When Your Protector Becomes the Threat... | Shall I Kill in Your Stead? Vol. 1 | Manga Overview

Okay, here we are with an overview of Then Shall I Kill in Your Stead volume one. This is published by Yen Press, and I do have to give a shout-out to them. They got in contact with me and asked if I wanted to review this copy, and I said, "Yes, of course, I would love to." I'm always down to reading new things and of course sharing my experience with all of you watching the channel as well. So, this is volume one. It is written by Yukiaki Kurando with art by Soso Sakakibara. This is a not safe for work story, and it tells the tale of Yuma Fujikuda, a high schooler with big ambitions, big dreams of making it into showbiz as a writer. He is a big fan of these radio shows and podcasts, if you will, late-night shows. Unfortunately, being in high school, he's the subject to extreme bullying by these sadistic a-holes that want to torture this guy for no real reason. But, this is only volume one, so let's not get ahead of ourselves. So, at the start of this book, we see the bullying that the character is going through, and until one particular day, he meets this character called Rio Amazato or Amity for short, and Rio is obsessed with Yuma and wants to help him. But, instead of going to any sort of student council or any police or authority figure, Rio takes it upon himself to deal with the bullies, meeting violence with violence. And that is extremely concerning, but Yuma doesn't know about this. He just sees this sort of like in his eyes this uh angelic solution that has appeared, and uh it just so happens that Rio is a writer himself, so his interest match with Yuma and they are both into the same uh radio shows and writing for them and stuff like that. So, instantly Yuma forms a connection. However, keep in mind, like I said, he doesn't know about Rio's violent side. And that is one of the central themes of this book, how the situation is met with violence instead of reasoning, thought, and disciplinary action through the legal route. You start seeing little by little Amazato's obsession with Yuma and protecting him at all costs. So, as the story progresses with each chapter, you start peeling the layers of this obsession. Yuma, however, he's naive. He's never had this opportunity to have a close friend, one that has shared interest and is actually saving him from the the main trouble, which are the bullies. There are other characters that are introduced. Uh in particular, this one girl who through flashbacks, you learn that she is also a victim of bullying and she hates to see others go through that as well. So, she's kind of interested and develops this sort of parasocial relation with the main character as she's trying to get close and help, but not really admit it. She also meets Amazato and is in conflict with the way both characters want to deal with this. I thought it was pretty interesting how she went to the student council or I believe it was the administrative at the school and that person was going through the protocol of assessing the situation and filing the reporting and eventually taking a look. It wasn't going to go nowhere and she points that out. How long are you going to sit there and not do anything until the real tragedy pops up and then you feel sorry about what happened and you make a show of it. So, you have both sides of the argument with Amazato taking a more direct approach, one that, uh, you know, personally speaking, I don't think it is the way to go cuz Amazato has this ruthless, cool, vindictive, uh, vengeful side of him that screams that he is the greater danger overall. And even though you found a temporary solution to the problem, let's not forget you're still sort of taking advantage of the naive nature of this young kid who doesn't know about these relationships and stuff, and enveloping him in this really toxic relationship. I'm really interested to see how it develops. I am not typically a fan of books like this because I I prefer more fantastical reads instead of going down the road of the true crime aspect. I know that's pretty popular these days. I'm not a fan of serial murder and torture and all that stuff. And I could understand why a lot of people would be excited and interested in reading a book like this, especially examining that relationship between the victim and the savior, if it's really as healthy as it seems with the toxicity of this obsessive person taking ownership and being a guardian to this kid. Speaking of the crime aspect, there are a lot of violent scenes. Some are gut-wrenching. They are drawn really well and emphasize the brutality, the nature of violence, and how it can come from any angle, from anybody. So, if you're not a fan of that, I completely understand. There are also scenes that talk about sexual assault, which I know is a trigger for some people, and that is perfectly okay. But I would do want to point that out. It is 12 volumes. The series ended in Japan. So, I'm kind of interested in volume two. I don't know. This is normally not something I would collect, but I do want to keep going with the story to see how that relationship develops between Amazato and Yuma and the bullies. There are things that happen in here which are pretty freaking shocking and volume one ends on a cliffhanger. You don't know if Amazato has dealt with the problem for good. So, we're going to have to read volume two to find out. So, if any of this sounds interesting to you, I do recommend picking up Then Shall I Kill in Your Stead volume one. So, want to give another shout out to the folks at Yen Press for sending this review copy my way and I hope I persuaded you guys listening, watching to pick up this book or not. Let me know in the comment section what you thought of the title if you've read it and if not, what are some crime or psychological manga that you think I should check out for the channel. Let me know in the comment section down below. Thank you everyone for joining me on this quick overview. That is going to be it. God bless. Stay safe out there. I will catch all of you on the next one. >> [music] [music]