I'll admit upfront, this one just wasn’t for me, but that’s more about my personal preferences than anything else. I’ve followed Hiro Mashima since the Rave Master days, and this one just...didn't hit those notes.

A lot of people say that if you’re into his earlier stuff, you’ll probably enjoy this too. But honestly, I don’t quite agree. It feels like a departure from what made his previous works click with me. Maybe it’s the school setting, it’s not really my thing anymore. That change in vibe made it hard for me to get into the story. And while the art is solid, it's not special in any way.

It also moves away from that big sense of adventure that I loved so much in his past series. I gave it a shot...Sorry Hiro. A 2 out of 5.

Thank you, NetGalley for an advanced ARC of this manga

If you like he'll demons, Dark fighting schools and egotistical villain characters this book is for u

This was enjoyable but not enough for me to continue, I think my reading tastes have started to change

This was such a great start to a manga!!! I LOVED Fairy Tail so I knew I'd love this manga too. The art style is so similar to it though that some of the characters resemble the ones from Fairy Tail but I don't mind that. So far, their personalities seem different from the characters I recognize them as. I'm very interested in the plot as well. A Demon academy is a really fun concept and I imagine great things for this manga!!

The cover looked pretty boring, but after taking a look inside on the publisher’s site, it did seem quite cool actually, so I checked it out.

I was gonna say the style reminds me a lot of Fairy Tail and One Piece, but Hiro Mashima is literally the mangaka of Fairy Tail, so yeah...
If you like FT or OP, you’ll love this too, probably. I, on the other hand, have never been intrigued by those 2 franchises, and this manga shows why. The art is great and I love how diverse everyone’s appearance is, but that’s about it.
Personalities of everyone are incredibly flat, there’s no real plot except constant fighting, and the main goal is something as basic as killing the ruler/god of the world. Protagonist has the most plain MC-energy, someone who would’ve died in the first page if he were a side character. But he’s not. So while the side characters are all more interesting (my favs are Chako, Frey and Mikoto (these two're unhinged, I love them)), he steals the focus with his lameness. Or may get a harem because he’s from a rare species. Nothing intriguing.

I was so bored most of the time. Wanted to give it a chance tho, trying to figure out where exactly the hype comes from, but again shows that I don’t understand mainstream hype.
But of course – it ends on a cliffhanger. I’m not really interested in following this story, though I do wanna know what happens... ugh. Although it’s quite self-explainable how it’ll continue and end.

Maybe I’ll check out volume 2 someday, maybe not. It’s definitely not in my priority list, though. If you’re gonna do the most basic dungeon academy plot for the perverted male gaze, at least give it some originality. Like a queer twist or a disability rep or something. Not chewing the same old heteronormative & neurotypical gum over and over again. (Well, I guess perverted men don't need more than that.)

~

Thanks to Kodansha for offering an eARC on Netgalley.

-06.04.25

Thanks Netgalley and publisher for allowing me to read the whole volume1!

Well what can I say? It’s pretty much the same as any other shounen highschooler manga out there with various characters, over sexualised teenage girls and the same tropes that you pretty much don’t need me to tell you, even if you’re on your very first shounen series. But I will say the art is pretty good and it is actually not a bad read to waste time on if you’re in the reading slump!

As a huge Fairy Tail fan, I’m really excited to see an English translation of the latest series by Hiro Mashima. This series has an interesting ‘dark premise handled lightly’ and is off to a promising start.

Dead Rock is a brilliant manga that I have already started collecting/pre-ordering the physical of. My first introduction to Mashima was with Rave Master the late 90s early 00s and I have been a fan ever since. Needless to say I was excited to see what this new adventure would bring.

Featuring Mashima’s iconic artwork and the start to an interesting story with a wonderful cast of characters this manga instantly hooked me. I have to confess Hani and Zelecia are my favourites rather than Yakuto but all the characters are interesting and fun. You get the touches of humour you can expect with action and dark fantasy so its an absolute hit for me.

As always thank you to Kodansha Comics for the advanced copy to review, my reviews are always honest and freely given.

*Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an Honest Review.*

I love Fairy Tail and was excited to sit down and read the first volume of Dead Rock. I loved the premise and the style. The pacing was accelerated. I wish there were a more gradual buildup. Time to get to know the characters a bit more. Instead, it hits the ground running, and you need to keep up. That said, I will be reading the rest of the series. I need to know who comes out on top.

Thank you to Kodansha Comics and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this manga. As someone who truly loves Fairy Tail and Edens Zero and Demon stories, I thought this manga would be a home run for me. However, this one was a bit underwhelming for me (reminds me of blue exorcist and my hero academia in the setting but also what I have heard about the plot of assassination classroom but do not know for sure), but other than that there was not much I am invested in plus there was too much repetitive dialogue. Because of these points, I have to give this a 3 out of 5 stars

firstly, thank you to the publisher for an arc!

this was an interesting first volume and had all of the character/plot cliches, art style, and unfortunately the fanservice that hiro mashima is known for.

i know that this is the first volume, but waaay too many things occurred and the overarching plot appears murky. i am interested to see where this series will go, so i'll definitely read the next volume

A huge thank you to NetGalley, Kodansha Comics and Hiro Mashima for providing me with an ARC of Dead Rock in exchange for my honest review.

Dead Rock 1 is an action-packed fantasy manga set in the demon world, where young demons compete for a coveted spot at Dead Rock, the demon realm’s most prestigious educational institution. The competition is a brutal battle royale, and the grand prize? The chance to claim dominion over the human world.

This manga delivers exactly what I love in anime and manga—intense battles, magical powers, and high-stakes action. The world-building is intriguing, and the characters are quickly established in this high-energy environment. It’s a thrilling start to what promises to be an exciting series.

I’m beyond excited for the next installment and can definitely see this series making an incredible anime adaptation.

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

This was such a fun read and exciting way to start a manga. I have been a fan of Mashima’s work for a majority of my life so to be excited for another one of his works is fun. I also love the concept of killing god. I also love the characters, I feel like Hein is going to be my favorite character besides Hani! I can’t wait to read more from Dead Rock and find out what happens!

Thank you to Netgalley and Kodansha for the ARC.

Very 2000s shounen vibes here. Every female character has a revealing outfit that accentuates her ample bust…you know the drill. The plot itself was fine but there’s nothing unique here to pull me in. Read like any other demon/oni battle shounen manga.

Dead Rock is a manga focusing on characters in a demonic school run by a demon called God who are competing for the chance to govern the human world. It's slightly absurd, very fast-moving, and fun. It's not an exceptional book, and this volume has to lay a lot of the groundwork for the ongoing story, but it was a fun, quick read.

Honestly, this was a lot of fun. The art style was captivating and the concept itself was well executed! I expected a bit of violence and low brow humor and a bit of heart and this delivered more than expected in all aspects. I am excited to check out the next installment when it arrives! Thank you for this ARC!

Fairy Tail creator, Hiro Mashima, got his newest dark fantasy manga, Dead Rock, officially released in English on March 4th through Kodansha. Mashima has long been a well-renowned manga artist since his debut with Rave Master in 1999 and continued to grow in success while writing Fairy Tail and Edens Zero. He is now taking on battle academy themes in Dead Rock, as the story takes place in the demon world's most prestigious (and violent) academy. With manga and anime works set in academies being ever-increasingly popular, how does Mashima's take on the setting stand out?


Yakuto's first appearance
Volume 1 of Dead Rock introduces a fun and bizarre cast of characters who are all attending Dead Rock Academy for their own reasons, starting with the story's main protagonist, Yakuto. While I haven't religiously kept up with all of Mashima's works, I'm well aware that he tends to recycle character designs—for better or worse. I've caught myself, and others, calling Edens Zero's Shiki "black-haired Natsu" and Farmagia's Ten "farmer Natsu." Mashima's art here also admittedly suffers from "same-face syndrome." It's not a huge criticism I have with manga artists (one of my favorites, Arina Tanemura, does this too), but this has made me less interested in each of Mashima's new works as they come out. Dead Rock, however, broke that pattern for me.


Yakuto stood out to me more than some of Mashima's previous protagonists based on his design alone. His darker skin tone and devious look set him apart from Natsu and Ten... at least enough for me. I dove into Dead Rock Volume 1, hoping to be at least as entertained as I was as a kid when watching Rave Master.


Frey and Raizen
The shonen formula is perfectly laid out in Dead Rock. A powerful protagonist with goals to be even stronger, an edgy supporting character (that admittedly does look like Gray from Fairy Tail, sorry) with a seemingly traumatic past, and a well-endowed female character with an intense personality (oh, it's Erza... she has flames on her outfit and everything). Each character reveals a small sliver of their reasoning behind attending Dead Rock Academy, and there's surely more to unpack throughout the series. Everyone's main incentive to attend the academy is that graduates are offered a part of the human world that they will be able to rule.

I find the character, Mikoto, adorable, and her power is the most interesting out of all the characters, as she can revive the dead into her own personal slave zombies. Wait... can anyone actually die permanently in this manga? She might be the most OP character, and I look forward to seeing more of her.

Yakuto is strong from the very first chapter—just as OP as you may expect from a shonen main character. He's so incredibly strong that he is part of a group of only seven individuals that passed Dead Rock Academy's grueling exam, one that over 900 people died while participating in. We get a taste of Yakuto's abilities during the exam, but that's where the mystery lies. Yakuto is apparently of a race that seemingly died out years ago, the Black Dragons. Yakuto says he must kill anyone who witnesses this special power of his born from being a Black Dragon.


Yakuto using his mysterious power
Things don't start getting interesting until the very end of Chapter 1. I won't be digging too deep into the story and potential spoilers here, but the plot starts getting spicy when Yakuto enters his classroom, immediately kills the professor, and states to his classmates his desire to kill the god of the demon world—also known as the principal of the academy. So, to wrap up the perfect cookie-cutter shonen formula, we have a young and powerful kid wanting to destroy god.


Hiro Mashima's Dead Rock features the best of his artistic abilities I've seen so far in his work. There are several explosive two-page spreads with a striking sense of movement and thrill, and the more solemn pages are just as gripping. Despite what I said earlier about "same-face syndrome", Mashima's character's facial expressions seem well thought about and executed, helping Dead Rock's cast stand out just a bit more. I'll mention Mikoto again, as her curious expressions and mysterious gazes got me quite interested in her.

Sometimes at the end of shonen manga volumes, I feel strongly about not continuing if it doesn't do anything special. Dead Rock, however, has several things going for it that will keep me locked in for volume 2, which releases this June. One is that you never know what turn each chapter is going to make. For example, I never expected Yakuto to walk into class and kill the teacher, that's for sure.


Yakuto and Mikoto
Another standout for me in this manga, so far, is how the academy functions. You are free to kill people in the academy that you simply just don't like. I don't think Dead Rock Academy will be anything like U.A. from My Hero Academia. It'll definitely be more chaotic, and the first volume of the manga already showcases the kinds of violent and bloody situations the students can catch themselves in. Volume one of shounen-battle manga tend to lay out a plethora of characters before developing them, so I feel that these types of works need at least a three-volume rule in the way that many people give anime the three-episode rule. These reasons are enough to have me pick up Volume 2 in June... and the fact that Volume 1 ends in a huge cliffhanger.

There are three chapters compiled into volume one of Dead Rock. The localization from Kodansha features Erin Subramanian as the translator, James Dashiell as the digital edition letterer, AndWorld Design as the print edition letterer, and Cayley Last as the print edition editor. The English edition is clear and easy to read as it doesn't feature any awkward translations or unnecessary slang. I'm a rather slow manga reader, but I was able to finish up the volume in about an hour, completely engaged by the text.

Dead Rock is darker, grittier, bloodier, and edgier than any other Hiro Mashima work I've read in the past, and so far I'm enjoying his take on the battle academia setting. Kodansha released the physical and digital versions of Dead Rock on March 4th, 2025. You can order the release on their website.

I'm excited to discover more of this series! The concept of a school dedicated to being the best demon is super interesting.

NEW MANGA SERIES!

When it comes to manga, Hiro Mashima can school any manga artist. The originator of Rave Master, Fairy tale and Eden Zero has created a new Shoen series. I started watching the Fairy Tail anime ten years ago, when my teenage kids got me hooked on anime and manga. So when this old lady, who once cosplayed the character Erza Scarlet from Fairy Tail, saw an advanced reader copy for a new Mashima series, I jumped at the chance to read this new series.

Hiro Mashima has turned his talents to the dark academy trope. Based in the depths of Hell. Dead Rock is one of those schools where very few even survive the entrance exam let alone survive until graduation. If you do graduate, you get to rule a slice of Earth. The protagonist, Yakuto, has entered the school with a different agenda and he is going to need the help of his classmates to pull it off. This is where we add in the "power of friendship trope". In this school, everyone has a root, or power that is based on varying mythologies. This concept is not very well explained yet, nor is the world building very developed. I am assuming this will be addressed in future issues. This first issue concentrates on setting up the premise and introducing all the characters, all of which are fantastic. Of course Mashima does tend to recycle is favorites, but fans enjoy it, and if you change the Kashima's hair color, you may recognize Natsu Dragneel. The side characters add a lot of much needed comic relief. There is a certain amount of fan service, with scantily clad women, but that is also typical of the artist. If you are a fan of Hiro Mashima or simply love manga with a dark twist, you will defiantly want to read this series.

Dark academia manga? Yes, please! DEAD ROCK 1 was a great intro into a world where young demons battle it out for a (slim) chance to become "god" of the human world. As lofty as that may sound, readers immediately learn just how dangerous being at the demon academy is. The fight scenes are bloody, the body count rises fast, and trust isn't exactly commonplace. I loved it!

The humor added to the story, which doesn't always work out (previous reading experiences, I'm looking at you). The gallows humor fits with the setting; a demon realm is not filled with butterflies (unless they're trying to eat you). All of the Class F students were easy to connect with. Yes, their all demons, but their personalities are very different. They have goals and secrets that this volume only touches on, leaving readers desperate for more details. Yet layering in a bit of backstory was subtle and did not have the story veer off.

I'll need to grab the next book when it's published. I loved the artwork and the writing. The story has a great foundation to expand on!

What a premise. A dragon child wants to kill God, his principal, for pretending to be the real leader of Hell. This series is incredible in how much it attempts to fit in every chapter. It is juvenile, funny, action-packed, relationship-focused, and emotional. I can see the grand flourishes that would make for a great anime.