Life

Name: Life
Rating: 7.98 (5986 reviews)
Author: Keiko Suenobu

*This is a digital eBook, not a physical book.

Synopsis

All Ayumu dreams of is making it into the same high school as her best friend. But when she gets in and her friend doesn't, their friendship crumbles—sending Ayumu spiraling into depression. She finds relief in cutting herself, but soon realizes that her scars may interfere with her budding high school life. Can she trust her new friend, Manami, who seems too good to be true? Or will Ayumu's apparent lack of compassion and understanding get her tossed aside like she was before? And is there anyone else out there who could possibly love her for who she is? A melancholy coming-of-age story by Keiko Suenobu! Warning: This volume contains depictions of self harm and suicidal ideation/attempts. If you are experiencing suicidal thoughts or feelings, you are not alone, and there is help. In the United States, call the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988 or go to 988lifeline.org. Otherwise, visit findahelpline.com to find support.

Volumes

Review

Feb 9, 2011

80 of 80 chapters read

Overall Rating: 10

Amane8009 (All reviews)

57 people found this review helpful

This Manga really touched me. I can't express enough gratitude to the Mangaka.

Story 10/10
This story contains so many mixed vibes, but i mean that in a good way. There is Bulling,suicide,friendship,true friends,cutting,self harm,sexual assault, and so much more. *may contain mild spoiler* We find Ayumu our main protagonist making a new friend at her new high school named Manami, she is seemingly nice and ayumu is really starting to think things are going very good. Manami's boyfriend breaks up with her, she trys to commit suicide by jumping infront of a train. Ayumu saves her and manami makes her help her get katsumi(bf) back because of a promise they had made. Things go wrong and everyone starts miss interpreting what ayumu was doing and then Manami thinks Ayumu has betrayed her. She thus becomes the victim of an on-slot of bullying, lead by manami.

Art 10/10
Can you say beautiful art that you tremble over? Thats how good the art is. I mean i seriously felt every corresponding emotion i saw in the manga. Such as Ayumus sad; crying face i felt it in my own heart. When you saw smiles they made me feel like the sun had come out from behind the clouds. Scared faces really showed fear, blank stares held no emotion, determination really made you hope she would win. The eyes are one the most beautiful aspects of this mangas art.

Characters 10/10
I felt that the characters were dramatic but were portrayed wonderfully.
Ayumu: weak at first, cared to much of what others thought, Cutt her self to relieve her own pain.
Manami: Your basic popular person, she is like the cheerleader in this type of manga, she had the perfect boy friend, stood out in the class, a big liar, and hated when other people seemed more popular then her.
Miki: The Strong lone wolf, she doesn't care what others say and just does her own thing; providing strength for ayumu when she needed it.
Katsumi: Seemingly the Nice jock type guy. But a sadism loving bastard. He liked tieing girls up/ In other words bondage. He was bound to manami because of both of their fathers businesses.

Enjoyment 10/10
I Really enjoyed This manga to my hearts content. I read each volume as fast as i had could get my hands on it. I enjoyed it so much that when i found out that its publishing company that was translating it into english was stopping at 9...i was so hurt...i had to finish it. I ordered the next 3 in Japanese from ebay and slowly ordered all of them and i learned how to read Japanese because of that. ^__^

Overall 10/10
If i coud give this Manga a high grade i would. It was so epically amazing, beautiful and heart warming. I even after ordering the remaining volumes in japanese i also got 1-9 in japanese as well so now i have 1-20 In Japanese and 1-9 in English.

I recommend this to anyone who needs there heart to be touched. The story is filled with heart crushing disasters but heart warming happiness as well.

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Dec 20, 2010

42 of 80 chapters read

Overall Rating: 9

Moon_Light (All reviews)

37 people found this review helpful

Preliminary

"In my heart...it's always raining."

I literally ran into this manga while searching for something...interesting. I can honestly say this manga creeped me out a little bit and made me angry an awful lot all while keeping me interested.

The main thing it was about was learning how to deal with your sadness and anger. All of life's curve balls. It gives you a look at what a person feels and what drives someone to hurt themselves. What they're willing to do in order to ease their pain, even if it's for a little while.

Summary:
Getting into high school is important for best friends Ayumu and Shii. Getting into Nishidate High School is Shii's dream. Ayumu wants to be by her best friends side and decides to enroll in the same school. Only problem is Ayumu is not known for her brains, but that doesn't stop them from making a promise to study their best in order to pass the entrance exam. She cuts herself to stay awake, it "helps" she heard. Life had other plans, only one girl gets in, Ayumu. Shii hates her for getting in and their friendship shatters. Ayumu is all alone. Her chance is to start fresh in high school.

Manami's life is great, perfect boyfriend, popular and super nice, she befriends Ayumu in a second. Manami is perfect, right? It all started with one cut, but know bleeding is the only thing that brings her comfort..

The Characters- [MILS SPOILERS]
That is this manga magic. I haven't read a manga before that had so many hateful and perverse people.
Ayumu is a victim, of everyone. Her only fault is that she's not strong enough and cuts herself to deal with the pain. The pain of her best friend hating her, her family ignoring her, her friends bullying her... She's gullible and sweet. Weaknesses in the world of this manga.

Manami was very good at her role of being the evil bitch. She played the good girl like no ones business but when the cat got out of the bag, there was no going back. She betrays and bullies and has no scruples. she is the lowest person you will ever imagine. She is evil personified. And I won't lie, all throughout my reading I was hoping she died, painfully.

Miki Hatori is the breath of fresh air. Though she is portrayed at first as a delinquent, that proves to be false. Her character, to me, was the worlds redeeming quality for Ayumu. To believe that people were good, some of them anyway.

I don't want to spoil anything by having to dissect the characters/story (which is what I truly want/need) but I will tell you this, LIFE's characters give the story that extra push to Great. They show hatred, selfishness, jealousy, betrayal and deceitfulness like no one's business, all at once to the same person. They are that "good." The make you want to scream and get angry, and you don't even feel bad when karma meets them around the corner. And it always does.

Though not always realistic, I mean where are the grownups/teachers?? The teachers that are there are illustrated originally in their inability to help. Not to offend but some of them wanted to help but they just made things worse. It might as well have been real LIFE.

The Art- I started reading this in the dead of the night and at the beginning the art scared me. Not anything gory or anything, just the characters expressions. You could see their evilness. But it's an ordinary style art. Nothing beautiful or memorable in it.

The really sad part was that while I was reading I kept asking myself why I was still reading. But I couldn't stop. It was like watching a train wreck.

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