existence of two “hidden” genres that this series also has, those being ecchi and harem. Do not get me wrong, they will not be the first thing it comes to your mind when thinking about the Kamisama manga, but you better be aware they do indeed exist. If you get heavily bothered with either: almost every female character falling in love with the protagonist OR a lot of panty shoots, you might want to stay away.

One of the things I liked to see was continuity from the first manga to this one. When a lot of things ended up not making sense at the end of the first series, I was sightly afraid of the course things would take. In other words, I was afraid of the mine of plot holes it could have just been made.

Also, actions speak louder than words. I remember the messages conveyed through actions of some secondary characters more than the speeches of the protagonist and his allies.

Now finally, the ending. I had zero expectations about the ending. Often the endings of super crazy survival stories end up disapointing me. They do not live to the hype. See Imawa no Kuni no Alice, for example. The games were way better build, way more entincing than the games on the Kamisama no Iutoori. And I was forced to lower the score I was going to give due to the ending. So my low expectations might have a part in why I thought the ending didn’t suck. I can't go into detail here, but to put it simple, I don't think the ending is what is seems it is. On other review on this page the feeling you get when you end up reading is perfectly depicted as "Everything became pointless". However, this is if you interpret the ending literally. And if you interpret it literally it ends up breaking one of the rules it was disclosed a couple of chapters before. So that's why I believe the ending is not as straightforward. [Minor spoiler?] In other words, I think the ending is a coping mechanism of sorts - If you read the manga you know what I'm talking about - Maybe humans aren't made to be Gods.

A fun and fast-paced survival series where at any moment your favorite character could be executed within the span of a panel.

Because of this there are constant flows of exhilaration when the cast overcomes the odds only for that new found hope to be snatched away in an instant as a newer and more sinister test arises.

With how unjust some of the character’s suffer and die, Kamisama’s story can feel oppressively nihilistic, but to that same extent, it’s how the character's struggle through the cruelty of their world and find meaning in their lives that makes this manga a rewarding and heartfelt read.

When faced ... with the near certainty that you will die, you can truly assess what made your life meaningful and it's motivating to see characters use that new-found knowledge to fight through their fears and find resolution with their existence.

I will now list a few things that may take some readers out of the experience

- Lot’s and lot’s of fan service with most of the girls appealing in some way to the male gaze
- While most of the characters are supposed to be ordinary students, they can suddenly become Shonen protagonists leaping 15 feet in the air and smashing through buildings.
- There is some pretty bizarre and surreal humor that you’ll either love or hate

Overall, a highly enjoyable read that helped me reflect on what makes a life lived meaningful.

I'm basically only writing this review because it seems like the consensus is so thoroughly against me. For context, I read this roughly a year ago when I was first getting super into death game stories (Squid Game got me into it, Alice in Borderlands got me hooked, if you're curious). I knew this was a very popular series — popular enough that people who had read it thought Squid Game was ripping it off — and so I went in hoping to get a new favorite death game series!

I cannot put into words how thoroughly wrong I was.

This is a fundamentally poorly ... written story. It is a horrifically, unbelievably poorly written story. I want to send off emergency flare after emergency flare saying "PLEASE DON'T READ THIS!" to anyone considering this, because it is really truly bad.

Apparently this is a controversial opinion, which boggles my mind, but I'll start with a somewhat less controversial take before I get into the meat of my issue: the games themselves aren't good. I actually had this feeling pretty early on — maybe even as early as the 'ring the cat's bell' game, I forget what it's called — a feeling in the back of my head. Huh? This is what people are raving about? Eh, it probably gets better... but it doesn't! It gets worse! Even the very positive reviews admit this: here's a very telling one that reads, "The character-focused story takes the importance away from the fallacy that the games themselves need to be interesting." I would say the arc right at the start of "part two" with the four demons is the most memorable? The jump rope one too, maybe? But besides two games — two games, that's maybe twenty chapters out of, what, two hundred? — everything else is boring. More than boring! The games are tedious!

And the games are tedious because the writing of the story also isn't very good at all. Games are cruel and meaningless. Death is cruel and meaningless. The way characters interact with each other is cruel and meaningless. Don't get me wrong, I've read my Nietzsche. I can appreciate a story that's trying to make a grand existential point about... anything at all, really. But this story doesn't have one of those. The characters don't go through bad things because the author is trying to say something of artistic and philosophical value. The characters go through bad things because the author dislikes them. Every single character — maybe there's two or so exceptions to this — is written with an air of complete disdain. You know what you get when you've got a story populated by characters the author hates? A story with no emotional resonance whatsoever. Not a single emotional beat did anything to me besides make me angry. No emotional moment lands. Very few moments at all land, honestly. Attempts at humor aren't funny (and are usually more jokes that we're in on with the author at the expense of the characters) and attempts at serious beats aren't worthwhile because, that's right, the games are boring. Character-focused story? Despite characters arguably being the most fundamental prerequisite for stories, I have read very few that care about the characters they're focusing on less.

The writing is boring, but does it make sense? Let's ask another review recommending this series! "Unfortunately the plot of this manga just makes no sense. If it does make any sense, then it is from a one-page, two-sentence info dump for the premise of a manga with 186 chapters and two prequels. It's unsatisfying, and it honestly is a bit insulting to the intelligence of anyone that cares about the plot making sense, even a little bit. This manga does a very poor job of pacing out the overall plot, and it is almost completely unclear at any point what the causes of the plot are, and why any of the events of the story are happening. That can be mysterious early on, but later it becomes this huge underlying plot hole which as I said, does not actually get a satisfying resolution, at least not in my opinion." This reviewer gave the series an 8/10. That 8/10 was on the strength of the characters, but, like... once again, the characters aren't a strength! They die so quickly and so meaninglessly and so randomly that it feels like you're being punished for caring about them. I won't specifically say what happens, but there's a few chapters devoted to a game that is literally in-universe random chance. No strategies, no mind games, no working together, it's just random chance. I read a lot of death game manga. Most of them do not do this, because they recognize it's fucking stupid.

To sum up those three paragraphs, it's a death game series where the death feels pointless and meanspirited, like a kid kicking an anthill and then killing the ants that come out, while the games are uninspired and boring. What else... oh yeah, the ending is unbelievably horrific! The second-to-last game has one or two elements that are, like, interesting-adjacent and which are also immediately ruined by how awful the writing for every character is (speaking of, I'm going this whole review not even mentioning how shallow the women are in this story — the author then went on to write Blue Lock, a series functionally without women... hmm...). The last game is disgraceful and the last moments make it even worse.

I'll say one nice thing: I like the art! It's pretty good.

All in all, As the Gods Will is bad. I don't think it's just bad in a nebulous, low-quality way, I think it's bad in that I'm a worse person for reading it. It's spiritually bad, it's bad in its soul. It's bad for your soul! Don't be like me! I would be ashamed to have written this story, so just imagine how you'd feel reading it.

I give this a 1/10. "Appalling."