Bryce's Blog

It looks like things are going are pretty well. As I mentioned in my previous reviews, I recently received three books from Barnes & Noble. One by one, I have covered each title, until one remains. Today, I will be reviewing that title, which is Doubt Volume 1 by Yoshiki Tonogai.

There is a game that is all the rage. In this game, players are rabbits and they find the wolf hidden amongst the group of players, before the wolf kills them all.

Among all who play the game, a boy named Yuu and a few others decide to meet for the first time in real life and hang out.

However, instead of a having a fun time together, Yuu, Mitsuki, Yuu’s childhood friend, and the others are knocked out and wake up in a strange building, where the group’s favorite game has become reality.

Now, they must find the wolf, in order to be able to escape alive.

I really enjoyed this book. The pacing seemed to be good. I did not really want to put this down, as I wanted to find out what was going to happen next. Yes, people getting stuck in their favorite, or even any game, is not a new a concept. However, the premise of this game is quite intriguing. Also, the fact that the game is happening in real life, as opposed to virtual reality or, in the case of when Bakura was first introduced in Yu-Gi-Oh!, a board for a tabletop RPG, is something that I have not encountered very often. I also liked how the characters acted how most people normally would in a situation like this. After all, being trapped within an unknown killer is not something to happy about. They quickly turn on each other because they suspect that one of them is the wolf, which makes sense because even in the virtualized version of the game the wolf is not same person every time. Again, that is something that I would expect to happen in this kind of situation. In fact, I doubt that I would be able to keep myself composed either. I also liked how creepy the atmosphere was. It was not the same kind of creepy feeling that I got from Another, but I could still sense that things were not quite right. While probably not on the level that would come from a town like the one in Another, that creepy feeling is exactly what I think fans of horror want to see. I also liked how the characters observed things, instead of blindly running around and believing what each other says. If they did not, they would have ended up feeling apathetic died much more quickly, thus ending the series earlier than it actually did, since this series has already ended its run in Japan, according to Baka Updates Manga. It was also nice that it did not really give enough clues as to who the wolf was. Considering that the identity of the wolf is the mystery, I would expect nothing less and think that fans of mystery would agree with me, especially since this is just first volume. Besides, as I have stated many times in my reviews of the episodes and manga of Detective Conan (Case Closed), it is not very enjoyable when one can already knows who the culprit is, at least in cases where the protagonist is somebody other than the criminal him or herself. Outside of that, I cannot really think of anything else to say without repeating myself. The fact that the pacing seems to be pretty good and the fact that the characters are not trapped in a board or in virtual reality, as well as the fact that there are very few clues to determine the wolf’s identity, make this a great start for the series.

Although I liked the book, there are certainly some issues. However, aside from a possibly minor typo, the only thing that I could possibly think of complaining becomes a nonissue when I consider that this series is going to be short, according to Baka Updates Manga. Because of this fact, I will say that there is nothing worth mentioning.

Considering that this gave the series a pretty nice start, this was definitely worth reading. I recommend this to fans of horror, due to the creepy atmosphere. As for fans of mystery, I recommend this because of the fact that figuring out the identity of the wolf seems to be something that will certainly prove a challenge. As for everyone else, I would say that this is worth giving a shot, unless one really dislikes the horror genre.

What are your thoughts on Doubt Volume 1? Do you agree or disagree with my views? Do you have anything to add? Feel free to comment.