I try to read everything with as little priming as possible which I think benefited me here. If someone had told me its a horror manga about spooky evil mascots Id probably not have bothered but I am glad I did. In typical Japanese horror style most of the horror is pretty material and has all the subtlety of a stubbed toe: its people getting ripped apart eaten exploded etc. To be blunt its not scary. Not to me anyway. I do enjoy horror and I enjoy gore but I dont really find them scary and I cant imagine people finding this scary. Which is not an indictment as like I said I still enjoyed it. 220https://puu.sh/HMHO5/c7ac4fefc6.png The concept mostly seems to come from the author thinking mascot suits are a little creepy and wouldnt it be fun to contrast cutesy mascots with brutal violence? which is true it makes for some pretty unique art. There is the suggestion of something deeper a theme of sincerity and true desire being masked in humans by lies and restraint in the same way the mascot characters are masking grotesque monsters. Its not a fully fleshed out or richly explored theme but its something beyond the surface level gore and mayhem and youre never stuck picking apart threads in the story that seem to undermine it it works is what Im saying. The characters as youd expect in a story of this length are quite shallow. They mostly lack arcs or internal conflict or even really external conflict. They clash briefly at times with a standard cynical and pragmatic operator versus naive and selfless hero push and pull but this inevitably resolves in the latters favour. None of these points are condemnations as flat characters are generally your lot in a horror story and our antagonist gets fleshed out and made fuller by the end which is more than you can typically expect. I do appreciate the authors allowance for heroism in his pretty dark story: I find stories which pile on the misery and abstain from giving the audience catharsis or something to cheer for a bit tedious and this manga is mostly a series of people struggling to do good things against the odds in a way that means youre never left dreading continuing to read. Im impressed with Watanabes art its not unique or groundbreaking and there are some faces or panels that feel off but for the most part the manga is distinct enough to make its characters pleasant to look at while not pulling attention from the horror of the blood strewn mascots. 220https://puu.sh/HMHLL/d99b7f272c.png Getting the mascots themselves correct is pretty important with something like this and I think the mangaka nailed it: as a fan of mascots myself I really couldnt see any of them not being real and I especially love this little elephant guy pictured above. The pacing of the story is pretty breakneck which suits me just fine but I imagine can be frustrating for some people. I dont think this concept could really stretch much beyond its length although Junji Itos Gyo might prove me wrong depending on how you feel about how far that story pushes its post apocalyptic absurdism. The conclusion is perfectly satisfying and ties everything up nicely: the mysteries are resolved you know why everything happened and what happened to whom I was left perfectly content. Id recommend this to anyone who can tolerate bizarre premises. I know a lot of people will out of hand dismiss this manga as a gimmick or find its attempts at justifying its world tenuous. I attribute this to a bizarre cynical internet culture which has taught people to try and pull apart the threads of any story that doesnt cater exactly to their tastes. Ultimately the conceit of any story is just a vehicle for what its creator wants to do: Watanabe wants to draw scary mascots and slip in a little heroism and brotherly love drama and does so admirably. Its not fair to disregard it just because you think violent mascots are stupid they are stupid but the manga is fun and thats all that matters really. 220https://puu.sh/HMHMq/e17dfc4b42.png