Children

[Lomeno]

Ok so what is the point of that nursery?

 

[UltimateAutism]

Ok so what is the point of that nursery?

Spoiler: Ending spoilers

The nursery was used as a way to get rid of the bodies for the Yakuza (however that subplot is sorta all over the place, and feels more like an excuse then a fleshed out reasoning for the story as a whole)

 

[MissingShouko]

11/10!!! Best Manga i've ever read

 

[bandito]

What a waste of time.

 

[UltimateAutism]

11/10!!! Best Manga i've ever read

I agree it's a good manga, but definitely not that good- the ending sucks and feels rushed, the writing, characters, and overall setting is good but it's like an 8/10 possibly 9

 

[twinklecake]

Damn near perfect, barring a few very minor pacing issues you have to assume are already going to be there whenever you pick up any new manga at all. People who bombed the rating of this are very silly billies.

 

[5hijima]

mw i get a bit too silly:

 

[Littlepikachu13]

So much edge and no point. Everything felt like it was too rushed to care about anyone who died and it felt like just shock factor

 

[Apllz]

可愛いですね！！！

 

[MittyMitty]

Honestly, this wasn't that scary.
Like yeah, there were some eerie visuals and gore, but any substance was just shock content.
The characters have no depth put into, asides from the memories that are dumped on us the moment before they die. They kill off the interest in these characters or the complexities they might be facing for shock factors and plottwists that dont make any sense in hindsight.

The ending was just a big lore dump where the author clearly panicked because he was the protagonist more of a shitty guy than the antagonist, so he had to add rape and conspiracy to his crimes.

It was the second mention of rape that made me notice that the author doesn't trust us to understand his storytelling, so he makes "horror" in the form of visuals.

Ok, so now I'm gonna rant about spoilers because this manga is so bullshit, feel free to skip:

Spoiler

The main characters we should care about, according to the authors attention he put the most on (aka the ones with most story) are the protagonists, yandere love interest, and the antagonist. (Too boring to remember names)
The protagonist, who calls out the abnormal and psycopathic behavior of the children, is dumbed down to nonsensical axe swinger by the end. His character was complex to me at first, because he butchered the dead bodies of the children who were murdered for wanting to escape with him, because he wanted to give them a proper burial despite his repulsion. But none of this matters because of his Major Plottwist! Because in actually, he was a child pyscopath who killed the yandere love interests mother and was masking as a sane person for so long that he confidently blocked out the memories. His struggles in the beginning are waved off as pretending to be compassionate like his dad.

The yandere love interest was a red herring alluding her to be the big bad, but asides from the fear tactics and knife skills, she doesn't have much but the mc going on in her mind.

And then the ACTUAL antagonist, the one supposedly responsible for getting yakuza to ship adults for the kids to butcher, getting the village that's surrounding the daycare to ignore the crime, AND the two mc to transfer there for work. Yeah, he doesn't show up until the supposed climax. The moment he's introduced as a body transporter, he's presented as a super meek guy being held against his will to do this job, but then almost the next chapter he's going guns ablaze with his co-worker to 'be rid of these devil-kids.' (Note: I am not upset at him being presented as meek first, I peeved at the whiplash. We were given no chance to take in these new characters so we could actually feel betrayed when they went guns blazing.)

This is where I want to talk about the Sexual Assualt tag, because it's also used as shock content. Not as one of the kids trauma, but as the antagonists initiation for being the daycare mama.
I got to bring up the surviving members of this manga to add more context. Rinko and blind-girl (I genuinely can't remember any names except for Rinko because the phrase 'Rinko- not Ringo' rang in my head), were the only ones to grow up as adults.
When Rinko confronted the antagonist, the author obviously wanted to make him look more like a horrid guy so he had him threaten to kill Rinko and make Blind-eye the next daycare mama, since he wouldn't be able to runaway. However, he had to explicitly say he would have to initiate her by having the village elders fill her with 'love.'

It was then I realized that the author didn't trust us to understand his dialouge. After he threatened blind-girl with rape, the author didn't trust us to understand what he meant and proceeded to present a visual of blind-girl getting raped by old men. Then I realized this happened earlier too-- not just with the yandere love interest also implying she was raped before a mental visual appearing, but also with the trauma lore dumped before a kid dies.
Either this author knows his writing is shit or thinks his readers' comprehension need subway surfer videos on the side. Or, once again, he's pulling at every horror cliche he can(rape, murderous kids, abuse, cannibalism, and the protagonist also being a villain despite his nice-guy persona).

tdlr; "Children" is a manga of shock-content relying on visuals because the author doesnt trust the audience to understand or his storytelling.
The characters have no depth and are only giving a backstory the moment before they die.
Any character complexity was crushed by a "plottwist" for more shock-content.
This is a pitch I could’ve heard from an edgy middleschooler

 

[OhAPickle]

🤨

 

[Shinobu]

Whoever added this to the Staff Picks needs to be fired

 

[YakTheKuza]

This was not that good and it landed in staff picks?

 

[Dragonitegak9]

I want the person who put this in staff picks dead

 

[RKatano]

I just read this in one session, what in the fuck did I just read, whoever made this interesting story but go get therapy

 

[Crab08]

Pigpen if it was mediocre

 

[UserOfCopies]

I really, really, don't recommend. For mental health reasons.
But I can't say this is bad, for what is propose(in exception for the drama, at the point then I've dropped this isn't so good).

 

[foxxyUwU]

The ending genuinely tore me apart.

 

[thedran]

Weird but alright comic. Could have done some longer term planning and maybe added a little more padding around the end so it isn’t just a lore dump with a bunch of loose threads. As a quick little creepy read though I thought it was pretty dope.

 

[Kizil]

this was so good!