Di(e)ce Review: Dead Upon Arrival

My O levels are ending soon.

So more reviews coming up!

Today,

Di(e)ce.

To be absolutely honest, this sort of manga will never get into the Big Three, no matter how hard the mangaka tries.

Why?

Because shounen manga readers are twits yearning for impossible superpowers, brainless fights and pointless chivalry.

That’s why.

Di(e)ce speaks of a group of students who are the “chosen ones”, having to fight in “games” where other students in the school are “zombified”.

Hmmm… Now this seems very familiar…

Oh, and did I mention two “brothers”  having to kill each other?

Indeed, Di(e)ce is a manga which has elements from various other manga. Not that we ought to blame them? Just how many ideas are there out there left for us to think of when so many manga have already been established.

I’m not one to complain about stealing ideas.

I’m here to complain about how the mangaka of Di(e)ce sucks at putting these ideas together.

In Di(e)ce so far, no effort has been made to give characters any distinct personality or character traits. This manga consists of nothing but cardboards. The storyline is extremely flimsy, where no head or tail can be made after reading each chapter. Attempts made by the mangaka to make the plot heart racing and exciting through quick movements are visible, but miserable- this only serves to make Di(e)ce more pathetic than it already is.

I did some research on Di(e)ce, and found that the author and cartoonist isn’t the same person. It was written by Saki Oto of Naked Ape, the duo behind Switch.

So naturally, I read Switch. I found its premise to be believable and interesting, much unlike Di(e)ce. I’m hoping that Di(e)ce was either a one time mistake or Saki Oto was intoxicated when he was writing Di(e)ce.

In other words, don’t read Di(e)ce.