As the Gods Will

High school student Shun Takahata is bored out of his mind in class when a Daruma doll appears at the front of the room. It announces the start of a game: a lethal version of Red Light, Green Light. Anyone who moves dies instantly. So begins a gauntlet of deadly children's games, each designed by a different god. Shun and his classmates must survive a dodgeball match against a giant kokeshi doll, a game of tag with a possessed school mascot, and more. The series peels back the psychological layers of its characters under extreme duress, exploring what people will do when stripped of all certainty.

The original five-volume manga ran in Kodansha's Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine from February 2011 to October 2012. A sequel, As the Gods Will: The Second Series, followed in Weekly Shōnen Magazine from January 2013 to December 2016, spanning 21 volumes. A prequel, As the Gods Will Zero, was released as a four-chapter series on Kodansha's Magazine Pocket app in early 2017. The English edition of the first series was published by Vertical Comics, with volume one arriving in February 2016.

Takashi Miike directed a live-action film adaptation that hit Japanese theaters in November 2014, covering the first two games. The movie stars Sota Fukushi as Shun, with Miike himself appearing in a cameo. The manga's imagery, especially the grinning Daruma doll and the towering kokeshi, has become iconic among fans of the death game genre, drawing comparisons to works like Battle Royale and Squid Game.[edit]