Dead Tube

I think its a different manga. I admit that it has pretty wild and viloent scenes, but on the other hand the ruthlessness of the drawings makes everything much more realistic.

Story (7/10)
I am still curious about the end, i am not sure of what i should expect.. But i think that mangaka is trying to show us a sort of survival game that has so many realistic lines and by doing that he also shows us the limits of cruelty and madness of the humanbeing. How far can we go for surviving? How many more people can we waste to achieve our goals? Does every individual has a deep, dark side that can be revealed? These are the questions that i asked to myself while reading it (still waiting for the next ch.)

Art (8/10)
The art is "beautiful". Literally, "beautiful". A seinen type, reminds the works of Obata Takeshi (Death Note, Platinum End, Aoi bungaku). Maybe a little more detailed.

Character (6/10)
Well... There are so many things that are not understandable about the characters. While reading it, i think that i am understanding the purpose of their actions and stuff, but im not able to comprehend the reasons behind the actions. In a word, the characters are not powerfull enough.

So for those who dont mind nudity, gore or heresy themes, its a good manga.

Even though I have read all the chapters (newest chapter currently is 42) so far, I will review the first 13 ones. Those chapters are the most enjoyable, later chapters leave impression that the creators are experimenting rather than sticking with the starting formula.

Story: The manga revolves around a concept - protagonists get involved into Dead Tube, a website (similar to YouTube) where you participate to win a lot of money if you get the most views, but you will suffer harsh punishment if your videos get the lowest views. Those rules make the participants push the boundaries and make more extreme videos to keep up with others, which makes more tension and interesting situations. The story doesn't contain much unnecessary dialogue and you follow the events with ease and remain interested, it also contains depth, layers and plot twists; quite contrary to later chapters which are much more some kind of simple gore fest (I didn't get the "catch-the-culprit" episode, I'd say it was a failure, though school episode wasn't bad).

Art: Details are wonderfully done, also gore parts look very realistic and overall it's very well made.

Character: The manga fails somewhat at this part, the protagonists are generic (a shy boy and a yandere girl) with mostly expected behaviour, though the male is making a progress with character, but the rest of the characters are simple and don't have much depth (though, they can camouflage their real intentions, trying to manipulate others).

Enjoyment: Despite shallow characters, the manga is still quite enjoyable. Gore, alright story, tension and element of surprise create a good atmosphere and a decent read.

If you are intrigued by darker themes but when you actually encounter them in various works are unable to stomach the horror, this might just be the manga for you!
At a glance Dead tube appears to contain themes to satiate even the most disturbed reader, however in actuality none of the characters have sufficient depth to bring even the most disgusting scenes justice. Ultimately this completely undermines even the most grotesque imagery, and the emotional impact on the reader is therefore limited.
this could be excusable for our protagonists, as the premise does give premise for them being emotionless, however the supporting cast ultimately fails to do this manga justice.

This review is spoiler free (well if you have read at least the 2 or 3 first chapters of this manga)

Story (8/10):
I think this manga is really focused on the young internet users, and the progression of the ... youtube community.
Everything is going darker, deeper, more trash, because the feeling of experiment with things, new concept, is easily fading out. Suicidal pranks, suicidal app (#momo), scary videos, sex on reality show ... you got the idea.
More and more people needs this contents because the previous contents turned too boring for them, and it's completly natural. And I think this manga is poiting out this phenomenon.
However, sometimes I'm thinking that gore and sex are just here for ... well. Gore and sex. Sometimes the manga tries to tell something ... but then NAH ! SEX & GORE !

Art (8/10):
Just taste. I think the drawings of the expressions are nicely done here.

Character (7/10):
Honestly, some characters can be great. Except that if they have background, it's very too surrealistic, like, it's impossible for someone to have a childhood like this and staying psychologically able to communicate after this. And the others one are just too extrem. Like "Hello I am the horny character", or "Hello I'm a psychopath" or "I hate my brother I want to kill him". The psychology of a lot of characters are just too burlesque, nobody can believe it.

Enjoyment (8/10):
Idk why I enjoyed this that much. But having an antisocial psychopath (who everyone thought was a bullied boy at first glance) as a main character, is a pretty nice idea.

This is the best comedy manga i've read since King's Game.

It fails as a thriller simply because the story itself doesn't have a framework that allows for good character development to happen. Instead of the characters growing naturally and developing relationships with one another, the story prioritizes filming obscene acts for views for the sake of blood and gore. That might not be completely unenjoyable as a thriller, but none of the characters were engaging enough for you to care if they succeed or not.

If you're watching it for the blood and gore, prepare to be highly disappointed, as the violence extends to nothing beyond anything you would see in an averagely violent series like Terraformars or Elfen Lied. The characters are drawn in an incredibly generic art style with flat faces that don't pop out or look distinct beyond generic anime attractiveness and the gore is incredibly uncreative to the point where it feels less like watching viscera and more like watching a dummy being thrown in a woodchipper.

It's one thing to have your manga include heavy subject matter like rape, pedophilia and murder but it's another thing to rely on value of those elements in a vacuum to sell a story. Those elements add nothing to the story and provide nothing but half-decent drinking material.

Dark does not equal mature.

If you're watching this as a comedy, i highly recommend it. Characters are emotional and overdramatic for reasons untold, plot twists are thrown left and right like M. Night on speed, characters are introduced solely for the purpose of them getting raped or murdered, villains are portrayed as one dimentional cartoon rapists and there's one arc that literally revolves around getting a guy to kill himself. For a show that's supposedly for adults, it's very cartoony and entertaining.

Dead Tube is a solid 3.

Today is 8:10pm from where I am, and I just "ended" Dead Tube with Chapter 56, even if it was actually only an end an of a era, since as of today, 2 chapters are still serialized so the manga has not yet ended officially.

But now, since it ended a season for me, I want to talk about it as it is.

The manga was so messed up along the way, just because there were characters that you didn't want to die were killed; while those who were pure were hurt the most, and because of that, it makes you empathize with the main character even if at the start, you kinda didn't feel like it.

Tomohiro is a messed-up person, this is the type of person you expected to be an inteovert just because there are so many mysteries to his past, that the moment you figure it out, you can understand he's the way that he is. This is the same case with Mai.. but only the latter, as Mai is different, in that, she's more sociable and likes to express her thoughts more and likes to "expose" Machiya for lying sometimes, even when he himself doesn't sound like he was.
Mai likes to fun of Machiya, too.

Both were manipulators, but both had a heart.

This manga had a lot of shit characters, but mostly because you expected them to die anyways or they were skeptical because they know Tomohiro at a personal level. Not only that, but some..they were very welcoming at the start for some odd reason that isn't fully explained. I mean, one minute, you're introduced to a character that seems nice or harmless, the next minute, they're orchestrating your downfall and want to cut you up, and take your innards.

This goes the same for Mai and the others, too. Since Mai was a psychopath, and while she did have heart, sometimes she's just there letting stuff happen until something crucial happens, and then suddenly, she becomes a "deus-ex machina" to Tomohiro. Luckily, that doesn't happen in an annoying fashion unlike some shows, as it does show, that she's willing to put her life on the line for her newfound friends. Meanwhile Tomohiro is often useless in battles, yet he indeed makes up for them with his wits and cunning dark side as well as his level of understanding even if in the most deadliest of situstions, even when he's essentially just a sociopath who's turned on by sadism on the outside; which is something Mai likes to tease him for.

Mawi is often a damsel in distress, and Nozomi is just a full-on prostitute and slut who likes Money. These 4 were deep characters, but they were shitty mostly because they were crossing a moral code as well as twisting what is right and what is wrong, as well as what is legal, while Mawi was mostly useless in the entire run.

But... while that's the case, I never expected to still miss it after it ended for me. I actually felt empty and bitter-sweet when it ended the season, which is a common occurence when you end a wholesome anime. This series also a weird sense of redeeming some characters from who they were, which is not entirely impossible, as Tomohiro, for example, specifically, does have a hidden reason for his actions.

This anime, of course, isn't entirely wholesome, as it kills off characters you get to connect to, it's also really messed-up with concept. It even scars characters, psychologically, too. Same with the reader of the mang, if they aren't entirely prepared.

The manga also has a lot of plot holes, which is entirely on the fact that no one gets arrested. It makes you wonder why the police would still even investigate certain tragic events that transpire if none of them would take action anyway? Maybe, Dead Tube really was overseeing something with the Force, but the manga never really explains it, and thus, it makes me take the entire thing less seriously than it wanted me to. It's not that bad, considering this was a world that completely let a "red-room inspired" website, but it did bother me, since it made the police force a leave a sour taste in my mouth with how corrupt they are in retrospect. If anything, they were of a clean-up group than an actual police force.

I think what makes this manga worth a read are the twists. Seriously, there's a reason why a series like Death Note or Monster is intriguing, and that's keeping you subverted despite all the obvious expectations. Because while there are some parts that, while they do end or happen the way you think, it often doesn't and it catches you off guard.

This manga was a struggle to read, but I had a great time with Mai, Machiya, Mawi and Nozomi.

Technically, the manga is still serializing after that "end", but with the way the story wrapped up the way it did despite being a cliffhanger, I didn't want to continue anymore.

Maybe I will check the next season of that manga, who knows? but I think it might not give the same feeling as I did when I first read it, and because of that, I'm happy to let it go. But, I still do wish the duo luck in their next projects as well as this manga's contination. Kitakawa, Touta and Yamaguchi, Mikoto; thank you for this flawed yet satisfying story.

Up until Chapter 56:
Plot: 6/10
Characters: 7/10
Art: 9/10
Gore: 10/10
Sex: 6/10
Censorship: 5/10

That being said, thank you for reading my essay, JUSTICE COMPLETE.

SLIGHT Spoilers, arc name's are just mentioned pretty much

The art is pretty much it's only real virtue, it's incredibly weak in every other area.

The gore is very well done. That's what I originally read it for, though my enjoyment of that even started to dwindle as it was just the same junk over and over again. Shock for the sake of shock isn't good, especially if you try to shoehorn a plot into it.

Speaking of plot, Deadtube's plot is pitiful. I was fooled in the first chapters into thinking that this would be interesting, but it quickly fell apart after the Betsuki-sensei arc, and that's also the last time in my opinion that the gore was interesting. The Rascal arc was alright, and it went downhill after that. Unfortunately in the "Gore Community" I'll call it, there are a lot of edgy people, and that's all they care about. Edge. Deadtube is the epitome of that. It relies too much on nudity, gore, and other "edgy" themes.

Good characters are often killed off so you'll be stuck with tardihiro and his edge crew for most of the manga.

Overall, it's pretty bad, aside from the art. It had potential, but it quickly went to waste.

A DWINDLING PLOT!

I wanted to read an enjoyable gory manga, and picked up this manga, at first Dead Tube did seem enjoyable, but then the plot went off the rails and sometime later it made very little sense.
The original premise was about uploading any type of videography to a website called D-Tube (definitely not ripping off YouTube) and gain many views to earn huge sums of cash but later as the story progressed, the arcs just contained only references to D-Tube i.e. just do anything in the real world and D-Tube will cover it up.

I enjoyed the degenerating status of the main character as the story was advancing but at a certain point a tragedy occurred and it all stopped. It basically becomes a Revenge-obsessed story. The only thing that was keeping me to not drop the manga was the heroine, but she too has just become a disinteresting character, I really like her character and since I have read up to the 52nd chapter, I'm hoping for some kind of plot twist/ major shock from her. Nevertheless, I still find the main character unenjoyable as his character development just went off the rails.

The enjoyment level at the beginning was hype and becomes pretty sub-par as the story progresses.

I expect great things from the mangaka and for now will definitely read Dead Tube till the end.

This manga is quite bad and dumb. The story doesn't make sense at all and only exists for the gore and sex. I could forgive that fact if it wasn't the terrible characters.

There is literally not one likable character (ok later some of the characters go into some interesting development, but not really enough to start liking them) but the worst are definitely the two main characters.

One of them is a guy who is sexually aroused by recording how people die. That's actually all you can say about him. There is the whole part about him caring for his family or wanting to take down Dead Tube but I don't really buy it. I like gore, but only because I know it's fake. This guy is just sick and I can't relate to him at all so of course I don't care about him. The other MC is a girl that just loves to kill, so not much to say about her either. It's not like psychopathic characters can't be likable (Hisoka from HxH is a serial killer but still an interesting character) but this one has no other character traits apart from killing in cold blood.

Only good aspect of the manga is the great art, especially the gore scenes. Just a pity it was wasted on such a terrible plot.

Let's get to it:

I had just started reading horror manga a few weeks ago (actually I just started reading manga only about a month and a half ago lmao).

I went through Prison Lab and Peephole and good Lord those were some shitty manga. Really, I hated damnear every moment of them both.

I almost gave up until boredom struck after school one day; so I checked out the recommendations and found Dead Tube and I could NOT have asked for a better manga.

You get the Yandere Devil hottie combined with a seemingly chill kid with a seemingly chill life until they collide.

This manga will give you chills, boners, and screams forever. I promise you, if you have the slightest liking or attraction toward horror manga READ THIS DAMN STORY!

You will not regret it.

Only reason I gave them a 9 is because only Fairy Tail can get a 10 in my eyes, word to my dawg Hiro Mashima.

Alright I'm gone hope this was encouraging