Rule: Shoumetsu Kyoushitsu is a death game manga by Tomomui Usuihttps://anilist.co/staff/130231/TomomiUsui. The original novel its based off of is by 104https://anilist.co/staff/167067/104. As this is a death game manga it is rife with gore and while there isnt any outright nudity there is a whole bunch of needless and sometimes gross fanservice shots. So theres your content warning. Oh yeah and since this is a death game it kind of revolves around bullying as well. ACTUALLY YOU KNOW WHAT FUCK IT JUST OUTRIGHT GENERAL SPOILER WARNING IF YOU CARE BECAUSE IM PROBABLY GOING TO GO INTO DETAIL ABOUT A BUNCH OF STUFF 440https://i.ur.com/5WtwBPp.png Cell Phones = Evil I truly wonder how many death games would just immediately be broken if the teacher or some adult just decided to take all of these damned kids cell phones away. NO YOU CANT DO THAT I NEED TO HAVE THAT TO KNOW WHAT RULE I CANT BREAK OR I MIGHT GET AN AXE TO THE FACE 440https://i.ur.com/RGl52kQ.png Ugh. Every single time I find a death game that isnt completely reliant on the students having a horrified look as they check their goddamned phones is a fucking blessing. But I should note that while I dont intend on spoiling it this particular death game gets a plus from me for having an actual culprit. Thats where were at now. The antagonist isnt some weird computer virus or literal ghost? GOOD. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. Anyways as usual the manga starts out with our male death game protagonist that has absolutely zero unique traits or personality. Also as usual hes a new student joining his class. 440https://i.ur.com/1rSPzyO.png Also theres a weird girl who the entire class is ignoring for some reason because if they break the rule and interact with her something terrible will happen to them. 440https://i.ur.com/ONQej0h.png ...Wait wasnt there ANOTHER series with this premise? I could have sworn... you know what never mind. It doesnt matter. It probably sucks anyways. Point is our good guy death game MC is too good of a person to leave it alone and starts going around and asking about it. Which deeply unnerves death game MCs friend who wants him to just shut the fuck up about it because hes stirring up trouble. 440https://i.ur.com/Fny8fJT.png But then the next day the class teacher actively starts trying to get the weird ignored girl to actually respond while taking attendance but instead she just leaves the classroom. And then everybody gets a text telling them to ignore the teacher so he decides to just go and try and get ignored girl to come back to the classroom and whoops there he goes right off the roof 440https://i.ur.com/V15bnat.png Wait how is this even a game? Even though the manga is literally titled Rule theres really no rules. What I mean by that is theres really no rhyme or reason to when a rule gets sent out. Like I just dont get what the fuck the culprit was going for exactly. Theres even like an aha we caught you so now youre obliged to spill out your plan moment at the end I still just dont get what the fuck they were going for. And honestly feel like its pointless to even try and decipher it. Then theres this fucking random blond delinquent student whose purpose in this entire manga is basically fucking nebulous. What the fuck is his purpose? Hes basically just a fucking sociopath who wants to hurt people. And then like he just starts fighting the masked person whos been going around killing people because the delinquent would really like to see how killing a person feels like... 440https://i.ur.com/6nmWLIm.png What? How did we get here? Im honestly grateful whenever a death game just drops the pretense and just descends into a whirlwind of violence and gore but I was just kind of at a loss for words. Early in the manga main death game MC and his friend go snooping around in weird girls old home and then the delinquent just shows up randomly and fucking cracks death game MCs head in with a painting 440https://i.ur.com/QOCU2hS.png and stabs the friend with a shard of shattered glass and just as death game MCs about to give it back to him by smacking him with a chair the stupid friend jumps in front of him no you idiot what about the rule of just letting this sociopath just do whatever he wants 440https://i.ur.com/0TdU70K.png Even though theres a plot reason justifying this its just so stupid. YOU JUST GOT STABBED WITH A SHARD OF GLASS BY THIS GUY. On top of his parents being part of a zaibatsu now this delinquent has this rule and the combination of both of these things just allow him to do whatever the fuck he wants with absolutely no consequences. His very first appearance in the manga involves him blinding a guys eye with his fingers because why not. And the friends repeatedly just going LOOK AT THIS GUY. LOOK AT HOW PSYCHOTIC AND VIOLENT HE IS. SURELY HES THE ONE BEHIND THE RULES 440https://i.ur.com/27ItM1I.png ...Yeah okay. Whenever theres a mystery in something and theres like a very clear answer that just keeps getting pushed on the audience that usually always ends up being the right answer. Especially when its getting shoved down your throat. Come on. Weird Girl 2 440https://i.ur.com/AkIULHK.png Okay so theres another weird girl who like has tarot cards and shes oddly friendly and seductive towards death game MC but hes too good of a guy so he keeps shutting down her advances because he just met her that day. But then she keeps showing up for some reason and then just straight up axes two classmates who broke a rule by speaking at the wake of their friend in the face. So the readers just like okay well what the fuck is her deal in all this then? But dont worry The mangas got you covered Flashback time 440https://i.ur.com/jg8ull7.png So she and her parents were on a trip right? She decided to take a nap in the car as they went and then when she woke up for some reason they were driving in the woods. And then she went to take a look at her dad and oh my god is that a man wearing a severed face 440https://i.ur.com/DqWgFtk.png ...This is actually unironically probably my favorite part of the manga but theres just... so many things wrong with this. Never at any point is it shown how the masked man... like was he acting like he was hurt on the road to get her parents to stop and then he murdered them? They were driving. Like okay her just waking up and seeing this guy wearing a face is a good horror moment but an explanation would be nice. Like how did she sleep through her parents getting brutally murdered right next to her? And like weird girl 2 is literally pissing herself and hes like wiping her thigh down... its actually genuinely fucking creepy and gross. 440https://i.ur.com/7XNuimT.png But the question is was it meant to be? Or was it meant to be horrible death game fan service as always? Either way fuck off because we later learn the identity of the masked man and Holy fucking shit. Of all the death games Ive read I think only the cannibal onehttps://anilist.co/manga/101223/TomoguiKyoushitsu/ has had a moment that made me retch this hard. ...Actually somehow I totally seemed to have missed the detail where the rag hes wiping her down with is the same one he was using to wipe off his knife so its still got her parents blood on it... 440https://i.ur.com/nF9pAft.png Holy SHIT. Conclusion Its... its pretty bad. But iunno maybe its just the sustained damage Ive taken from all the other death games Ive read but it wasnt that bad. 500https://i.ur.com/InxKNoP.png The actual plot of the death game didnt cause me fucking major headaches as it was pretty straightforward for the most part. And I just cannot stress how much I value that there was an actual solid tangible entity behind the death game. Its just that their motives were kind of completely fucked and threw a whole bunch of things that happened into question. Plus there was just a whole bunch of violence which is appreciated. Hell thats the whole reason I read these goddamned things. But then it just turns out to be a whole bunch of bullying shit and unfortunate sexual content and yeah there was fan service in this but there was also no full on rape. Just that one really creepy moment which if not also a fan service shot would have been great because it was genuinely really FUCKING CREEPY. ...This is... a... decent... trashy death game? I give it a 3 out of 10. 440https://i.ur.com/wfqjMgs.png