Did anyone ask for Death Parade, but converted into a survival game with a bad angel? Ok, this might not exactly be Though You May Burn to Ash. However, both feature some common traits: people die, get stuck in limbo, and play a game to determine their future. However, whoever actually succeeds in winning in this manga can be brought back to life. So yeah, they share some similarities.
It’s just that after you look past those, it’s pretty surface level stuff since this manga is all about showing a good, gruesome time that’s entertaining in some ways, hilariously goofy in others.
Ryouma Shinomiya is the son of a murderer, and that has hurt him and affected his sister Yukina’s reputation growing up. As their mom is gone, they’ve both had to rely on each other. However, his sister’s health is deteriorating and she’s gonna die. The only way Ryouma can save her is take her overseas and get the proper treatment for her. The problem is that it’s gonna take one billion yen (US $9.8 million) to actually do all of that. For a high school kid with zero connections, it’s essentially impossible.
Except, as he stews over this situation, an “angel” appears and offers him an opportunity to win as much money as he can, as long as he takes part in a “game”. After she asks him if he’d be willing to risk his life to get what he wants, he says he does. So, after she gives him a card, he begins questioning everything about this until he gets brutally run over by a truck. So much for saving his sister or anything of importance.
But, he soon realizes he’s somehow alive…just in a girl’s body. He then finds four others the same way, who met the same gruesome deaths and also met that “angel”. That “angel” reveals herself as Kroel and explains to them the game where, sure, they can win a ton of money. But it involves playing her game, by her rules, and also being determined enough to kill someone. And if no one dies in the game she made after ten rounds, everyone’s dead for eternity, so they’re all gonna have to do what she says.
Though You May Burn to Ash, for the most part of this first volume, is entertaining. It essentially combines survival game conventions but tosses in grisly murders, beautiful girls of different personalities, and psychological manipulation. It also gives each character (or presumably each character) a tragic back story that at least makes you wish they’d stay alive.
Well, ok, not really. A few, sure, but the drama feels comical in setup and execution. A good example is with Kroel, who delights in bringing these broken people to her. But how she’s drawn in certain situations is fairly goofy, which makes it hard to take seriously.
Now, is this supposed to be taken seriously? I think it’s doing its best to try. You can’t tell me you’re giving these characters all of this backstory and not expect me to think you want me to feel sorry for them. It also doesn’t help when, thanks to the nature of the dice game they’re playing, there are essential tactics the characters try that shows their lives are on the line…and Kroel ends up making the rules as they go. In some ways it drives the despair, but it mostly just makes me think the idea wasn’t all that well thought out.
Though You May Burn to Ash might just be the work you’re looking for if you’ve read something like Btooom! or Deadman Wonderland, just complete with an angel and some gore. And some pissing. And one part where a character gets their fingers sliced off. Yep, not exactly for everyone, and it’s definitely not a manga for those who dislike this type of story telling.