High-Rise Invasion

I'm gonna be honest and not do a summery. This manga, while not a terrible experience, is a general waste of time. The story is unfinished, the overall concept is not polished, and the characters range from pretty good to underdeveloped. Some authors need to realize that not everyone can be the next Oda or SUI, and that this kind of long term development requires actually planning ahead and not throwing shit on the wall every week trying to make constant cool twists and turns. And its a shame because to about the halfway mark, I was feeling like this manga was pretty good,and the author had enough time to wrap everything up and give a satisfying conclusion, but the story bites off more than it could chew just to lengthen it and takes the prime villain and conflict the story has been building up for dozens of chapters and makes it all null. Such a waste, and now all I feel is unsatisfied.

TLDR: Although it has an interesting concept and a strong start, the plot starts slipping around the middle point and ends in an unsatisfying manner. The first 80 chapters are probably as good as the manga gets. With the world slowly unravelling itself, new characters are being introduced while still struggling to survive. It felt it could've been a very special manga within the survival game genre. You are filled with questions and excitement towards the future of the series. Unfortunately, you will soon realize all the characters are one-dimensional and severely lacking in character development. None of them will grow in any substantial ways inthe next 100 to 150 chapters. Characters only make up half of a story, so let's look at the main plot: it's not that much better. I won't go into any spoilers but know the main conflict isn't all that bad until the last 1/3. The dramas are fairly interesting and there are some good dialogues. But the plot took a nosedive after the death of the boss. The main villain reveals himself and he isn't even a character. There was no build-up, no foreshadowing, and his existence makes barely any sense. Speaking of which, let's talk about setting. Remember how you had all those questions about the world, well you do get some answers, but they are so conflicted and meaningless that it will only leave you scratching your head more. All good survival game series have one thing in common: high stakes. Because in order to make the readers care, you have to give them a reason to. That's why the characters are often in a disadvantaged position with a high penalty for losing, ie dying. However, when characters can one-shot any enemies they encounter, there is no more tension. One of the ways to solve this problem is to introduce more powerful enemies, which is what the series did. Yet the power-scaling racked up so fast that the writers themselves couldn't control it and quickly spiralled out of control. A short-term manga requires talent, but a long-term manga requires commitment and planning. To me, this manga lacked in the planning aspect. With plenty of unfulfilled potentials. If you want something similar to this, Btoom or battle royale are all better than this.

To be honest, I only read this because I thought Sniper Mask was attractive (and he is LOL the manga does not disappoint on that). I have mixed feelings about this manga. It's very gory and violent from the very first chapter, with people committing suicide by jumping off high-rises and exploding on impact. However, the shock factor gets old after the 10th person dies in the very exact way by like chapter 7. However, the chapters are short and easy to read, so I kept reading. I think the story is actually interesting from chapters 1 to 150. The world-building is cool, the characters areinteresting, and the concept of masked people programmed to kill people by making them commit suicide is novel. The main character Yuri and her best friend Nise have a really natural and well-developed relationship, and it's cool to see two strong female leads. Best of all, Sniper Mask has some really cool scenes (<3). When I read manga, I seem to be possessed by some kind of speed-reading manga ghost and I obsessively read until I finish the manga (which ranges from a few hours to a few days). Although I kept up the same pace I do with most mangas, by chapter 150, I felt this urge to drop it. It wasn't really fun to read anymore. Once they defeat the Big Bad, there's still about 70 chapters to go making me wonder how the mangaka was going to conclude it well. He doesn't. The previously set rules of the world just go out the window, and it feels like the mangaka was just adding random stuff whenever he liked. The main character suddenly becomes super OP and fights "God," people start developing random powers, and the concept of the masks just doesn't make sense anymore. There were so many moments where I had to stop reading and say "There is no way this is really happening right now..." I dropped it for about two weeks but came back because I felt the strong urge to find out what happened, and honestly I wish I just stopped reading around chapter 150. They end up defeating the Bigger Bad with their new random OP powers and nothing gets resolved. No overarching questions end up getting answered, they willingly decide to in the same world they were trying to escape from for the past 230 chapters, and that's it. That's how it ends. It's unsatisfying and really disappointing to read, but I don't want to rate it any lower because it really is fun and interesting and thrilling to read for a large portion of the manga. It's just the rushed conclusion that ruins the whole manga. I don't think that I'd recommend it to any of my friends, but maybe I'd tell them to stop once they defeat Big Bad and not continue onwards for their sanity.