I liked how LIFE took an interesting turn after the beginning of the story. But the twist in the plot is brutal, and this is not a happy story by far. It is a heavy drama, that deals with the emotional pain and suffering of a girl who has been betrayed by her closest friend (being rejected for having a higher exam score is pretty harsh), and only gets a worse hell after that.
The key reason why I gave my score of 7/10 for LIFE, despite how the author daringly took on writing an entire manga around bullying and self-harm, is because of the drama itself. At times the drama is very much contrived, or else something is compromised so the mangaka can put the heroine Ayumu, who is constantly bullied and sometimes cuts as a result, in any situation to move the plot along. I had some questions throughout the series that needed to be addressed but even by the 40th chapter I felt they'd never be answered.
1. Why in God's name does Ayumu's mother know nothing of her suffering and pain? Usually mothers are more receptive to these types of things, and although in one chapter she half-heartedly calls Ayumu crazy, her mom doesn't seem like a witchy woman who wouldn't notice what's going on with her daughter. Maybe Ayumu is extremely good at hiding this problem? I suppose it's that... but still. I also wonder why the hell Ayuuu doesn't attempt to transfer schools during the bullying. Even if she *tried* to do so and never could, it would have made the plot better. If I were ever in such a school I'd try to transfer out of there right away!
2. Why is Ayumu a target for danger wherever she goes? This is where the plot fails. And you can immediately sense the mangaka is forcing her character into beyond realistic situations so she can develop her character further. Even when Ayumu is hanging out with her first genuine friend since jr. high named Hatori, she /slips on a bottle/ near a group of rude teenage guys, which proceeds to them /eventually kidnapping her and putting her in an abandoned hospital which blows up/. Yes, for a shoujo the plot itself is pretty good and miraculously - I enjoyed it anyway. That's the weird part. I think the mangaka saved herself from failing with this story because Ayumu and Hatori are two strong characters with good character development. I loved Hatori especially. She's a wonderful friend to Ayumu and not typical for a shoujo story.
3. I hate how every. single. person in Ayumu's life save a few people seem to think she is delusional or psycho for being bullied, or hurt by someone, including her mom. Why does this happen? I'm relieved that eventually the mangaka added some minor characters who call out the psycho band of girls for bullying Ayumu. But God, the things that happen to her are beyond nightmarish, and if the school had a normal administration the girls who did such a thing would have been instantly expelled in just one instance. What bothers me about the bullying is that it seems near-constant to the point of ridiculousness, and it actually happens on school grounds, and in such a way where SOMEONE should have seen it first-hand. The mangaka sometimes sacrifices the quality of the story to provide incidences of bullying that should get the evil girls expelled, but they never do.
I'm half-way finished LIFE. I've enjoyed it despite a few of its pit falls, like how Ayumu got a one-way ticket to Psychoville just from graduating jr. high. It's a genuinely interesting manga that takes on an extremely heavy subject, which it can overdo sometimes, but nonetheless the art is pretty good and the characters will make you want to continue on.
