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Anybody read this ?

I thought it was a very good manga. Short and sweet. It was very touching seeing Takeda struggle like hell to find the culprit, the reader clearly gets his despair and feels the tension when things get serious. I was especially thrilled when Takeda grabbed the knife in the 3rd volume.

The only real flaw this manga has was the intention of the culprit.
He raped a random girl on a whim, just for sexual pleasure, and seeing that she could complain and throw him in jail, he... killed her. Kind of weak if you ask me, but well, this manga only has 3 volumes, it was intended to be enjoyed for the journey, not the result, and boy was it one hell of a journey.

Overall, I'd give this manga a fair 8/10.

Well, spoilers obviously:

No, there's nothing wrong with the crime itself, its all too common in this world so it rang true.

The problem was Takeda doesnt die at the end! That would have made the manga better, but we get a bit of a cop out with his tumour looking like it will stop growing.

I mention in my review though that its at least consistent with the theme of 'life', but still I'd have preferred him dying at the end and the final panel of the manga be a doube-page spread of the grave of the three family members all finally together. Would have been tragic and satisfying.

I was also dissapointed that Takeda didn't die in the end. But it's still the best manga I've read yet.

I disagree. The theme of the story is, as you correctly stated, life. It's very much against either suicide or giving up, but continuing to struggle onwards. And while Takeda's tumor has stopped growing, it hasn't gone away. In all likelihood, he will still die from it, in excruciating pain, less than a few years after the last panel, if not months.

It's a consistent and realistic ending in that sense.

I did have one other very minor problem with the story, though; Takeda's restraint in not killing Nakamura.

Not only was it the only unrealistic note in the story, (you're telling me that upon confronting his daughter's rapist and killer, with nothing to lose, he restrains himself?) but it's made abundantly clear that it's simply a deus ex machina for the final confrontation a day later.

Still, this manga is among the very best masterpieces of the entire medium.

Well the theme of the manga is striving to survive, but also about family, so I figure by him dying at the end its not only logical but also satisfying on a thematic and even motif level, he gets to join his family again, metaphorically and literally. But him suddenly getting better with no explanation is a bit too much to swallow, however much its in keeping with the 'life' theme, it didnt feel earned. His redemption was definitely earned, but his miraculous cure, not so much. The writer should have thrown in a few hints of the fact that he could have gotten better during the story, setup and payoff and all that jazz.

I dont know why but I didnt feel like him not killing Nakamura outright was unrealistic. I mean when you write it down like that in your post I suddenly agree with you, but at the time of reading it didnt feel unrealistic to me, maybe I thought his mission for justice overrided his urge to kill the man. If you think about it, if he did kill him then all that effort to find clues, his entire journey would have been wasted. Of course its different for every person, though I suppose 90% of us would just go blank with rage and kill the dude.

Awesome manga and would make a great film.

Actually, the more I think about it...the less I like an ending where he dies. It's the predictable, expected route for the story, but also, the wrong one. His death would not only be too convenient, but actively work against the motif it's trying to promote; that of struggling onwards.

His tumor not GROWING (it hasn't disappeared by any means, and Takeda's days are clearly numbered) lends a more realistic level of uncertainty to the ending than a telegraphed death.



The way it was presented was the height of unrealistic. The part about killing him making his previous effort meaningless is exactly why it's so deus ex machina; it should have been handled better. How about Nakamura escapes after Takeda draws the knife, and Detective Miura confronts the former at some point? That would have worked a lot better for me.



Indeed.

Its only predictable because the entire story hinges on the fact that he is dying and only has a few months left to live! He's supposed to die, we saw him get weaker and weaker throughout the manga, its what makes the story such a great tense thriller and tragedy, its the logical thing to kill him off at the end, there's nothing unfairly convenient about it. Its about sticking to your guns and going through with what you've promised, but at the final moment the manga pulls its punches.

He should die at the end, a content man. But he doesnt die because the tumour for some random reason decides to stop growing, even though the body it inhabits has been put through the emotional and physical wringer for the last 6 months. Its just a cheap cop-out, no matter how I look at it, the very definition of 'convenient'. Just because the manga's called 'Life' it shouldnt mean you can just magically save the main character for a happy ending. Nevermind the theme of 'striving for tomorrow', there has to be consistency involved in the plot for me to accept him surviving, setups, markers, hints, anything at all in the story to justify his diagnosis being overcome. But there's no indication of his tumour getting better, or the chance that it could get better, at any point in the story except in that last chapter where it just comes out of nowhere.

The manga's got this Korean cinema type vibe running through it, they'd definitely kill him off at the end in the movie adaptation.

All of that is true, but considering Takeda is suffering from cancer, such a reversal is far from unusual. That's a disease well-known for both inexact diagnosis, and the mental attitude of the victim playing a major role.



It's not at all a cop-out. If his tumor had GONE AWAY, or if he had full-blown AIDS and was dying that way, sure, I might agree. But dude, I know enough friends and family who have managed to live a lot longer than the diagnosis of their doctor regarding their cancer, so I don't view it as "unrealistic" or "convenient" in that sense.

And if it helps to strengthen the overall arc of the story, why not?



How is that a happy ending? I would call it hopeful, sure, but no way is it a happy one. Takeda's wife and daughter are dead, he's going to die in excruciating pain, and he's all alone.



Probably; death is a more common motif than life in serious Korean films!

It was a very enjoyable read. I rate 'Confession' slightly higher, but not by much. It dragged a little towards the end, and I started to grow tired of the never-ending 'No, you aren't in the clear - this is the definitive proof you can be charged!11!1!' twists, but it's most certainly worthy of a very solid 8/10. I did have many issues with it, which I'm going to go into some detail about, but nothing so extreme that the experience was ruined.

To start with, it was awful bloody convenient how new evidence kept popping up when it was needed. I mean, how the hell would anyone work out a car was parked in the distance based on an old picture someone drew? And Takeda was even more lucky to just happen to get a call about a picture showing the killer and his daughter walking towards a carthatmatched the colour shown in the picture his daughter drew.

The end in particular was very forced. Just when all hope was lost, Murai just happened to notice a postcard Takeda had kept in his home for 15 years, which gave the duo hope when all appeared to be lost. And, when that failed, Takeda 'somehow' linked seemingly random numbers to dates, with those digits alone somehow being enough to get a conviction. (Why the hell did his daughter still have a radio when being held prisoner, anyway!?)

My biggest beef lies with the lead not killing the rapist and murderer of his daughter. He had very little time left to live, he confessed to falling as a father AND a husband, he found out who killed his daughter... yet he wanted to put him in prison instead of murdering him in the most painful way possible? WHAT!? What sort of father would do things the proper way in a situation like that? If you were going to die anyway, killing someone that took away your daughter shouldn't be an issue.

I know; it isn't the sort of manga where the tragic father goes all Rambo, but it would've made for a more enjoyable experience to see the villain of the piece get sent to hell... instead of a prison cell.

And, finally, the ending - my last issue. The author lost his balls by that stage, clearly, opting to use the final few pages for rushed, unrealistic 'happy ever after' shit rather than going down a more depressing path. The guy had nothing left to live for, and his family was waiting for him - why not let him die? It was his time. A cowardly excuse for an ending is never a good thing. It made me imagine Maximus getting back up at the end of Gladiator; after getting his vengeance.