This review will contain minor spoilers and a character analysis of the main characters.
In Death Game Manga no Kuromaku Satsujinki no Imouto ni Tensei shite Shippai shita or in English I Reincarnated as the Little Sister of a Death Game Manga's Murder Mastermind and Failed our protagonist Mai realizes that she has been reincarnated as the antagonistic side character in a death game manga. Her step-brother Makoto will kill his classmates and then himself in his first year of high school, after years of disconnect from his peers and having realised he can only feel real emotions by watching something or someone die.
Makoto is this deeply tragic character who knew that he was different and "wrong" all along. He sabotages his familiar relationships so that no one can find out what he's really like and has built up this facade of a good child, even around the people who should comfort and guide him. When even his own mother and grandfather is weary of him, how is supposed to feel?
"For [that girl and other's like her] you must seem like salvation" -Makoto
I genuinely felt moved by this manga's problematic material. Be it the pseudo-incest or the serial killer subplot, it all tied back to the main message about finding acceptance and comfort in a person when you feel like you are undeserving of any affection. Makoto is genuinely disgusted by his own thoughts, and in a conversation with Mai, he proclaims that anyone who harbors murderous fantasies is just pure trash and would be better off dead. Through its abstract art with graphic imagery diving into a person's headspace, this manga provides the explanatory depths as to how and why someone would entertain murderous thoughts.
You can't tear your eyes away from the moving but also anxiety-inducing romance. Even if it wasn't their intention, their lives slowly begin to revolve around each other. While Makoto starts off as seeing Mai as at least a nuisance and at most a possible future victim, he slowly realizes that he prefers her alive rather than dead. Feeling concerned for someone's safety, jealous when she gives anyone else attention, starting to worry about her "finding out about his real twisted self". Those are all things he has never experienced before, and he has no idea how to process these emotions. I don't think anyone could even fathom the weight being lifted off his shoulders when he realizes that Mai has understood him all along. In his eyes, she has become the only one who could ever possibly feel anything more than just disgust and fear for him. I can't help but feel like someone finding this level of companionship after a lifetime of alienation is extremely moving. In my eyes, it's not a thrilling but instead an uplifting story.
" Mai, I truly believe that not rejecting me back then was undoubtedly a failure on your part. "
The story ending with both of them having grown into proper adults was so fitting. People aren't fully irredemable and a lost cause for bad thoughts they've harbored in their formative years. Their actions and final choices define them as a person, and Makoto has clearly chosen to be strong and lead a life dedicated to making Mai happy. He wants to stay at her side and has completely overcome his suffocating desires that lead him to commit suicide in the original story. If that is not the most touching ending for a psychological romance, then what is?
``
7.5 out of 8 users liked this review
