Dead End Loop? More like Dead End Manga HAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAah this sucked. 440https://i.ur.com/T1FdP13.png A Dead End Dead End Loop is a horror manga by Hiroshi Asagihttps://anilist.co/staff/103751/HiroshiAsagi and its not very good. Actually no its pretty goddamned terrible. 440https://i.ur.com/4OU0zdU.png Admittedly I was relatively pretty entertained since it basically immediately starts with someone getting stabbed to death but heres the thing. This manga is only two volumes long. So either it got rushed to an early ending or the mangaka purposely brought it to an end without resolving literally anything that had happened? I dont really consider that a spoiler by the way. Oh this horror manga that seems to be setting a whole bunch stuff up is only two volumes long. I wonder how it ends Oh it fucking doesnt. It just stops. It really strongly feels like even though this manga is literally titled Dead End Loop that the time travel gimmick was tacked on. 440https://i.ur.com/sOPDF2W.png Because maybe someone told the mangaka that their original plot about weird fake replacement people who cant breed and also just dissolve when theyre killed all except for their core I dont know it needed something more? And also time travel really helps if youre bad at writing because you get an instant literal undo button you can just smack the moment when things have gone bad. Dont get me wrong I find the idea of characters being stuck in a hellish time loop where a bunch of fucked up shit happens and it just keeps repeating fun. 440https://i.ur.com/RAWErw8.png However nowhere near enough is done with that and the rules of the time loop are spotty at best. Plus the pacing is just fucked. The reveal almost immediately happens the brother does stuff to try and remedy the situation things go to shit and the brother immediately loops right back to right before the reveal. This all happens within the first fucking chapter. Theres getting to the point and then theres rushing. The manga: THIS IS WHAT THE SERIES IS ABOUT. ITS TWO SERIES STACKED UP ON EACH OTHER GO. NOW QUICKLY. Me: What are these characters names again? What? Why is there time travel? What??? 440https://i.ur.com/Sj13n9M.png I think the main part of the series I liked was when protagonist brother came back to the start of the loop and had learned something new about certain characters. Even though it was honestly kind of nonsensical. Because you would figure if this high school kids demeanor just suddenly and randomly completely changed and he started shooting you an entirely murderous glare youd kind of raise your guard? Maybe maybe put your plan to get rid of him in motion a little bit sooner? Huh suddenly this kid looks like he wants to violently choke me to death. How odd 440https://i.ur.com/VJX6P1n.png Then theres another character who just happens to be able to see the flow of time and thus picks up on the fact that the brother protagonist is looping. And very briefly hes all like well actually there were mikos who could send people through time with their deaths and his family in particular has time powers and Im like oh thank god. Theres actually an explanation for the time traveling I thought once again for the hundredth time being fooled into thinking SOMETHING in a horror manga is going to make sense. 440https://i.ur.com/SS7DZm4.png Because as quickly as this character starts spouting this stuff it moves on from it. And it never gets expanded on because the manga ends like three chapters later Also not to be an asshole or anything but a time travel loop basically means theres absolutely no stakes to anything that is happening. Because its just going to loop again. Theres a way that somewhat skirts around the issue of course. Unfortunately its good writing and likable characters. Which this manga does not have. Make me invested in whats happening even though the possibility exists that the loops just going to erase everything that just happened and thus render it completely pointless. 440https://i.ur.com/f9LLqqk.png Instead the only and I mean only solution that the brother ever comes up with the whole manga is okay next time around Ill kill this person too. And the only reason it ever doesnt work flawlessly is because he needs to kill someone else as well. Yet at the start of the manga hes all like I dont want to kill real people Only replacements but not only does he very quickly stop giving a shit but the manga fails to establish that the replacements are any different from normal people. Sure they cant breed and they dissolve when they die but they act and talk like completely perfect humans they bleed though I guess their blood dissolves when the rest of their bodies do but its not like theyre evil or anything? 440https://i.ur.com/Ldax4iw.png I guess the ones at the start do kind of almost murder the sister but even then thats mainly because she was trying to murder them first Theyre just going about and interacting with the rest of society like normal humans which really makes the ending of this manga where the brother and sister just Incredibly odd and offputting. Which would have been fine but I think the manga wants you to be rooting for these characters and I really wasnt after the brother selfishly The brother character was already so absolutely unlikable how could you somehow fuck him up even more at the very end? This Sucked Yeah this this sucked. Theres no likable or interesting characters. The plot seemed to be setting some stuff up but of course it ends before it ever gets the chance to follow up on it. But from the very get go it was doomed to failure because there were two plots stacked up on each other. Since the manga is titled Dead End Loop I figured it would primarily be about the character looping back in time but the time traveling stopped mattering as the focus shifted back towards the fake people plot. But oh no then things went bad so now conveniently theres a second loop because one of the main characters cant be allowed to die. But how can you do a horror manga if you cant have one of your main characters get fucking murdered? Thats it TIME TRAVEL TIME 440https://i.ur.com/wVHm0wV.png ...Dead End Loop is a 2.5 out of 10 or 25 out of 100. I would only ever recommend it if youre really into horror manga and youre actively searching for more garbage to read. Yet another entry on the list of gore can only take you so far.