Although this manga series is fresh, currently only at 3 chapters and running on in Young Animal, it’s really interesting. The series begins with a young man who tried to commit suicide, but failed as he was saved in the hospital. Despite still being alive, his death wish remains. As such, he is made to sign a document before being put to sleep.
Later on, he awakes to find himself still alive and kicking, but on an island together with many others who attempted suicide.
It turns out that after they signed the document, they were all abandoned on a deserted island. As the suicide cases have gone out of control, the government has decided to wash their hands off those who have given up their right to live. Stranded on the island, those who have signed the document have been relieved of their human rights and are unable to go beyond the boundary set by the government. With no way to leave the island, some people fulfill their death wishes, while the others decide to live on since their previous suicide attempts failed.
This is somewhat similar to Battle Royale in a way, or at least that was what I thought when I began reading it. There may be no explosive collars, weapons and fixed deadlines and it’s not necessary for the people on the island to kill each other. However, there’s still the element of survival on a forsaken island. You get to see the similar scenes such as people wanting to fulfill their sexual desires before they die, be it through consensually or via force. You also get to witness the nature of human’s desire to survive.
An issue tackled in Suicide Island is suicide, as obviously implied in the title itself. As we all know, Japan has quite a reputation for its’ suicide rates, with the reason mostly being stress. For all we know, the mangaka might bet trying to spread the message of living on instead of thinking about ending one’s life by showing how grumesome suicide can be. Then again, this manga might as such purely for the entertainment value. After all, surivial series can be quite interesting.
While I wouldn’t say that this is an awesome manga due to it’s current length, it has without a doubt caught my interest. I’ll be following it and if I don’t drop it for being too boring, it would probably be my manga collection once the tankoubon’s released. Only time will tell.
In the meantime, fans of death and survival themes, it wouldn’t hurt to check this out. Even if it does, it certainly wouldn’t be comparable to even a tiny fraction of how suicide would hurt.
Hmmm…This looks to be a nice catch. The suicide theme is pretty interesting, and is relevant to our current society. Like you said, the author might be trying to being an anti-suicide message across. We’ll see how the series goes.
lol, I am reading the same shit as you along with Himizu.
The first thing that came to mind with the title is that the Mangaka was calling the country of Japan, Suicide Island.
Me and Otaku Dan seem to be a Hivemind orz.
I just read the first 5 chapters online (all that exist so far) and I have to say that this is an awesome manga. I love it, the despairation and all the emotions r displayed in a very good way, it just catches you. It kinda reminds me of gantz (which they stopped to publish in germany after 5 volumes :’( gotto get the english ones). Both deals with survival and death/suicide, both reflects the modern society, allthough gantz does more in my opinion. The way the emotions r shown r very similiar in that both mangas I think. I would say u really can compare these both mangas, and if they r going to publish suicide island in germany here I will defenetly get the books for my collection!