My Death Flags Show No Sign of Ending Volume 1 Review
When we think of stories that revolve around ‘death flags’, it’s usually the villainess stories like My Next Life as a Villainess or The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess, where a heroine finds themselves reincarnated into an otome game. But lately, there has been a growing trend where this trope has expanded to other genres other than just otome or villainess-related. Today, I’m looking at Volume 1 of one such example: My Death Flags Show No Sign of Ending. Will it impress? Let’s find out.
Based on a light novel series by Izumi (Chronicles of the Hidden World), this manga adaptation follows the story of Kazuki Hirasawa, who has been reincarnated into his favourite game, Brave Hearts, as the villain: Harold Stokes. And Kazuki doesn’t start life as a baby; he finds himself awakening as Harold during one of the key moments of the game, where his parents are sentencing one of their maids to death. In the game, Harold takes it upon himself to deliver the killing blow and hoping to buy some time before taking her life, Kazuki chooses to make the same request.
Later, he’s approached by the household butler Norman, who’s hoping to convince Kazuki to spare the maid’s life. Luckily for Norman, that’s exactly what Kazuki is hoping to achieve, and while pretending to be disinterested in the butler’s plea, he tells him to act first. Together, they come up with a convincing plot, which will be one of the first turning points for Kazuki to avoid his death at the hands of the game’s hero.
Of course, the situation with the maid is only one of the terrible things that Harold did. He didn’t become a villain without creating several enemies, which is something Kazuki is going to have to fix going forward. He’s weary of diverting too far off course from the story he’s familiar with, but at the same time, at some point, something has to drastically change. The question is simply when that will happen.
The other problem for Kazuki is that he doesn’t have free control over Harold’s speech. Often, when Kazuki says something, it will come out much harsher or twisted in some way compared to what he’s trying to say. This is probably due to the world trying to keep some consistency for the story, and luckily for Kazuki, the other characters generally see through his harsh attitude and understand his true intentions, but it does make for an interesting challenge for him all the same.
Perhaps because of being based on a light novel, it feels like My Death Flags barely scratches the surface of the main plot. By the end of this first book, Kazuki has made some friends and met his fiancée (who was also destined to become an enemy of Harold’s in the original game), but it doesn’t feel like that much has happened. It’s largely setting up for the bigger picture, which is fine, but means this isn’t a particularly gripping read. I suspect Volume 2 onwards may prove more interesting as the story moves forward.
What doesn’t help is that this sub-genre is quite crowded, even here in the English market where far fewer titles have made their way over from Japan so far. My Death Flags, due to its slow beginning and frankly stereotypical set-up, doesn’t particularly stand out from the crowd. And that’s not helped by Mitsuya Otosu’s artwork, which often leaves pages feeling quite empty except for the characters. I quite like the character designs by and large, but they don’t stand out as being very memorable either. It’s not bad, and I’m sure fans of the original light novels (unlicensed in English so far) would enjoy seeing the characters in a different medium, but as my first exposure to the series, it doesn’t leave me with strong feelings either way.
My Death Flags Show No Sign of Ending Volume 1 comes to the West thanks to One Peace Books and has been translated by Jordan Taylor. The release reads well with no issues to note. There’s nothing to speak of in terms of extras, which is a shame, as it looks like there were some colour pages in the Japanese release.
While the light novels are finished with four volumes in Japan, the manga is still ongoing with 10 volumes currently available. Here in English, One Peace Books has Volume 2 scheduled for release in December, but nothing beyond that is currently scheduled (understandably since that puts us into 2026).
Overall, My Death Flags Show No Sign of Ending is a fairly unremarkable first outing. It’s not a bad manga so far, but it doesn’t do a whole lot to stand out from other similar series, and I think I would have preferred to see the original light novels released first so that there was more of the story to experience. Still, hopefully, this will pick up as it continues!
Our review copy from One Peace Books was supplied by Turnaround Comics (Turnaround Publisher Services).
© Mangabox / Mitsuya Otosu / Izumi / Atiki
