Howdy everyone. Elias here. Another week, another webcomic. This time things get a little deadly, but on a delayed timescale as Mel takes a look at “Death: Rescheduled.” Read on, fellow webcomics travelers, to find all this and a really snazzy logo in this issue of The Webcomics Weekly.
Death: Rescheduled
Episodes 1-18
Updates Saturdays
Created by Snailords
Reviewed by Mel Lake
To describe “Death: Rescheduled,” I’m going to name-drop about half a dozen comparable titles. Because the thing is, this story shares its DNA with so many other properties that from the jump, it’s easy to think “okay, I know where this is going.” But as you keep reading “Death: Rescheduled,” you realize that nope, you don’t know where it’s going at all. That’s both a major plus and a bit of a minus for this series. So with that in mind, let’s dive in.
In the world of “Death: Rescheduled,” everyone gets to murder one person every year with zero consequences. (Insert The Purge reference here.) Since this is the way it’s always been, no one questions what’s called “the kill law.” Not exactly subtle, but hey, it works. If two or more people want to kill the same target, they battle for the right to do so. When his best friend is killed legally, Kreyul Arroyal decides to dedicate his life to ending the kill law. He becomes a vigilante of sorts, traveling the five districts of the world to gather signatures. Once he has five million signatures, the lawmakers will consider putting the kill law up to a vote.
So, you’ve probably already thought of a few similar titles, right? Maybe Battle Royal? Or Gladiator with a flavor of Squid Game? All of those apply but the world of “Death: Rescheduled” adds another layer of complication. Since this story seems heavily influenced by anime and manga, there are also “deviants” with superpowers and humans who have modified their bodies to compete. This makes the battles much more entertaining and visually interesting. Because the first arc is a relatively simple threeway contest in an aquarium that’s used to explain the world, I found the modifications and deviant aspects of the plot distracting and unnecessary. There were so many other rules to explain that they seemed like overkill. As the story progresses (and gets much, much weirder), however, I began to see their appeal. Each deviant has such a bonkers power that everyone in the story interacts in unique ways. For example, Kissae, Kreyul’s friend, can hack into a person’s mind once she’s fought them, and then she has to fight their “mind guardian” to access their memories. Kreyul himself has powers, too, of course, since he’s our bishounen hero. He can transport anything he’s touched recently to a location within a mile of himself. Each of these powers is so random and unique that they add a fun guessing game to every battle, even if some of them majorly stretch credulity.
The first arc of “Death: Rescheduled” focuses on the same question that Light Yagami asks in Death Note and the same question that plagues Vash the Stampede in Trigun: Is it morally acceptable to murder a murderer? For Kreyul, the answer is no, not if the killing is extrajudicial. He’s bringing a Batman mentality to The Purge. The story is set in an aquarium, which is such a great use of setting and really showcases the artist’s skills. The sharks in the background are beautifully rendered and provide a constant reminder of the sort of danger that everyone is in when they live in a world where anyone can kill. I take this arc as a pretty overt critique of American gun laws. It takes the constitutional right to carry a deadly weapon just one step further in saying anyone is also allowed to use it. It’s not subtle but no one says critique has to be subtle. Kreyul is trying to change hearts and minds about gun control, and it seems like his chances might be about as good as the chances that laws will change in this country. (That is, not good.)
Once the story progresses to the second arc, however, additional characters get brought into the mix and we move on to a critique of extreme religious puritanism. Kreyul and Kissae, along with the pink-haired psycho Emai, visit an island where sex and romance are outlawed. A young woman is sentenced to death for being sexually assaulted. The judge is a masked woman wearing a reverse Iron Maiden dress that looks like it was made for the Met Gala under the theme “Hellraiser tribute.” Kreyul and company try to save the girl, to no avail. This story arc is more interesting than the first one because it brings in other characters with different abilities and motivations. But it also falls into an old trope of “let’s save the innocent woman’s virginity,” which is a little too white-knight-y to me, even if it’s an effective way of garnering reader sympathy.
Continued belowAt times, it feels like the writer is making up the rules for deviants and the laws of the land as he goes. But he’s designed a world template that allows for this, so I’m totally willing to go along for the ride. Meta jokes also help smooth over any hesitations the reader might have but thankfully there aren’t so many that the strip suffers from Whedon-y banter overload. The variations in style are seamless instead of distracting and I give the artist major props for being able to weave chibis and jokes into such an action-packed and heavy story.
Visually, “Death: Rescheduled” is impressive as heck. The artwork is outstanding and the battle scenes are super cool. The only trick the artist leans on a lot that I don’t vibe with is his tendency to flip the art vertically 90 degrees to throw you off balance. It makes the scenes hard to figure out sometimes and it’s a method I just personally don’t like. But overall, the artwork is very effective and the character designs are top-notch. You know the instant she’s introduced that Emai is an unhinged anime girl with superpowers, and sure enough, she is. Kreyul is effectively bishounen and Kissae is a genderless badass. I love to see it.
I’m not quite through the second story arc of “Death: Rescheduled” but it has enough Trigun vibes and bonkers action to keep me reading. Even if the moral questions posed by the story have been explored in more complex ways in other properties, I’m still on board because of the awesome artwork and the story hooks that were planted in between the first two arcs. If you keep reading past the aquarium, the world of “Death: Rescheduled” expands to include new and interesting characters that will keep you guessing.
