Violence has been with humanity longer than beer. It’s shaped our history, our lives, and our entertainment. Violence serves no real purpose, as it’s just mindless cruelty that weakens us humans and drives us apart. Yet, so many tales, poems, books, movies, TV shows, anime, and manga focus on violence. Why? Why do so many people enjoy the depictions and portrayals of violence? Well, the answer to that is, it’s just so much fun to watch!

*** Deathco is written and illustrated by Atsushi Kaneko. A mangaka who isn’t particularly a fan of anime or manga, but wants to use the format of a manga to tell you a story that can only be told in this format. While his other works such as SOIL and Wet Moon are more thematic and focus more on how people perceive the world around them, Deathco is a story that is mostly as straightforward and blunt as a steel pipe to the head.

In the world of Deathco, there is a mysterious guild of assassins that is simply named ‘The Guild’. The Guild is made up of both highly trained killers, and your average person trying to make ends meet. They dress up in costumes, put on masks, put on face paint, call themselves ‘Reapers’, and rush out to kill their target which is known as a ‘head’. We see glimpses of various people within The Guild, and see what motivates them. Some do it for the money to support themselves or loved ones, some do it for glory, and some do it simply because they just love the act of killing.

*** Our titular character, Deathco is a young girl who hates everything, lies about everything, and is incapable of doing anything except killing other people. Deathco is a member of this guild, where she excels at the act of killing, using both shoddily made traps and weapons, and with her own agile movements. As a protagonist, she’s empty and lacks any type of depth or character. The only emotions she experiences in the story are anger, hostility, euphoria, and an odd amount of self-pity. *** What Deathco as both a manga and character excel as it is violence. It’s fun to watch a bunch of dorks dressed in Halloween costumes get gunned down by organized criminals, who spend the entire time laughing at the idiots wielding scythes and hatchets. It’s fun to witness the sheer absurdity of Deathco’s tools of murder, and her general hooligan attitude to it all. This isn’t violence and gore to seem “mature” or “complex”. This manga is just pure, gruesome fun. *** The artwork to Deathco is what makes it all work completely. The “western” comic book art style helps elevate every slash, every cut, and every dismemberment to look so ugly, yet so smooth and stylish. Couple that with how each character in this manga has a unique look, both facial and costume wise, and you've got something that easily sets itself apart visually. *** While Deathco is our main character, the story will cut between the various other Reapers, primarily Deathco’s caretakers; Madame M, the Queen of Reapers; and her personal getaway driver, Li. Madame M has eaten herself into severe obesity, and Li is a masochist who absolutely despises Deathco. There’s no wholesome nuclear family dynamic here. Madame M supplies Deathco with her tools of trade, while Li has to rescue Deathco after she completes her mission. The only thing Madame M seeks in Deathco is the shallowness of her soul, and her skills as a Reaper.

Deathco as a character, has no real motivation, aspirations, or actual goals outside of just killing other highly trained murderers. She is nothing more than an attack dog looking for a quick rush of euphoria before losing it and going after the next target sent her way.

*** Every line of dialogue that comes out of Deathco’s mouth is a lie, but the one thing she does honestly love is killing. Many of the Reapers in the story like to pretty up their reasons for being killers. Either for money in order to survive in the world, a desire to hone ones own skill, or kill out of some twisted vision of justice, but those are all just excuses. The only reason you would become a Reaper, dressing up in a tacky, Halloween costume, is because you want to murder someone. Sadly for the reapers, a grand majority of them end up dying before they can truly realize what they want out of life. And what do people want in life? We all live hoping to find the answer to that before we expire from this world, but since few can truly find that answer, we just live hoping to have some fun and get some quick thrills.

Deathco isn’t a long read. It provides its cheap and quick thrills for you, but with the writing, characters, and artwork, you’ve got something that really stands out far and beyond most other manga.