Manga Review: Doubt by Yoshiki Tonogai

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Publisher: Yen Press

Release Date: 2013

Volumes: 2 Omnibus/4 Volumes

Spoilers?: No.

Volume 1: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells. RightStuf.

Volume 2: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells. RightStuf.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Rabbit Doubt-a mobile phone game-has taken Japan by storm. In it, players are rabbits who must uncover the wolf in rabbit's clothing before falling prey to its mistrust-sowing wiles...as well as its teeth. When a group of teen players decides to meet offline for fun, the last thing they expect is to lose consciousness and wake up trapped in an abandoned building, mysterious bar codes tattooed on their bodies, and a corpse strung up in front of them. To stay alive and find a way out, they have but one option-to sniff out the lying wolf in their midst. Will these virtual acquaintances be able to pull it together in the real world and figure out what's going on in time to avoid ending up as the wolf's dinner?

Review:

I’ve been curious about this series for a while. I don’t tend to enjoy dark, murder plot lines. But this one caught my interest.

It is psychological. It starts pretty easy, with the group of characters meeting up after chatting online. They seem pretty carefree, an odd group. And then they’re locked in a building, and one of them is already dead.

I liked the set-up—that they’re in an online game about a murderous wolf hiding among the rabbits. I like how it was presented at the beginning, and it worked throughout the story. For some

reason, I wasn’t actually expecting so much death. I won’t spoil who dies or how many, but I was surprised by how bloody and murderous it was.

There wasn’t really enough character development, though. While I liked some of the characters more than others, I didn’t really get attached. So when the deaths started happening, it didn’t feel very intense to me, because I didn’t care enough yet.

I did like the psychological aspect, when all was revealed and we found out who actually did it and how. I did think it worked out, the logic of it, at least mostly. I don’t think that, after everything happened, there could really be a satisfying ending, or a happy one. It felt a little rushed, the way it all wrapped up. But I suppose the way it ended fits. I’m not sure if I like some aspects of it, but it worked…

It was an all right series, and I am intrigued to read the spin-offs.