Mousugu Shinu Hito

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

Mousugu Shinu Hito (English: Seeking for Death) is a very harsh deconstruction of the harem genre.

It asks the question of why would all of these women want such a passive an indecisive man's affection in the first place, and answers it with pure cynicism.

Like most harems, where females vie for the MC's affection because "He was kind to me", the women end up flocking to Riku Kominato for the same reasons, but this is where the similarity ends.

Due to the "Die Anyday" video, any woman in Riku's "harem" will eventually die if they are not chosen by Riku. This is where the main conflict occurs, ... as characters encounter mental strain from their impending deaths while they try desperately to have Riku fall in love with them, even as they encounter harassment from the student body. After all, they'll die soon.

Characters: The characters in Mousugu Shinu Hito really shine in how they develop. In most harems, character development usually ends with them falling in love and being added to the harem. In Mousugu Shinu Hito, character development starts after being added to the harem.

Haju grows more obessive as her best friend tries to take her crush away from her by abusing the fact he likes her. Riko becomes entirely motivated by not dying. Aoi becomes heavily invested in finding the culprit for the "Die Anyday" website. Mikoto is angry at having her and Aoi involved in Riku's "harem".

Overall, enjoyable.

tl;dr : Please don't do this to yourself. Please DON'T.
You may be thinking "eh, it's just 16 chapters. At worst I'll only waste some time" but DON'T. It's not even "so bad it's good" bad, it's just plain bad.

So now that this is out of the way, let's get on with the task of explaining why this manga sucks (I'm doing this in no particular order, this is my first review. It will suck, bear with me).

Okay so let's start with the only good point : the art (7). It's okay. Not excellent but it's pretty good at representing distressed people and is the only ... way this manga manage to have some kind of atmosphere.

Now the story (4) : it's ... okay : some kids need to understand why and how someone is going to kill them after witnessing a video that show them how they'll die. Now this is not a bad idea per se, but in this manga it's really undermined by every thing else.
Wait no, I should have said it like that : the PREMISE is 7, the actual STORY is 2. Because while it COULD have been good, it's not. The charcaters kill the story and the ending is horrible.

The characters (2). Aaaah the characters. I can't remember the last time I actually wanted to punch every single character in a manga. None of these characters are relatable and their (re)actions make no sense. Now if you intend to read this thing (and if I didn't make myself clear enough already DON'T), please don't expect any kind of rationality to happen. As always in this kind of work the police is nonexistent, adults are incompetent and the family of the kids must be on the other side of the planet as they have ZERO impact on the story (except for that one chick whose parents were murdered ten years ago. THAT's the extent of family involvement).
So as for the characters themselve we have :
- the dense harem MC. He's dense, he's meek, everyone fall for him because he's kind, he should die in a fire.
- the shy chidhood friend. She's shy, she loves the MC and anything else is spoiler.
- the manipulative bitch. You CANNOT like her. Seriously I tried, she's not made for that. No character in this story is likeable.
- the student council president. Except this one I guess. She's bland but compared to the rest she's a 11/10 character.
- some other girl who can't make her damn mind. And is actually an understandable character (not relatable mind you).
- the adults. Useless. Because of course when 5 people have disappeared while checking the server's room the police don't care, that's not important. FFS this manga.

Oh my god you can rate the "enjoyment" part. Ahahahahahah, they should really put something like "this manga made me angry and actually ruined my mood". I'm using this review to vent but seriously I hope you won't read this thing.

Overall : 2. This is not the worst manga ever, but it's trash. I simply can't understand how anybody could have rated this thing higher than 5. This is a waste of time and it will make you feel bad.
Eh, I should have put that in the tl;dr

Everything you thought about the harem genre to be destroyed in one manga.

This manga has an exceptionally dark story line that has a mix of mystery together with the story. I would describe this manga as something really 'messed up'.

People breaking down and losing control of their logical thinking and going to extremes to survive. In other words, the story is much like a 'death game' story where everyone will stake everything to survive.

Character developments are well done. The characters change and adapt through the course of the story and have interesting backgrounds. Its a story that keeps you engaged and wanting to know what ... will happen next and how the characters will continue to change, for better or worse.

So if you're up for an extremely dark and disturbing, psychological manga, then this is for you.

I wish this manga was as good as it needed to be.

Story - 5: The story of "Seeking for Death" starts pretty good. It seems like when it comes to unconventional stories about romance (this one is actually anti-romance), they are usually mystery and science fiction and this manga is no exception. There are a lot of unexplained elements that really keep you on alert. The very fabric of reality seems to bend because of some videos that some person created. The characters must find out how to end everything by wading through a web of deceptions from all parties.

The best part of the ... beginning of the manga is how even strangers become part of the escalating tension. Late into the story, it feels pretty good to learn that there was at least a tiny bit of reasoning behind why things happened.

This all would be good if the story was not filled with holes and ended on a far more meaningful note.

The weird thing is that the elements of mystery are done rather entertainingly and everything about the investigation is pretty thrilling. But in the end, it is still empty.

The weird thing is that the character's backstories are really good and really prevent this manga's plot from being utter crap.

One last negative thing to say is that characters will experience deadly situations without dying. Get a body part cut off? Stay in your room all day. She never goes to the hospital. Another time, everyone falls a far distance down onto a hard stone floor without being harmed in any way. What happens after that is more ridiculous and rushed, even if it is a slightly logical turn of events.

Art - 8: The art is amazing in how unique it is. Things like hair and feet seem disappointing at first, but there is a nice subliminal effect to that art that matches with the psychology basis of the story. Some things have a transparency aspect which adds to that more.

The shadowing is really vibrant and it makes the world feel colorful most of the time. There are a lot of dark scenes with a misty effect which must have taken a lot of skill.

The only art that really bothered me was when they were showing the insides of an old building and there were just unknown black marks on the stone tile and walls. Character art also suffered because of how the last main character looked. She looks too similar to the first girl we are introduced to and her design is just bland and stupid-looking.

Character - 3: The protagonist was hinted at being something interesting, but he is simply not attracted to anybody who is falling in love with him. Yet, stupidly enough, he is attracted to the girl named Riko, seemingly for no reason. At first, he goes from liking Riko to being attracted to a new girl. When she dies, he does not grieve the loss too much. He just focuses on the mysteries that killed her. Yet, he does not seem to be in love with anyone eventually. He values all of their lives simply because they are lives. Main character is pretty fake.

The women in the harem that develops are pretty much an expression of typically female negative relationship traits. They only want the main character because he will give them an advantage they feel is necessary to survive (for the most part). They want complete monogamy because they feel like life will be empty without the person they love and anybody else who gets involved will end up breaking them apart. If given one man to focus on, they would go after him competitively and violence escalates.

Two of them are completely chaotic and two are lawful.

What is good is that they approach the main character for very genuine reasons. They definitely feel like real people in their backstories, but these stories do not seem to apply to the actual characters. No logical path of character development is implemented. Despite having compelling backstories as a reason to have a sense of character, only the girls who die and have no real backstory had an actual personality. This is not saying that characters with empty emotions have no personality, it is just that even the empty emotions and possessiveness are not fixed personality traits on these characters. Once again, the characters seem fake.

Lastly, the villain has no real motive. Of course.

Enjoyment - 4: This manga is not fun to read. Large parts of this manga made me feel like I was just wasting my time, but the flashbacks and backstories and some of the psychological/philosophical ideas casually mentioned by minor characters were interesting enough for me to read the whole thing. It still did not feel like a good experience.

And, if you came looking for a Yandere, you will not likely be pleased. There is hardly enough psychological involvement in this manga. Characters are just thrown around without much meaning and no development. Therefore, the horror is pretty much a joke most of the time. And yes, the Yandere are somewhat terrifying in this manga, but it is hard to care if one kills another character. Plus, that only really happens in the first few chapters.

Overall - 4: If you are someone who wants mindless entertainment and are a sucker for first impressions, this manga is for you. Of course, you could read it for the few interesting ideas that it poses, but there are only two or three really interesting ideas in here.

-MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS-

Mousugu Shinu Hito shows the true human nature in its purest form. a living being's will to survive no matter what, to do everything they can to not DIE.

Kominato Riku, as said in the synopsis, is your generic high school student with a liking towards videogames and therefore wanting to become a game desginer. Nothing special there, is there?

And then the ''Die Anyday'' trend of video's began to happen. And to make a short story even more short. It fucked up his life.

This harem wasn't 'kindly' built up. it is a pure forced thing and that is was I love it. little bits ... of pure chaos, pain, shocking moments.

The characters really show their true colors, which is great :)

I am sorry for such a weak review, but if you enjoy 'messed-up' manga and need a little 'snack', please give a try

I grinned 24/7 while reading, hope you do too :)

Prepare yourselves for a long review.

Mousugu Shinu Hito begins as a memorable deconstruction of the harem genre. The MC's harem is forced on him, he can only choose one "true love," and the rest of the harem will die after he makes his choice. Accordingly, each of the female leads does everything in her power (in some cases crossing ethical lines) to woo him in order to ensure her own survival.

==Story: 5/10==

It takes a lot of explanation to suspend disbelief that these dramatic circumstances have befallen these seemingly everyday characters in a situation that, other than the disturbing video that causes the forced harem, closely ... resembles daily life. This explanation is never given in any adequate form: the mangaka probably realized they had dug themselves into a hole with no logical way out, so they hand-waved some Ibara no Ou-style ~psychophysics~ into existence to move the plot along.

Great "dark" stories usually make disturbing ethical conclusions seem reasonable. Mousugu Shinu Hito utterly failed in that regard.

I guess a redeeming factor in the story is how, through the wonders of ~psychophysics~, the plot does come full circle, from the perky "I want these people to be happy" video in the VERY beginning to the eventual explanation of the death video's purpose.

==Art: 7/10==

The characters were all cute and appealing. To compare the art style to anime, on a spectrum from Berserk to Kill la Kill, the characters were decidedly more Kill la Kill.

The art style is characterized by its minimal, yet clean use of lines. Hiroki deserves praise for his tasteful, somewhat restrained use of "super deformed" characters where appropriate to set the mood. None of these panels felt out of place.

Hiroki did well making the characters mostly distinguishable by their hair, except for a few frames when it was difficult to tell whether a certain character was actually Riko, the school's "idol," and that character's similarity to Riko wasn't a plot device. From this, it's safe to conclude that Riko wasn't supposed to look similar to that character, and that that accidental similarity was Hiroki's fault as an artist.

The tension palpably rose from the first death to the investigation of the video, and the doll was always unsettling where it appeared.

Color inserts were clean and easy on the eyes. For a yandere manga, gore was minimal.

==Characters: 7/10==

The MC is a little dense and doesn't realize the genuine feelings a few characters have for him until other characters tell him unambiguously. The redeeming thing about the him is that even though the girls in the harem almost all throw themselves at him in the beginning, he rightfully sees through the actions of the ones who are merely trying to ensure their own survivals, and refuses to take advantage of them in those situations. He's quite the gentleman.

As for the others, the characters featured in the video and its later incarnations (including the MC) come to save their friendships with each other over the course of the manga. As a result, it's hard for readers to hate any of them in their entirety.

The revelation midway that a character other than Haju had genuine feelings for the MC didn't feel forced at all.

Where this manga failed to argue for any striking conclusions, the harem characters were entertaining and singlehandedly forced me to finish Mousugu Shinu Hito, which leads to...

==Enjoyment: 9/10==

I am ashamed to have enjoyed this shallow manga as much as I did. Where the mangaka wanted me to cry or scream, I laughed and cheered for whoever I thought was best girl, even though "best girl" changed nearly every chapter. I wonder if the mangaka echoed my sentiment--it's easy to interpret the ending as evidence of such.

If you decide to read this manga, don't go in prepared to question everything and find out the truth, and definitely don't go in with a high barrier to suspension of disbelief. Go in prepared for a wild, occasionally gory ride that explores how some people become yandere to survive while others don't.

============plot holes / unanswered questions below================
(intentionally vague to prevent spoilers):
- HOW did the doll that Mikoto found appear in Riki's backpack to begin with?!
- one of the main girls irreversibly maims another of the main girls, and putting the attacker into jail would have been an easy way to force her out of the competition, so why doesn't the victim do anything?!
- who the !@#$ thought housing a server (yes, the kind that hosts a major NND-esque streaming site) in the mountains where (1) cellphone service is nonexistent and (2) five people have gone missing trying to fix the server?! On that note,
- why don't the cops, who are called to that building where one of the main characters is kidnapped, search the building immediately?!
- why don't the main characters catch the perpetrator when they get the chance?!
- what was the "dirt" that the ultimate antagonist had on their handler-turned-accomplice?!

You're a few pages in on the first chapter, the art is cute and charming and you've been introduced to a few of the main characters in a very happy slice-of-life fantasy way. You quickly learn a basic summary of these characters, and as each new character appears, you start to get the feeling that they're all pretty generic archetypes. The sweet childhood best friend, the beautiful and popular school idol who is somehow friends with the male protag, the cool and responsible student council president... Oh man, are you wrong.

The one thing that really stood out to me about Mousugu Shinu Hito was the ... creation, development, and especially the portrayal of the characters. We have Haju Yonesaka, a classic, sweet maiden who is in love with her childhood friend. But as the story develops, she learns of the gruesome deaths that potentially await her and her friends. She witnesses the betrayal of her best friend who suddenly went from supporting Haju's love to becoming a fearsome rival, all in the span of less than one day. And, much to my surprise, Haju did not take this well. She snaps. And Haju is not the only one. All the main characters, even our male protagonist Riku Kominato, goes through dynamic changes. Some changes are more subtle than others, but it's there, and it's so satisfying when you notice the change and connect 2+2 with the story. The characters in this manga deserve a solid 10/10.

Characters aside, the story is smooth and consistent, and the ending was well finished. It wasn't rushed or messy with many new characters or mysteries added in. Mousugu Shinu Hito made sure to only focus on the main characters and solidify who exactly are the main characters, cleverly utilizing minor characters or key items to advance the story. There is no sudden, "I'm actually the REAL mastermind!" or "The real mastermind is actually this new character who has never even been hinted at before!" plot twist. It's all carefully laid out and well stitched together, from start to finish. There are a few unsolved mysteries here and there, but for the most part, they're quite minor and do not interfere with the overall plot.

Despite using a very moe moe kyun kyun art style, the artist manages to convey the horrors of this story well. It can be quite disturbing seeing a cute, smiling face with disorderly eyes, covered in blood. Hiroki Haruse does not go lightly on the blood and gore, and I truly commend them for sticking strong and with a consistent art style throughout.

Like many psychological-horrors, Mousugu Shinu Hito plays a lot on human emotions and the human mind. If you're able to handle a darker genre, do give Mousugu Shinu Hito a try, and I do hope that you'll enjoy this manga as much (if not more) as I did.

First things first, there are SPOILERS!!!! now then onto the story. I can say that I actually enjoyed this series it was a nice little kick back read I admit that though the ending was little predictable (given that "Riko's" body was tossed in the pit. However when it come to the "psychological" science in the series its basically just drawing out survival of the fittest and or the pressure to win the heart of the mc (which is personally a great idea). Which was different approach, but it really doesn't drive the story into the rabbit hole that it could've gone to. The ... ending was actually pretty nice, I wont lie there are few series that kill the mc and I'm proud that Touka pulled through with not letting the mc have immortality or in most content letting them win. There are a few complaints with the character development though I will admit, one of them being not exploring "Riku's" personality enough though, Touka explained the other female characters reasons and traits to survive that wonderfully mixed well with characters and motives. Another flaw was there could've been more depth with "Riku's" personality as far as the pressure he was in as well though he chooses himself which wasn't the worst ideas, but it definitely could've gone deeper in "Riku's" emotions. moving forward into the positive things. was the wonderful character development in "Haju" "Riku's" childhood bestfriend for the sake of well jealousy, obsession, and couple other traits that Touka was going for in making her into a true yandere (well the most of them all). Though im sure this was a 1 shot anime the pacing is pretty well until the last few of chapters. Another thing that was questionable was "Riko's" appearances, throughout the story I respect that she mainly popped in the Asylum scenes but the most aggravating part was when they just let her go TWICE after attempting to kill the characters. anyways that was my first impression of the manga and loo forward to writing more reviews.
Thank you for your time.