School Days
Dead Rock is a Dark Fantasy manga created by Hiro Mashima, the author behind series such as Rave Master, Fairy Tail and EDENS ZERO.Across the different layers of the Demon Realm, the one place every demon and monster aspires to enter is Dead Rock, a training institution where they can learn how to become Demon Kings. For those that manage to graduate, this means being offered by God—the supreme ruler of all the realms—the chance to pass to the human realm and claim a piece of it as their own. However, a young and mysterious demon named Yakuto has entered the special entrance exam with a different objective...
The manga launched in Monthly Shōnen Magazine on July 5, 2023, released simultaneously with EDENS ZERO and Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest (serving as storyboarder for the latter), and is planned to be a limited series.
Dead Rock provides examples of:
- Bloodier and Gorier: Mashima's previous manga series were pretty violent, but still had fairly mild amounts of blood despite that (and had near-Bloodless Carnage in their anime adaptations, as well). Dead Rock, on the other hand, is an absolute bloodbath, with copious amounts of gore spewing left and right as early as Chapter 1.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Because of their chaotic nature, it is to be expected that demons don't follow typical human social norms: it's clear they hold little value to life, even their own; think nothing of killing each other to get what they want and don't think much about losing their own lives either.
- Breaking Old Trends: Compared to Mashima's three previous works, Rave Master, Fairy Tail, EDENS ZERO
- Mashima's three previous series contained a bubbly, kind-hearted heroine who received almost as much focus as the main protagonist. None of the females in this series come close to Elie, Lucy, or Rebecca in kindness or focus.
- Death of named characters is usually narrowly avoided in Mashima's other works and only sticks in a very small number of important and unique situations. Here, many named characters die in every chapter and now they can only come back in special situations.
- Haru, Natsu and Shiki are all on the side of good and follow the usual morals of them and only go against authorities if Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! was in effect. Here, Yakuto is an AntiHero who will kill any person and break any rule to get what he wants, no matter who and what they are.
- Darker and Edgier: Compared to Mashima's other mangas, this one seems to go with darker humor with a protagonist more ambiguous about his morality.
- Kill the God: As revealed at the end of Chapter 1, this is Yakuto's true objective; to kill the God of the Demon Realm, who's also the principal of Dead Rock.
- Last of His Kind: Yakuto is the last member of the Dragon Roots as the Black Dragon and he keeps that a secret until he uses it to easily dispatch Gyugo.
- Mythology Gag: In chapter 4 when Frey faces off against Yakuto in a practice battle, she speaks about the ancient battle between a fire wizard and a black dragon. And the fire wizard won.
- Willfully Weak: Yakuto does this in order to not to be recognized as a remaining Dragon Root in front of the crowd of fellow enrolled Demons who were baffled why he is here on Dead Rock in the first place.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: When Yakuto reveals his fellow classmates of his real goal after killing Professor Maxwell, they are all shocked and unnerved.
