Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit Volume 1

In a Japan not too far removed from reality, the government has instituted a program designed to make its citizens appreciate life to its fullest. How? By randomly sentencing citizens to death and informing them of their fate when they only have 24 hours left to live.

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit tells the story of these doomed souls, their last day on Earth and their attempts to find redemption before they die. Ikigami is not kids' stuff. It's full of rage, pain and graphic violence -- but it's also a thought-provoking story with crossover appeal for grown-up graphic novel readers who usually don't care for manga.

After determining that the Japanese populace doesn’t appreciate how good they've got it, the government passes "The National Welfare Act." This innocuous-sounding law is anything but -- one out of a thousand kids are injected with a microscopic time bomb that will kill them at a prescribed time when they reach adulthood.

The government's goal for this program is simple: to remind people that their lives are finite, so they'll appreciate each day above ground. But that's easy to say when you're not the one served with the death sentence. Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit focuses on the recipients of these death notes, their past mistakes and how they try to squeeze some redemption out of their last hours on Earth, and the government employee who must deliver the grim news.

Melodrama reigns as these twenty-somethings experience panic, rage, sorrow and acceptance, all in the space of 24 hours. As they do, these fictional young adults give readers a reason to ask themselves, "Would I react any differently, if I were them?"

Compared to the high drama of the ikigami recipients' lives, the bureaucratic efficiency of the ikigami system, is chilling. Readers learn about the hows and whys of ikigami through Fujimoto, a government-employed messenger, as he wrestles with his growing misgivings about his anything-but-dull office job.

While the conclusions can be a bit predictable, Ikigami's high-concept stories and streamlined, straight-forward artwork accomplish something kind of unusual: they make this graphic novel appealing for readers who normally don't care for your "typical" manga story. You'll find no doe-eyed nymphets or giant robots here. Instead, fans of DC's Vertigo comics or macabre morality fables like The Twilight Zone may find themselves intrigued by Ikigami's dark, thought-provoking stories, because they're made by grown-ups for grown-ups.