"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.