When the among us manga was announced, I was a little skeptical. If you weren't aware, I was a massive fan of the vidya this one-shot was based on and I wasn't sure if they'd be able to do it justice within a single one-shot. However, it appears I've under-estimated it as this is the best piece of media I've witnessed since peaking with you(tenko no ko) and goating of words(kotonoha no niwa.)

In an unexpected but welcome turn of events, this is not a murder mystery like we all expected but a character study of the POV character who happens to be the imposter. I've always wanted a take on death note that's actually competently made and this sure delivers. Unfortunately, due to this, it's hard to talk about the story as it's more of an analysis of the characters that continue to play mind games with each other with very little twists and story development. This isn't a criticism at all, however, it's obviously intentional so the actual story beats hit hard.

Spoiler, click to view

For example, Yankee's suicide was absolutely heartbreaking as well as shocking. The fact that they managed to attach me to his character enough to hate Tamago in a single one-shot says so much about how well done the conflict was.

Speaking of characters, let's talk about them as they're what makes this manga stand out as the masterpiece that it is. Tamago is such a fascinating protagonist + villain. He genuinely pissed me off in various moments, but in a good way. No, a great way! The fact that he actively gives the crewmates chances for the sake of a challenge in order to make his game entertaining is what makes him such a fascinating villain. His motives for killing people stemming from his self-destructive nature born from self-loathing only being heavily implied in the text as opposed to actually stated does a great job at being deep whilst also not talking down to the audience either. I also love his personality flip-flopping between his fake, innocent and optimistic side to his sadistic yet spiteful side which helps make him enjoyable on top of his layered characterization.

As for the other characters worth mentioning, King is quite the likeable deuteragonist. Whilst his blind loyalty to Tamago may be annoying to some, I find it interesting due to the manga's obvious critique on white knight syndrome and how it could lead to one's downfall. I also loved how it ties into the manga's ending.

Spoiler, click to view

As after King's loss, it's undecided what Tamago really did with him so it's possible to interpret that rather than taking his life, Tamago may have raised King into being just like him which would be an interesting direction to take the possibility of a sequel as Tamago is an alien creature while King is merely a mortal god. I honestly wouldn't mind a sequel.

Another character that earned himself a shoutout was Megane, a very interesting antagonist that rivals the likes of Tetta Kisaki in terms of well written characters. He's the only member of the crewmates with intellect potentially comparable to Tamago and it genuinely made me unsure of whether Tamago would get away with it or not as the mind game is mostly between the two of them. However, I'd rather not go fully in depth with that as it leads for spoiler reasons, just know that Megane was also an extremely entertaining character.

Unfortunately though, if I had to name one flaw with this manga, it's that there is an unfortunate lack of references to the Nostalgia Critic in it which I would usually excuse as it's an issue most media fall into, masterpieces included, but they had to go an extra step further by including a Danganronpa reference instead and I just can't support that decision.

Spoiler, click to view