To do a review of this manga I think it is important to give a little bit of context about the game its based on. especially considering its a direct sequel of the game. So for the first section of this review I will be talking a little bit about the game If you havent played the game I highly recommend to play it first before reading this manga but you most likely found this manga because you played the game anyway. Fragile Dreams the game that this manga is based on is a game that I have a complicated relationship with. The first few hours of the game were legitimately one of the best gaming experience Ive ever had it captured stories themes and atmosphere that wasnt well explored in other postapocalyptic games. At first it didnt try to be anything grand in terms of its story the game tells the story of Seto a survivor of the end of the world. Having lived his whole life with his grandfather Seto never shared a genuine connection with other human beings than his own grandfather and when he finally passed away he told Seto to go to the Tokyo tower referred to in game as Red tower to find another survivor in the already desolated world. Seto never shared a connection with others but he knows that loneliness feels like how painful it is which lead him to decide to follow his grandfathers will. In his journey Seto met a girl with hair as white as the moon singing her soul out only to get startled by his existence and ran away. It has the setting for a classic boy meets girl story however the game has another idea in mind. The main objective for most of the game is to find the girl you really only get to spend a little bit of time with her way later in the story. Its not a big deal because the real treasure is the people we met along the way. Throughout the game youll find other companions with stories that just ... hurts. From a girl who got separated from her mother when the disaster happened an AI assistant who got disposed of because she was founded to be useless people who got their life cut short and are now hanging around as ghosts Each of them felt heartfelt and the game managed to capture the feeling of loneliness and stages of grief with brilliant storytelling. The game also has items memories some of the items in the game has a bit of a story about its previous users and how the item was used this in my opinion is where the narrative really shines. Theyre essentially mini stories that were written in a classic literature style story telling that are both cryptic and compelling some of the item memories are basically voice dramas that lasts up to 20 minutes Theyre well written and well voice acted. Fragiles gameplay might not be the best there is but the artistic values of its first few hours carried the whole experience. Notice that I said the first few hours because after a certain point the end of the hotel level specifically it all went downhill. The melancholic abandoned desolated locales are replaced with tunnels corridors more tunnels more corridors. The storytelling took a nosedive with it abandoning the episodic formula that it established the item memories that I love so much are barely a thing after that point and the ones that are there doesnt hold the same impact as the ones I found early in the story. It also shifted the focus of the game from a story of a personal story of a boy who just want to meet other people to not be lonely to a story about ... stopping a comically evil villain plan to keep doing its evil plan? The game lost its focus and personal touch and it just sucked. While I do understand that it is probably for the best for the players to have an idea of the worlds lore and background this game makes a compelling case that sometimes its better to keep the player in the blue. Theres really no need to have a final boss in this type of game Id argue theres no need for an antagonist at all since it ruined the overall story of the game. But it is what it is. The manga picked up where the game left off after finally reuniting with the girl her name is Ren by the way Seto continues his journey with her this time with no destination in mind. Theyre just trying to find another survivor living their life and on a day of loitering around they found a cat who can talk. The cat has lost his memories and he asked Seto and Ren a favor to go back to Tokyo tower so he can finally retrieve his memories back. With all the bad memories they had in that tower Ren first hesitated but eventually she decided to help the cat. What follows is a really faithful adaptation of the game in terms of its storytelling they found ways to integrate some of the games mechanics like the item memories and the fireplace in a really cool way. Theres a chapter thats dedicated to an item memory of a baseball bat but instead of having them about others people story as usual the baseball bat memory allows Seto and Ren to have a dream about a fairly fun and innocuous school life along with some surprises. This not only adds to them as characters but it also gives us glimpses of a whatif scenario what if all of this never happened? What if Seto and Ren could live out a normal student life? What if these plot points were in the game? It is important to note that this manga is the only time where Seto and Ren managed to be on each others side for a long period of time throughout the game Seto shared way more time with Sai a ghost girl who follows Seto for the majority of the game. In the game Seto and Ren shared almost no bond with each other and the only connection they had before they actually sat down to talk to each other is just the fact that theyre both survivors in this already dead world. While there are some noticeable personality change in Ren who is a shy weird yet curious girl in the game to be a more genki girl in the manga it is nice to see them finally form a genuine bond that we sadly didnt have in the game. Those two aspects sadly are the only positive things that I can think of about this manga as its own thing. The art is nice but nothing to write home about. It has some weird panelings issue and the pacing is all over the place. And if youre reading this manga having not played the game before youll just be confused. The writing of this manga also never reached the heights of the games. However as a part of the Fragile Dreams story as a whole this manga made me wonder why these arent in the game to begin with. The manga elaborated the motivation for the main antagonist much clearer than the game did and the antagonist can be genuinely sympathetic. It shows how the two leads finally managed to form a bond that wasnt seen in the game and it also gave a bit of context about the real ending of the game. Would the mangas plot points inclusion benefits the games storytelling? Absolutely. Would it help fixing the games narrative as a whole probably not. At the end of the day Fragile is just a nice supplementary manga for those whove enjoyed the game and simply want more of these characters and thats it. One might argue that just like the real ending of the game is to the beginning of the game this manga might ruin the real ending of the game a little bit for you.