Just a nice romantic stroll through what's left of Japan
Uruwashiki Shuen (Beautiful Demise) is a 2017 one-shot Shonen Ai-dystopian manga by Fujitobi.It details the struggles of two high school boys, the gloomy, coldhearted Kurose and kindhearted but timid Shirotani, as they survive through the Zombie Apocalypse. Kurose is in love with Shirotani but the latter only wants to find his girlfriend Misaki and things go downhill from there.
Contains the following tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Kurose's mother smokes, drinks, does drugs and drinks some more, contributing to the endless brutal beatdowns on her son from wishing he had never been born and Kurose having to go to school every day with a different bruise or injury. Needless to say, Kurose didn't bother to find her during the Zombie Apocalypse and wistfully hoped she was dead.
- An Arm and a Leg: Not wanting the only person he ever loves and cares about to be infected, Kurose coldly hacks off Shirotani's arm after the latter's zombified girlfriend bit him.
- Bait-and-Switch: The story opens with Shirotani shoplifting and was about to be caught by the store clerk but surprise, the clerk is a zombie which Kurose takes out. Turns out the store was abandoned since it's the middle of the Zombie Apocalypse where the two were raiding for supplies.
- Break the Cutie: By the end of the manga, the friendly, kind-hearted Shirotani lost his arm, family, girlfriend and the will to live. Being now a sad, empty shell of who he once was and resigning to his fate as Kurose's boyfriend.
- Destination Defenestration: How Kurose dispatches Shirotani's girlfriend although he should have waited longer as she managed to survive the fall to get the drop on her ex-boyfriend.
- Downer Ending: Don't expect too happy of an ending from a Zombie Apocalypse story. Kurose may have finally found peace at the world ending, away from his abusive, presumably dead mother and together with the love of his life, Shirotani is the exact opposite. Being nothing but an empty husk after everyone he loves is either dead or a zombie and is indefinitely stuck with an aggressively crazed Yandere who forcefully chopped off his arm.
- The Faceless: The zombies are portrayed with their faces being obscured or off-panel.
- Foreshadowing: The cover depicts Kurose walking hand-in-hand with Shirotani where the latter's other hand is not being visible from our perspective. We see why at the end when Kurose hacked it off against Shirotani's wishes to prevent him from turning and leaving him.
- Life-or-Limb Decision: After his zombified girlfriend bitten his arm, Shirotani was ready to turn as he finds life not worth living anymore but doesn't even make the decision since Kurose immediately chops off his arm, not wanting to lose him.
- Meaningful Name: Kurose contains the kanjis for "Black" and "Torrent" representing his bleak, dark outlook on life and the repeated torrent of abuse his mother gives.
- Not Quite Dead: Kurose thought to have killed an infected Misaki by shoving her from the window to a three-story drop but she shortly became a zombie and shambled away when he wasn't looking.
- The Reveal: Kurose knew Misaki was a goner since the beginning of the Zombie Apocalypse, seeing her bleeding out from being bitten on the way downstairs, and had pushed her out the third-story window not to finish the job or self-defense but out of jealousy for being Kurose's girlfriend.
- Single Tear: The manga ends with Shirotani shedding a tear at his current predicament, how could he not when everyone he loves is dead and has to love someone back who is not right in the head.
- Zombie Apocalypse: The now desolate Japan after being overturned by the undead serves as the backdrop for the one-sided romance of Kurose to Shirotani. During which, Shirotani tries finding his long-lost girlfriend Misaki only to find out she became a zombie since the start.
