Manga Review: Judge - Your sins will be JUDGED!

If you think that your sins aren't judged, you better get a grip and hope you aren't pulled for this Jury Duty.

Manga: Judge
Rating: Older Teen
Story: Yoshiki Tonogai
Art: Yoshiki Tonogai
Distributor: Yen Press
Number Volumes: Up to 2nd volume (6 noted so far)
Cost: $12.99

Talk about taking a concept and creating 2 mangas out of it. That is what Yoshiki Tonogai did with Doubt and Judge. Different stories, but the same conceptual idea. Take a group of people (wearing animal heads), lock them up, watch them slowly deteriorate and kill one another off. Reminds me a bit of the Saw franchise, but without all the hardware.

Now, I had heard of Doubt, but not Judge. I decided in the end to grab a copy of Judge and dive into it. Why this over Doubt, well, I have a crazy fascination with the 7 deadly sins of man. This series pulls them all in for final judgement (hence the title). Now lets get into the story a bit and explore if it is a good read for me or you.

Ripped from the Internet:

"Envy, lust, sloth, wrath, gluttony, pride, greed.

A group of sinners who bear the guilt of the seven deadly sins has been gathered in an old courthouse to face judgement. To leave this place alive, they must offer up a sacrifice – one of their number. As the trial begins, who will the gavel fall on first?"

I have to admit that I am a little hesitant with this series after the first volume. First off, there are only 7 sins that I am aware of, yet 9 people have been pulled into this. Does this mean that a couple of the people are linked to the same sin? This is actually what may be the case due to 2 people wearing the same animal heads. Speaking of animals, lets get to the list of them and what I think is the associated sin:

1. Lion - Pride
2. Horse - Greed
3. Pigs (2) - Gluttony
4. Rabbit - Envy
5. Fox - Sloth
6. Wolves (2) - Lust
7. Bear - Wrath

Now, I am just throwing my guesses out there and we are sure to find out later. What I liked though is the fact it really shows humanity as it really is - Dark. We as a society try to hard to keep in the light, when in fact we are slaves to the darkness within ourselves. This is to be a horror genre manga and I am sure it will easily meet that desire. What will you do to survive and who will you sacrifice to make that a reality?

In the beginning, it seems to be slow as you are introduced to Hiro, your average high schooler. School crushes are suppose to be great and part of growing up. However, we see that a little lie can have dire consequences and even death. Because of this, Hiro ends up being one of the 'sinners' two years after the incident. What does this mean to us the reader? Will he be our guide through this series? For now, that seems to be the case as we know what his sin is (I am going with Envy).

The 'Judge' in this series has set in motion what I would seem to be a survivor game. In the first volume, the sinners must vote on who they think should be killed out of the group. If they don't vote, then they ALL die. The funniest part to me is how Hiro thinks that everyone will follow his idea so as no one has to die. Though I have to admit it is a good one, it is also open to being taken advantage of very easily. How can you depend on others when you do not know them is very relevant in this series. But one has already fallen, so shouldn't that count? The obvious, 'Who can I trust" is screaming at you while you read this. I found myself already trying to decide who the villains are even though they are all the villains aka 'sinners'.

I left out some other interesting tidbits of info, but I don't want to give away too much. Let me know your take if you have read this or your thoughts on this Manga concept. I will be getting my hands on the second volume for sure. I think this series will blast off in the coming volumes and I am looking forward to the aftermaths.

Overall: B