Jinrou Game: Beast Side

I adore manga about so called "death games". The psychological warfare that takes place makes them extremely compelling. I expected to really enjoy Jinrou Game: Beast Side, especially because it's told from the perspective of the murderer!

However, this manga is extremely average. There are a couple of good drawings of gory situations, but for the most part the art is just okay. There are so many characters who don't really have anything defining about them, and it makes them hard to tell apart. To give an example, look at something like Danganronpa. Introduces 15 people all at once to a murder game, but they're strong personalities and unique character designs help make them all memorable and keeps them all sorted in your mind. Here, no one really has many distinctive features other than hair style and color, and no real distinctive personalities. This makes it difficult to remember who is who.

Because of this, the logic is hard to follow. The characters go on long tangents as to why this person is/isnt the killer, but they just say a whole bunch of names and it's not concrete what they're saying. This makes the fun mindgame aspect of the manga rather weak. There are a few great moments where people outplay each other, but not enough to bring this manga to a higher standard.

Just read a better murder mystery manga.

*Disclaimer*
Just personal scratch.
Advised, possible spoilers.
Opinion & Informal

Art: 5/10
The anatomy and proportions checked out. There were not any notable environmental or panoramic shots. Neither was there a lot of impact shots or artistic showcases. The art, compared to the previous installment, I felt was a downgrade. The death and gruesome scenes were toned down a lot so much so that the whole manga felt either very censored or PG-13 when comparing it to what was shown in the previous installment. The impact shots that were used didn't seem too impactful to me. Overall, nice details were mostly not there or a bit basic. The backgrounds and extras were alright; the personal rooms honestly had the most detail in the entire manga. The gruesome scenes seemed a bit tame compared to the prequel which is a minus considering the prequel set up a lot of momentum for this sequel.

Panel Progression: 5/10
The panel progression felt a bit quick. The clarity of the progression was a bit lacking as well. Like the previous installment, the pacing was a bit too quick so it ended up hurting the clarity by not having enough panels or speech bubbles to support what was going on sometimes. The general discussions were mostly fine, but it was very clear towards the end of the manga that the progression rushed itself way too fast going so far as to skip or gloss over entire deaths, conversations, etc. The panel layout was nice-looking but that was about it. There wasn't too much flair in the form of panel cutting or impact sequences; the executions were really lame and seemed like they were purposely toned down and were allocated only a page or two.

Characters: 4/10
The characters were lame. Exactly like the prequel, many of the characters were given uninteresting to interesting setups. However, those setups were quickly snuffed out just like how those same characters were quickly killed off for some of the dumbest and out-of-nowhere reasons. Character development was non-existent for anyone except for the MC glasses girl because everyone but her dies off before any of their stories or growth can come to fruition/completion. The growth of the MC was predictable and uninspiring. Her sudden change of personality was exactly that, way too sudden. Her change of character starting around the middle of this manga was way too abrupt and had almost no support to it. She just somehow suddenly started to like death and killing people. There was no inward contemplation, no resolution, nothing.

Plot: 5/10
Sequel to previous Jinrou Game and the initial chapter or three were quite interesting actually. The previous installment set up a lot of momentum for this manga.

Development: 4/10
Predictable development. 100% without a doubt of course the MC glasses girl is going to survive. Judging by how the glasses MC girl's character abruptly changed midway through the manga, the betrayal of the blonde werewolf girl was also predictable. The specific intricacies of the dynamics between the characters as well as their frantic debates was the only interesting part about the development in this manga. Those same dynamics and debates were however shunted because of how stupidly the characters that were responsible for juicy developments were killed off. If not just killing them off, the juicy developments were straight up either dropped completely or resolved by just killing those characters off so as not to explain or spend time on them.

Conclusion: 4/10
Predictable conclusion that left no motivation to want to read a possible sequel (ahem, Crazy Fox). All the questions that were brought up across both current installments of Jinrou Game, excluding Crazy Fox, were not answered at all. Seriously, no questions were answered at all. Who's responsible for the game? Why are students of the same high school being chosen? What is the aim of the game?

Overall: 5/10
This sequel was a bust. There was no reasoning at all as to why the MC's heart changed. There was no personal struggle or conscientious battle. The resolve that the MC showed at the end of the prequel was completely dropped without explaining why; it didn't give any foundation for her fall. She just so happened to conveniently fall to make it easier for the narrative to flow into a "join them" conclusion. I do not think this sequel is worth reading. Pretend Jinrou Game ended with the first installment. It's much better that way. I gave this a 5 rather than a 4 because I felt that while there were a lot of things I disliked about this sequel, I appreciate the story that both installments present as a whole: the fall and tainting of a person. While I thought the overall execution could have been done differently, the Jinrou Game series is entertaining for what it is.