Hello my anime and manga lovers. It’s Minaku the Otaku with yet another manga for your Manga Management. This time, were gonna be looking at something twisted, deceiving, and it somehow involves a bunny mask. Though I can’t really say anything about the bunny mask too much since just typing in the words “bunny mask” in Google images will probably give you nightmares (I‘ll probably do something like that for my next Random Shit segment just because of this). Anyway, the manga that I’m reviewing is called “Doubt” or “Rabbit Doubt” if you need the whole name. The backstory on this story circles around an online game called “Rabbit Doubt” where the object is to find the lying wolf in disguise among the helpless rabbits. Sounds easy enough, right? If you find and kill the wolf, the rabbits win. If you choose the wrong person, the wolf eats the rabbits one by one. But what happens when the game is played in real life where a “wolf” is hiding among the helpless victims and killing them in the most gruesome ways possible. I rest assure you; this is nothing like that piece of shit of a movie called “Cry Wolf”. I promise. So let’s dive right in and hope the evil wolf won’t come after any of us.
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| Seriously. How is this not making you shit your pants. |
The beginning of the story is about a group of people who meet up because they played the game with each other before. Some of the people involved include your “regular everyday normal guy” named Yuu along with a bossy friend name Mitsuki, a shy quiet girl named Rei whose in a wheelchair (and yes, she IS cute so you’ll probably like her), an outspoken boobie bombshell named Haruka, and a yankee-looking dude name Eiji. They all meet up and decide to hang out, even when Mitsuki has never played the game before. Things go really well as they all bond at a karaoke bar, including finding out a little about Rei, who was once a child hypnotist name Saimin Shojo or "Hypnotist Girl" on TV years before and because of being called a liar and a fake for her hypnotism, tried to kill herself by getting hit by a truck. Things soon fall apart when everyone wakes up in some sort of warehouse and soon discover Rei pinned to the wall dead and a cellphone with the “Rabbit Doubt” start screen on it. Along with everyone being kidnapped, they also meet someone else that was suppose to be joining them; the calm and intelligent Hajime, a college student who seems too calm for a situation where people are dying.
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| No please, don't do it! I'm sorry I lied. It was me that took the cookie from the cookie jar! I admit it. |
As everyone try to understand what's going on, they realize that they all have bar codes on different parts of their bodies that work as keys for the locked doors around the warehouse. The only thing is, the keys can only work on one door; once used, it's only good for that door and nothing else. So everyone decide to move out of the room to look for a way out when they find a room where there are monitors on the wall and a person in the rabbit mask sitting in front of them. When they try to attack him, he's unconscious, but then we get a manga jump scare, where we see a scary image of him waking up when his mask is off. Just to let you know, this manga is practically made of jump scares so if you're into that kind of thing, good for you. If not, please be cautious. I don't need any readers getting heart attacks. But I digress. Once the guy they thought was the killer was dead, they look around the room to see it had files on each one of them and even people before them. People who have played the game before them, including the man they thought was the killer. What Haruka points out first is that it's suspicious for her to be in those files since she has never played Rabbit Doubt and believes her and Yuu killed Rei. It's a regular soap opera, I know. Especially when Yuu lied about having a bar code and realized he was the only one that didn't have one. This drove Haruka to attack Mitsuki in the bathroom and for her and Hajime to tie up Yuu and make him tell where the exit is. Yeah...didn't turn out well for her when she locks herself in a room by herself and gets killed later on anyway. Karma's a bitch like that.
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| It's like Pee-Wee's Playhouse if he was a sadistic psychopathic murderer. |
Things get even more complicated when Hajime and Yuu find Eiji strung up by the neck with his wrist cut off that had his bar code on it. How nice for the killer to do that. With Mitsuki getting a fever, Hajime and Yuu discuss their findings. Since Rei might have been killed for being a liar about her hypnotism, they discover that Eiji was a promising boxer who was in one of the largest gang fights that left one victim dead with the claim by someone name "H-san". Leaving Hajime tied up, Yuu and Mitsuki go to find Haruka only to discover that she's completely vanished only to find her severed head in a mask in another room. In this room, there were rabbit masks, ropes, daggers, and axes. All the makings of a serial killer. While looking for Haruka, Mitsuki's fever gets worse until Yuu has Hajime look after her while he looks in the room. Things go from bad to worse when Yuu sees Mitsuki's dead body on the monitor leaving him and Hajime to fight it out. If there's one thing I can tell you without it being too big a spoiler, is that neither Yuu or Hajime are not the killer. I would go on more about the manga, but this one is harder to explain. I can give you a reason why Haruka was murdered. Apparently she ran a ring of teen prostitutes and got most of the money. She also blackmailed any higher up people that did business with her. It's like a Saw movie where you think someone is the killer, but it turns out to be someone completely unexpected. I do strongly recommend this manga to anyone who likes mystery games like this. As a person who loves mystery herself, I wouldn't want to spoil something so juicy. Anyway, the story is suspenseful and kind of a typical horror movie with nearly all the horror movie cliches to it. There's not much I can say is wrong with this manga, especially when they go the extra mile to give lighting and shading to make it more dynamic. I'm giving this series 5 out of 5 rabbit masks. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be watching My Little Pony since there's nothing about ponies being serial killers.
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