A really interesting plot with a terrific format makes this a must read
Creative Staff
Story: Motoro Mase
Art: Motoro Mase
What They Say
Dear Citizen: You’ve no doubt noticed that the world is a troubled place. People are apathetic, lazy, unmotivated. You’ve probably asked yourself, “Why isn’t anything being done to stop this systematic decline?” Well, you’ll be happy to know measures are being taken. We, your government, have decided society needs a wake-up call. So beginning today, we will randomly select a different citizen who will be killed within 24 hours of notification.
We believe this will help remind all people how precious life is, and how important it is to be productive, active members of society. Thank you for your attention and your cooperation and participation in this new program.
Contains episode 15: Crime and Punishment and episode 16: The True Face of Love. Keep moving until you burn out.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Kengo Fujimoto is a typical young salary-man with a really crappy job: he’s an Ikigami Messenger. See, in the past, Japan’s economy started struggling, due in large part to an increasingly unproductive workforce. In order to combat this, the government passed the National Prosperity Law, which dictates that every citizen will receive an inoculation on the first day of first grade. The injections received by 73 of every 1000 people carry a nanomachine that at a predetermined time will kill that person sometime between the ages of 18 and 24. Since the injections are random, and only the government can tell afterwards who has received the nanomachine, this forces everybody to live each day to the fullest in the hopes that they won’t die with any regrets. Kengo’s unfortunate position is that it is his job to inform the doomed of their final 24 hours of life.
I really love the idea for the story of Ikigami, but it is actually the format of the delivery of the story that makes it work for me. See, while Kengo is ostensibly the protagonist of this series, he’s actually little more than an antecedent to many other stories. Ikigami is told as a series of short stories, where the protagonist of each story is either an Ikigami recipient or somebody close to one. While we do get some of what is going on with Kengo, it’s always ancillary to the main point of the short story. Only once all of the short stories are put together do we get a full picture of Kengo.
Episode 15 tells the story of a down on her luck young woman who works at a cabaret, but who has managed to catch the eye of the heir to a wealthy family. However, just after he proposes, he is struck by a car on a blind corner and killed. While the courts sympathize with the driver, he is forced to serve an 18 month prison sentence. While he spends his prison sentence wracked with guilt and trying to figure out a way to atone, she spends it planning her revenge. But when he receives his Ikigami soon after his release, it changes both of their plans.
Episode 16 tells the story of an extremely intelligent young man who has always been pegged for great things. Unfortunately, he has spent his whole life being ridiculed for his looks, and it’s given him a passive personality, making it difficult for him to actually succeed. To make matters worse, he has always had a crush on a girl he has known since Junior High, but she can’t see past his hideous face. After saving up his money, though, he is able to pay for a complete facial reconstruction. Only then does he learn that good looks aren’t always the answer to everything. And when he finds out that he’s been chosen for the Ikigami, he realizes that it’s now or never if he’s going to get the woman of his dreams.
While all of this is going on, we have Kengo in the background, flitting in and out of these people’s lives. For the most part, he hates his job, as he always sympathizes for the victims and laments the fact that he has to be the one to deliver their news. However, by this volume, he’s become a little more jaded to the realities of the job, much to his own disgust. It doesn’t help that he has his own problems, as an oversight committee is looking in on his department, and they seem to have taken a particular interest in him. The stress removes him even more from the realities of the job, and in many ways, makes him more of the perfect person to do it.
I can’t stress enough how much I love the structure of this title. I love the idea that we have these random stories about normal people, but in watching their struggles, we are ultimately given the life and struggles of a man who generally has little to do with the main proponents of each story. It’s a great way to tell the story. With a standard narrative centered around Kengo, I don’t know that Ikigami is any better than any of the other “salaryman with a rough life” stories out there. But the individual stories are absorbing, if not particularly happy, and it lends an air of importance to Kengo’s story that might otherwise be missing. It’s an inspired choice.
In Summary
Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit is a neat story with a fantastic structure. I love the way we get to see Kengo’s story mostly through the eyes of these other people whom we’re involved with for only a short time. The structure is what really interests me here, but the overarching plot is well done too. I’ve unfortunately just come into Ikigami in this volume, but I’ll definitely be checking out the ones that came before and adding this to my read list. Highly recommended.
Content Grade: A
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: M
Released By: Viz Signature
Release Date: August 14th, 2012
MSRP: $12.99