Rule: Shoumetsu Kyoushitsu is a death game manga by Tomomui Usui. The original novel it's based off of is by -104-.
As this is a death game manga, it is rife with gore and while there isn't any outright nudity, there is a whole bunch of needless and sometimes gross fanservice shots.
So there's your content warning. Oh yeah and since this is a death game, it kind of revolves around bullying as well.
#ACTUALLY YOU KNOW WHAT FUCK IT, JUST OUTRIGHT GENERAL SPOILER WARNING IF YOU CARE BECAUSE I'M PROBABLY GOING TO GO INTO DETAIL ABOUT A BUNCH OF STUFF#
#Cell Phones = Evil#
I truly wonder how many death games would just immediately be broken if the teacher or some adult just decided to take all of these damned kids' cell phones away.
"NO! YOU CAN'T DO THAT! I NEED TO HAVE THAT TO KNOW WHAT RULE I CAN'T BREAK OR I MIGHT GET AN AXE TO THE FACE!"
Ugh. Every single time I find a death game that isn't completely reliant on the students having a horrified look as they check their goddamned phones is a fucking blessing. But I should note that while I don't intend on spoiling it, this particular death game gets a plus from me for having an actual culprit.
That's where we're at now. The antagonist isn't some weird computer virus or literal ghost? GOOD. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
Anyways, as usual, the manga starts out with our male death game protagonist that has absolutely zero unique traits or personality. Also as usual, he's a new student joining his class.
Also there's a weird girl who the entire class is ignoring for some reason because if they break the rule and interact with her, something terrible will happen to them.
...Wait, wasn't there ANOTHER series with this premise? I could have sworn... you know what, never mind. It doesn't matter. ~~It probably sucks anyways.~~
Point is, our good guy death game MC is too good of a person to leave it alone and starts going around and asking about it. Which deeply unnerves death game MC's friend who wants him to just shut the fuck up about it because he's stirring up trouble.
But then the next day the class teacher actively starts trying to get the weird ignored girl to actually respond while taking attendance but instead she just leaves the classroom. And then everybody gets a text telling them to ignore the teacher so he decides to just go and try and get ignored girl to come back to the classroom and whoops there he goes right off the roof
#Wait, how is this even a game?#
Even though the manga is literally titled "Rule" there's really no rules. What I mean by that is there's really no rhyme or reason to when a rule gets sent out. Like I just don't get what the fuck the culprit was going for, exactly. There's even like an "aha, we caught you so now you're obliged to spill out your plan!" moment at the end I still just don't get what the fuck they were going for.
And honestly feel like it's pointless to even try and decipher it.
Spoiler, click to view
Well, I sent out the original rule to get the class to ignore our friend from the orphanage after we killed her adoptive parents to torment her so Misora who is completely just batshit insane would stop killing people. But then you, the death game MC showed up and fucked things up, so Misora started killing people again so I started sending more rules to ignore more people but then I also just started helping her kill people?
What the fuck side was I even on? What? Why am I even helping her? She also killed MY adoptive parents. Why was I wearing the faces of the people we killed? There was probably an easier and less disgusting way to hide my identity. Oh, I guess maybe I'm insane too? Is that it? DEATH GAME MC PLEASE HELP I DON'T KNOW WHY WE DID ALL THIS OTHER THAN THE FACT MISORA IS INSANE AND I'M ENABLING HER!
Then there's this fucking random blond delinquent student whose purpose in this entire manga is basically fucking nebulous. What the fuck is his purpose? He's basically just a fucking sociopath who wants to hurt people. And then like he just starts fighting the masked person who's been going around killing people because the delinquent would really like to see how killing a person feels like...
What? How did we get here? I'm honestly grateful whenever a death game just drops the pretense and just descends into a whirlwind of violence and gore but I was just kind of at a loss for words. Early in the manga, main death game MC and his friend go snooping around in weird girl's old home and then the delinquent just shows up randomly and fucking cracks death game MC's head in with a painting
and stabs the friend with a shard of shattered glass and just as death game MC's about to give it back to him by smacking him with a chair, the stupid friend jumps in front of him
"no you idiot, what about the rule of just letting this sociopath just do whatever he wants!"
Even though there's a plot reason justifying this, it's just so stupid. YOU JUST GOT STABBED WITH A SHARD OF GLASS BY THIS GUY. On top of his parents being part of a zaibatsu, now this delinquent has this rule and the combination of both of these things just allow him to do whatever the fuck he wants with absolutely no consequences. His very first appearance in the manga involves him blinding a guy's eye with his fingers because why not.
And the friend's repeatedly just going
"LOOK AT THIS GUY. LOOK AT HOW PSYCHOTIC AND VIOLENT HE IS. SURELY HE'S THE ONE BEHIND THE RULES!"
...Yeah okay. Whenever there's a mystery in something and there's like a very clear answer that just keeps getting pushed on the audience that usually always ends up being the right answer. Especially when it's getting shoved down your throat. Come on.
#Weird Girl 2#
Okay so there's another weird girl who like has tarot cards and she's oddly friendly and seductive towards death game MC but he's too good of a guy so he keeps shutting down her advances because he just met her that day. But then she keeps showing up for some reason and then just straight up axes two classmates who broke a rule by speaking at the wake of their friend in the face.
So the reader's just like okay well what the fuck is her deal in all this then? But don't worry! The manga's got you covered! Flashback time!
So she and her parents were on a trip right? She decided to take a nap in the car as they went and then when she woke up for some reason they were driving in the woods. And then she went to take a look at her dad and oh my god is that a man wearing a severed face
...This is actually unironically probably my favorite part of the manga but there's just... so many things wrong with this. Never at any point is it shown how the masked man... like was he acting like he was hurt on the road to get her parents to stop and then he murdered them? They were driving. Like okay her just waking up and seeing this guy wearing a face is a good horror moment but an explanation would be nice.
Like how did she sleep through her parents getting brutally murdered right next to her? And like weird girl 2 is literally pissing herself and he's like wiping her thigh down... it's actually genuinely fucking creepy and gross.
But the question is was it meant to be? Or was it meant to be horrible death game fan service as always? Either way, fuck off, because we later learn the identity of the masked man and
Spoiler, click to view
"I JUST WANTED MISORA TO NOT KILL PEOPLE. THAT'S WHY I KILLED WEIRD GIRL'S PARENTS AND WHY I WAS BEING SUPER FUCKING CREEPY TOWARDS HER AFTER THE FACT AND CALLING MYSELF HER DAD. IT WAS ALL MISORA, SHE'S THE CRAZY ONE. NOT ME I WAS JUST GOING ALONG WITH IT HAHAHA!"
Holy fucking shit. Of all the death games I've read, I think only the cannibal one has had a moment that made me retch this hard.
...Actually, somehow I totally seemed to have missed the detail where the rag he's wiping her down with is the same one he was using to wipe off his knife so it's still got her parents' blood on it...
Holy SHIT.
#Conclusion#
It's... it's pretty bad. But iunno, maybe it's just the sustained damage I've taken from all the other death games I've read, but it wasn't that bad.
The actual plot of the death game didn't cause me fucking major headaches as it was pretty straightforward for the most part. And I just cannot stress how much I value that there was an actual solid tangible entity behind the death game. ~~It's just that their motives were kind of completely fucked and threw a whole bunch of things that happened into question.~~
Plus there was just a whole bunch of violence which is appreciated. Hell, that's the whole reason I read these goddamned things. But then it just turns out to be a whole bunch of bullying shit and unfortunate sexual content and yeah there was fan service in this but there was also no full on rape. ~~Just that one really creepy moment which if not also a fan service shot would have been great because it was genuinely really FUCKING CREEPY.~~
...This is... a... decent... trashy death game? I give it a 3 out of 10.
