DRAMAtical Murder Images

Dramatical Murder is a science fiction Japanese visual novel series by Nitro+chiral, a game-making branch of the company Nitroplus.
It was first developed as a game for the Windows PC on April 2012.
During the same time, the manga adaptation was also released during that year which was later published by Enterbrain and illustrated by Torao Asada.
Since its debut in August 2012, 2 volumes of Dramatical Murder have been published and it is still ongoing as of today. Kazuya Miura directed the anime adaptation of Dramatical Murder together with the staff from Studio NAZ.
The anime made its premiere on the big screens last July 2014 which shortly ended on September 2014 of the same year with 12 thrilling episodes.

PLOT:

Dramatical Murder takes place several years in the near future on a fictional island of Midorijima Island, Japan.
At a certain point in history, the island was privatized by a rich sponsor and turned the entire island into some kind of resort later called as “Platinum Jail”.
The former residents of the island are now forced to move into the Old Residential District to carry on and live their simple lives.
Aoba Seragaki is trying to live an ordinary life, working at the Junk Shop Mediocrity and living with his grandmother on Hekishima, a small island southwest of the main islands of Japan.
At the time, a popular cyber fighting game called “Rhyme” is taking all the hype and popularity.
With the brewing turf war going in the outskirts of town, Aoba is forced to take a break from his rather mediocre life and unravel the mystery lurking about the town and save his friends before it’s too late.



CHARACTERS:

Aoba Seragaki works part time at a junk shop his grandmother owns called the “Mediocrity”. Although he is portrayed to be a very caring, honest and open-minded person, he does have a short temper especially when the unexpected happens. Little do others know about his ability called “SCRAP” which allows him to mix his consciousness with others through his voice alone and use it to control them or just simply destroy their minds and leave them in a comatose-like state. Deep inside Aoba lives a totally different personality which usually comes out to surface when Aoba is emotionally distressed. This so-called “other Aoba” desires chaos and destruction and is shown to be rather both a sadist and a masochist.


Koujaku is Aoba’s childhood friend who also happens to be the leader of a Ribstiez group called Benishigure. When he’s not leading this renegade gang, he works as a hairdresser and is impeccably popular with the ladies. Koujaku is portrayed as compassionate and strong-willed and cares deeply for his friends. He was the illegitimate son of a yakuza leader and was the only heir.


Mink is the over-bearing leader of Scratch, a Ribstiez group of former prison inmates. Mink used to be part of a Native American tribe that grew special herbs which has manipulative effects on the person it is used on. His people were brutally massacred by Toue for which Mink has sworn revenge upon. Due to his rather grim past, Mink has grown to be rather stoic, ruthless, and even to the point controlling.


Noiz is an information broker for the popular cyber game, Rhyme. He is a skilled hacker and leader of the Rhyme group called the “Ruff Rabbits”. Growing up, Noiz has suffered from a condition called CIPA which unables him to feel pain which in turn led to him accidentally hurting others. Even his parents is unable to understand his situation and regarded him as a disgrace his whole life which in turn led to him being rather apathetic to the world and bases everything on plain and simple cold logic.


Clear is an android who previously served for the all-powerful Toue after which he was scraped for being obsolete and deemed useless by his creator. Clear was saved by the man who was ordered for his disposal and treated Clear like he was his own son. He has grown a liking for Aoba and treats him as his “master”. Clear is oftentimes portrayed to be rather childish, cheerful, polite and kind to the point where others see him as rather annoying at times.


UPDATE:

Mixed reviews have been received since the release of the anime adaptation of Dramatical Murder.
For the most part, positive reviews are leaning to the mysterious concept and potential of the show to be something big.
An original video animation (OVA) has been released together with the release of the newest edition Dramatical Murder re:code for the PlayStation Vita last October 30, 2014.


Other similar shows to Dramatical Murder that falls under the category of cyberpunk themes include Apple Seed, Ergo Proxy, Ghost in the Shell franchise, Psycho-Pass, Serial Experiments Lain, Texhnolyze and Vexille to name a few.



source: Zerochan; written by carllustre87