Today we are going to discuss a manga I recently read called RElife. Although I have watched the anime a long time ago, it felt like a lot of things were just missing. The story had an interesting premise and a decent plot and progression but I am very pleased to say that everything the anime fell short on was expanded on and made the Relife experience a worthwhile one. It finally felt complete with the different arcs if you will and side stories that focus on some of the other side characters who become very loveable.
First the plot. The story follows an interesting premise, our protagonist who cant find a job who unusually might I add as reviewer Belmakor19 mentions is an older guy who is about 27 unlike the typical stories especially ones relating to school life. However what’s really interesting is that our protagonist isn’t the typical neet type character. Although he cant manage to find a job due to his resume in leaving his previous job in only 3 months, our protagonist is still applying for jobs and working part-time but due to his circumstances and as we follow long get to understand his reasons for leaving relating to his trauma in his past toxic and hostile work environment. Unable to pursue a career and with his current lonely life approached by a mysterious man claiming to work for the RElife organization and is then given the choice to have an opportunity to take a pill and join highschool again for a year. This proves to be a very engaging journey for our protagonist as he finds out more about himself, gains his confidence back, and moves past his trauma all achieved through his interactions with his newfound friends as well as by helping them with their own issues. This makes the side characters almost feel like they could almost be their own main character in another story because most are given a great deal of focus well besides for Tama and her 2 childhood friends but there is some resolution in the additional side story chapters after the end. All the characters are very loveable and relatable, and even though they aren’t given as much focus earlier on as the main adult group, you really get to understand them more later on in a deeper level especially with our adult group.
Also something that Id like to add and disagree with the aforementioned reviewer is that I absolutely love the memory plot point. At the end of the experiment, all those around the subject will lose their memories of the person. Although it may not be optimal in a practical real life sense, It allows the author to effectively tackle themes like friendships, the inevitable drifting apart with our bonds, and memories and how we must cherish them for the short time we have.
The art is somewhat average but its simplicity is something that can be quite deceiving on first glance. It kinda reads like an anime? Its also in color which many new manga readers may appreciate with since many tend to enjoy Mahwas a lot although it has typical manga panel structures which many old manga readers may appreciate.
The comedy is quite hilarious the around the first few chapters, it stops being as funny later on past maybe chapter 30 and starts to focus more on the characters and their struggles more and less about their comedic interactions but there are still plenty of reoccurring gags to come which I found quite funny as well.
I was slightly worried some characters wont get enough shine or that there wont be enough chapters for a meaningful ending but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. It flowed very well and had the perfect amount of interactions between characters, quite a bit of comedy here and there. Although I would have liked better explanations for the Relife organization and their methods looking back it probably wouldn’t fit in the story in a mood kinda sense and I felt it wasn’t necessary after a certain point. So with that being said.
Overall this manga is something that was a joy to read (even though you will probably cry quite a bit, I know I had many of those moments), the characters are all phenomenal (personally I love Ryo and An from the support group the most) and because of the premise/plot it allows for the development of our characters mainly to our adult group which in turn results in development for the normal students through their help. There is nothing I would change, add or remove from this story and because of my high level of enjoyment I will give it a 10/10 which is a masterpiece status on MAL. Although I didn’t have much expectations based on the anime, the manga did blow me away with a rollercoaster of emotions for our cast of characters and gave me new found motivation and inspiration for my life. I hope you all give this a try because I highly recommend it.
