Dead Tube - Reviews

Dead Tube
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thor123's avatar
Feb 24, 2016

Review made after reading chapter 14 - unsure if I'll ever pick this up again.

Story

Simply put, Dead Tube is a manga series about people who film things, put the videos on Youtube DeadTube, and compete to see who gets the most views. And our hopeless main character, who is a high school student but also an expert cameraman, gets roped into participating. And through his eyes and camera, we get to see the utterly depraved shit people in this story will do to get more views.

The manga rides on some ideas that better series did far before this one: the idea that only non-staged sex and violence can truly entertain the masses, as seen in Battle Royale, for example. Or the idea of playing games, where the losers amass huge debts and suffer severe punishments, like in Liar Game. Or the yandere chick dragging off a normal guy to go do weird shit, like in Future Diary or Peephole. Or the hentai-cliché of the closet-pervert (a woman who wants to be raped??). Paired with the mix of extreme violence, gore and sexual content (boobs, sex, peeing, showering and rape) that every attention-begging series seems to have, Dead Tube doesn't really bring anything fresh to make it worth reading. If you want to see people get killed in different, interesting ways, go check out Akumetsu instead, if you want gore, check out series like Berserk , and if you want sexual content... just check the tag, the entries with the worst score will probably have the most sex.

Especially tiresome is the weak execution, with barely any build-up of suspense: you'll get a situation, and in the next chapter they'll suddenly go "BANG! rape and killing! problem solved! Neeeext!" There's also a number of plotholes (why didn't cameraboy get the explanation about DT any earlier? why doesn't anyone wear a mask while being filmed in the process of killing or raping someone?) that got on my nerves. 

I have to admit that there lies some potential for social commentary in this story though. The ideas of "how far will people go for attention" or "how far could entertainment go" (as seen in Battle Royale too)  could be used for this kind of thing, but so far the ideas have only been touched on an extremely superficial level, and I'm not expecting this series to give us any more than that.

Characters

Simply put, every character in this series is a pervert in one way or another. From the crazy yandere chick, the useless camera-man MC, to all the sex-crazed side characters. They're all the worst kinds of people, and sadly most (not to say all) of them remain one-note, forgettable dolls. The only character that is slightly interesting is the MC, and even then I can't say I care much about him. 

Art

To end on a positive note: the artwork is very good. It mostly looks quite clean, and there are some gorey panels that looked really great. 

Overall

For me, this manga can only be summed up as a complete disappointment. It's a cringe-inducing edgefest with a flimsy plot and paperthin characters. If you think anything that has gore, violence, sex and rape is good, then this might be for you. If not, go look for something else, no need to waste your time on this. It might have some popcorn-value for those who can stomach all the shit in it, but most people will probably just see it as a piece of trash.

3.5/10 story
8/10 art
2/10 characters
3.3/10 overall
bolokun's avatar
Jul 21, 2021

The best manga ever. Not only is it the most crazy thing ever, it's full of gore and even has an interesting story with some twists. I love it how casually they have shown some suicides. 

10/10 story
10/10 art
5/10 characters
10/10 overall
kirinon96's avatar
Nov 5, 2021

there is not enough content warnings in the world for this nor are there enough stars either

10/10 story
9/10 art
10/10 characters
9.7/10 overall
SenseiMedo's avatar
Jul 12, 2022

This is a top-tier masterpiece, it's a page-turner where you won't get enough of it. Don't listen to the bad reviews they are just controversial bullshit that is triggered by anything nudity and physiological-related content. 

Story: Is one hell of a unique mindset as of the latest chapter, you can never guess what is coming next. Overall the plot of having something like youtube is for gore, murder, any crime you know it to make money concept is amazing. Yes at times there's content that is fucked up but that is what sets it apart it's not set to please it's set to break every convention out there. 

Art: Just plain gorgeous, full of detail and amazing scenes. 

Characters: Everyone is developed well and everything has a reason and an explanation. 

Overall: Give it a go, you won't regret it, just make sure you are alone when reading and make sure that the door is locked. 

The only reason it's not 10/10 is because of enjoyment wise there are some arcs that can get a bit boring or daunting aside from that overall list is a 9.5/10. 

10/10 story
9/10 art
10/10 characters
9.5/10 overall
Agoodname123's avatar
Feb 8, 2021

Ngl i just found it really intresting. It wasn't utter trash and it wasn't amazing either, it was sort of in the middle. Read it if you like gore and high stakes games tho.

7/10 story
9/10 art
7/10 characters
7.5/10 overall