Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit GN 1

When I got my copy of Fullmetal Alchemist volume 18 in the mail, Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit was advertised inside the front cover. I'd forgotten all about it ever since Viz first announced the license back in July. I ordered it straight away. I received it late last week and read it yesterday.

First thing I noticed upon flipping through this was the art. It's crisp and clean, and it makes good, if sometimes overenthusiastic, usage of shadowing. What really sells it though are the facial expressions. Motoro Mase is very good at depicting them, as each of them are easy to identify and he uses them quite well. I wouldn't say he's on the level of say, Hitoshi Iwaaki at drawing totally whacked-out expressions, but Mase can certainly hold his own. Mase does stoop to using shortcuts a bit too much though. Cutting and pasting bits of previous panels often when a character is recollecting something. Cutting and poasting is fine usually when used sparingly, but used too much it gets to be a bit distracting.

Just reading the back cover evokes thoughts of Death Note. Death Note also dealt (at least in the beginning) with the systematic decline of society. Interestingly enough, "Ikigami" translated means "Death Paper." However, the similarities are only skin deep -- Ikigami is a completely different. It isn't about an epic cat-and-mouse game that raises questions about morality -- nor is it about killing criminals -- it's a episodic examination of "regular" people who have been given 24 hours to live.

That said, the intricate system put in place by the government in order to randomly kill people is absolutely ludicrous. It's a mystery how the people of Japan were persuaded to go along with such a system, although it is only 1 out of 1000 people who are chosen and surviviors of the "victims" are compenstated with a "breavement pension." Regardless, there's no way real people would pass such a law. Nevertheless, that doesn't mean the system presented in Ikigami isn't interesting though. In fact, after suspending my disbelief in such an illogical system, I actually found myself becoming quite fascinated by this system as we learn about it along with the main character Fujimoto, whose job is to deliver Ikigami notices to those selected precisely 24 hours before their set time of death. The way people are randomly selected and how the killing are carried out is actually quite ingenious, to say the least.

Contained in this volume are the first two stories. The first leaves a little to be desired. It's about a guy who was bullied in his youth and seeks revenge upon his tormentors upon recieving his Ikigami notice. How many times have we seen a story like that? I'm not sure why Japan seems obsessed with bullying. Is it a problem in Japan or something? Still, the first story does have its disturbing moments. Moments that earned this volume a mature rating, although even then it's actually rather tame for a manga given such a rating. Probably could have gotten away with a 16+ rating.

The second story is much better. It's a sentimental tale of an aspiring musician who's run into hard times and his songwriter friend he'd left behind. Much of it is backstory as it were, starting from when Torio and his friend Hidekazu are mere street musicians before Torio gets swept away by music production agency. It's worth nothing that Mase makes the mistake of drawing Hidekazu to look too much like the Ikigami messenger Fujimoto, so at first I was a bit confused at first before Hidekazu was first introduced by name. That aside, Torio's actions just prior to dying are surprising, not to mention touching. All this makes for a good follow-up to the banal first story.

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit is certainly worth checking out. Based upon the first volume, it's probably not going to win an Eisner award, and I can't really say Death Note fans will eat this up either, because Ikigami is not going to give the reader a non-stop thrill ride with self-contained, simpler and more realistic stories. Ikigami stands on its own and serves well as good, thought-provoking entertainment.

Overall: (out of 5)

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