Chapter 10

Commentary Haruki Kuou Let me begin by stating that this work is unquestionably divisive. Presumably, those of you reading these sentences are readers who have picked up Volume 2 after having completed Volume 1—in other words, readers belonging to the camp that approves of the nature of Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table. Still, progressing further into the story must have come with even greater surprises. After all, the characters in this work drop like flies. Typically, light novels are character-driven stories. A captivating protagonist, one or several heroines, and the many distinctive characters around them feature in various adventures and escapades across multiple volumes. That is undoubtedly one of the joys of the medium. However, Playing Death Games categorically avoids that approach. Aside from Yuki, who is framed as the protagonist of the series, characters simply do not survive. Since the story revolves around games where players teeter on the brink of death, the level of immersion with regard to featured characters is extremely high, but in general, that does not carry into the following game. The structure is one that makes it difficult to find “characters to continuously root for” other than Yuki. However, it also has the effect of making parts of the story feel more realistic, since we readers are forced to acknowledge the characters not as “people who will surely survive,” but rather as “players who could lose their lives at any moment.” Because of that, this series has the power to keep readers turning the pages while on the edge of their seats until the very end. So in that sense, too, this story is quite straightforward. When I first learned that a series about death games had won the MF Bunko J Newcomer Excellence Award, I first assumed the story featured some kind of “twist” on the genre. For example, despite being billed as a death-game series, it would be a story centering on back-and-forths between cute heroines, or a thrilling action story about outwitting the gamemasters behind the scenes—those “detours” from the genre subconsciously came to mind. But Playing Death Games is a straightforward death-game story. Furthermore, the series does not include depictions more grotesque than necessary, which means it does not rely on gore as a main selling point—the story simply features games in which players die. Although I do not believe this is a work that will appeal to all readers, everyone should be able to acknowledge that it stays true to its title and theme. And as a troubling point—or perhaps, a delightful point—even with its subject matter, Playing Death Games also has a side that graciously tries to entertain its readers. Regarding this, I will clearly sing its praises. As soon as the story transitions into “daily life” sections, Yuki’s narration becomes more relaxed, with even casual descriptions being presented in a way to elicit giggles from the reader. In contrast, when the focus turns to hard-core game-clearing mode, the story cuts out unnecessary information and sucks the reader in. This is a small detail, but the use of fractions to indicate chapter divisions adds a nice touch. Since the denominator signifies the “end of the game,” readers gain a far more intuitive sense of the story than they would with only numbers or symbols. Those sorts of small considerations can be noticed throughout. All these efforts have gone into improving the quality of the work, without any underhanded reliance on characters and settings, with the full understanding that the subject matter will not appeal to everyone. That is precisely the reason why this series offers a unique, stimulating experience.