Massacre Happy End

I'm the type that reads most random manga that's out there, as long as the premise is interesting. Gyakusatsu Happy End has an incredible start that starts nose-diving into one of the worst writing imaginable. Story: 1.5/10 The only thing the story does well is not to let either side hold absolute power and control. It does well on the similarities of Death Note, a cat-and-mouse chase. It has the tension at the start, albeit goofy with the characters that I'll explain later below. Let's start with the biggest issues thus far - how convenient everything falls into place. The story becomes incredibly dumbed down, not the premisethat's actually interesting, but how everything falls into place. Not by you as a reader, but by the story not just giving it all to our characters. A similar, big problem is how they would explain that something "might" exist or some theory, despite there are plenty of reasons why it both sounds stupid and how flawed it'd be, it wouldn't matter, since it'd be exactly what they were looking for. Something else is the story annoyingly adding new characters to an already established plot. While some characters somewhat fit into it, there are definitely others that just appear out of existence to serve the story. The only good thing is that they at least somewhat affect the story, despite them being so plain and obvious that they were inserted haphazardly. There are many plot devices that are just convenient, and you're expected to believe that they just find the answer, or believe an amazing plan because of a crazy idea, but in actuality has so many flaws. The locations are horribly presented since they're added just like the characters. You just don't believe they were planned into the story, but something the author just added. Despite having many large flaws in the characters' plans and the story itself, it does not matter nor cares, because the author doesn't care, or just didn't think through/plan the story enough. What I'm glad over is when the story focuses on our protagonist, because that's when it actually is interesting and coherent. Characters: 3/10 Everyone is crazy in some way. The detective plays the obvious, typical "oh I'm quirky and don't actually follow the law.", the side-kick to the detective that leans more into justice, the yandere that goes crazy and goes for the love interest. Our protagonist is basically Kira and the detective is L. These are the main focus of the story from start to end. Let's start with the positives. The protagonist I liked for his descension into madness from his own issues, it's written entertainingly and doesn't feel too out of place, albeit incredibly edgy. He does somewhat play the smart character well, but the story's focus slowly shifts away from him, and onto the police officers' "investigations". The love interest is similar to that mixed with our protagonist pretty well, a person that wants to protect their loved ones, willing to risk their innocence for it, for what they feel is the right thing. Our protagonist, again, is similar in that vein, but loses himself much more. He sets the theme of a psychological thriller very well and is probably the biggest hook and reason for the manga being decent. Now, to the worst character. One of the antagonists to our protagonist; the "detective", has to be the dumbest character ever written. It was like he's written by an A.I. First off, for a police officer, most things he does, he gets away scot-free, but somehow it's to establish how quirky and potentially insane he is. The problem is how literally nobody else in the police department is capable, and the ones that are capable of solving multiple murders are teenagers and him. Worldbuilding suffers from this since everyone's incapable of doing the right thing. The problem as well is the leaps of logic he does as a detective, he doesn't deduce our protagonist. Of course, he has the God damn, typical "oh, I just have a feeling", and drives that to our skull, making the craziest plans that could've actually been solved a long time ago, or without doing the edgiest, crazy crap. I want to give a quick example, slightly spoiler-ish. The detective almost kills two teenagers to prove a point, and one of them is entirely innocent. He doesn't do it well, mind you. Of course, the plot favors bullshit, and despite doing something insane and "intricate" enough, he just walks away thinking everything would be fine. And of course, most things he gets away with because the police are dumb enough to just let him go, despite in the other police officer's eyes; he is intentionally trying to kill teenagers, make false accusations, waste time to find the actual killer, and more. The fact that he's not fired or actually in jail far earlier in the story is maddening. The detective is a cartoon villain with how who plans dumb ideas and fails, but we're supposed to believe he's quirky and crazy because he has amazing intuition and smarts. The second large problem is how most characters make the dumbest, asinine decisions - and the plot favors it. This I can't go too much into since it'd be too many spoilers, but just think the dumbest decisions you can pick, and it works out because the author didn't have a second thought. The biggest similarity I can come up with; think of Death Note, but written by an Isekai author. Art: 6.5 The art is nice, the focus is on the characters; like facial expressions, body language, and such. Although it makes the background so incredibly plain, just there to serve where they are at most of the time. This is the only reason why the manga does so well. Overall: 3 If you can really, truly turn off your brain, you 'might' enjoy the plot. At the very best, it might be a guilty pleasure, like why I even finished reading it. At worst, it's another interesting, edgy manga ruined by the horrid writing and characters that'll make you physically cringe. If you just read a light novel of it or just the script of the manga, you'd believe this was written by a 13-year-old, thinking they just wrote Death Note 2.

It was a thrill ride, I won't drag on this preface too much and just get to the nitty gritty of the review for those interested in this banger manga. Story: 10 The time travel trope tends to either be done poorly, or be done well, there's usually never any in-between. It was done in an interesting way in this, and definitely done well. It's equatable to how Steins;Gate did it, granted they're two different styles, it was handeled in a way that they're close enough to compare (the way time traveling is handled, not the genres). I can't say it's the most unique, but it's atype of time travel that's not too common, especially with how the MC triggers it (or rather, how he doesn't) All in all, well written story that'll keep the reader wanting to continue till the Happy End. Art: 10 I'm a sucker for this style of art, so this is a bit biased, and there's not much to be said, but this type of art where it has a sense of almost realistic mixed with the anime style, while also having a well shaded "dark" aesthetic, it's great. The character designs were all recognizable, simple, but well done. Overall: 10 Has a great psychological horror feeling, the mystery is very captivating, the brutality is there, but not unrealistic (despite being a very unrealistic situation). Give the manga a shot, if you like bloody time travel stories, you've found a great one. If you're a fan, pray for an anime adaption, because this would be an amazing one.

What if tomorrow never comes, unless you kill someone? Are you fans of Death Note? or are you familiar with the survival manga Signal 100? And Gyakusatsu Happy End is strongly recommended for you! Bring you the writer of unpopular survival manga Signal 100, Gyakusatsu Happy End has a lot of bloody stuff, different from the Signal 100, this series contained more logically killin stuff rather than a graphic gore stuff. Story 7/10 Kusakabe Makoto, a highschooler with his poor life (abandoned mother and living with his not-caring father), only has his little sister lying down in critical condition in hospital. But somehow hope is coming to him, his sister couldbe cured by an operation in weeks. After that miracle happens, Makoto being cursed with his tomorrow never comes, the day will repeat itself unless he kills someone each day. To outcome tomorrow, for reaching his happiness with the cured sister, he try to managed himself by commiting murder day by day. Makoto's plan is also being noticed by police, making it never gonna be easy for him to face tomorrow day. The plots are easy to follow for people that enjoy criminal themes or even casual readers. These simple plot made a lot of good things happen, example with how MC trying to deceiving the police with his murder. It would be a solid 8 if the author doesn't make it so rushed with the ending. Characters 7/10 The first half of the series, we dealt with 3-4 main characters involved. With these certain characters, the writer makes a solid development example with how the MC dealt with his curse turning from 'average highschooler' into a serial killer. Then a supporting, generic childhood neighborhood friend of MC with a potential love interest that notices something happening with the MC and tries to adapt with the situation. Also the police role that represent a smart detective who noticing a unusual mass murder happen in the street and figuring something illogically are behind this case. At the start, I think the writer made a good development with these small bunch of characters. But later on the series, they added 3-4 more characters involved with the story that made me somehow feel the author could even potentially maximize the current character rather than adding some. Those additional ones made the plot of the story more generic for me, I felt those additions were being made to fill some hole from the story or just the author avoiding to do more experimental plot. Art 8/10 The art is good stuff! The author draws the characters with a certain characteristic for each character so the readers manage to recall the characters to each other. The author also got an eye in detail for drawing the expressions and body language in the panel. What I like with the author's drawing style is when they adapt the drawing style with the situation. The author also good dealing with bloody stuffs, the scene of murdering person are drawed so well, not just graphic violent itself. The author managed to make certain scenes so breathtaking even with just the expressions from the character, even better when the author manages to maximize the background, the panel and the character's drawing. But unfortunately, the author doesn't make these breathtaking panels regularly, I think it would make the series more intensing. Enjoyment 7/10 As a reader who enjoys thriller genre also intensing/breathing art, I am enjoying myself while reading the series. It's easy for me to follow the plot, and also to amaze with this kind of good art from every chapter. Even though it felt rushed at the later stages of the series, I still think this series is good for you to enjoy manga like "death note" or similar twisted criminal themes. Also this series is not too long to be read on the weekend.