Ikigami
Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

Whilst Bokurano goes in a sci-fi / mecha direction, where as Ikigami has an alternate universe totalitarian Japan setting, the approach these two take is equally grim and different. Characters are introduced, get their own 3+ chapter mini-arcs and then - after being fully developed - die. There is an overaching narrative in both (more so in Bokurano) that ties everything together but the cycle of characterisation>death remains throughout.  

Ikigami is reminiscent of Battle Royale. The fictional Japanese totalitarian settings where human rights are cruelly ignored and the people are manipulated is eerily similar. In Battle Royale, a class of teenagers are kidnapped, left on an island and given three days to kill everyone else before the bombs placed around their necks explodes. In Ikigami, everyone as children were forced to be vaccinated, and those unlucky enough to have been injected with a 1/1000 odds something that makes their heart go bye-bye between the ages 18-24 get told - 24 hours before what was injected into them explodes - that they are going to die; they are even given their time of death! But their deaths are for the greater good, of course. read more 

Both works features dystopian societies, very close to our current but yet again, different. In both works, the backdrop of the setting is the raging war, but in both mangas this is not the main focus, it's the ordinary, nihilistic and full of moral bleakness lives of the protagonists that we follow, and how they struggle with it.  

It is not often one comes across a TRUE 'bad guy wins' series. Usually, not long after a dastardly deed or two that sets up a character as evil incarnate, justice is done and the heroic heroes prevail. In Wolfsmund? The villain, Wolfram, cruelly smiles as he sees through ALL ploys of those trying to get through the checkpoint he governs; leaving their bodies outside the gate as a warning for those that dare to follow. Sadistically toying with people is what he lives for, and his checkpoint is called 'The Wolf's Maw' by locals for good reason. <br><br> Ikigami has no bad guy, per se, since it is the government and a law that plays the role of villain. But the structure of the two series is so similar that the recommendation is an obvious one, regardless. Both series - initially, anyway - consist of episodic arcs where lead characters are introduced. Then, each arc ends with the characters (increasingly predictably) dying: brutally murdered in Wolfsmund's hellish medieval Switzerland setting. In Ikigami's modern Japan setting, the characters simply die after being notified that they have only got 24hrs left before death due to something everyone was injected with as children; 1% later dying 'for the greater good' of a Battle Royale-esque society, at predetermined dates. You get to know the characters, feel attached/pity... then, tragically, DEATH.  read more 

Both of these manga deal with slightly different, alternative present world where government is rotten, system is bad and human lifes have little worth. Ikigami's protagonist realises it while working as part of the government maintaining it and starts questioning it, while Yokokuhan's is oppressed citizen who decides to fight it via terrorism. They give of the same vibe as they have similar style of narration, composition and art. If you liked one of them and generally like serious seinen pieces with more realistic approach storywise and in character designes you will enjoy both of these. 

Ikigami and Tasumi to Batsu are more like mind games. Murder becomes a central concept in both series as well as death. The main characters gets themselves caught in conflicts that changes their lives forever. At the same time, they convey a variety of human emotions/feelings such as fear, anger, and regret. Both series also crafts suspense based on mysterious events. 

Both mangas are psychological, and explores the human mind. They are both drawn by the same artist (but written by different authors), so they look the same.  

Both deal with life and death and how one reacts to their demise. They're each highly suspenseful and emotional. 

Both talks about peaple in the verge of death , anyway I recommed reading (( Watashitachi no Shiawase na Jikan )) even if you dont like Ikigami 

Both stories have to do with the line between "Good" and "Evil" in the respect that in both stories, someone is having someone else killed seemingly randomly. In Ikigami its the government, in Death Note, its a kid who wants to be the Government, or a God.