Mase Motoro

I picked up vol 1 of this manga at a goodwill for 50 cents not knowing anything about it because, hey, manga for 50 cents?! I was pleasantly surprised when I read the premise and even more impressed reading this volume. This story takes place in a country where every child is injected with an immunization but a very small percentage of those children are also injected with a capsule that will kill them at a predetermined date and time in the future. Because it is random and no one knows who show more will die, people are encouraged to live more productive lives. Those who will die are contacted 24 hours before their death to get their affairs in order and say goodbye to loved ones, however some people choose to spend their final 24 hours in more destructive ways. This story is told by a man who delivers the Ikigami or death paper. Its a fascinating premise but definitely not for the faint of heart. The complete story is only 10 volumes long and I can't wait to pick up the next one! show less

How do you force people to recognize the important of life? Threaten to take that life away from them! In this unnamed dystopian country, the National Prosperity Law “inoculates” all first grade children. One in a thousand of these inoculations delivers a nano capsule that will kill the recipient at a predetermined time between the ages of 18 and 24. It is Kengo Fujimoto’s job to deliver the Ikigami which tells these noble citizens that they have 24 hours to live before being show more sacrificed for the state. With an average of three Ikigamis delivered per volume, the series explores the variety of responses to learning you have 24 hours left to life. Different story arcs look at the effect on Kengo and the country. A very thought-provoking plot couples wonderfully with stark black and white manga drawings to create the anxious atmosphere. show less

Ikigami is literally one of the series that renewed my faith in comic books in America, even though its not an American comic. A rule of reference here - if you like Battle Royale, you'll love this. If you hated Battle Royale, this won't be your cup of tea (as the Japanese tell very harsh, post-apocalyptic, martial law fascist type stories that many accuse of being doom and gloom).

The premise is simple. When you go to what we know as the first grade you're given a capsule inoculation. This show more is this Japan's government sanctioned population control combined with productivity in the workplace (aka being thankful you have a job). When you turn 18 the capsule can activate up to age 24. One or two things happens - either you get a letter saying you are going to die within 24 hours of getting the letter and can pretty much do whatever you want that's legal until the clock runs out and kills you. If you die they give your family a payout, like what the US military does when you die in battle. Those against it are persecuted for thought crimes.

Then we meet Kengi. Kengi gets the capsule in 1st grade. He gets the letter that he's not going to die but be a Ikigami delivery guy, meaning, he's the guy that drops the letter and informs you you've been selected to die. If he refuses the gig, well, he dies too. Of course he takes the job. Training begins immediately. Unfortunately, Kengi finds out during training how the government handles subversives that get a consciousness about what they are doing. And while he doesn't like it, he goes along to get along the best he can. show less

I wish GR had two systems: one showing how much you actually like a book -- that is, how much pleasure it gave you -- and one showing how good you think the book is. Because this book is brilliant, but considering how incredibly harsh and depressing it is, I feel weird saying "I really liked it."

The premise is simple:

In our country, there is a law that preserves the welfare of the people. Obedience is the key to happiness, our government tells us. The law is called...the National Welfare show more Act.

(Cut to double-spread picture of blandly smiling women holding the shoulders of seated, frightened-looking children receiving injections. Are these women reassuring the little ones, or making sure they don't get up until they've had their shots?)

Each citizen, upon entering elementary school, is immunized against certain infectious diseases. This is called the national welfare immunization. But for our purposes, what's important is that 0.01 percent of the syringes contain a special nano-capsule. About 1 in 1,000 citizens are injected with this capsule. It moves through their body, eventually coming to rest in the pulmonary artery. When the citizen is between 18 to 24 years old, the capsule ruptures on a predetermined date, killing them.

Why?

Citizens never know who has been injected with the capsule. They grow up wondering if, and when, they will die. This uncertainty makes them value life more and increases social productivity.

(Cut to creepy, kitschy-looking picture of smiling men, women, and children. A young man standing in front points inspiringly up and forward. His arm is around a woman who must be his wife. Her gaze follows his gesture. She smiles contentedly, cuddling their baby.)

The narrator is a young man whose job it is to deliver an "ikigami" to people who are going to die. (Ikigami: death note.) These cards are printed with the name and a photograph of the victim, along with the exact time and date of their death, which always occurs within 24 hours after receipt of the ikigami.

The ikigami serves as a ticket allowing the recipient free use of public facilities and transportation. It's also the family's claim check for their bereavement pension.

This volume contains the stories of two such "recipients." The second story was the kind of thing I expected. It's the story of how one young man responds to the news of his impending and utterly undodgeable death. It was brilliant, beautiful, and devastating. It made me decide to read more volumes in this series.

But as I mentioned in my first "I'm reading this book" comment, I almost didn't get to that second story, because the first one made me feel ill. Literally, for several days after reading it I couldn't think about it without feeling a wrench of nausea -- and it was hard for me to think about much else for several days.

The ghastliness wasn't in the premise of the series. It was in an all-too-believable scene in which a high-school boy is "bullied," and I'm putting that in quotes because this was so foul that I think "tortured" is a much better word for it. The injuries he suffered were the most bearable part of the scene. The casual sadism, the degradation -- hackneyed words like "vile" and "filthy" keep coming to mind as the only ones that can apply.

My husband recommended this series to me. I ran into the next room and practically whacked him on the head with this volume after reading the scene in question. "Why didn't you warn me?" I demanded.

He didn't warn me, so I'll be a good friend and warn you. That first story is hard to take. To put it mildly. If you have trigger issues, give this book a miss.

But that first story is also kind of a baptism of fire. The next one in the book is nothing like it, in terms of content or intensity. And my husband swears that the rest of the series doesn't contain anything nearly so intense.

I'll see, I guess... show less