Title: Dead Mount Death Play Vol. 4
Author: Ryohgo Narita (Story), Shinta Fujimoto (Art)
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
Genre: Supernatural, Action
Publication Date: June 23, 2020
The Story
In volume four of Dead Mount Death Play, we shift focus to the criminal known as Solitaire who is trying to gather information on the symbol that resembles a coat of arms from Corpse God’s homeworld. Of course, only Corpse God knows the true resemblance of the symbol and so, this volume mainly deals with trying to figure out why it’s being used, and if someone else from, Corpse God’s world has come to this one.
After rejecting a three trillion yen price tag from Grocer, Solitaire decides to do his own investigation by buying a bunch of dirigibles and flying them over the city. A sniper shoots and kills “Solitaire” which turned out to be a decoy. This surprised him as there is now a suspected leak within the police force. Meanwhile, Solitaire catches wind of Corpse God’s fortune-telling and visits him in disguise to see if he could get more information on the symbol to which Corpse God says that it is drawn incorrectly. He gave away this information because it bothered him that it was being misrepresented in this world and he took that as a shot to the pride of his status back in his homeworld.
Ever the more curious, Solitaire pays a visit back to the building but as himself. He looks to get more intel by invading through the roof; however, he is confronted by Xiaoyu Lei. While Xiaoyu holds him at bay, Lemmings shows up and intervenes for an unknown reason at this point. In addition, it appears the Fire-Breathing Bug is also in the vicinity and (supposedly) burned a message onto a wall in the room Corpse God was sleeping. Shark Polka wakes him up and he receives a phone call from a mysterious person who seems to know about Corpse God and him being from another world (supposedly) and the son of (let’s see if I can type this correctly from memory) Sabaramond (checks the book… YES! I GOT IT RIGHT! I’m a genius!)
All of these entities are converging on the building at once and Corpse God needs to act fast. He uses necromancy to generate these hands and ends up restraining a girl outside which Solitaire and Lemmings make their escape. There’s no telling where Fire-Breathing Bug is but the girl that Corpse God captured did come to have her fortune read earlier. This is where our volume ends… in a soup of massive confusion… but in a good way.
There is so much happening in this volume it is a bit hard to keep track of. So, now we have three criminals after Corpse God, a police investigation looking into the symbol, corruption within the police, the Shinoyama family (Takeru) looking to get in on it, and someone who potentially knows Corpse God and is from the other world. Although I dislike so many story plots intertwining at once, I knew that this was something I would come to expect with somebody like Narita writing this. Intertwining so many stories is one of his specialties and even though things look like a jumbled mess right now, one thing you learn with Narita is that you just stick with it and everything is going to make sense sooner or later.
Even though things can be seen as incredibly messy right now, Narita does make things interesting. Everyone’s stories are all converging and you’re beginning to see a resemblance of relation between them all! I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen next!
Characters
The biggest spotlight in this volume was placed on Solitaire… which is funny because while he encompassed the majority of the volume, he received the least amount of development! He’s still the same character as if was last volume… the only thing is we were taken on this ride of him trying to uncover the mystery of the symbol and that’s it. He’s a great comedic villain, though. He kind of reminds me of The Joker from Batman… just with a more childlike mindset.
We meet a new character named Jirotarou… no.. not Jiroutarou… it’s Jirotarou. Make sure you get that right! He is the Superintendent General and the one who promotes Tsubaki to head up the Phantom Solitaire case. He talks a lot about cogs, and gears, and the music they make, etc. You know, just some shallow metaphors. Still, he seems that he has a lot of power and influence over people he commands which doesn’t phase Tsubaki in the least bit.
This new character leads to Tsubaki throwing his weight around during a briefing. Some of the officers take offense to Tsubaki being in charge and confront him about it. This is when he gets rescued by and we get introduced to the other members of Comps-3: Danjou Tozawa, the Assistant Manager, and Ranmaru Yatsu! Of course, Arase is there with him but we’ve already known about him from the beginning! Danjou seems like your typical level-headed older character archetype but seems like he could cause some damage when he gets serious while Ranmaru is more cocky, arrogant, yet confident in his abilities. Should be an interesting mix for them!
Oh, and probably the most important thing to mention here. Sayo likes sharks. No, it’s very subtle, I know, but something tells me she kind of has a shark thing going on. Just a hunch.
Final Thoughts
This volume of Dead Mount Death Play had a lot to take in but it means that we are seeing things beginning to take shape. The mystery of the symbol is driving so many factions forward right now and Corpse God is at the epicenter of it all. I like how everyone is trying to figure out what the symbol means while Corpse God is more interested in the symbol being represented correctly. Of course, all of that changed when he received that phone call so now it looks like we have some cross-world stuff starting to take hold as well.
This was also accented by some flashbacks of Corpse God in his homeworld as well as the thoughts of his master, Izliz. These flashbacks/scenes are going to hold a higher importance later on. I don’t think they are just here to give Corpse God more backstory. With the events happening here, it may just…. No, wait… this is Narita we are talking about here… it WILL tie in at some point in the future. As I said, there is just SO MUCH going on this volume… it’s just chaos… but an interesting and controlled chaos that I found highly enjoyable.
Now to see how all of this ties together. Probably won’t be any time soon but when it does, I know it will be completely worth it!
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This item was provided for review by Yen Press
