This ultimatum at the end is so easily solvable that I cannot see it as an actual conflict, not the way this book portrays it at least. That they don't seem to consider it doesn't make them scared, it makes them idiots. So solution:Īnd don't tell me cultural differences or something would prevent them from thinking about this. And Naoya is apparently not asexual so either one would be a choice and this is about their best friend's live. Nobuaki and Chiemi, one boy and one girl. I am not kidding, there are two people in the room that Naoya could have sex with. And his best friend Nobuaki rather thinks about getting some stranger to have sex with Naoya, even shortly considering raping that woman, instead of thinking about the obvious: Do it yourself. Now the last stake was that the boy Naoya had exactly 10 minutes to have sex or otherwise he would be burned alive. That the kids don't think about the possibility of their death vote to pick no winner and no looser I can sort of understand since it would be next to impossible since at the time they were of uneven number, but not so the last one. Point 2 was… well for the most part the stakes were pretty good, however the last two had their problems and the very last one, the cliffhanger, was really were the story killed itself. It is as if the author didn't even try to come up with something better. Even if you do not believe the story about the game killing people the evidence at least, at the very least, points to it having such a strong hold on their minds that it has already gotten out of control and you do nothing? That is too ridiculous for me to just accept. I was 'Are you fucking kidding me?' The messages are on the kids' mobiles, two of them were found hanged after the messages told them it would happen, a third one died similarly and the fourth clearly committed suicide. And when the police is brought up it is really the old cliché of them don't believing it. Point 1 was a bad joke and I thought 'seriously, you couldn't come up with something better than this cliché?' The kids, albeit I think they might be adults already, simply late high school, don't seek help from anybody. It comes down to two points:ġ) The way the author chose to isolate the characters from their surroundings However, this book has some problems that in my mind weigh too heavily to just ignore and they drag the story down, severely in fact. Seriously a few of them could be psychos on their own some day. It has a lot of potential to be a very good thriller, a story full of passion, fear, manipulation and of course the question 'how far would you go?'Īnd the story knows how to make you hate characters, at least that is how it was for me. There is nothing wrong with the premise and I can see why people would like it. This story really shot itself in the head, especially in the end.

Ousama game shuukyoku vol 2