I try to read everything with as little 'priming' as possible which I think benefited me here. If someone had told me "it's a horror manga about spooky evil mascots", I'd probably not have bothered, but I am glad I did.

In typical Japanese horror style most of the "horror" is pretty material and has all the subtlety of a stubbed toe: it's people getting ripped apart, eaten, exploded, etc. To be blunt - it's not scary. Not to me anyway. I do enjoy horror, and I enjoy gore, but I don't really find them scary - and I can't imagine people finding this scary. Which is not an indictment as, like I said, I still enjoyed it.

The concept mostly seems to come from the author thinking "mascot suits are a little creepy" and "wouldn't it be fun to contrast cutesy mascots with brutal violence?" (which is true, it makes for some pretty unique art). There is the suggestion of something deeper, a theme of sincerity and true desire being "masked" in humans by lies and restraint, in the same way the mascot characters are masking grotesque monsters. It's not a fully fleshed out or richly explored theme but it's something beyond the surface level gore and mayhem and you're never stuck picking apart threads in the story that seem to undermine it - it works, is what I'm saying.

The characters, as you'd expect in a story of this length, are quite shallow. They mostly lack arcs or internal conflict or even, really, external conflict. They clash briefly at times with a standard "cynical and pragmatic operator" versus "naive and selfless hero" push and pull, but this inevitably resolves in the latter's favour. None of these points are condemnations as flat characters are generally your lot in a horror story - and our antagonist gets fleshed out and made fuller by the end, which is more than you can typically expect. I do appreciate the author's allowance for heroism in his pretty dark story: I find stories which pile on the misery and abstain from giving the audience catharsis or something to cheer for a bit tedious, and this manga is mostly a series of people struggling to do good things against the odds in a way that means you're never left dreading continuing to read.

I'm impressed with Watanabe's art - it's not unique or groundbreaking and there are some faces or panels that feel off, but for the most part the manga is distinct enough to make its characters pleasant to look at while not pulling attention from the horror of the blood strewn mascots.

Getting the mascots themselves correct is pretty important with something like this and I think the mangaka nailed it: as a fan of mascots myself I really couldn't see any of them not being real, and I especially love this little elephant guy (pictured above).

The pacing of the story is pretty breakneck, which suits me just fine but I imagine can be frustrating for some people. I don't think this concept could really stretch much beyond its length, although Junji Ito's Gyo might prove me wrong, depending on how you feel about how far that story pushes its post apocalyptic absurdism. The conclusion is perfectly satisfying and ties everything up nicely: the mysteries are resolved, you know why everything happened and what happened to whom - I was left perfectly content.

I'd recommend this to anyone who can tolerate bizarre premises. I know a lot of people will, out of hand, dismiss this manga as a gimmick or find its attempts at justifying its world tenuous. I attribute this to a bizarre, cynical internet culture which has taught people to try and pull apart the threads of any story that doesn't cater exactly to their tastes. Ultimately, the conceit of any story is just a vehicle for what its creator wants to do: Watanabe wants to draw scary mascots and slip in a little heroism and brotherly love drama and does so admirably. It's not fair to disregard it just because you think violent mascots are "stupid" - they are stupid, but the manga is fun and that's all that matters really.