Real Account

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[This review contains minor spoilers]

Real Account could be described as one of the most boring manga you could ever read. A manga that you will think is built and ONLY built by using poor USA styled characterisations, clichéd misunderstanding over technology, mixed with some kind of shit moral that could be resumed as "Phones are bad; The Internet is bad" throughout the whole story. Adding to that the understatement that this manga is about a survival game you could only access by using your phone, which was also a subject used in other mediocre manga like "Ousama Game", "Darwin's Game" or even "Mirai Nikki", you ... might presume that Real Account might get down the same path as them. There's a lot of reasons you could use for why you shouldn't read it, just because of how basic and unoriginal it feels only by looking at the cover.

"Real Account, in general, is not only the title of the manga. It is also described as the most powerful social media in the world. Not only Japan, the WHOLE world. The app which brings together the equivalent of Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Snapchat, Discord, TikTok, P*rnhub, I don't know... But ALL IN ONE!!! Doesn't it sounds cool? Well, guess what? After months, years of its existence, the app just wanted to magically teleport half of its users into... The app itself. The guy behind all this is Marble, the mascot that represents ReA and hides his true identity by wearing a mask. The reason he wanted to do that? To see people dying. How?:

If a player has 0 followers on ReA, he DIES! But if he dies in the survival game, all of his followers DIE TOO!"

That's the premise, for 24 volumes. If you don't like it, don't even bother to torture yourself. In my opinion, I thought that the last sentence to describe the whole thing was interesting. And reading it felt absurdly stressing. Like, who would you get balls to follow for assuring his life, while also risking yourself to die by them? Because of course that a lot of people will hit the unfollow button, they don't wanna die! Everyone who didn't even had followers right at the start died day one; all those with less than 1000 followers see their death coming and pray their life to have a least one guy to follow them; people who had over 1 000 000 followers didn't even care of seeing the subcount going down, even tho they were probably going to die. The beginning literally calls us, looks straight into our eyes and asks us if we DO care about the people we follow. Care to your own death. If they change through their carrier, would you still care about them?

The games they were getting into are all based of popular trends that a lot of us can relate. Knowing if you're connected to your audience, showing your photos that you took on your phone subconsciously, being a live stream with many viewers, heck they even have a game where you have to reveal someone's deleted post for making sure that he loses all his followers. The games, as intelligent as they can be, literally are some based representations of what does it might look like for someone to get exposed on Twitter or Youtube. It doesn't feel cringe, we actually feel that the author actually knows what he is talking about and is not only throwing bullshit at us expecting something to work by using the Internet as a main source only for cash. Even then, the characters feels realistic to their own place. They not only know what kind of danger can lead them to despair, but they also know what kind of thing they should say to preserve their popularity... so they could survive.

Yet, describing the characters can be the same as describing the story. You don't like them? Well, "too bad."

There's two main arcs, both sharing a different POV of two main characters going into totally different locations. Honestly, calling them "Arcs" can be a bit of a stretch, because the first arc is mainly an introduction to the second main characters whom's the one that holds the story for him alone. The "first arc" takes 2 volumes, only to tells us that the first MC, Ataru Kashiwagi, is the brother of the second MC who looks exactly like him. The "second arc" is the rest of the story, led by the brother, Yuma Mukai. So, "it gets better after 2 volume." As Ataru can be described as the one who tries it best to be careful over his actions, Mukai is the insane one. The badass. The one who doesn't give a fuck if he dies, but also a great leader making sure that everyone lives above him. Yeah... A shounen protagonist. He even develops a power over his madness. Not only that, some others can be as likeable and INTELLIGENT as both MCs are. There's Ayame, which is the stereotypical girl that always care about Mukai; Mizuki, the masochist one who eats raw meat and plays with knives; Aiji, the cute gay one that also appears to be someone who doesn't care to die...

As I write this review I already know this sounds like crap. Anything that is mentionned doesn't feels believable and the whole thing about "The Internet" being treated well in a media is such a taboo thing that doesn't feel right. It's not believable to see that a manga like this is good. And I understand it. This manga IS BAD, hypothetically speaking. Does it mean that it wasn't a good read? No! Shout in any direction you want for not thinking that I'm not having some "reviewer perspective", I thought that Real Accound still was a pretty fun manga to read. The games were unique, Mukai was cool as shit compared to other survival games' MCs that I saw, and the artstyle, while being pretty okay, worked for this manga. Uncovering the mistery of how everyone is going to survive was a crazy ride to get. I surely won't call this a masterpiece, it will still be a manga that I'll miss reading it.

Real Account is not what you'd expect on the bad side or the good side, but it's mainly enjoyable.

It's a manga about how social media affects your daily life, and turns it into a death game but becomes so mind-numbingly stupid, it's entertaining.

FYI: There are essentially two parts, I'll cover them both as they are essentially the same.
Further below I wrote some plotholes the story had or things that reinforce my points.

Story: 4
The early parts are extremely relatable, touching on very specific subjects within the internet. Likes/dislikes which was a good starting point, real/fake lives they create online and offline, streaming and how far they'd go for views when it depended on their lives, giving up both their phones and personal data with ... how much they've shared over the years on the internet, and using it as fuel to save themselves.
It gets very entertaining and doesn't immediately go for the "internet is bad" approach, but rather how these characters have used social media over their lives, privacy and practically living second lives.

Another big part of the game is that followers are basically your lifeline, where if ALL your follower unfollows you, you'll die immediately. But if they keep staying followed, they have a chance of dying WITH the players, with tons of betrayals that happen within the "game world" and the outside world.
For example, if you wanted to get points you'll need to share something private about yourself, but what if that hidden part was actually what's keeping your follower, making them just leave you and immediately die?
Even though these are made to be games, meaning they're short and wouldn't carry the weight of the subject, which I wouldn't mind, but suddenly stopped altogether.

It's so surprising how quickly they deviate from that interesting concept and go to the "we have to defeat the mastermind" trope to a death game, using the internet now as just the game's concept or not using it at all, abandoning what made the story so interesting.
It also becomes so illogical, characters making dumb decisions for no reason, so it's just there for fanservice, if not for plot advancing.

Oh, and there's a lot of fanservice, you get tired of it. Some I wondered why it's not just porn?
There is also one panel that is extremely weird for a close-up. It's a child's "behind" being spanked. And no, none of that "girl is 9000+ years old" is actually an adult or just showing it for comedic purposes, just a close-up panel of a child's naked "behind" in a detailed manner. The chapter is 42 around 1/4th, so if you don't want to see that, skip it. Luckily it only happened once, but I can't believe it actually got published.

Characters: 4
As explained, some of the characters are edgy just because, but that's fine, it's manga. I expected that and enjoy it.
The problem is that the characters refuse to explain or listen to each other. There are so many ways conflicts and drama that could've been resolved, yet remained unnecessary mysteries that could prove as life-threatening. But, at least it makes for some entertainment.

It gets so incredibly edgy, especially as it goes on, but that's what makes this interesting. There aren't really any "stale" characters, they just go overdrive and so does the story. It keeps pushing its absurdity with no seemingly logical, forced to push a plot that doesn't make sense. The protagonist obviously as well as an extremely strong plot armor.
An example is that the protagonist was cornered at his school, where they suddenly all act accordingly with fake blood, gas masks, and a school that stocked colorless, odorless, delayed-reaction nerve gas.
Oh yes, of course! The nerve gas, I forgot we have nerve gas in school that has all of those attributes, that also exists in all regular Japanese schools or any in general, and they did all of that whilst acting within seconds without a page of communication nor showed beforehand.

The other characters with the exception of the protagonist are interesting but immediately thrown away. One of them I especially liked, but died in an "honorable" way, probably for the author to not deal with them anymore. A waste of an actually flawed character quickly rushed to their death.
You'll find a lot of these later on, characters that are rushed to be developed only to die. At least either build it up or just don't try.

Also, most if not all females in this manga are for fan service, especially our main cast. They all follow the general tropes like the tsundere and so on, but there is just one character I absolutely despise.
Almost immediately in the first chapters, she's introduced as nothing more than a sex object with very little story. Yes, she does in fact participate in the story at least and sometimes even helps move it, which I appreciate, but it just doesn't stop. Any serious moment the artist/author keeps throwing it away for fan service, to the point where whenever she shows up on a panel, you know why.

Art: 7
I think it's done well, gets the message across, and does its job. Looks decent, not too original character designs but still distinctive enough in their own world.

Enjoyment: 8
I enjoy a lot how they bring real-life social media things into the manga. Even though it's executed poorly by some if not most writing standpoints, it's such a fun ride.

Overall: 6

It's probably one of those mangas that are "so bad it's good" category.
It follows a lot of cliches and tropes, losing its originality, dumbs down characters a LOT to make our protagonist seem like a genius, and slowly gets more absurd.

In the beginning, it's done interestingly, but the further you read, it's purely for entertainment and nothing noteworthy.



----------------------
SPOILERS AHEAD!
I'll give some examples of why it's so absurd and goes on to be stupid.

The picture book, "Country of Despair", was written in their world 13 years ago by a mother that took their own life. It was a way for our protagonist to shine, switching personas and becoming edgy.
At first look, the book is about a boy that took their own life due to misfortunes but eventually revealed as "don't kill yourself" being the actual message, and one of the main casts took it the wrong way.
The problem is that it's a picture book for children written explicitly by a mother to their son, and the ONLY way the mother could send that message was through BARCODES.
And not just in your face either, it's done so it's a puzzle. Oh yeah, real fun. I'll hang myself in front of my son before making him play a fun puzzle game that gets mistaken, making his life even worse and going down a horrible path of becoming a cult leader.

-
The world goes crazy, but now the government and any third-party countries are non-existent to this lunacy of public crime? No reporting or anything? People are now getting the R-word in public, murders, etc, and zero repercussions except the mastermind.
It's not like the police and government were just gone either, they have roles. And then suddenly they're safe in a hospital? So nurses, doctors, or similar are just okay with all of this and have no say nor desire to try to hunt our characters? Are hospitals now a no-combat zone?
That hunting game also suddenly made everyone into mindless zombies or just incredibly stupid, which is such a lazy way to write people desperate for money. You don't need a backstory for them, but at least write them smarter than that.


And during some of that, the characters while being hunted, went to a public bath, and the actual reason of defense, their lives on the line and face pasted for everyone to see, I shit you not, "Wearing swimsuits we can blend in, and phones wouldn't work in a bathhouse", and then proceed to talk in public where their "marks" are.
First off, waterproof phones, and it's for a million yen. They can just buy another phone.
Lastly, YOUR FACES ARE EVERYWHERE. A swimsuit is NOT camouflaging.
Obviously, this was for fanservice, it's screaming of it and gets crazier with the fanservice where you wonder why you decided to read this manga. But Jesus Christ, someone just had their head's blown off. The least you could do is hide in your own home.
There is more useless fanservice like the protagonist's way of waking up is with a kiss (doesn't get brought up afterward nor ever mentioned) and such, what a waste of a chapter that could've gone more to character development.


One last spoiler, I swear. But it's more so on a positive note. One of the "background" characters died rather quickly in an early stage, but he was probably one of the best ones, a guy that had a supposed mediocre appearance and had no chance of living, but took it like a champ and blocks his father from following to at least save him. He may look "mediocre", but he's the biggest chad out of all of them.

Yep, it's as bad as other reviewers have pointed out. I applaud anyone who actually made it to the end of this dumpster fire.

If you are expecting any type of drama or suspense then don't waste your time on this. They took an interesting science fiction survival story and turned it into 24 volumes of the most repetitive, incoherent mess possible. Every chapter is sillier and crazier than the one before it until it's all just noise. The author just throws whatever nonsense they thought up that day for shock value regardless if it has any reason or logic behind it. The absurdity of the ... plot completely overshadows the survival elements which makes for an incredibly boring read.