Believers

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Believers is a tense pot-boiler of a drama that you could easily imagine as a live action effort directed by Lars von Trier or some other eclectic director with a penchant for putting his actors through the emotional wringer.

Three cult members are on a small island off the coast of Japan taking part in a program to purify themselves in order to become new heightened humans, and the method to do this is through a humble routine of mental exercise and meditation, eating, sleeping, and the occasional secret lust-ridden sex, betrayal, paranoia, death and mutilation.

You see, you can’t just plop three humans on an island ... and not expect it to all go haywire. Especially since their food rations begin running out thanks to a lack of food drops from their main organisation which is quite obviously in financial and legal trouble.

This all harkens back to the Aum Shinrikyo sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995, and being that this manga was published in 1999 you can feel the millennial fears and worries come to life on the page. Author Naoki Yamamoto takes a pivotal moment in Japanese news and concentrates on the lesser folk involved in the affair, and does it brilliantly by isolating them from the main happenings on the mainland. It is a staple of the thriller genre to increase tension on ordinary people bit by bit until the proverbial pot boils over and Believers delivers on that aspect at an assured pace.

The three characters themselves are well fleshed out with compelling backgrounds and seeing them rub off on each other, quite literally in some cases, is a joy. The lust that rears its head is kinetic, the paranoia and suspicion, the outright jealousy masked by hierarchy is ugly but very real.

As one extreme emotion follows another, the behaviour of the characters, one in particular, becomes more and more selfish in nature and so transparent yet the other two are so weak-willed that for the most part they can’t defend themselves from ridiculous demands and outrageous behaviour that borders on hysterical satire if it weren’t so disturbing and realistic to imagine.

That is Believer's strength, its portrayal of ugly emotions taking flight in humans so easily susceptible to outside influences, so reliant on external stimulation and ideas, not strong enough inside themselves, not strong enough to have realised how bloody stupid it was to join the cult in the first place, let alone willingly go on an island and ultimately allow themselves to spiral into the depths of human instinct gone crazy with blood-lust.

It builds to a terrifying climax and good resolution that almost veers into over the top territory but then refrains and settles for a more logical and satisfying conclusion with some form of liberation. That’s what the entire story is about really, finding liberation.

Imagine three persons stuck on an isle. Now imagine that those people went there voluntarily to "redeem" themselves. Sounds like an interesting scenario right? Believers is a psychological drama manga that narrates the daily life of three cult members on an island.

The story is quite straightforward: three persons of a cult, who participate in the "Desert Island Program", decide to live on an small island to purify themselves from the corrupt society. This is done in two ways: through mental exercises (that involve communicating everything, even secrets) and strange meditation methods. As the reader can imagine, there is no way three persons can hold out ... long without giving in into human desire, especially when the cult organization stops sending food to the island.

This a strong point of Believers; it displays human nature well through small, realistic incidents and good narrative. Jealousy, lust, paranoia, betrayal and death are all present, portrayed realistically through the characters. The narrative and display of the cult was done well, showing the reality of what a lot of cults are: mindlessly following orders without hesitation, and to what this can lead.

The cast of characters is by no means big: it focuses mainly on the three people from the island. The characters are done well, two weakwilled ones, while the other one is very strong willed. This can only go wrong; as time passes, the demands get more and more ridiculous, which are mixed with jealousy, contempt and paranoia. The occasional interaction with people from outside the isle displays the madness that can come from blind faith.

The art style is nothing outstanding. Sometimes inconsistencies can be found in the drawing, but nevertheless it fulfills its purpose.

Believers was overall a good read with an interesting story that displayed human nature realistically. With a satisfying and convincing conclusion, Believers narrates basically the story of humans trying to escape the oppressive reality and everyday life of society.

Thank you for reading.

First, a little background information. Naoki Yamamoto's 'Believers' was inspired by the Subway Sarin Incident caused by doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo and how that led him to read a book about the Japanese Red Army (JRA), a terrorist group which aimed to overthrow the Japanese Government and start a world revolution. In this book, Yamamoto read written accounts from previous JRA members which detailed their experiences as members. The aptly named 'Believers' is essentially Yamamoto's take on what would happen if a group of people who ardently believed in a radical ideology were stuck together. The series also draws significant influence from Jonestown and its ... late leader, Jim Jones, as well as the video game phenomenon of the 90s.

'Believers' is about three cult members – two men and one woman – who take part in the “Deserted Island Program”, a program which aims to “purify” them from the corrupt influences of modern society. The characters don't use their birth names, they are simply referred to by their rank title – Chairman, Vice Chairman and Operator. Each day consists of: meditating by sitting in a triangle formation with each other's feet touching; analysing their dreams with each other in an effort to cleanse themselves of all impurities; testing their “psychic” powers; listening to their “master” through radio transmissions; and communicating their progress to higher ranking members in the cult. Celibacy and honesty are the greatest virtues while any sexual thoughts are tantamount to heresy and will see you spend a night buried up to your chest in sand to rid your body of its “poison”.

'Believers' begins as a mystery which slowly starts to reveal itself as the story unravels and the characters descend into madness. At its core 'Believers' is a romance, but to simply call it that is too reductionist. The story is filled with black comedy, drama and psychological elements. One of the recurring themes is the idea of the line between dream and reality becoming eroded over time. It is never clear whether what we are seeing is reality or the characters' distorted perceptions of reality. It is very Satoshi Kon-esque, which is one of the highest compliments you could give. Yamamoto also brilliantly juxtaposes the dangers of blind subservience with the mindless bliss of being told how to think. You want the characters to succeed, yet you also understand that their position is due to their own personal negligence. Their conflicts are as much internal as they are external. Perhaps the biggest theme is how we try to suppress human desires. In particular, sex. The role of sex is significant in all of Yamamoto's manga and thus deserves a section of its own.

Yamamoto is one of the more polarising mangaka out there. He specialises in erotic manga, so a lot of people will dismiss his work out of hand. However, the sex does serve a purpose and is not simply watered-down Hentai. Just as sex in 'Arigatou' was used to symbolise liberation, the sex in 'Believers' fills a similar purpose. I don't recall ever seeing any author, manga or otherwise, using sex as a motif as intelligently as Yamamoto does. A word of warning: granted that genitalia is either censored or obscured, absolutely nothing is left to the imagination. In fact, there is an entire chapter dedicated to nothing but sex. Unfortunately, it does eventually comes across as a little gratuitous, but try not to let this put you off from reading an otherwise good manga.

Where the story in 'Believers' falls slightly short is in its conclusion. It was almost as if Yamamoto had written the first 20 chapters without considering how he would conclude the series. In the end it felt like Yamamoto was trying to tie up too many loose ends with too little time and it all smacks of poor planning. It isn't so bad that it undermines all the good work that preceded it, but it definitely could've been handled better. One other minor gripe was the sheer amount of dialogue. There is one scene where the Chairman is explaining his idea for a script and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that I have never seen a page of manga filled with so much text and I probably never will again.

Moving on to the art, 'Believers' is the first manga that Yamamoto drew without any assistance and it was drawn entirely on tablet. As commendable as that is, the results are something of a mixed bag. Firstly, the main cast all look too much alike. They all have similar body shapes, they all wear the same t-shirts throughout the story, they all have very similar hairstyles (the issue is further exasperated when Vice Chairman cuts her hair), they all have similar faces and both males have facial hair. Honestly, the result is just as jarring as it sounds. This is not helped by the fact that the characters are not drawn consistently from panel to panel. The thickness of the facial hair is a good example of this, appearing so faint at times that it almost gives the illusion that the males are clean shaven. The thickness of the lines, in general, is a big problem. Yamamoto himself admits that he loves to consistently draw with thin lines, but this leads to a lack of depth in his designs. Characters almost fade into the white space of the backgrounds while lines which are supposed to represent creases in a t-shirt ultimately just look like lines. The art does redeem itself somewhat with its setting, however. The Island where the characters reside is based on the Second Sea Fortress, a small, artificial island off the coast of Tokyo Bay during the early 20th Century. Particularly, long shots are used effectively to show the detailed and pretty landscape. All-in-all, the art is just okay. Not great, but it does the job. Ultimately, Yamamoto's stories have always come before his art and the same holds true here for 'Believers'.

Whether I could recommend 'Believers' largely depends on one's tolerance for depicted sexual acts, of which there is a lot here. If you can appreciate it for what it is then 'Believers' has the potential to appeal to a lot of different audiences. Yamamoto himself claimed that he doesn't care for genres and that is one of the biggest strengths of 'Believers' – there is something here for everyone (except minors, of course!). For a manga that isn't likely to take much more than a couple of hours to complete, it may be worth the gamble.

Believers is a very frightening manga when it needs to be. Not that anything scary ever happens, but watching our characters suffer for the sake of an uncaring and manipulative source is both frustrating and heartbreaking. The manga is often graphic, but in the situations depicted so is its counterpart in reality. The premise of the piece is three members of the “Happy Smile” cult are placed on a deserted island for a purification program, attempting to reach a heightened state of existence. The members are to essential eat, sleep and meditate for their entire journey. What seems like a uplifting challenge for the members ... is altered drastically as their utopia begins conflicting with the realty.

Believers is a very good manga, both in terms of quality and residual feeling it leaves with the reader. Certain inconsistencies may prevent this manga from being considered “a great”, but this psychological drama is very underrated, and at only 22 chapters is definitely worth a read (even if only to see what the fuss is about)."