Title: Dead Mount Death Play Vol. 11
Author: Ryohgo Narita (Story), Shinta Fujimoto (Art)
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 194
Genre: Supernatural, Action
Publication Date: January 23, 2024
The Story
With Civil and company now hanging around, they were sitting around peacefully when they were paid a visit by Majiri Agakura, aka, Bat. Shortly after her arrival, Lemmings shows up and pays them a visit, too. A battle ensues between Majiri and Lemmings which destroys Takumi’s monitors. After his tragic loss, a ceasefire is called between them. It seems that both Lemmings and Majiri have the same goal in mind and they are there to enlist Polka’s help.
The help they need is in relation to a mysterious craze that is sweeping the city… especially online through streamers. Everyone is participating in Corpse Hunts at abandoned buildings around Japan. The only problem is that a lot of people are going missing. One of which is the daughter of a politician. Since a lot of them are happening in Shibuya, which is now under the control of the Agakuras, Miajiri comes to ask for Polka’s help because he can sense the presence of corpses. As for Lemmings, it’s just another job by Takeru.
When they go to investigate, all hell breaks loose. Not only are the other members of the Agakura clan there, but there are brainwashed mercenaries who protected Higuro that think everyone who shows up to this abandoned hospital that Higuro had a connection to must be destroyed. Meanwhile, inside the hospital, we discover the reason why people are going missing and it’s another head-scratcher!
Characters
The biggest focus here is on Majiri Agakura. We learn more about why she was called the Godhead Restorer in the previous volume. She is from “the other side of the sky,” aka Polka’s home world. She has surpassed the highest evolution possible for vampires to the point where she can extend her bodily control to even inanimate objects within her vicinity. Polka has no trouble recognizing that her power is far greater than his. Civil suspects that when they jumped through the hole to come to Earth, she was one of the stowaways that came along for the ride. Seems as if she’s calling a temporary truce for now but I still have my suspicions that she’s up to something once Polka comes through with what she needs!
Outside of Majiri, there really wasn’t much else in the way of character development. Lemmings is more rational than I thought he was, which is something. Solitaire seems to be up to something but we never get to see what that something is just yet and none of our other characters really got any type of backstory that we weren’t already aware of.
Final Thoughts
I’m not going to lie… this feels like a filler arc. Unless there is something huge connecting to this, everything here just feels like the series is spinning its wheels. Knowing Narita, there will be a grander purpose so I’m going to let this play out before I pass judgment… especially with the way this volume ended. There is, once again, more questions than answers but at least we did get one piece of information that could make things interesting the fact that Majiri is a stowaway from when Civil jumped to Earth.
The mere fact that he mentioned that there were several stowaways explains why we saw quite a few people who could be from Polka’s home world. It also raises a couple of questions such as how many others jumped through the hole, who else have we met so far could be from the other side, and did Majiri low-key hint that Lemmings is one of those people? There’s a lot to unpack from just that one sentence. I’m sure we’ll get to it sooner or later but that was a nice little seed to plant, for now.
I’ll be honest here… the mystery surrounding Majiri and the possibility of more otherworlders escaping to Earth were the only interesting parts of this volume… at least for me. I didn’t care about the corpse hunts, or what they discovered in the bowels of the hospital. I found it to be rather mundane which is probably why I feel as if this arc is nothing more than filler with a little bit of canon mixed in. Again, I’ll see how it plays out but, so far, this arc isn’t doing much for me.
At the very least, can we get some Fs in the chat for ZukoZukoBonBon?
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This item was provided for review by Yen Press.
