Title: My Death Flags Show No Signs of Ending Vol. 1
Author: Mitsuya Otosu, Izumi (Original Story), Atiki (Characters)
Publisher: One Peace Books
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 168
Genre: Iseaki, Fantasy
Publication Date: June 17, 2025
The Story
A college student named Kazuki Hirasawa gets transported into the world of Brave Hearts, a fantasy video game. He ends up becoming Harold Stokes, the foul-mouthed and hot-tempered son of the Stokes noble family. Although he thinks pleasantly, he cannot control the way Harold speaks, so even if he means well, it comes out brashly and laced with venom. This poses a challenge as he has an opportunity to change the events of the game, knowing full well that he is meant to die in it. Harold must now work around his barriers and the limitations put on him from the game in order to erase his death flags.
The first thing it does is intervene in the execution of the family’s maid and her daughter. He prevents his father from beheading her and, instead, offers to kill her with a new spell that he has been working on. He uses that to buy some time to plot her escape so that this event doesn’t trigger a future death flag, as the daughter, Colette, is the game’s main heroine.
The second thing he does is recognize the impending fall of his family’s status. The land has been hit with several natural disasters, so the farming industry has taken a major hit. Couple that with his family’s ridiculous spending to flaunt their social status, and the higher taxes so that they can continue to do so, and a recipe for their downfall is in the pot and is about to boil over. Harold comes up with a solution as he tries to preserve his family’s status before a rebellion can rise up and overthrow them from the land, thus resulting in a possible death flag.
Lastly, The Sumeragi family’s land is being overrun by a miasma. Almost as if it were perfect timing, Harold’s father announces that he has arranged a marriage between him and the Sumeragi’s daughter, Erika; however, Harold knows that the best outcome for him would be to get Erika to resent him; however, part of that solution also means saving their lands from the miasma.
Characters
First, we have Kazuki Hirasawa/Harold Stokes. His mind belongs to Kazuki; however, his manner of speaking and body movements all belong to Harold Stokes. It’s a unique premise that Kazuki must play the part of the character even though he thinks differently from Harold. This makes it quite challenging for him to pull off plans to prevent Harold’s death all while not raising suspicion; however, despite his best attempts, there are those around him, such as the concierge, and Zen, a soldier/friend of Harold’s, that see through the toughness and realize that he has suddenly changed. This gives the main character a pretty unique dynamic.
The rest of the characters in the story are quite minor, for now. Harold’s parents are your typical rich snobs who feel anyone who isn’t pure-blooded is inferior. Zen is a hyperactive soldier who loves being around Harold, even though Harold despises it. The concierge feels like a faithful and loyal father figure, more so than his intended role, but he holds a certain level of admiration for Harold as well as hope that he can change the Stokes family’s image.
Then, there is Erika Sumeragi, who was all happy and filled with smiles when they met; however, thanks to Harold’s sharp tongue, she quickly comes to dislike him… that i,s until he gave her a letter to give to her father about how to deal with the miasma plaguing their land. While there wasn’t much to suggest that she might come to admire him, there is one moment that may or may not suggest that.
Final Thoughts
The premise of altering the story of a video game that you got pulled into isn’t exactly a new idea. It has been done plenty of times before, mainly in the otome isekai genre, so I was looking for a unique hook here to help this story set itself apart. Unfortunately, I didn’t find anything like that with My Death Flags Show No Sign of Ending. While the story overall wasn’t bad, it felt rather generic. Also, the premise of trying to clear some death flags to alter the story felt a bit watered down, drawn out, and uninteresting.
For example, while their family’s downfall and ruin could give rise to protests which, in turn, could threaten Harold’s life, is a plausible cause for concern; spending a chapter figuring out new farming methods and overexplaining a new farming system caused the story to drag on and become uninteresting. The same could be said for the arranged marriage. I was hoping for more tension that could have backed Harold into a corner and put his plan into jeopardy, but the majority of that arc consisted of him figuring out a formula to cure the miasma and about two pages of him being sharp-tongued to Erika.
Even with the opening chapter, I would have hoped to have seen a more elaborate ruse using his spell, or at least a more dramatic depiction of Clara and Colette’s escape.
The best way I can describe this first volume is a story with a great premise and a lot of potential, but the lack of ability to give it weight or have that punch. This is fine if you’re looking for a comfortable read in the sub-genre of isekai where the main character tries to change the story, but it doesn’t truly do anything to make itself stand out. Even the ending to the first volume didn’t have that shocking “What will happen next!?” feeling to it. It made a decent first impression, but without a sharper edge and more heavily-weighted situations, I can’t see this series being anything more than average.
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This item was provided for review by One Peace Books
