Saiteihen no Otoko
Scumbag Loser

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**I have already finished reading this manga**

First off, if you are just looking for a happy-go-around romance/slice of life manga, stay the fuck away from this one. Saiteihen no Otoko is noticeably different from the majority of other manga because it actually tries* to be a true horror story, with very messed up contents that might just appeal to horror thriller fans. This is quite rarely seen in the medium of manga and anime.

For something that is only 3 volumes long, there are a tons of narrative contents told. The pages are filled with twists and turns, leaving readers on the edge of their seats. ... The manga never loses its intensity, though there is a clear departure of tone in the second half of story, opting for a less scary but more “shounen” tone. Compared to numerous other mystery manga that I have read (with shitty ending), it actually gives a great finish. Not masterpiece, mind, but quite good. At least I found it satisfying.

Being a psychological horror story, there is a heavy focus on MC’s (unstable) state of mind. The MC's 'loser' characteristic is vastly exaggerated. Still, it’s entertaining (in a shounen way) to see how even a person who resides at the bottom of social hierarchy can exhibit moments of heroism, at crucial moments.

The art is hit or miss, depending on whether you like drawings of messed-up faces in this mangaka's unique style. Regardless of your preference, the artwork contributes to the horror suspense atmosphere perfectly.

tl;dr

Overall, for its on a whole satisfying story, unique art style, and an interesting MC loser-kun, I award it with 8/10.

For ultimate recommendation, I point you to Ibitsu, also a short horror story.

tl;dr: A bit of an interesting take on the theme of unconditional love, but beyond that it’s either generic psychological horror or uninteresting nonsense.

This manga is a three-volume length psychological thriller centered around supernatural beings that are killing and replacing people. It is from the point of view of Masahiko, a high school boy that one of said beings, Haruka, seems to grow fond of. Masahiko has always been near the bottom rung of the school hierarchy, and thus has come to be someone that’s very good at sniffing out the biggest losers through scent alone. The mysterious beings that are killing and replacing people ... are primarily after such losers, and thus Masahiko is given the job of selecting targets.

Through this set up it touches on various themes. The main one starting out is everyone’s obsession with social hierarchies. It doesn’t delve that much into it, basically showing off an example that’s supposed to be disturbing to try to convey how awful things can get, but to be honest it wasn’t all that bad relatively speaking and didn’t leave that much of an impression. As the series progressed it also touched upon the more interesting theme of how people don’t really view the inside of someone as who there are, wherein even if someone’s personality changes completely as long as they look the same and seem to be fitting into the same slot in society, they’ll be viewed as exactly the same person.

That in and of itself isn’t that interesting because it’s relying entirely on the supernatural aspect in order to work and thus doesn’t say much about real life, however tangentially it did bring up quite often the much more interesting point about the hollowness of unconditional love. In a conditional relationship, or at least a healthy one, those involved are in love with each other for who they are and want to be loved in a similar vein. There obviously will be things that one might wish were different about one’s partner, but in general one wouldn’t want them to change completely because they’re in love with them in the condition that they currently exist in and thus it is likely love would wane if said partner changes too much. On the other hand, unconditional love doesn’t really have any sort of foundation to it. There’s no real reason for it to exist, but it still has to exist. Thus, a parent will love their child regardless of how much they change over the course of their life. That’s generally a touching sentiment, but on the other hand it’s also not at all. The love isn’t of the person themselves but rather simple of the role they’re inhabiting, and thus they’d be perfectly fine with anyone else in that role. Rather, it would be perfectly reasonable to wish that the one fulfilling that role was essentially someone completely different. While this isn’t really anything more than stating the obvious I suppose, actually thinking about it somewhat depressing.

The plot was incredibly lacking. The first half is fine. It’s pretty typical psychological horror with inexplicable changes and the feeling of helplessness and solitude in the face of the mysterious that proceed in a pretty generic manner. It’s not all that unique, but it isn’t bad either, so it’s decent enough. The second half is where things go off the rails. It drops most of the psychological horror in favor of more in your face scares but isn’t all that good at it thus just isn’t scary at all, nor is there much in terms of good suspense. It begins focusing much more on two new characters, but in the end there was no thematic or plot purpose to either of them. This is the type of story where all the main characters are horrible and unlikable, which isn’t all that rare for psychological horror, but towards the end it felt like it was trying for beats that actually relied on having some investment in the main character and his struggles, but that just didn’t land at all considering it’s not like he went through any sort of character arc or anything like that. On top of that, the pacing is pretty bad with it wasting a bunch of time on the aforementioned pointless characters and then rushing a bunch during the ending. This results in a bunch of plot holes, some minor such as why a character looked like what they did, and some major, like characters seemingly knowingly allowing themselves to be killed off for no real reason.

The art was solid enough quality. Style wise it could be good at times, meaning both in terms of looking nice and in terms of looking horrific, wherein the looking nice aspect is important for helping the horrific parts stand out. However, most of the time it wasn’t either, it was just kind of meh in a way that didn’t enhance the tone or atmosphere at all, and design wise it was pretty dull in general.

Heavy Spoilers:
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Saitehen no Otoko a.k.a as Scumbag Loser is a classic example of a story that had potential to be very good, but unfortunately it never was able to maximize that potential due to various flaws.

Plot:
Saiteihen no Otoko starts off very mysterious, its premise is interesting and original. The story starts with our main character Murai Masahiko, Masahiko has the strange ability to notice odours and smells of various people. One day a girl he knew as kid transfers to his school, however her scent isn't the same.

Masahiko feeling suspicious decides to question this girl(Haruka) and is able to successfully identify her as a " ... pretender", though unlike your typical Mary Sue protagonist he agrees to be quiet as long as she pretends to be his girlfriend

After some days Masahiko notices that fellow classmates slowly are starting to change, unfortunately for Masahiko he can't prove anything even if his intuition tells him something is wrong.

Sound interesting right? Well it isn't but I'll get to that later.

Art:
The art is bearable to say the least. The major problem with the art that it's full of inconsistencies, sometimes it's very detailed and other times it feels flat out lazy and unpolished.

Thus in conclusion the art was never really able to maximise the atmosphere, or to build tension.

Character
Just Plain Horrible. Throughout the story the MC(Masahiko) is portrayed in a negative light, he has his creepy obsessions, his creepy fetishes but he isn't a bad character at the start, he's just a character you’re not supposed to feel sympathy for. This is all good until halfway when the author tries to take a 360 turn and decides to portray in a positive light. Masahiko was from very early on shown as a scumbag, but suddenly the author decides to say Fuck it all and tries to convince the audience that he had his "reasons" to act in such a manner and tries to make the reader sympathize with his struggles but it just doesn’t work.

Another thing that I disliked was the development of Haruka,in the first few chapters the interaction between Haruka and Masahiko was very exciting and entertaining, Haruka would drop subtle threats and would install fear upon the vulnerable Masahiko, she'd go as far to "transform" the only person Masahiko liked into another monster/demon. Frustratingly enough at the end guess what she did all those horrible things because she loved him. Yes dear readers if you love someone you have to ruin their lives, stalk them and treat them like livestock because that's love apparently.

Lastly and most annoyingly the author kept on introducing characters that really didn't matter to plot progression, maybe Saitehen no Otoko would have been better if the author dedicated his time to develop the two protagonists.

Conclusion
Though it started off with a lot of potential due to bad execution and horrible character development Saitehen no Otoko never really went anywhere, and in a sense it's a shame because the premise was an original one

I enjoyed the first few chapters when I thought it was going to take a "psychological thriller/horror" pathway, but after chapter 7-8 it just falls in quality and plot and thus not worth bothering to waste your time.

Final Rating
Story: 4/10
Art: 5/10
Character: 3/10
Enjoyment: 4/10

Overall: 4/10