Okay so I'm going to make a review of both Doubt and Judge because they are almost the same and I'm not kinky enough to get myself reading Secret.

One of my favourite kind of stories are mystery/survival games. It's an amazing and easy way to develope a good story with strong bonds between the characters, plot twists, dark plots, and even some horror and gore.

I get to love this kind of stories through visual novels such as Zero Escape, Danganronpa and When They Cry and I even want to write some story like these by myself.

Just as Virtue's Last Reward, Umineko and Danganronpa V3 might be good exmples of what to do, this series is definetly and example of WHAT NOT TO DO.

There's a key in writting mystery stories and is always PLANNING YOUR STORY BACKWARDS. That way you can unwrap the plot slowly leaving some hints behind and some crucial plot twist momments (and preventing plotholes).

Well, nothing is unfunnier than having the mystery resolved by itself. Every plot twist happens because IT NEEDS TO HAPPEN and feels like a coin flip.
"Oh wow so this is the mastermind, I knew it because people lie)?"

Literally, there's nothing to connect, every truth revelation gives off new plot to have sense and to evade being a plot hole...BECAUSE THIS STORY WAS PLANNED AT THE SAME TIME IT WAS WRITEN. How the hell am I gonna get surprised with a plot twist if there's no plot?


Second failure: the mechanics. In terms of mechanics there's no mechanics.
The plot is sooooo easy. There's one killer among us, let's find it.
I mean, if they are playing a killing game, having some rules is MANDATORY.
But honestly, after reading Judge I even prefer it this way...at least it doesn't pretend to be "complex" with symbolism and stuff. Like no, don't try it. "I'm going to judge your sins", and then forget about the "sins" theme for the rest of the manga, they just don't matter.

And finally, the characters...
I know this isn't a visual novel with lots of dialogues for you to get attached to the characters but oh my god...I can't even remember half of the main cast.
Personality, what's that? Even their design is boring. They are just lame and forgettable. How do I get attached to them? I won't care if they die.
There's the hero, the edgy, the bad guy, a girl and...another girl?
They act just like you expect, the bad boy does bad things, the edgy does smart decisions and the hero drains all of your patience with his friendship preachments. One of them is lying, who? I don't care, they will come up with and explanation afterwards whoever he/she is. They have no progression, they are so unidimensional that it hurts.



The only good thing about this manga is that is SHORT and unlike Judge (because it's repetitive as having garlics for dinner) it could be a decent movie. The lenght makes you at least pass the time without getting bored, and that's the only reason why I could read along this disappointment.