Manga Review: BTOOOM!, Vol. 1 [Paperback]

I've finished reading "BTOOM Vol. 1" by Junya Inoue.

Product Description

By all counts, Ryouta Sakamoto is a loser when he's not holed up in his room, bombing things into oblivion in his favorite online action RPG. But his very own uneventful life is blown to pieces when he's abducted and taken to an uninhabited island, where he soon learns the hard way that he's being pitted against others just like him in a explosives-riddled death match! How could this be happening? Who's putting them up to this?

And why!? The name, not to mention the objective, of this very real survival game is eerily familiar to Ryouta, who has mastered its virtual counterpart - BTOOOM! Can Ryouta still come out on top when he's playing for his life!?

About the Author

Junya Inoue is the manga artist behind a number of horror series for young men, including survival drama "BTOOOM!" and horror mysteries "Otogi Matsuri" and "Youkai Hunter: Yami no Kyakujin."

Product Details
Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: Yen Press (February 26, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 031623267X
ISBN-13: 978-0316232678

My Review:

Ryouta Sakamoto is a 22 year old who lives at home with his mom and plays an online action game called BTOOM all day and all night.  The game only uses bombs instead of weapons which Ryouta is an strategy expert which makes him one of the top players.

Then we see Ryouta waking up hanging by a parachute on a tree while on a strange island somewhere.  He has no memory of how he ended up here and as soon as he gets down he meets his first opponent.  This guy is out to kill him but Ryouta manages to get the drop on him.

Finally Ryouta meets an old man who explains how a whole group of people ended up on the island and the rules of the game and how to use the bombs he was given.

The artwork was well detailed and the fight scenes were very realistic (especially the gory death scenes).

I hated the way Ryouta treated his mom (he would yell at her and he even threw his controller at her - lucky he didn't hit her since it would have caused a lot of damage even death). 

4/5

Thanks Hachette Book Group Canada/Yen Press for sending me this manga to review, greatly appreciated!