Manga Review: Limit, Volume 1, by Keiko Suenobu

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5-4

Publisher: Vertical

Release Date: October, 2012

Volumes: 6

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells. RightStuf!

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Goodreads Synopsis:

Mizuki Konno is your typical high school junior at Yanno Prefectural High School. Like many teens her age she is studying hard for college and when she has some down time she likes to fuss over fashion and make-up. While she may not be one of the class elites, Mizuki is fortunate to be on the right side of her class's idols. But that might not settle well with those who are in a similar academic status but not so lucky with their social lives.

Mizuki really isn't a bad person. However she understands that she is one of the haves. And even if she only has so a strand to hold on to, that's much more than the introverts or the socially inept.

On the day of the field trip, Mizuki's position with the cool kids cannot be better. But now a good portion of her class are now firmly against her. While this "lower" clique may not be united, their hatred is much stronger than their differences. Unfortunately tragedy strikes in the form of a traffic accident. And now the class is split into two new groups...the living and the dead!

Almost the entire class has been wiped out and the five remaining girls are injured and lost in the wilderness. They also hate each other, and in a mix of Lord of the Flies with Heathers these girls begin to assert their wills against each other to try to survive while enacting a new class structure where looks and style is no longer the definition of influence.

Review

I finally picked up this series, during the RightStuf! sale (ohmygod, you guys. That sale practically made me go broke) (kidding) (kind of). I’d heard both Kodansha and Vertical mention it, and it had never really caught my notice until they did. It fell completely under my radar, which is a shame.

I knew it would have darker themes, but I still didn’t know much about it until I decided to get it. I went into it knowing about the Lord of the Flies elements, and was looking forward to the psychological aspects, but was still a little unsure, but looking forward to it.

I wasn’t expecting much from the art, but it’s actually very pretty. I love the way the characters, particularly their faces and expressions, look. The details are really nice, very realistic, really graphic at times. It’s really pretty to look at. Also, the books are so tiny, similar to how Japan prints their manga, and I love it. It’s just kind of refreshing, and they’re so cute, I love looking at them.

I also wasn’t expecting to like the main character, Konno, as I was thinking she was going to be a bitch, and while she is rather selfish and always looking to be following the majority, I’m also really intrigued by her. She figured out when she was young that people will turn on you, and so has decided not to get close to anyone and just follow along and agree. And now she’s stranded with four other classmates after the school bus crashes and kills everyone else; she's not close with any of them, and she’s thrown completely out of her element.

There’s one girl, Kamiya, who’s smart and calm and getting a handle on things realistically. One girl’s hurt and doesn’t know what to do. Another was ‘friends’ with Konno but actually detests her. And the last was bullied and is kind of psychotic now, claiming power.

There are already the beginnings of betrayal and rage and violence, and I’m sure it’s only going to get worse from now until it gets better, if it gets better. Which I'm not even sure that it will, and that excites me. I’m really looking forward to it.

I love psychological books, and there are too little of them out there, in my opinion. I also don’t read a lot of straight-out violently psychological books where I don’t have any clue how it’s going to end, so I’m really looking forward to reading more of this series.