DEAD DAYS is an adult horror visual novel released by CLOCKUP, which was initially released in Japanese in 2019. Written by scenario writer Kurashiki Tatsuya (Maggot Baits, The Restless Sheep & The Lone Wolf), the story is set in modern Tokyo and centers around a group of individuals who find themselves together after previously meeting their deaths in unrelated circumstances. The game was directed by Akutsu Ryou and features art by Norizane—both are names that are mainstays in a lot of CLOCKUP titles. Announced during Anime Expo 2023, DEAD DAYS became exclusively available on MangaGamer’s website on Halloween 2024.
When I first heard about DEAD DAYS, I couldn’t help but think that the title, although amusingly simple, was able to portray a rather accurate description of its interesting synopsis. A story that focuses on a group of characters that were essentially zombies and making them struggle for the right to keep “living” was a plot I could see myself getting behind. What was the end goal for people whose lives are entirely sustained by the will of an unseen group of people? In a way, I was dying to know.
Is life worth living a second time if you’re forced to do someone else’s bidding? Perhaps the cast’s Dead Days can help us imagine it. Time to stop dilly-dallying and get on with the review!
A Second Lease on Life
One night, high schooler Kuresaka Teru abruptly finds himself in the company of three individuals he’s never met before. Lost and confused, they suddenly ask him a weird question: “Did you die?” As they introduce themselves to each other, Teru realizes an important fact about the four of them gathered in that space—they are all people who should be dead. But by some weird miracle, they find themselves alive and well as if everything that happened to them was just a bad dream.
But then, their cellphones ring. An unknown app shows a message from an anonymous user who is well aware of their confusion. They introduce themselves as a member of the organization that revived them from the dead, effectively establishing that the four people in the room indeed died that day. Their revival, of course, comes at a cost. The mysterious figure informs them that they were revived specifically to deal with the elimination of various spirits that remain in the world—specters, as they called them. Reboot Bodies, or people who have been revived with the organization’s technology, are the only ones with the ability to interact, and ultimately, kill these specters. And if they are successful, they will be paid through the extension of their current lifespans.
Despite being given a second lease on life, our protagonists now find themselves entangled in a secret conflict between an unknown organization and supernatural figures that only they can perceive. If they refuse to fight, their new life will be cut short, essentially placing their fate at the whims of others. What’s worse is that in addition to the violent operations they need to participate in, they also suffer from extreme sexual urges as a side-effect of their new bodies.
Will they be able to live a normal life despite all of these? With death looming over them, their Dead Days begin.
Make Your Bed and Die on It
DEAD DAYS features multiple endings, with the main routes needing a very specific set of choices to enter (as explained in our guide/walkthrough). These choices are scattered across eight to nine decision points, depending on the current route. In total, there are three main routes and three side routes, with bad ends scattered in-between. The side routes are easy to access and function under a ladder format, only needing one choice to diverge from the common route. Overall, it’s a little bit more complicated than your typical visual novel, because while some choices might feel like the correct option, they actually end up pushing you towards an early death. It wasn’t particularly hard if you have enough context of the characters and the situation, but it is a bit tiresome if you’re aiming for 100% scene progress, as some lines change if you pick a different choice early on.
The visual novel features multiple character perspectives as well, giving you a broader understanding of their motivations, agenda, and goals. This is important because although DEAD DAYS appears to be action-packed and full of intensity, a lot of its narrative revolves around exploring the individual issues of each character and how they interact with the reality that they have died once. The fights usually take a step back and feel more like segues toward an H-scene or two. In a way, the game ends up feeling a lot more heartfelt in its focus than I initially thought it would.
Speaking of the characters, I felt like each cast member’s character arc was pretty faithful to the characterization they were given at the start of the visual novel. Their motivations are consistent, which, while it makes it a tad bit predictable, makes for a rather satisfying conclusion in general. I found myself very happy with how they handled Soukichi Tengen, the other male member of the main cast that suffered from a lack of memories prior to his death. The heroines all had their moment in the spotlight as well, with Ataka Mao’s arc helping me a lot in coming to terms with the kind of character Teru is. While I feel that it’s a shame they didn’t double down on the exciting, blood-pumping potential of its setting, the more sensitive character study they went with was, in equal parts, rewarding as a read as well.
The Demons That Chase You
As a horror visual novel, DEAD DAYS doesn’t really go deep into the monstrosities that the cast faces throughout the story. Their segments are more or less afterthoughts necessary to keep the setting consistent. Instead, what feels like the more horrific aspect of its plot is the possibility of ruining your life because of the consequences that come with being revived as a Reboot Body. Because a large part of the visual novel captures the cast members in their everyday life, the readers are introduced to the things that are at stake for them. Things such as family, friends, justice, legacies, and more are the demons that chase the cast in their new life, and what a chase it is.
This, of course, doesn’t detract from the actual monsters. While they are mostly in the background, specters, especially when they transform, are pretty freakish in appearance. The first time I saw a non-human one, I actually felt really disgusted. They did a pretty good job transmitting the idea that these are freakish remnants that need to be eliminated because of their monstrous capabilities. As for fights between people, they didn’t shy away from describing violent outcomes such as dismembering, bludgeoning, and whatnot. In terms of gore, it still does have some vivid imagery, but it’s noticeably more tame compared to other visual novels featuring similar content (Nie no Hakoniwa, The Restless Sheep & The Lone Wolf).
Aside from that, I did feel like the struggle to eliminate specters didn’t have a convincing motive. There’s a whole other story element that contextualizes the Reboot Bodies versus specters conflict, but I feel like it wasn’t especially justified given the actions they needed to take against specters. Perhaps it’s because of the lack of focus on this particular story element, but it does make the fights feel unimportant in the greater narrative of the visual novel.
Love is a Series of Electrical Signals
Of course, with so many heroines in the game, DEAD DAYS is primed to feature romantic content here and there. In terms of actual relationships, only the three main heroines—Aira, Manami, and Mao—fit as love interests for the protagonist Teru. Each of these heroines have relatively lengthy routes compared to the short ones that feature side characters such as Gypsy Q, Kiruru, and Nobody 66. This means that there are more opportunities to fully flesh out their relationship with the main character, and consequently, how they develop as characters together.
But with death being a large component of their reality, the routes felt more like a joint effort to face their individual issues related to them becoming Reboot Bodies. Topics of suicide, betrayal, regret, revenge, and guilt are regular subjects in these routes and they’re used pretty well in the context of DEAD DAYS’ setting. Some of the routes do progress a little bit too fast or weirdly for my tastes (looking at you Manami), and I feel like I wanted Teru to change a little bit more when he gets into a relationship with someone. Ironically, while he does change the most in Mao’s route, the scene that made me feel like he just had his greatest character development by far across routes wasn’t one that featured Mao. It felt very rewarding to see him act differently towards other characters as well, implying an impact that doesn’t center on his lover, but more so on himself.
Screw the Dead!
Being a CLOCKUP visual novel, DEAD DAYS features a ton of sex scenes in-between its story sections. Counting the scenes in the gallery, there are a staggering total of 38 H-scenes scattered throughout the 10 – 12 hours that it took me to read through. That averages to at least 3 – 4 H-scenes per hour, which is honestly a lot. With there being plenty of variations as well, fans of erotica will not find themselves disappointed with the plethora of scenes DEAD DAYS has to offer.
On the other hand, the copious amount of sex in the plot greatly disrupts the flow of the visual novel. In one scene we’ll have Teru thinking about the implications of their actions and their relationship with the mysterious organization that manages Reboot Bodies, and then a few seconds later his nether regions will flare up so bad that his brain turns into a second genital. It’s pretty disturbing when you’re trying to appreciate the setting of what you’re reading, and although some will say that the sex itself is an important story element centric to their struggle as Reboot Bodies, it should be possible to implement without destroying the flow of the game’s narrative.
I am able to turn a bit of a blind eye to this because while I’m not a fan of the sheer amount of adult content, I greatly appreciate the premise of the visual novel and the writing’s faithfulness to it. I can’t remember any point in my time reading it that I thought things were out of place; most, if not all of the characters introduced were important and relevant to the plot. They contribute well to the story, and serve purpose whenever they are present. If there’s one thing I’d like to bring up though, it’s probably Teru’s relationship with his upperclassman Indou Eita. How did they both just brush off the event that led to Teru becoming a Reboot Body? It’s kind of hilarious to think about, but it’s something that bothered me until the end.
Kabukicho and Its Sheep
For those that might not know, DEAD DAYS is set in the same world as another CLOCKUP title written by Kurashiki Tatsuya: The Restless Sheep & The Lone Wolf. The game makes numerous references to characters and events that happened in the other title. But the question is this—is it necessary for readers to read The Restless Sheep & The Lone Wolf first before going into DEAD DAYS? As someone who has gone through both visual novels, I can confidently say that the answer is “No.”
While there are many references to the previous game’s story elements, DEAD DAYS is still set in different parts of Tokyo, whereas The Restless Sheep & The Lone Wolf is set mostly in Kabukicho because of its focus on the yakuza groups contained within the area. Beyond characters being related to each other across titles or areas being shared between them, it doesn’t impact the reader’s appreciation of the story at all. It felt more like fanservice for people who have read the other title. I know it was for me, at least, because I squealed when I heard the names of the Torso Woman and the Mifune Group!
Art and Music
DEAD DAYS features a total of 78 unique CGs. If we consider CG variations including censored ones accessible through the explicit content filter in the settings, the visual novel ends up with a total of 1162 CGs including sprites. Of course, a large number of these are H-CGs, with DEAD DAYS featuring a total of 38 H-scenes. There’s bound to be at least something for everyone with that number! Yes, even the gore fans.
Norizane, the graphic artist for other CLOCKUP works such as Maggot Baits, The Restless Sheep & The Lone Wolf, and SACRIFICE VILLAINS, did a really good job on the artwork for DEAD DAYS. They’re able to create very expressive faces for the visual novel’s characters while also preserving a mostly dark-themed motif for the artwork. They pick really creative angles, and action CGs feel like they’re dynamic in a way. I really like what they do for H-scenes too, using particles such as sweat to indicate movement and intensity within CG variations. Their art makes the visual novel feel very high quality, and I’m honestly a fan. I just wish they did more action CGs, since I felt like some scenes were missing them. The ones they do aren’t even bad; in fact, they’re visually stunning!
The music in the game is pretty good too! Although it’s kind of sad that they’re not listed under the appropriate tab in the Gallery. I thought that the track they used for fights, which transitioned well into the one they used for sex scenes, was pretty apt for the atmosphere of DEAD DAYS. Additionally, the theme song of the visual novel, “Liar Liar” by Mr.FanTastiC, is incredible. It’s full of feelings that I felt appropriately reflected the characters’ struggles in the visual novel. The way it played in the background for the fight in the climax of the story was also just chef’s kiss. It was euphoric to a degree.
Verdict
DEAD DAYS is a psychological horror story featuring themes of life and death and what comes with both. By using people brought back to life, it is able to create conversation on the meaning of a second chance and the regret that accompanies someone’s demise. With prevalent slice-of-life scenes, the visual novel uses the parallelism between everyday life and their Dead Days to explore what “living” is. Surprisingly heartfelt, despite its relatively visual content, there is some comfort that readers can seek in the characters’ struggles.
With a pretty unique premise, the visual novel was set to take an interesting trajectory whether it picked to focus on its implication on characters’ lives or the action that would surround a powerful organization’s conspiracy. However, this potential in its narrative is muddied by an excess of erotica, stunting the flow of the story and thus, its impact on the reader. I feel like if there were fewer scenes or if the consequences related to their abnormal libido were explored more, I would appreciate the urgency attached to sex in their world better.
Terrifying in its implications on death, DEAD DAYS is an interesting look into our relationship with our mortality. With interesting characters, relatable themes, and heartfelt struggles, it’s a great read for those who might want a change of pace from their usual romance or action-filled visual novel story. The only thing holding it back is its focus on its own freak arousal.
Oh, and keep an eye out for Kiruru.
DEAD DAYS IS RECOMMENDED
If you are looking for another visual novel, you might want to check out The Song of Saya (Saya no Uta). We have also covered a wide variety of visual novels both originally in English and localized from Japanese, which you can check out here.
Many thanks go to MangaGamer for a PC review code for DEAD DAYS.
Visual novel reader that wishes there were more than 24 hours in a day. Gacha victim, TCG enjoyer, and VTuber simp. Still trying to live happily.
