Manga Review: Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit Volume 1

What would you do if you knew you had 24 hours to live? It’s a question as old as time. Would you go out and do everything on your Bucket List? Or, would you spend those last precious moments with your loved ones? Knowledge of your death is both a gift and a curse. On the one hand, your faced with your death sentence, while on the other lies the chance to truly appreciate life.

However, in future Japan, the government has dictated that knowledge of your death is not a curse at all; it is solely a gift, one that is required and must be cherished. Motoro Mase’s Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit explores a world where the government arbitrarily selects citizens to die. You’ll never want to take another immunization shot again after reading Ikigami. Immunizations are randomly selected to contain a cardiac-arrest inducing capsule. If you’re the lucky winner of the random immunization, sometime around you’re 25th birthday, the government will hand you an Ikigami notice alerting you to your death in the next 24 hours.

Fans of Death Note may immediately see the similarities between Ikigami and Tsugumi Ohba’s manga series starring Light Yagami and the detective known as L. The only difference is that there is nothing supernatural about Ikigami. It’s a new version of martial law. And, the government is Kira deciding who lives and dies. But, does making a random decision on who lives and dies make it any more acceptable.

Volume 1 is presents two intensely rich stories about two people who have just received their Ikigami notice from Fujimoto, an Ikigami deliveryman. The stories focus on characters that have had regrets due to choices they made or things that happened to them. Motoro Mase’s artwork will grab your attention. The vividly depicted character expressions will immediately pull you into this dark tale of forced obedience.

Though the first story in Ikigami is a darker tale that will send shivers up your spine, the second story borders on emotional sob fest. It’s still entertaining, but a stark difference in direction.

On the surface, Ikigami seems to revolve around tales of “what people do before death.” However, the looming story involves Fujimoto’s acceptance of this cruel government policy. Will he rebel against the system, or will he fall into line like the rest of the population accepting the government as god? Motoro Mase’s captured my attention, and I’ll be anxiously waiting to find out what lies in store for Fujimoto.

Get ready to barrel through the pages of this bold new Manga series. Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit is definitely one series to worth reading.