Life (manga)

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For other uses, see Life (disambiguation).
Life

Life Volume 1.
ライフ
(Raifu)
Genre Drama
Manga
Author Keiko Suenobu
Publisher Flag of Japan Kodansha
Demographic Shōjo
Serialized in Bessatsu Friend
Original run 2002 – ongoing
Volumes 17 [1]
TV drama
Network Flag of Japan Fuji Television
Original run June 30, 2007 – September 15, 2007
Time slot 23:10 ~ 23:55 on Saturday
Episodes 11

Life (ライフ Raifu?) is an ongoing shōjo manga series created by Keiko Suenobu, a manga creator well known for her work on Vitamin and Happy Tomorrow. Life is serialized in Bessatsu Friend, a publication of Kodansha, and deals with many controversial topics such as self-mutilation, bullying, rape, suicide, and manipulation. In 2006, it won the Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo.[2]

The English language version of the manga, published by Tokyopop, was originally rated OT (Older Teen; 16+), but starting with the release of Volume 6 and carrying back over to future reprintings of the previous five, the rating has been changed to M (Mature; 18+) for extremely explicit content in that volume. In addition, starting with Volume 8 (and possibly also applying to future reprints of earlier volumes), the price has increased, from $9.99 USD (the norm for Tokyopop manga) to $10.99 USD; the reason for this may be traced to the adult rating.

The live-action drama of the same name is produced by Fuji TV. A single-volume drama novelization was also created. Like the manga, it was published by Bessatsu Friend and written by Keiko Suenobu; unlike the manga, however, it saw a limited run and is now out of print.

Contents

[edit] Characters

Ayumu Shiiba (椎葉 歩 Shiiba Ayumu?)
Drama role by: Kii Kitano (sometimes credited as Kie Kitano)
A high school student who always struggles with her tests but is still very intelligent. She is a student at Nishidate High School, or Nishikō. (The word for high school is kōtōgakkō, or kōkō for short, so the school name is often shortened to Nishikō, or "Nishi high.") After the dissolution of her friendship with Shii-chan at the very end of middle school, she has difficulties fitting into high school life and starts to become a cutter. She lives with her single middle-class mom and younger sister, Akane, in a company house (in the television drama, Ayumu has a younger brother named Makoto, and their mother's name is Fumiko). When Katsumi Sako begins to threaten her, Ayumu tells the whole school and her own mother what he is doing--only to be totally ignored. Despite these and many other hardships, however (not the least of which is severe bullying by Manami and her followers), her friendship with Miki Hatori--one of only a few students not bullying Ayumu--gives her the strength to stand up for herself and to stop cutting. In the drama, Ayumu mentions to Miki that her "father is always out of town on business trips"; there is no mention of him in the original manga (at least in the U.S. release). As of Volume 5, she has a total of 19 cuts.
Miki Hatori (羽鳥 未来 Hatori Miki?)
Drama role by: Megumi Seki
A girl in Ayumu's class who receives a similar treatment from Manami and her thugs- the only difference bieng that, unlike Ayumu, she does'nt care. Strikingly beautiful, she is usually the top student of her school, and has a quiet willpower and strength. She can relate to what Ayumu is going through. She, like Ayumu, is the victim of teasing by Manami and her gang; but, unlike Ayumu, she does not let it bother her, at least outwardly. She is very independent and mature, and has been known to work multiple shady jobs to make her own way, such as working behind the counter at the risqué Rainbow Café and being a bunny girl at clubs (in the drama, she only works at Rainbow Café, and her being a bunny girl is only hinted at). Like most of her classmates, Miki is about fifteen or sixteen, but she stretches the truth when trying to find work, saying instead that she is nineteen. Not much is known about her life, but it appears that she lives alone. Her parents are divorced because of financial troubles (Miki's father is seriously ill). Her mother is literally never around, and her father's job keeps him from seeing his family. She has a "sweetheart" in her home town. It appears she genuinely wants to reach out to Ayumu and be her friend (a gesture Ayumu gladly reciprocates).
Yūki Sonoda (薗田 優樹 Sonoda Yūki?)
Drama role by: Takahiro Hōjō
Sonoda-kun first appears in Volume 6 of the manga after bumping into Ayumu, where he quickly notices she is distressed. Soon after, when Manami and her friends are trying to take Ayumu into the bathroom, likely to inflict more torture, Sonoda stops them, literally telling them to quit it, which has the desired effect after the rest of the class manage to drive Manami and the others off. Afterwards he reveals he has his own past experiences with being bullied, which lead him to stand up for Ayumu, though he insists that it isn't for her sake; rather, he is trying to erase his own pain by helping her. In Volume 7 he runs into Akira Karino, Manami's new boyfriend, and quickly runs from his sight, indicating that Akira was his main tormentor in his past. In Volume 8 Sonoda comes to the rescue of Ayumu and Hatori, but has to face his demons when Akira tries to stop the girls from escaping a burning building. After choking Sonoda, Akari turns his attention to the other two- but is hit with a metal bar by Sonoda and the two get into a fight which ends with Akira hanging out of a window and Sonoda telling him how much he despises the other boy. Akira then falls from the window, where it is unsure if he survived, and Sonoda runs to find Ayumu and Hatori again. His gentle nature in the face of all he's been through complements his passion for gardening; his favorite flower, the sunflower, has a great deal of emotional meaning to him, as they are able to grow tall and free and "reach toward the sun" in a way he is not yet able to.
Manami Anzai (安西 愛海 Anzai Manami?)
Drama role by: Saki Fukuda
Ayumu's first friend at Nishidate High School, she soon became an ex-friend due to her bullying Ayumu, as well as being somewhat of a predator to Miki Hatori. She is obsessed with her boyfriend, Katsumi Sako, and becomes suicidal when they broke up, even though the breakup turned out to be short-term. Manami was once bullied when she was younger, because she was the one who had caught Katsumi's eye in middle school (those he rejected became jealous and took out their frustration on her), but is now the bully towards anyone who she feels deserves it, as she was behind Miki's bullying after an incident at camp. She is a very sexual girl and uses that to her advantage, getting boys to do some of her dirty work. She is extremely manipulative and spoiled; as the daughter of a rich CEO, she uses her powers and conceit to force others to do her will, usually by blackmail or threats, under a guise of acting bubbly, cute, and friendly. People tend to take her side, even through her lies. She turns all of Nishidate High (except Miki) against Ayumu because of a serious misunderstanding in which Katsumi, who is as manipulative as Manami, starts to pursue Ayumu and instead tells Manami that Ayumu is pursuing him, calling her "a mess." In Volume 4, she stopped speaking to Katsumi, because she thought he was defending Ayumu from Manami and her gang; as of Volume 6, they have made up (or so Katsumi was tricked into thinking). Manami speaks in the third person, calling herself by her nickname, "Mana" (e.g. "Mana doesn't like that...").
Katsumi Sako (佐古 克己 Sako Katsumi?)
Drama role by: Yoshihiko Hosoda
Manami's boyfriend. He has a fetish for bondage and keeps a scrapbook of the girls he has raped. When Ayumu comes across this book, he molests her and makes her his slave. However, his evil plans for her are thwarted because he has an abusive father who beats him to ensure his future relationship with Manami (both of their fathers are rich CEO's of famous companies). Around large groups of people he acts polite and sweet; but when it suits him to show his real self, that self is manipulative and abusive. He stalks Ayumu, tries to make her call him "Master" for blackmail purposes, and even completely tricks Ayumu's mother into thinking he is a nice person. Early in the series, is revealed that he did not enter Nishikō of his own free will--his father had made him enroll because Manami, who was good for the reputation of the Sako name, was also going to be a student there. Because of this, Katsumi tries to break up with her, and is successful once; while they do get back together in both versions, Katsumi in the drama is shown as also explicitly going out with the Homeroom teacher, Toda-sensei (see below). In the manga it seems as if the tables on Katsumi have turned as he is now under threat of Manami's new "boyfriend" Akira, who beats Katsumi and leaves him humiliated similar to Ayumu. It does'nt seem as if Katsumi's torture is over yet as he was seen later giving money to Akira after receving, what was expected, to be a threatening phone call. Despite his good grades he came third (Hatori came first) in the class exams thanks to his injuries.
Wakae Toda (戸田 和佳絵 Toda Wakae?, a.k.a. Ms. Toda (Toda-sensei)
Drama role by: Asaka Seto
Ayumu's Homeroom teacher. She has a "peace at any price" principle, leading her to deny Ayumu's declaration of teasing by passing it off as Ayumu's fault (Volume 6 of the manga). She is shown as very sympathetic toward Katsumi and Manami. In the drama, she dates Katsumi; to keep anyone else from finding out (save for Manami, who had already figured it out), she frames Ayumu by blaming her for all the bullying that goes on at Nishikō, even though they both know full well that Ayumu is the victim, rather than the one behind it.
Yūko "Shii-chan" Shinozuka (篠塚 夕子 Shinozuka Yūko?, しーちゃん Shii-chan)
Drama role by: Akane Osawa
Her family name is Shinozuka, which is why Ayumu calls her Shii-chan (her given name is never mentioned in the manga; it is Yūko in the TV drama). She is Ayumu's ex-best friend and the top student at their middle school. She once promised a worried Ayumu that they would remain friends even if they went to different high schools; but when Ayumu gets a higher score on the entrance exams than Shii-chan and lies about it to make her feel better, Shii-chan figures out the truth and gets her feelings seriously hurt. She had wanted to go to Nishidate because of the influence of a teenage girl she greatly looked up to during her childhood, a girl she had wanted to aspire to "be like" by going to Nishidate when she came of age; but Shii-chan's dreams were shattered when her grades were too low for her to get in (the reason for such bad grades was that she'd been helping Ayumu with her schoolwork instead of focusing on her own). In a horrible case of misdirected anger, she traumatizes Ayumu by blaming her, and by terminating their friendship despite her promise ("I wish you hadn't insisted on hanging around!" or, in the flashbacks, "I wish you would DIE!"), and is the scapegoat for Ayumu's cutting. In the first volume, Ayumu kept seeing Shii-chan's face in her mind, and her voice echoing through her ears; starting with Volume 2, however, it appears Ayumu has moved on and is not letting it get to her anymore.

[edit] Live-action drama

Fuji TV began airing a television drama based on the Life manga on June 30th, 2007 at 11:10 PM (replacing Liar Game). The eleventh and final episode aired on September 15th. Popular singer Mika Nakashima performed the theme song, also titled "Life", which was sold as a single starting August 22 (mobile downloads began at the end of July). The actual soundtrack is now available in Japan, as is a full-series DVD boxed set; the latter was released on December 19th. The plotline for the drama is much more focused on bullying than is the original manga, and many changes were made, ranging from mild and hardly noteworthy to significant and highly noticeable.

[edit] Differences from the manga

  • Ayumu's family situation in the drama differs greatly from the manga: she has a little brother, Makoto, instead of her little sister, Akane; their mother, unnamed in the manga, is named Fumiko; and their father, whom "Fumiko" appears to be divorced from in the manga, is simply "always away on business" (according to Ayumu) in the drama.
  • Shii-chan's first name is Yūko--it is unknown in the manga.
  • Right after breaking off her friendship with Ayumu, Shii-chan attempts suicide by running out in traffic and survives; Ayumu goes to visit her in the hospital with flowers but Shii-chan closes the door when she sees her. She is not seen again until Episode 10.
  • Katsumi went to the same cram school as Shii-chan; in the second episode, as a way to watch Ayumu squirm and to top off his sexual assault on her, he whispers Shii-chan's name in her ear ("Shinozuka... Yūko"), causing her to struggle harder to escape his machinations. In the drama this is supposedly used to replace the fact that, in the manga, Katsumi blackmails Ayumu when he discovers that she cuts herself, since she doesn't cut in the drama.
  • Manami is, in general, more manipulative and diabolical than her manga counterpart: one significant example is that when Katsumi was jumped by a motorcycle gang headed by Manami's new boyfriend Akira (who she is seen sleeping with in a previous episode), Manami pretended to cry but was really grinning evilly behind her hair. In the manga, however, her reaction to Katsumi's condition seemed genuine, but may have been part of a plan to punish Katsmui for dumping her.
  • One member of Manami's squadron, Hirose (whose first initial is N, possibly for "Nodoka"), has a slightly different role than that of her manga counterpart - throughout the drama, she alternates between being Manami's target and a member of her group. "Hiro" (as she is known by her classmates in the drama) is portrayed by Nanase Hoshii.
  • Ayumu is not a cutter in the drama.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Betsufure.net Official site for the magazine Bessatsu Friend. Retrieved 2007-07-01
  2. ^ 過去の受賞者一覧 : 講談社漫画賞 : 講談社「おもしろくて、ためになる」出版を (Japanese). Kodansha. Retrieved on 2007-08-21.

[edit] External links