Jumyou wo Kaitotte Moratta. Ichinen ni Tsuki, Ichimanen de.
I sold my life for ten thousand yen per year.

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Sold my Life – Spoiler Free – Recommended

TLDR
Story – 8/10 – 8 x 0.275 = 2,2
Art – 6/10 – 6 x 0.2 = 1,2
Characters – 8/10 – 8 x 0.225 = 1,8
Enjoyment – 8,5/10 – 8,5 x 0.3 = 2,55
Total: 7,75 -> 8

Story – 8/10
... I Sold My Life for Ten Thousand Yen Per Year (or I Sold My Life for short) is a story about mortality and love and how it is preferable to live a short, full life rather than a dull, long one.
The story follows a character – Kusunoki – who, being short of money, decides to sell his lifespan in exchange for 300000 yen for the rest of his 30 years of life, getting a few months to live.
The story is mostly centred around the two main characters – Kusunoki and Miyagi –, as their fates cross and become intertwined. Their relationship – the main focus of the story – is nothing short of amazing. There aren’t leaps of faith, there aren’t badly written encounters, their relationship follows a logical path, and their feelings feel natural, having a good pace. Some aspects, however, are somewhat predictable.
The manga also makes us question the value of our life, and how precious (or not) it may actually be. This is one of the most challenging reflections in the manga, but it is done beautifully. Moreover, I Sold My Life shows some of the hardships that many of us have to face throughout life, such as being very poor or profound loneliness.
The ending is also impeccable, being without a doubt very tearful. In this sense, emotion was well conveyed.

Art – 6/10
The art style for I Sold My Life is pretty standard for a manga, notwithstanding the great cadence of the panels. The characters look like they are simple, generic manga characters, but it fulfils its purpose. Definitely, it isn’t awe-inspiring. The scenarios and backgrounds suffer from the same. It isn’t bad in any regard, but it just isn’t anything worthwhile in terms of art.

Characters – 8/10
I Sold My Life basically has two characters – Kusunoki and Miyagi – that take the entirety of the manga. There are technically other characters, but they play no role in the story whatsoever. First and foremost, Kusunoki and Miyagi are perfectly believable characters who just happened to be caught up in the depressive lows of life. They have a personality, and their romance is just well-built. Their character arcs, especially Miyagi, are notable for a three-volume manga.

Enjoyment – 8,5/10
Enjoyment can only be high for I Sold My Life. There are parts that are complete page-turners, and it is very easy to read along, for the page cadence is good as well. It is an emotional and tearful story that is the definition of short and sweet. Being a quick read, it also doesn’t feel that the story drags in any shape or form, as it reaches its conclusion naturally. For all these reasons, it deserves a heartfelt recommendation.

This work is depressing. Despite it's attempt to refute this through making the leads happy with their situation by having each other, it feels unrealistic that someone would take this all in stride. So if you're in a bad place at the moment, I'd say it's a coin flip whether this will make you feel better or worse.

Through it's painfully obvious suicide allegory, it asks what the value of the rest of your life may be. It directly refutes the idea that your life is priceless and not to be given up. An unhappy life, to the original author and the mangaka who adapted it, ... is not worth living. The lead, giving up all but the last 3 months of his life for a pittance, increases the value of his life through his resignation. He begins living the last days of his life wrapping up loose ends from his past, and enjoying his time with the female lead. Because he knows he will die soon, he ultimately becomes more happy with his life. This is something that is actually seen from people who plan to end their own life.

The main "message", if you will, is fairly unique in this way. Most works dealing with the subject would say the opposite. You can make things better, you are not doomed to a life lived unhappily. This makes the manga, and the original novel, a worthwhile read if only to see a rarely explored perspective.

Though, despite the refutation, it does ultimately play with some of the same arguments used against itself, while not agreeing with it's conclusion. It makes known the arbitrariness of assigning a value to a life. The mystical evaluation system is ultimately a superior deciding subjectively the price of a subjects lifespan. Also, while not explicitly making this point like it does all others, it shows all the people who sell their life as impoverished individuals. People who are statistically less likely to have valuable lives by the systems criteria. Ironic that the very people most willing to sell off their lives (time and health too) are the people who will benefit the least from it. The capitalism metaphor is obvious.

Despite the taking things a normal person wouldn't thing. I do find the lead as a mostly realistic depiction. Through the small oddities and hobbies of his, it serves to humanize him in a way I like. Kusunoki is a failed artist who like taking pictures of random things and has a small fascination with vending machines. He likes reading and music because, as he describes it, they're simply ways to pass the time. But because of this, he's capable of sudden moments of pontification and poetry.

The work does fall into one of the more problematic tropes of the romance manga genre. The main character early on considers assaulting the female lead, and she takes it as a compliment (seriously why is this a common thing). Consent is oddly brought up multiple times, once as mentioned, once to be laughed at, and a third to be given up freely, but oddly in a way that intentionally calls back to the first instance.

Ultimately, it's an interesting read, with realistic enough, if not likeable leads. Sadly, because of the depressing atmosphere it can't shake and problematic issues, I can't recommend it to every reader.

PT - BR

O autor quis passar uma mensagem com um manga e não fazer uma manga com uma mensagem, gerando uma história que não tem importância ou lógica. Entretanto com o tempo as coisas se invertem, a mensagem perde importância enquanto a história ganha destaque fazendo uma bagunça completa. Nisso tudo ainda existe uma necessidade ensandecida de gerar identificação com o leitor, que na prática estabelece uma conexão apenas com os imaginários de uma adolescência frustrada. Em resumo, essa tentativa de gerar identificação com uma história totalmente artificial para um tema tão vago é bem deprimente e digno de pena.

EN - US (from Google ... Translator)

The author wanted to convey a message with a manga and not make a manga with a message, generating a story that has no importance or logic. Over time, however, things are reversed: the message loses importance while the story gains prominence, making a complete mess of things. In all this, there is still a desperate need to generate identification with the reader, who in practice establishes a connection only with the imaginings of a frustrated adolescence. In short, this attempt to generate identification with a totally artificial story for such a vague theme is quite depressing and worthy of pity.