Prophecy joined my manga collection after I was browsing through a bookstore on late afternoon. I was in need of a dark thriller inspired type of series and this one came into my sight on the bookshelf. This instance wasn't the first time that I had picked up volume one of the series but I wasn't in the right mindset for Prophecy's brand at storytelling at the time. So, I made an on the spot decision to by the first tow volumes then came back later for volume three. Tsutsui Tetsuya created Prophecy followed by two spin offs, One of the spin offs being a novel. A live action film was also made for the manga in 2015(I had seen little news about the live action adaption too but didn't know much about Prophecy back then…. Simply catching up is needed since I'm woke now.).
Some group of detectives lead by a beautiful woman joins a game of cat and mouse led by an known man called Paper Boy. This man does live streamed videos online announcing the take down of high profile people who have done the society damage. These people are taken down one by one and the detectives must stop his new world order.
I thought that Prophecy was going to be extremely more disturbing than it was. Readers are placed in the story without any inconsistencies. First half of the opening ark is told from the view point of the detectives, which was new if you consider the style format of thriller manga. Most of the time the plot is told from the view point of the quote on quote "villain". Prophecy instead leaves readers and the detectives in the dark on Paper Boy's true identity causing a hunger of sorts to learn more about the person under the paper mask. It does make Paper Boy's actions feel more shocking and real because you are seeing a character you know nothing about have all this power suddenly. You watch the detectives scramble to piece together clues on how to take him down on top of feeling a flood of mixed emotions. Justice that settles in each of us tells you that Paper Boy should be arrested. On the opposite hand, Certain parts of what Paper Boy is doing doesn't seem so evil. At least from the stand point of helping people who have been disenfranchised by the higher up powers in Japan. I actually found myself rooting for Paper Boy unconsciously all through my read without realizing what was happening. A part of the story opens up a much needed second take from Paper Boy's perspective. Here is where you learn most of what you need to know about all the one's pulling the strings behind the Paper Boy fiasco. I felt that the motive behind the characters was somewhat done before in other presentations of dark thrillers but it still felt new in manga format. Prophecy begins to lag a little bit during the final volume. The story struggles to find a solid way to reach a perfect conclusion so Tetsuya decides to destroy everything from the inside out. I was a tiny bit disappointed with the events not being more crazed to the extent of shocking horror however, Prophecy does deliver a deep message to readers. A message that puts me in mind of the same one Tokyo Ghoul sends to it's readers: Societies are based on messed up ideals that cause the whole machine to be wrong. A lot of things happen in our society that aren't fair to certain people and there are times that the disfranchised voices are never heard. People in power go day by day choosing to keep their eyes closed to the pain of said people if it doesn't effect their lives. Who will hear them? Will people stand along side the people down in the dirt to help give them a louder voice? Prophecy is a body of work that represents this very exact social struggle found in every kind of society.
The artwork down to the paneling didn't look like manga created the normal way. Tetsuya's art work looks more like a whole big sketch that people would use to create the outline for model portraits. His methods of drawing the faces and the character's built looks like he used a stencil pen for sharper strokes and leaner facial structure. No other manga looks like Prophecy.
Tsutsui Tetsuya's Prophecy is a manga with substance but it wasn't the best that it could have been. There was a lot more potential to make this manga sink into your soul forevermore but I felt that it didn't quite get to that point of excellence for me. I did like Prophecy enough to be willing to check out the spin offs and the live action adaption.
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