Alive 1: The Final Evolution

The book wasnt clean

Kano Taisuke goes to the same high school his older sister works at. Their parents are dead and she has taken over as his sole guardian. One day, among a weird weather change, Kano starts to feel strange vibrations and then something stranger and much more disturbing occurs... Kano sees a girl commit suicide in front of him....In fact, she almost takes him out committing suicide. Before long the whole world has people committing mass suicides, Kano's best friend is in jail for questioning, and a creepy guy appears from no where to torment Kano. What is going on? This series has such a bizarre concept. In a way it reminds me of "Death Note" quite a bit. It's bizarre, but it has promise... did I mention it is bizarre? I do want to read more. It's such a great premise... a suicide virus? Wow. What depth could this series have?

When I originally read the description, I thought that this would be a deep, introspective manga. I thought it would be a kind of commentary on the supposed pandemic of suicide Japan faced with its youth. Then when I picked it up, I had reservations. The art was very shonen, and it seemed gorier than I would have expected. It seemed that the focus would be on the violence and brutality of the suicide virus. However, upon reading it, I was pleasantly suprised. It's more in the vein of Dragon Eye or Gin Tama. While taking on a serious subject, it maintains a light touch and a sense of humor that I deeply appreciated. Honestly, I can't rave enough about it, because it covered such a broad spectrum of genres, and it did it well.