is a Japanese light novel series written by Yūshi Ukai and illustrated by Nekometaru. It began publication under Media Factory's MF Bunko J light novel imprint in November 2022. The series follows Yuki, a death game player who treats the games like a job, and her journey to break a record by surviving 99 games.
Ukai wrote the series after deciding to create a story focusing around themes of life, death, and associated emotions. The debut volume won an Excellence Award at the 2022 .
A manga adaptation illustrated by Banzai Kotobuki Daienkai began serialization in Kadokawa Shoten's magazine Comp Ace in April 2023. An anime television series adaptation produced by Studio Deen aired from January to March 2026. A sequel anime film adapting the light novel's Cloudy Beach arc premiered in Japanese theaters on July 10, 2026.
Synopsis The series is set in a dystopian society where the elite create and televise death games. Most players willingly participate to win cash prizes, but others are forced to do so. To make games sustainable, only about a third of participants tend to die in each game. Their blood is modified such that it turns into a cotton-like substance upon contact with air, and those who survive have their injuries healed or replaced with cybernetics by the organization operating the games.
The story revolves around Yuki, a 17-year-old girl who participates in death games as a career. Finding the rest of society mundane by comparison, Yuki's goal is to set the death game survival record by surviving 99 games. Throughout the series, Yuki takes part in games that require her to escape, survive, or compete against other players. Though kind at heart, using her expertise and natural leadership skills to help as many of the other participants survive, she ruthlessly prioritizes her own survival when the situation calls for it. As she pursues her goal, she sometimes finds herself unsure of why she so desperately wants to achieve it.
Characters
Main /
A 17-year-old veteran player who participates primarily for her own entertainment, finding ordinary life boring and wanting to set a record by surviving 99 death games. Calm and composed, she is actually far kinder than most veterans, going out of her way to protect her fellow players, even if she only claims to do so to curry favors. However, she can be ruthless and is willing to kill people should the situation demand it.
Maiden Race Yuki's 1st game: an obstacle course on a track field.
Yuki's private agent, who transports her to and from games. Though she maintains a cold, businesswoman-like demeanor, she has occasionally shown genuine care for Yuki. She was once a suicidal newbie player who participated in Yuki's first game, Maiden Race. However, after seeing Yuki utterly dominate the game, along with nearly dying herself, she regained her will to live.
Shizuku's younger sister, a newbie player who got tricked into participating. Throughout the game, she is a nervous wreck who holds back the other players, with Shizuku needing to help her keep it together. She gets killed by one of the obstacles.
Kanade's older sister, a newbie player who got tricked into participating alongside the former. Throughout the game, she attempts to keep Kanade safe. As a result, after Kanade dies, she snaps and attempts to kill Setsuna, only to be killed herself.
Candle Woods Yuki's 9th game: players are divided into two groups—"Bunnies" and "Stumps"—with the Bunnies needing to survive in a forest for a week as the Stumps hunt them.
/
Yuki's mentor and a 96-game veteran player who got slotted into the Bunnies. She is widely considered the greatest living death game player, with Yuki's goal of completing ninety-nine games originally being hers. Though sustaining grievous wounds, she survives Candle Woods thanks to body modification that she performed on herself. However, she opts to retire after Yuki, who believes her to be deceased, chooses to carry on her legacy by completing ninety-nine games in her place. /
A newbie player who got slotted into the Stumps. She survives Candle Woods, quietly fulfilling her kill quota while the veteran players are occupied with each other. Afterward, despite wanting to retire from death games, she is forced to continue playing to support her family. After becoming a successful veteran, she once again participates alongside Yuki in Cloudy Beach her 33rd game, which she also survives.
An acquaintance of Yuki, a twenty-nine-game veteran player who got slotted into the Bunnies. Kyara kills her during her rampage.
A three-game veteran player and one of Kyara's protégés who participates to gain courage. Being the only experienced Stump, she quickly assumes leadership and teaches her teammates how to kill. Upon realizing Kyara is participating in this game, she hurriedly attempts to complete her kill quota, only to be killed by Yuki.
A ten-game veteran who got slotted in the Bunnies. She is a psychopath who participates to satisfy her murderous urges by killing her fellow players, except for those she takes a liking to and trains as her protégés. Unsatisfied with the game's rules, she eventually kills a Stump, puts on their clothes and begins indiscriminately slaughtering both Bunnies and Stumps alike, until Yuki finally kills her.
Scrap Building Yuki's 10th game: escaping from a booby-trapped polling station before time runs out.
A nine-time veteran player who participates primarily to satisfy her ego, causing her to develop a one-sided rivalry with Yuki after the latter proves herself the better player. She survives Scrap Building and goes on to become a successful player, training multiple protégés. In the end, Yuki kills her when they face each other again in Yuki's thirtieth death game, Golden Bath.
A six-time veteran player who claims to have a talent for determining a game's survivors. In truth, she is an opportunist who allies with whoever can help her survive. She survives Scrap Building and later plays alongside Yuki again in another death game, Mossy Grove, and once again makes it through.
A five-time veteran player whose primary asset is her intelligence. Tired of modern society, she participates in death games to save up enough money to become a hikikomori. During the game, her legs get blown off, but Yuki saves her, and she survives. Afterward, she begins using a wheelchair and retires from death games, becoming a recruiter instead.
A four-time veteran player who describes herself as a jack-of-all-trades. Though an opportunist who allies herself with whoever can help her survive, she is also a genuinely kind and sociable person. She dies after losing the game's final challenge—a vote that kills whoever gets a plurality—getting singled out for contributing nothing to her teammates.
Ghost House Yuki's 28th game: escaping from a dollhouse-like mansion before it burns down.
A rookie player who participates to settle her business debts. Throughout the game, she grows sympathetic toward fellow player Momono and helps her make it out. She survives the game.
A rookie player who was tricked into participating after accepting a fake job offer. A nervous wreck throughout the game, she garners sympathy from fellow player Beniya, who helps her make it through. She survives the game.
A one-time player who participates for the prize money, being too lazy to get an ordinary job, and a self-described opportunist who sides with whoever can help her survive. She is the first player to die, killed by a booby-trap.
A rookie player who participates due to struggling to find an ordinary job. She is the second player to die, killed by giant saws during a challenge to unlock restraints after the other players fail to give her the key in time.
A rookie player who participates to pay off her father's debt. Throughout the game, she becomes guilty over the other players' deaths, even offering herself up so her teammates can beat a challenge, but Yuki convinces her to continue. She is the third and final player to die, killed by Yuki in the game's final challenge: kill three players to unlock the exit.
Golden Bath Yuki's 30th death game: escaping from a bathhouse by stealing keys from other players.
A seven-game veteran who participates due to her lack of femininity, struggling to fit into normal society. She becomes the leader of a group of players whom Yuki later joins. She is killed when her and Yuki's plan to charge the exit fails, getting drowned by Mishiro's team camping there.
An eight-game veteran player whose body has been mostly replaced with prosthetics following injuries in a previous game, granting her superhuman strength. While initially participating due to being suicidal, she continued playing out of loyalty to Mishiro after the latter saved her during a game. Following Mishiro's death at Yuki's hands, she attempts to avenge her, only to be killed herself by the game's final obstacle: an electrified floor (automated turrets in the anime).
One Fine Day Yuki's 40th game: survive a whole day against murderous mascots at an amusement park.
/
A 39-game veteran player with a tall and muscular physique who generally works alone. She survives One Fine Day and once again plays alongside Yuki in Cloudy Beach, which she also survives.
A 47-game veteran player known for her intelligence. She survives One Fine Day and once again plays alongside Yuki in Cloudy Beach. Although initially appearing to be Cloudy Beach's first casualty, she is later revealed to be the game's "murderer", having faked her own death by modifying her own body to survive even fatal injuries. In the end, Yuki kills her by disassembling her body piece by piece.
Cloudy Beach Yuki's 44th game: survive on a deserted island for a week whilst a murderer hiding amongst the players attempts to kill 3 players before time runs out.
A 9-game veteran player who is generally considered the game's weakest participant. Despite this, when the murderer attacks her, she uses a self-made stun gun to scare them off, and she survives the game.
A 20-game veteran player from Hakushi's generation who participates whenever she needs money. She is known for her strong intuition, which helps her avoid dangerous situations. She survives the game but retires after concluding that she cannot compete with current players.
A 30-game veteran player and one of Mishiro's protégés. However, upon meeting Yuki, she reveals that she holds no interest in avenging her mentor. She is later ambushed and killed by the murderer.
An elementary-school-aged veteran player and one of Kyara's protégés. Constantly giving off a murderous aura, she is a top suspect for being the murderer throughout the game, but later gets killed by the real murderer herself.
Production Light novels Conception Yūshi Ukai, the writer of the light novels, composed the first volume after he had quit his part-time job and was struggling to "make any progress" in his life. He became interested in the death game genre because he felt his emotions spilling over into his writing and saw the genre as an outlet for them. After not finding success with his other works, he grew "more and more disturbed until [he] wrote this disturbing story". Ukai usually worked on the novels at night, drinking coffee and writing until he was exhausted.
Ukai wanted to explore the psychological aspects of a world completely focused around life and death. He remarked that the narrative was comparable to other books about working at a job, and that the story was simply a special case of this. He decided to have Yuki, the protagonist, treat the death games like a profession to justify why she continued playing.
Several inspirations for the work were named by Ukai; among them were the light novel series Iriya no Sora, UFO no Natsu and the game franchise Ace Attorney. He often read classic literature, such as The Old Man and the Sea, while working on the novels.
Development