Well, that was a wild ride...
At first it basically seemed like "The Hunger Games", kinda a copy. There were differences, of course, but I wasn't sure what to make of it. And because there were so many characters introduced all at once (21), it got pretty confusing as to who is who. Sometimes the author wrote the name under a character though, if that character hasn't been on-screen for a while, so that helped a lot, lol.
It's basically a psychological story, similar to the Hunger Games, but unlike THG, it's not because they are fighting for their district. The outside world doesn't know this game is going on, except for a few rich spectators, who watch it for gambles. It gets pretty dark very soon, everyone starts getting mad and no one knows anymore who to trust. Teams form, but of course there's at least one character who plays teammates and other teams against each other, for their own survival. A lot of character-drama.Then a new character gets introduced, apparently the survivor from the first game. And the revelation hits: even if you survive, you can't escape this island. But not many care about it, as they still want to survive and the producers of this game are making sure they will continue to fight.
It got really mad in-between with that much killing and betrayal. I'm normally a binge-reader, but couldn't binge this, because of how tiring it sometimes was. Not in a boring way, quite the opposite. Too many emotions from so many characters all at once. And because *some* of the characters were really annoying.I was actually thinking of dropping it once, or at least taking a longer break, but the curiosity in me didn't want to. I don't know if I should be glad or not, cause it really gets even more bloody in the second half.
But the plot twist in the last quarter was pretty interesting and really changed the whole thing. Got some similarities to "The Maze Runner" – I'm not gonna say what exactly, read it yourself.The ending was brutal and sad, and while I am happy about who survived, it isn't that much of a happy ending because of how many have died and how they have died. The whole thing really is just sad. But interesting. And scary to have that thought.
I'd recommend it if you like THG or TMR or both. Generally if you're into psychological themes, especially those that are about survival and the human mind, this might be for you. Just gotta stick through the confusion of the characters' names in the beginning.
Also, this Manhua is completely in full-color, so huge respect for the art team! Each chapter has about 8 pages, sometimes more, so overall around 950-1k pages, that's a lot.
