Shohei Manabe - Dead End

Hello everybody. Let's cut the crap and do some posts.

It has been a while since I shared some reading material so here's a manga that I've read a while ago.

Dead End is about a guy who finds a woman that falls from the sky. As absurd as that sounds he takes the girl to his home and decides to take care of her, it's not like anything particular is happening in his life anyway. Their relationship evolves a bit - he shows her around a bit and introduces her to his friends who are mostly low life thugs. Everything starts like a usual semi-serious seinen romance manga but things get a little weird when one day our hero arrives at his flat and finds all sorts of things. Things that used to function as limbs to his friends.

As the story goes more and more things we discover and through those events we learn more of our characters. It's kind of hard to explain what's going on in this manga because whatever that I want to mention it ends up being a spoiler for something. So to prevent this I guess you'll just have to read the thing if you want some more plot exposition.

All I can say is that the story is good. It has it's weak moments and cliches but it ends up being a rather enjoyable read. The ending to me was unexpected but once you realize what's it all about it makes perfect, if not obvious, sense.

The art style of this manga is simply great. I always like it when Japanese authors decide to break free from the usual conventions of manga styled drawings. The environment is drawn pretty good although there isn't much variation in locations but there are always a lot of details to look at (especially in the buildings). Some much needed breaks from the usual routine every now and then happen so it does not get tedious. In general the art is simplistic, especially when it comes to facial features. Somehow the characters don't look very Japanese because of it. Speaking of characters most of the are characterized fairly good. Some are predictable but still likeable while other more focused characters have a lot of things going for them. Throw in a little philosophy in it and you have a very nice read.

Enjoy.


I posted this once already. Check the first post for the links.