Kings Game Origin (王様ゲーム 起源) is a horror manga prequel of the cellphone novel Kings Game by Kanazawa Nobuaki. The manga was written by Kanazawa and drawn by J-Ta Yamada (Asatte no Houkou). The 30 issue story began serialization in Japan in 2013.
One day a mysterious note arrives in the remote mountain village of Kazunari. The note says that everyone in the village is now part of the Kings Game. Every child in the village must touch a corpse before the end of the day. No one can quit the game and those who refuse or are unable to complete the challenge will die. Most of the children in the small village participate, with only one refusing and another left out, thinking nothing of it. In the morning the two children who did not complete the challenge are found dead. When the shocked children find a second Kings note they continue keep it a secret from the adults and go about meeting its demands with seriousness fearing its punishment as being real.
In the following morning more villagers are found dead and when the kids wonder what went wrong they discover their participation in the previous Kings Game challenge was incomplete. Convinced of the power and reality of the Kings Game they bring it to the attention of the village adults. This time the note that appears includes everyone. When those that are unable to complete the challenge die exactly as the note detailed the following day the entire village is convinced of the authenticity and threat of the game. Their only choice now is to keep playing, hoping for a solution that will save the village.
Prior to starting this manga I was mildly aware of the original source material which was a successful enough novel to get a live action film treatment. I only knew a little bit of the premise but dove into the manga when it became available on Crunchyroll due to needing more manga and J-Ta Yamada's involvement. The artwork is decent, and somewhat similar to Asatte no Houkou. The detailed visceral deaths of the villagers are the real selling point of this story of savagery.
The plot was easy to understand and the 'reveal' was rather obvious, what was painfully stupid though was the government version of what was causing everything to happen, which was then molded into a more interesting super natural aspect that could have been more powerful. While the actual driver of the Kings Game was rather weak and absurd in comparison to what it could have been, the dissolution of the characters personalities was pretty good. Between the ever present specter of doom, feelings of helplessness and the constant gory obliteration of your closest friends and family, everyone in the village starts to lose their humanity. Some of the characters were more believable than others and in the end the writing was marginal. The best part of the story was the dark and sinister things each round of the Kings Game made the villagers do. Once the round was in place the participants followed a script that has been done time and time again in stories that pit humanity against survival.
In the end it was an OK series, nothing too spectacular but it did have some entertaining moments. The end seemed to be rushed a bit and was ultimately not very climactic. The best parts were once the entire village began to participate in the game. But after a while, as the numbers were severely dwindled it turned into a few personalities using the game as a struggle for control and domination instead of survival. The series is currently available on Crunchyroll with no word on a print edition in the future.
One day a mysterious note arrives in the remote mountain village of Kazunari. The note says that everyone in the village is now part of the Kings Game. Every child in the village must touch a corpse before the end of the day. No one can quit the game and those who refuse or are unable to complete the challenge will die. Most of the children in the small village participate, with only one refusing and another left out, thinking nothing of it. In the morning the two children who did not complete the challenge are found dead. When the shocked children find a second Kings note they continue keep it a secret from the adults and go about meeting its demands with seriousness fearing its punishment as being real.
In the following morning more villagers are found dead and when the kids wonder what went wrong they discover their participation in the previous Kings Game challenge was incomplete. Convinced of the power and reality of the Kings Game they bring it to the attention of the village adults. This time the note that appears includes everyone. When those that are unable to complete the challenge die exactly as the note detailed the following day the entire village is convinced of the authenticity and threat of the game. Their only choice now is to keep playing, hoping for a solution that will save the village.
Prior to starting this manga I was mildly aware of the original source material which was a successful enough novel to get a live action film treatment. I only knew a little bit of the premise but dove into the manga when it became available on Crunchyroll due to needing more manga and J-Ta Yamada's involvement. The artwork is decent, and somewhat similar to Asatte no Houkou. The detailed visceral deaths of the villagers are the real selling point of this story of savagery.
The plot was easy to understand and the 'reveal' was rather obvious, what was painfully stupid though was the government version of what was causing everything to happen, which was then molded into a more interesting super natural aspect that could have been more powerful. While the actual driver of the Kings Game was rather weak and absurd in comparison to what it could have been, the dissolution of the characters personalities was pretty good. Between the ever present specter of doom, feelings of helplessness and the constant gory obliteration of your closest friends and family, everyone in the village starts to lose their humanity. Some of the characters were more believable than others and in the end the writing was marginal. The best part of the story was the dark and sinister things each round of the Kings Game made the villagers do. Once the round was in place the participants followed a script that has been done time and time again in stories that pit humanity against survival.
In the end it was an OK series, nothing too spectacular but it did have some entertaining moments. The end seemed to be rushed a bit and was ultimately not very climactic. The best parts were once the entire village began to participate in the game. But after a while, as the numbers were severely dwindled it turned into a few personalities using the game as a struggle for control and domination instead of survival. The series is currently available on Crunchyroll with no word on a print edition in the future.
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