Volumes: 10/10, In Print
Seinen
Genre: Politics, Dreams
Summary: The National Welfare Act: in a fictional, alternate history Japan, an act is passed that kills a random one out of every thousand young people with a nano-capsule injection of those aged 18 to 24. The death time is preset but not told to the one who will die until 24 hours before death. The propaganda says that knowing that they may die at any time is supposed to teach people to value life and live life to the fullest. In reality, new death messenger Fujimoto has his misgivings about the whole concept of the Welfare Act, even as he delivers Death Notification Papers (Ikigami) as his job.
Each volume contains 2 short stories of a Ikigami recipient, comprised of 3 chapters each story. The stories cover a large variety of people, from a son of a local politician, a bullied and scarred kid, a graffiti artist, a former musician, a guy who’s sister is blind, a young soldier, a young mother of a sick girl and so on.
Reviews: It seems like a lot of readers have misunderstood what this manga is about. Quite a lot of readers complained when it came out that it's too unbelievable that a Democracy like Japan would ever allow this, and they complain about how the UN would never allow such a violation of human rights. But here’s the thing: this alternate history Japan is a totalitarian state!
I don’t know how anyone missed that this is an alternate history Japan. In the very first chapter a dissenter gets sleep gassed and dragged off to be “reeducated” and if he cannot be brainwashed then “social miscreants” are all killed. Does that sound like the Japan we know? This is supposed to be a nightmare scenario.
Mild Spoilers: (highlight to read)
It’s also revealed later that this isn’t Japan at all, sometime after WW2, Japan was split into 2 countries just like North Korea and South Korea. One part is the Japan we know, and the other is literally just like North Korea and this is where the story takes place. Except it allied the East Asian Federation instead of China, but close enough.
There’s two parts to this manga. The vast bulk of it (like 80%) is the short stories of the Ikigami recipients. For the most part these stories are tragedies. Some are bittersweet as they are motivated to tie up loose ends in their lives during their last day. Others are literally criminal. But there are also a few that are inspirational and offer hope in a bleak world. These were my favorites.
The other part of the story (20%) runs concurrently to the stories of the Ikigami recipients. In this, the increasingly frustrated and unhappy Fujimoto starts to run afoul of the secret welfare act police as he tries to fake being a loyal citizen. This story-line is reminiscent of stories of East Germany or North Korea as the 1984-like Thought Police put him under suspicion. And behind it all is the true purpose of the Welfare Act as War breaks out.
I have a feeling the second storyline will probably frustrate some. Personally, I felt at first that the War plot seemed out of place with the other stories and it felt like a sharp turn in the plot. But after everything was explained, it honestly made almost too much sense, to the point where I think it had been planned that way from the beginning.
All in all, this story is a lot like the fictional world inside the manga- it is not at all about valuing life or living life to the fullest. It is about government control of life, death and the freedom to have your own opinions.
Recommended: Overall I would highly recommend this manga. If you want to read stories about the Ikigami recipients alone, then these short stories are overall very good and make up the bulk of the manga. The other part of the story is a 1984-like story about a government mad with power that seeks to enforce its own political beliefs and tolerates no dissent.
Age Rating: Older Teen: There is some violence and sexual assault, but it’s really not gratuitous and not that graphic either. Well, I guess there is also one story that has some sort of almost graphic sex, but the main character of that story tried to lose his virginity with a prostitute and then changes his mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment