Kono Shima ni wa Midara de Jaaku na Mono ga Sumu

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This is the story you gotta read for the plot. It is labeled smut, but it was really interesting sci-fi for mature audiences.

In some ways, it is similar to Higurashi When They Cry and Summertime Render. Some weird stuff goes on an island village that traps characters with no escape. I thought the story is really unique, I kept remembering it over the years. It scratched a really specific sci-fi itch for me. I did read a ton of sci-fi in my life, and I really enjoyed the work, which can be difficult with the amount of stuff I already saw in the genre. ... I just couldn't stop reading it!

I am honestly surprised how long it took me to find it again, and how many similar plot summaries I read while looking, typing all the relevant tags that would totally spoil stuff for you.

I am not surprised it is totally overlooked, because it does have some issues with presenting the story organically, and it was clearly promoted as smut instead of a thrilling ride it was to me , hence the high rating. It is a relatively short story and I think the potential of it was not drawn out, sadly. But if it was animated by a skilled director, I am pretty sure it would get a strong following.

I am just so bummed it is not only overlooked as a whole, but also disliked by the reviewers.

Looking at the reviews, I felt a spark of hope. Usually, when opinions are this polarized, that’s where the real hidden gems lie. Well...
This manga is the exception, not the rule. As our Russian engineer comrade once said: “Not great, not terrible.” It’s not as good as the positive reviews suggest, and not as bad as the negative ones would make you believe.

At its core, this manga suffers from two fundamental flaws:

1) Inconsistent writing.
Half the time the story is perfectly fine. For chapters, it’s interesting and enjoyable to read. And then, out of nowhere, the author’s head pops above water and they pull some half-assed, ... sloppy twist (or idea) straight out of nowhere. Don't get me wrong, retcon itself isn’t a problem, it can even enhance a story, but when it’s executed this badly, I can’t help but wonder: what the hell was that?
The same goes for the characters. They’re all over the place. One moment they act completely normal with each other, then something trivial happens and suddenly everyone is bouncing around like psychotic mongooses. Then another random triviality occurs, and all of a sudden they’re back to behaving as if they hadn’t just tried to kill each other two seconds ago…

2) The theme.
Several reviews criticize that the story was sacrificed on the altar of fanservice, but I don’t think that’s the issue. In fact, given the subject matter, I think fanservice was kind of necessary. The real problem, in my opinion, is that the theme itself is treated in an incredibly inane, shallow way. Not to mention, the author themselves doesn’t seem to know what they actually think about the subject they’re writing about. So the whole thing becomes a muddled, uncertain mess that ultimately says nothing. The author marely states the obvious. We’re practically in a gender-based civil war in the world right now. You know it, I know it, everyone knows it, but what's the point? The author doesn’t offer any solutions, the characters just bailed from the sinking ship and "run" as far away as possible. Logical decision? Sure, but it is a damn anticlimactic copout.

Other than that, there isn’t much worth mentioning. It’s not the worst manga ever, but it doesn’t offer much value either.

This shit is so awful its insane.

For a story that starts off with a great hook and most importantly a great premise in the form of escaping an island it sounded like a great read for someone who's been reading trash isekai for a while and had a gem every now and then.

However, this was not what I expected, the blatant input of sex scenes for no reason at all, the retconning to fit a new narrative, and above all, terrible terrible world-building and a terrible way of explaining everything in the story.

We're introduced to this world yet we don't learn anything about it. I ... still don't know where half the terms they were talking about actually mean and only realized HEAVILY KEY FACTORS in the story on the LAST COUPLE CHAPTERS. Exposition isn't the best, but not knowing what the fuck is going on for a lackluster resolution that ends on sex scene is ridiculous.

This shit could have been good, I hate the word potential but it had it and completely blew it in favor of a single-minded narrative with no overarching theme and quite literally got rid of any character growth that could have happened in favor for the ending to be happy instead of make sense.

I don't think anyone should read this, genuinely, but if you do let me know what you think.