Mase MotoroBesprekingen

An interesting series of vignettes that have to do with a government program that murders 1 in 1000 within 25 years of their birth to remind people of how precious life is. It's pretty good -- showing first how the debased react, and then how an artist deals with his last day as a performer. I'm not sure I'll follow the series, but it was an enjoyable read.

Rated "Indifferent" in our old book database.

Rated "Good" in our old book database.

Rated "Good" in our old book database.

Rated "Good" in our old book database.

A lot of people didn't like this issue, but I think it's another cool down moment before the explosive end.

Kengi is growing more and more paranoid that his superiors are watching him, his coworkers are snitching on him to the higher ups, and he doesn't know when the hammer's going to drop on him. Unfortunately, his suspicions are correct while he goes on about his work, acting like nothing is wrong while slowly but surely defecting to the other side.

The cases this go round are just meh. One is about death, how accidental and intentional death leave little meaning if you paying for your crimes in a world where Ikigami can take you out. The second case is about a guy that's vain about his appearance being ugly and spends a shit ton of cash to get made over cosmetically via surgery to impress a schoolboy crush. Once he's on the verge of getting the woman he's lusted over, Kengi drops the letter, making all his efforts in vain.

Again, another day another death letter dollar. Worth the read exploring different facets of society completely ignoring or forgetting they may be sacrificed for the greater good despite their selfishness and vainness.

This issue continues the struggle of Kengi acclimating his role as a Ikigami delivery man dropping the bad news people are going to die. This issue gets a tad bit personal. Kengi's trying to balance his work/social life with relationships after being on the gig, and we get a windowseat into one of his cases, who is a young woman trying to make peace with her life coming to an end once she gets the letter and a young man who has a job at an old folks spot trying to convince his old parents to live even though he's going to die.

The best takeaway from this is that Kengi has to learn how to balance his emotions, hide his emotions, and essentially become numb and shut off his feelings at work, which we see the first signs that each day is getting harder and harder for him.

A lot of people didn't like this issue because it really comes off as fluff and a recycle of bits and pieces of Volume 1 and 2, but it okay. Just brings the intensity of emotion down after 3 solid emotional issues that have you questioning the intentions of your government.

Kengi is at the helm again giving the letters marking people for death. The first guy is a teacher. His backstory is he had a great teacher and grew up wanting to be just like his teacher. Having achieved that success and wanting future students to idolize him as he did his teacher, one thing leads to another and his students turn on him. As he's trying to clear his name Kengi gives him the letter, which makes dude have a nervous breakdown while trying to reach his students one last time. The second chick has a interesting backstory. In a world where people wait to see if they live to see 24 before committing to having kids we get a teen mother who married the guy who knocked her up - being so young with a new husband and child her marriage is on the rocks while both are building bonds in their own way with the kid. Then Kengi drops the letter and it becomes a race for each to make sure they can prove to the other that the kid will be taken care of once she's gone.

This issue is less emotion of Kengi and what he really thinks about things and more about his numbness dealing with these extreme cases where he is powerless to give people a different outcome.

In this issue the sky is falling on Kengi's head. Kengi is having buyer's remorse with the National Welfare Act, especially when he discovers how the government is using Ikigami to quash any type of vocal objections to governance, manipulate the population by infiltrating individuals with paranoia and lies, and singling out any acts of dissent with their thought police. Kengi now is mistrustful a bit of everybody and everything around him, and doesn't know if he can trust his chick or his co-workers alike.

This issue is a nice transition as the series winds down, leaving you thirsting for more.

Kengi's still another day another dollar dropping letters killing the population off. While he's trying to keep his true thoughts and motivations to himself the thought exams are on, where all employees of the state have to go get the test at the registration spot and are given the equivalent to a lie detector test while questioning/testing their loyalty to the state and trying to pass the test and hide his ever growing resentment for having his job.

This is really for me tying up a lot of loose ends and unanswered questions while exploring the complicated rules of the National Welfare system and the government's desperation in maintaining control over their narrative within the population. Considering the times we are living in, it's damn near prophetic.

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 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.

Kengi finds himeself in a world of deceit in this issue he can't ignore.

He's still doing his job, getting more and more involved on a personal and emotional level with his cases. Case one makes him question the effectiveness of Ikigami as life hasn't turned out too well for his mark who is dealing with living with his Uncle after his parent's death (reminiscent of a previous issue with the guy and the sister) in what is bare bottom poverty when the letter drops.

Kengi is also dealing with the misuse of ikigami law, which makes Kengi lean more to the radical side than the conservative side, especially when he sees that citizens are buying into the death cult of the government in hopes for limiting the population and securing their country's wealth. While this is going on the infiltrators are amuck, saying they are rebelling against the National Welfare Act but in reality its controlled opposition by the government which mentally messes with kengi.

All the action in this is simmering over to a powerful conclusion to the series.

In this issue Kengi's questioning of the Ikigami are blooming as he struggles through his cases. The biggest change in him is when he gets personally entangled emotionally with one of his cases, which causes him to lie for the mark and question the entire National Welfare initiative and his role within it. And it's a sad story - a brother raising his blind sister after a car accident kills their parents and takes her vision. He's running out of time and money, and then Kengi gives him the letter. Kengi actually crosses protocols and helps him get his affairs in order, ensuring his sister will be okay once he dies.

The best story in this arc are the rebellious son with the politician mother that is slated to die, so he's running around causing a ruckus because he feels she's sacrificing him for her political career advancement. All of it ends badly for both of them, just in different ways.

This by far is the best, most humanistic issue in the entire series.

Content warning for this volume: on-page bullying and rape.

In this version of Japan, there's something called the National Welfare Act. In elementary school, all children are vaccinated against various diseases. Some of the injections include a special nanocapsule that eventually comes to rest in the child's pulmonary artery, where it ruptures on a specified day and time, at some point between their 18th and 24th birthday. No one knows who has a capsule inside them, and the goal is to make citizens value their lives more and increase their productivity. Any citizens who object to this system are immediately injected with a capsule.

Fujimoto has just started working as a messenger, one of the people whose job is to deliver ikigami, death papers. These are given to citizens 24 hours before they're scheduled to die, so that they may better appreciate their last 24 hours. The families they leave behind will be given a bereavement pension, unless they choose to spend their last 24 hours committing crimes, in which case there is no bereavement pension and the family must pay large fines as compensation.

This particular volume features the delivery of two ikigami, one to a man who was bullied so severely when he was in high school that it derailed his entire life, and one to a young singer/guitarist who has lost sight of what's really important to him in his quest to become famous.

I don't know what I think about this series. The art was good, and the stories were fairly interesting, but I'm not entirely sure what the author is going for. On the one hand, it was clearly a horrible system that didn't make people appreciate their lives any more than the average person who could die at any time from a non-nanocapsule-related incident. People died, and it was senseless, and sometimes they harmed other people on their way out, despite the whole "your family will be ostracized and have to pay for your crimes" thing. On the other hand, in both ikigami incidents so far, the characters were depicted as managing to achieve something worthwhile in their last moments that they probably wouldn't have under other circumstances. Were readers supposed to view the system as beneficial in some way?

Fujimoto struggled with his job as well. He saw the harm his ikigami deliveries could cause, and he had to deal with people's grief and rage. He couldn't openly criticize the system or even talk about his concerns without risking being killed, so the only person he'd cautiously mention any of it to was his boss, who'd learned over the years to look at the bright side of ikigami.

Will I continue this series? Maybe, if only to see whether the author does something more with it than make it a bunch of standalone ikigami delivery stories. It's definitely not the kind of thing I'd want to binge read, though, so interlibrary loan and its periods of waiting might actually be a good thing this time around.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

Wow, I wasn't sure what I was going to make of this manga.

Each day, someone in the country is given a notice that they will die in exactly 24 hours. A list is kept of vaccinations given and 1 in 1,000 vaccines given to the children contain a nanocapsule that will kill them at a predetermined day and time.

Creepy. (I suspect the anti-vaxers would be all over this!)

Creepy. All for the welfare of the people. If they know they might die at any time, they will better serve the State.

The interesting part is what people do when they receive their 24 hour notice. Go on a crime spree? Create one last beautiful work of art? Spend the time alone? Or with loved ones?

This is also the story of a man whose job it is to hand out the death notices and his conflicting emotions. (Can't be too conflicted, though. Enemies of the state are also killed.)

I read this in one sitting, couldn't put it down.

This volume is even better than the first volume. This dealt mainly with the people given the notices that they are going to die in 24 hours and how they (and their loved ones) spend that last day. We are still briefly shown the daily life of Fujimoto - the messenger of death - and how he has to learn to control his emotions (and how to handle a girlfriend) when he is the one who tells people they are about to die. Not an easy job.

It also seems that this society is like our own society and the death notices don't seem to be making that much of a difference. The purpose of the ikigami is to make each citizen do their best because they never know when their number is up but yet there seems to be just as much violence and drug use and bad attitudes and you-name-it as there would be without this rule.

Very interesting, thought-provoking manga series.

This was a very good volume. The stories covered were sad (of course) but seemed very real. The main character is starting to research the history of the national welfare law that requires 1 of every 1000 people be killed when they reach their late teens, early twenties. This is meant to make everyone respect life but there is still quite a bit of crime and violence in this society.

One story is about a politician who is a terrible mother but determined to make it big in politics without regard to her family which turns out to be a big mistake. The other story is a moving story about a brother's love for his blind sister.

Dark subject matter, good story.

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 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.

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 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!

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 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...

I liked this first volume...very entertaining and thought provoking. Although I don't feel a need to read anymore of the series.

Lu de 1 à 8½

In a society where obedience is the key to happiness, the National Welfare Act ensures that every child is immunized at the start of first grade. However, 0.01 percent of the syringes contains a nano-capsule that ruptures on a predetermined date when the citizen reaches adulthood, causing instant death. Nobody knows who is going to be killed, and they are encouraged to live each day to the fullest. The uncertainty of life makes the citizens value life more. The surviving family members are paid a death benefit from the government.

24 hours before the capsule takes effect they are given an Ikigami, a death notification. The only problem with this system is that some people decide that with only 24 hours left to live, they have nothing left to lose.