Ikigami Is Quite Awesome

Author: NovaJinx

When raiding the dealer’s room at Desucon I came across something interesting, a grim-looking manga from Viz – Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit. Writing a little something about it has been on my mind ever since I skimmed through the first volume but I decided to hold it off until the second volume was out. Now that it is, I believe it’s about time I shared some thoughts on it.

Dear Citizen:

Thank you for your loyalty. 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?

Rest assured that measures are being taken. Beginning immediately, we will randomly select a different citizen each day 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 a productive, active member of society.
Thank you for your continued attention and your cooperation and participation…

Ministry of Health and Welfare.

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit is a manga series that takes place in near-future Japan. In an effort to act against the public apathy, lack of motivation and declining will to become an active member of society, the government has passed the National Welfare Act. To make people aware of the importance of living randomly selected individuals in the age between 18 and 24 are killed for the good of the country.

In the world of Ikigami citizens are given an inaculation against common diseases when they enter the first grade of elementary school. In addition to vaccines, however, 1/1000 of the syringes contain a special nanocapsule. The capsule settles within the pulmonary artery and on a preprogrammed date ruptures, causing almost instant death of the victim. The rupturing occurs at a certain determined point between the age of 18 and 24, and 24 hours before the moment of their inevitable death the victim receives an official document from the government, an ikigami.

The sort-of protagonist of the story is Fujimoto Hidekazu, a young man whose job is to deliver ikigami to their recipients. The story is mainly narrated from his perspective and his circumstances are used to carry the story on from one arc to the next as he practices his grim occupation. The manga consists of short stories about common people affected by the National Welfare Act – not only victims themselves but their friends, lovers, family members and so forth.

So basically Ikigami is a series of stories about how people spend their final 24 hours. It’s refreshing to see that it does not take a moralizing route and focus on condemning the system. Instead it simply describes the lives of people who have realized that their inevitable death is near. Indeed the inevitability is what makes the manga’s dramatic effect so strong – there is nothing that can save the characters and the 24 hours following the ikigami delivery will only decide what kind of impact the victim leaves on the society and people around them. The family of the victim receives a notable monetary compensation from the government but this will be revoked if the victim commits crimes during their last 24 hours – the delivery of an ikigami is thus a way to make the victims understand that misbehaving will only worsen the pain of their loved ones. Not all are restrained by this – for instance in the very first storyarc we follow the final hours of a young man both physically and mentally scarred by violent school bullying. After years of suffering he has finally gotten back on his feet, only to receive an ikigami. Realizing that he will die without ever achieving anything while his former tormentors continue to live on and prosper, he is unable to hold back the grudge and embarks to seek vengeance.

The first volume of Ikigami is a ride into the depths of despair. It contains two stories, both starring young men striving forward to achieve their dreams even despite the difficulties they face. After receiving their ikigami, both need to make a decision – whether die peacefully and in silence or rise up and act for the last time in their lives. I was touched and impressed by the sheer impact of the story but it was the second volume of the manga that really dropped the emo-bomb. The third story in the series, The Pure Love Drug, turned into a heartwrenching race against time and the fourth, The Night He Left For War, was probably the saddest and most bittersweet story I’ve seen in a manga, ever. As much as I’d love to, I must refrain from giving any more specific description – the storyarcs in Ikigami are quite compact and too easy to spoil.

The night he left for war.

Ikigami is an ode to despair and sadness but refrains from going over the top. The stories have a good pacing, are brief enough to not feel stretched out and long enough to make the reader sympathize with the characters. Mase does a masterful job dealing with constantly changing characters, never introducing too much or too little background development. This keeps the viewer attached to the characters and their circumstances enough to raise feelings of sadness and sympathy for them, but does not get one too close to be unable to let go when the storyarc concludes. Mase has also spent a couple more hours on the background details to make the world of Ikigami more realistic and lifelike – in the first volume we follow Hidekazu for a visit to the administration of the National Welfare Act and get a rather detailed explanation on how the vaccination system works and how information is passed on within the administration without anyone knowing who have been injected with a capsule until the time of issuing the ikigami. Unlike what is the industry standard nowadays, Ikigami isn’t holding back on giving its readers all the background information they will need right at the start. All essential questions are answered and the reader does not have to waste time pondering why the hell does the cruel system exist and how it works.

The artistry itself is very fitting to the mood of the series, with realistically drawn people and backgrounds. The characters themselves are quite excellently done – a lot attention and work has been put into drawing their facial expressions. All in all I find nothing to complain in the graphical department. As expected, the American publisher Viz has done over the typesetting to remove any traces of Japanese text – thus all the sound effect kanas have been changed to their western counterparts and every piece of text has been translated. The typesetting is well done and unobtrusive most of the time, aside from a few misses with the alignment of the text. Of course, the lack of Japanese will annoy those preferring to have the original effect kanas but personally I like to have it this way. The book covers are nicely done with a mix of matte and gloss printings – minimalistic, dark and stylish.

Conclusion of this blatant hype post: The first few volumes of Ikigami are pretty damn great and highly recommended. There is also a live-action film out but I could not get hold of it by the time of writing this. In any case, check this manga out.

Tags: ikigami, picspam, tl;dr