LifE

LifE / Seizon -LifE- / Whatever other names exist for this manga is a hidden gem. Sprung from the brains of Noboyuki Fukumoto (Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji) and Kaiji Kawaguchi (Eagle), this is a short but sweet story of avenging your loved ones in a race against the clock(s). With an intense (if a bit fantastical) plot, engaging artwork, and solid characterization, this makes for a solid weekend read.

[Story - 8]

The story follows Masao Takeda's journey to finding the killer of his daughter from 14 years ago as he deals with the effects of cancer. This is admittedly a simple premise in itself, but the way it's told is rather captivating - Takeda goes out of his way to find evidence of the crime and the killer's identity both with/without the help of law enforcement. Along the way, he's met with barriers such as the Statute of Limitations and the inevitable passing of time. While he does overcome them in unbelievable ways sometimes, I found that the way the story was being told allowed for suspension of disbelief to be done easily. The pacing is rather tight due to the small volume/chapter count, which makes the story all the more heart-pounding as there are no sluggish parts whatsoever + both the clock and the chapters tick down to a predictable, but nonetheless well-told and heartwarming, finale.

[Art - 9]

The artwork is rather stylish (late 90's manga), which helps the character designs stand out even more. They each have their own distinctive facial/body features and wardrobe, and the various expressions they make convey multiple layers of depth successfully.

The background/setting details are INCREDIBLE - perhaps I should have expected this because this is a crime/mystery drama, but it was pleasant regardless. These settings are all distinguishable from each other, and have many details crammed in, both for narrative and flavor text.

[Character - 9]

The characters can be a bit cliché, but are easy to immerse yourself in. Takeda's grief over the loss of his family + the cancer diagnosis makes his desperation to solve the crime even more enthralling - he may be a bit more brainy than expected, but again, I found that suspending disbelief was easy with the way he was characterized.

There aren't many other notable characters in this story, unfortunately. Detective Murai is a Good Cop who has his AHA moments, but he isn't as noteworthy as Takeda - the rest of the police department is barely worth mentioning. Sawako (Takeda's daughter) doesn't get fleshed out a lot, but you can definitely feel her absence with how many people knew her even 14 years later, along with her intellect and internal struggle. The antagonist is.....weirdly characterized - while he is a bit of a surprise, and is rather intelligent himself, his motive for the murder is really hard to decipher. Whether it was out of vengeance towards Takeda or a curiosity of what it's like to kill or something else may never be known (at least to me).

[Enjoyment/Overall - 10/9]

Nonetheless, this was a fun read! It's well executed in spite of its nitpicky flaws, and makes for a good weekend read thanks to its short span and narrative. I'd recommend reading this if you like mystery thrillers, especially ones that don't drag!

It’s rare for a manga to elicit such strong feelings from me, but Seizon-Life succeeds with its ruminations of filial responsibility, love, and the search for truth and understanding, for redemption.

Redemption even if you've only got six months left to live. Takeda is told this and is wracked with fear and guilt. Guilt because his wife died of the same illness in the past and he realises he wasn’t there for her enough at the time. Now that he feels the same unrelenting fear of impending death, he feels disgusted with himself, with his past behaviour to his family, his deceased wife and his deceased daughter.

His long-lost daughter has not given up on him however, as once her corpse is found buried under a parking area in Nagano prefecture, the police phone Takeda to inform him, just as he's about to hang himself in despair.

In bearing witness to her skeletal remains and facing head on the shame of his previous inability to be a decent husband and father, Takeda takes it upon himself to use up what little time he has left to find his daughter's killer. There is irony and fate at play, with there being six months left till the statute of limitations on the crime being lifted, the limit being 15 years.

Takeda can’t rely on the police who don’t have the motivation to go all out on a case almost 15 years old with no leads. He begins the long and arduous journey himself by starting in the untouched bedroom of a daughter he never really knew as well as he should have, for clues as to where she disappeared to one day 14 years ago.

During the story, a cop in charge of the soon-to-be closed case serves as a foil to Takeda. Not being an irritable barrier but more like a voice of cool logic that only a seasoned and tired detective could have, he plays devil's advocate to Takeda's discoveries, forcing him to wake up to the idea that simply identifying the killer won’t be enough, he will need concrete proof in order to avenge his daughter. Another cop, Murai, joins Takeda’s mission and provides a good partner as they navigate their way through procedural details to dig underneath clues, lies and red herrings.

Seizon is so brilliant because not only is it another example of the manga form’s wide range of variety by exploring an interesting and worthy theme from the viewpoint of an ordinary character with no cynical manga-selling abilities or traits, but because it’s a great race-against-time thriller. With Takeda's condition deteriorating rapidly, time is crucial, being hospitalised is unacceptable, he must catch the killer before the legal deadline and before he becomes unable to function coherently.

So Takeda in a sense becomes the lead investigator for the most part of the story, retracing his daughter’s steps 14 years ago, following small leads, persisting, following the path she took, to see everything she saw and feel everything she felt.

Takeda's mission to find his daughter's killer is more about getting to know his daughter for the first time in a long while, and in that to find redemption for his neglect of his family in the past. When he begins to interview people about his daughter in the beginning, he feels that they're talking about a stranger, but chapter by chapter he reconnects with her.

So it’s only in the prolonged aftermath of her death that he truly understands who she was. It’s too late naturally, but in a sense it’s not, because dealing with deceased people, giving them funerals and discovering the truth behind their deaths is more to benefit the living. The dead are dead. The living have to live with that. Funerals aren’t for dead people; they're for the ones who are still alive.

Takeda's vengeance is not for his daughter's sake, but for his soul, it’s his final duty as a husband and father. The manga isn’t utterly perfect, as there is an air of predictability about it, which is both fine on one hand and unwanted on the other.

On one hand you can understand one outcome of the story, and on the other you might wish the author had written another outcome a different way. Regardless it’s not enough to detract from the story and it’s consistent with the theme of striving to survive and to keep on living no matter what the odds, as demonstrated courageously by Takeda and his daughter.

The art of the manga is reminiscent of Katsuhiro Otomo in the clean and detailed designs of background settings and characters, none of which look overly cute or beautiful but are grounded in more realistic tones. The main protagonist is just a regular middle-aged man and the story is populated by more characters in their thirties, forties; a wide variety of types overall.

It also feels like a Naoki Urasawa effort, although unlike that excellent author's epic thrillers, Seizon isn’t too convoluted to keep up with, at a lean 3 volumes it proceeds at a good pace and wraps up before becoming too over the top with twists and revelations.

The only revelation you need to know about is Seizon the manga itself.

I honestly really liked how the mystery surrounding the main character who's trying to find his daughter's killer 14 years later after her death. Worse of all going through that, the dude is going through cancer and the wife passes away.

Like bruh, it literally is a sad and heavy story to take in but you instantly will get hooked into it from the first chapter. Of course this manga isn't that perfect like the English translation in some of the earlier scenes weren't clear enough for me to understand what's going on. However it was only a minor problem so it was no biggie really. At least it wasn't all scenes in all due respect, I was glad to understand whats going on lol.

Also the ending dude is literally a woooooah moment and I meant it. I'm not gonna spoil what happened but it is something you should take a look at it you're planning to read this hidden gem manga!

I’m a sucker for emotional farewells, revenge stories, and mystery solving. Is it any wonder then that I like Seizon-Life? It hits all the points.

Takeda is a man who succeeded greatly at his career, but he lost just about everything else. He lost his daughter over a decade ago, he then lost his wife to a disease, and now he himself seems on the verge of losing his own life to cancer in six months. He admits, though, that even before he lost those things, he didn’t really care for them. All he ever cared for was his job.

Just when he was about to give up and throw even his life away, he receives news that his daughter’s corpse had been found and that the statue of limitations on her murder will expire in six months. Believing that this is a heavenly signal from his daughter, he decides to go look for her murderer when even the police had given up. In the process, he might learn more than just about the murder.

Seizon-Life’s strongest point is that it’s an exciting read made all the stronger by its short length – meaning it doesn’t drag on and the progress moves at a steady pace which easily keeps readers’ interest.

It does require a significant suspension of disbelief, especially when you consider that the crime was committed 14 years ago yet the primary method Takeda used to search is to ask people for information from their memories.

Nonetheless, the story’s mystery aspect helps to keep you interest and Takeda does come to be endearing and one sympathizes with him. Thanks to that, an already short but exciting story becomes that much more short and exciting because I found that, by the end, I didn't really wanted it to end just yet.

"In my heart...it's always raining."

I literally ran into this manga while searching for something...interesting. I can honestly say this manga creeped me out a little bit and made me angry an awful lot all while keeping me interested.

The main thing it was about was learning how to deal with your sadness and anger. All of life's curve balls. It gives you a look at what a person feels and what drives someone to hurt themselves. What they're willing to do in order to ease their pain, even if it's for a little while.

Summary:
Getting into high school is important for best friends Ayumu and Shii. Getting into Nishidate High School is Shii's dream. Ayumu wants to be by her best friends side and decides to enroll in the same school. Only problem is Ayumu is not known for her brains, but that doesn't stop them from making a promise to study their best in order to pass the entrance exam. She cuts herself to stay awake, it "helps" she heard. Life had other plans, only one girl gets in, Ayumu. Shii hates her for getting in and their friendship shatters. Ayumu is all alone. Her chance is to start fresh in high school.

Manami's life is great, perfect boyfriend, popular and super nice, she befriends Ayumu in a second. Manami is perfect, right? It all started with one cut, but know bleeding is the only thing that brings her comfort..

The Characters- [MILS SPOILERS]
That is this manga magic. I haven't read a manga before that had so many hateful and perverse people.
Ayumu is a victim, of everyone. Her only fault is that she's not strong enough and cuts herself to deal with the pain. The pain of her best friend hating her, her family ignoring her, her friends bullying her... She's gullible and sweet. Weaknesses in the world of this manga.

Manami was very good at her role of being the evil bitch. She played the good girl like no ones business but when the cat got out of the bag, there was no going back. She betrays and bullies and has no scruples. she is the lowest person you will ever imagine. She is evil personified. And I won't lie, all throughout my reading I was hoping she died, painfully.

Miki Hatori is the breath of fresh air. Though she is portrayed at first as a delinquent, that proves to be false. Her character, to me, was the worlds redeeming quality for Ayumu. To believe that people were good, some of them anyway.

I don't want to spoil anything by having to dissect the characters/story (which is what I truly want/need) but I will tell you this, LIFE's characters give the story that extra push to Great. They show hatred, selfishness, jealousy, betrayal and deceitfulness like no one's business, all at once to the same person. They are that "good." The make you want to scream and get angry, and you don't even feel bad when karma meets them around the corner. And it always does.

Though not always realistic, I mean where are the grownups/teachers?? The teachers that are there are illustrated originally in their inability to help. Not to offend but some of them wanted to help but they just made things worse. It might as well have been real LIFE.

The Art- I started reading this in the dead of the night and at the beginning the art scared me. Not anything gory or anything, just the characters expressions. You could see their evilness. But it's an ordinary style art. Nothing beautiful or memorable in it.

The really sad part was that while I was reading I kept asking myself why I was still reading. But I couldn't stop. It was like watching a train wreck.

The story is about a girl who is bullied with so many insane characters. I didn't have any doubt giving this manga a 10/10 rating.

The most appealing factor of this manga is it's story since it's unique and interesting. It even has notes on the psychologists. The main character relies on other people's thoughts about her too much that she can't do anything without getting stressed about getting disliked. It captures her anxiety, fear of not fitting in, self hatred well. In one of the first chapters, she asks herself, wouldn't it be better to be alone instead of being friends with people that will only care about themselves, who will turn their back towards you in your slightest mistake without paying attention to what you're saying. Ayumu, the main character, concludes on having friends is better despite the consequences. Then there is Hatori, who is a great role mode, in contrast to Ayumu, she is a strong girl who doesn't care about her classmates even though they ignore her and exclude her from everything. The manga displays how school life is for the girls with all the jealousy and meaningless drama, I know things like this happen since I saw it happen and this manga does a great job of displaying the truth without sugar coating it.

The art and the characters are another strong point. The poses, action scenes are so greatly drawn and it is so detailed. Even in a crowded scene, I could see the faces and bodies clearly. Also the use of tones is so professionally done that it helps giving the emotion powerfully. The expressions in some parts blew my mind by how terrifyingly accurate the faces are drawn. The characters are also very unique, every single character have depth and you understand their reasoning, I wouldn't think there would be a better way than concluding the way it did since it was so much like what the characters would do.

To put everything together, I thought that it would be about a girl who self harms but it was more about the psychological drama, learning the way of coping and fighting back against bullying. I'm so glad I read it and recommend it without doubt. Only exception would be if anyone would get triggered by bullying and self harm but I believe this would help you getting stronger. Thanks to the mangaka for creating such a great story and art.

LIFE is basically the best manga I've ever read. The story is deep, impactful, emotional, and realistic at the same time. A lot of people may think that it is exaggerated, but in real life acts of extreme bullying DO happen and people are ignoring it so blatantly. The manga also successfully depicts how school life is like especially for girls. It is hard to fit in and girls would do anything to fit in and feel like they belong in the class. Moreover, the aspect I love most about this manga is about the character's relationship with her mother. Honestly it's VERY difficult to find any manga who shows the fact that parents care a lot about their children's performance at school. The realistic pressure that Asians, especially Japanese, have to face is that they are expected to do so well at school regardless of what happens. This manga, unlike any other, is truly a masterpiece.

LIFE is a drama set in high school that deals with suicide, bullying, depression and self-mutliation.

I liked how LIFE took an interesting turn after the beginning of the story. But the twist in the plot is brutal, and this is not a happy story by far. It is a heavy drama, that deals with the emotional pain and suffering of a girl who has been betrayed by her closest friend (being rejected for having a higher exam score is pretty harsh), and only gets a worse hell after that.

The key reason why I gave my score of 7/10 for LIFE, despite how the author daringly took on writing an entire manga around bullying and self-harm, is because of the drama itself. At times the drama is very much contrived, or else something is compromised so the mangaka can put the heroine Ayumu, who is constantly bullied and sometimes cuts as a result, in any situation to move the plot along. I had some questions throughout the series that needed to be addressed but even by the 40th chapter I felt they'd never be answered.

1. Why in God's name does Ayumu's mother know nothing of her suffering and pain? Usually mothers are more receptive to these types of things, and although in one chapter she half-heartedly calls Ayumu crazy, her mom doesn't seem like a witchy woman who wouldn't notice what's going on with her daughter. Maybe Ayumu is extremely good at hiding this problem? I suppose it's that... but still. I also wonder why the hell Ayuuu doesn't attempt to transfer schools during the bullying. Even if she *tried* to do so and never could, it would have made the plot better. If I were ever in such a school I'd try to transfer out of there right away!

2. Why is Ayumu a target for danger wherever she goes? This is where the plot fails. And you can immediately sense the mangaka is forcing her character into beyond realistic situations so she can develop her character further. Even when Ayumu is hanging out with her first genuine friend since jr. high named Hatori, she /slips on a bottle/ near a group of rude teenage guys, which proceeds to them /eventually kidnapping her and putting her in an abandoned hospital which blows up/. Yes, for a shoujo the plot itself is pretty good and miraculously - I enjoyed it anyway. That's the weird part. I think the mangaka saved herself from failing with this story because Ayumu and Hatori are two strong characters with good character development. I loved Hatori especially. She's a wonderful friend to Ayumu and not typical for a shoujo story.

3. I hate how every. single. person in Ayumu's life save a few people seem to think she is delusional or psycho for being bullied, or hurt by someone, including her mom. Why does this happen? I'm relieved that eventually the mangaka added some minor characters who call out the psycho band of girls for bullying Ayumu. But God, the things that happen to her are beyond nightmarish, and if the school had a normal administration the girls who did such a thing would have been instantly expelled in just one instance. What bothers me about the bullying is that it seems near-constant to the point of ridiculousness, and it actually happens on school grounds, and in such a way where SOMEONE should have seen it first-hand. The mangaka sometimes sacrifices the quality of the story to provide incidences of bullying that should get the evil girls expelled, but they never do.

I'm half-way finished LIFE. I've enjoyed it despite a few of its pit falls, like how Ayumu got a one-way ticket to Psychoville just from graduating jr. high. It's a genuinely interesting manga that takes on an extremely heavy subject, which it can overdo sometimes, but nonetheless the art is pretty good and the characters will make you want to continue on.

I personally think LIFE is a really good Manga. Its about this Girl named Ayumu Shiiba and she's not the brightest student. But, lucky for her, she "was" friends with a another girl named Shii-chan. (well, thats what she called her in the story. I don't know her name) Shii-chans dream was to go to Nishidate High School. Later, Ayumu realizes she doesn't want to be apart from Shii-chan, Just because they'll most likely go to different high schools. So, She studys hard (using Shii-chan's notes; making it hard on Shii-chan to study for herself) and makes it into Nishidate without Shii-chan (who failed her test and let her grades slip because she didn't speak up for her notes back from Ayumu.) You'll sound realize Ayumu's really slow and doesn't get things fast enough. And thats what happened, She didn't get the clues that Shii-chan was failing until it was to later. And now Ayumu has lost her best friend and goes into high school alone; just to make worster friends.
When Ayumu gets to Nishidate, She means a preppy girl named Manami Anzai. Manami likes to be the center of attention and doesn't care as to how she does it. (Like, if she has to lie, blackmail, or really anything) Manami has a boyfriend; Katsumi Sako, who has a fetish for bondage and keeps a scrapbook of the girls he has raped. Sako breaks up with Manami for unknown reasons. Manami then, asks Ayumu to get them back to together. Ayumu tries to be the good friend and works to try and get them together again, only to come across this book, he molests her and makes her his slave. However, his evil plans for her are thwarted because he has an abusive father who beats him to ensure his future relationship with Manami (both of their fathers are rich CEO's of famous companies). Around large groups of people he acts polite and sweet; but when it suits him to show his real self, that self is manipulative and abusive. He stalksAyumu, tries to make her call him "Master" for blackmail purposes, and even completely tricks Ayumu's mother into thinking he is a nice person. (Ayumu's mother was worried she wasn't doing well in school got her a home teacher.) After, the first rape attack on Ayumu, Sako promised to get back with Manami for Ayumu.
Manami then, follows Sako to Ayumu's house for "study" (Eariler, that same day Manami's other friends told her that they saw Ayumu going into a house with Sako. And they stated that Ayumu was trying to steal Sako away from her. Manami didn't believe it, because she asked Ayumu to talk to Sako for her.) But, before going to Ayumu, Sako bought some flowers. And Manami though the flowers were for Ayumu. (Sako's never given Manami flowers.) So, then Manami's starts believing what her friends were saying about Ayumu; She then get the whole class (later the whole school) to start bullying Ayumu (At first Manami was bullying a other girl named Miki Hatori, who laters becomes friends with Ayumu.) Then, last Manami get the teachers to do nothing about the bullying going on in the class.
So, now Ayumu and Miki are stuck at the hands of Manami. Until they find proof, That Manami and Sako aren't the angel, They've got the school to believe.

The drama isn't too exaggerated so it protrays what a high school girl would be likely to go through in her time. Making friends, getting stabbed in the back, exiled and tortured. The main character is mentally weak till she meets a true friend that lifts her up out of the she's in. She helps the main character believe in herself and enables the main character to stand up to the bullies. It sends a message that all you really need is ONE good friend to get you through the bad times rather than a whole bunch of fair weather friends. It's an excellent read. Every time I finish a new volume im left craving more!