Jiatsu Circle by Usamaru Furuya

Synopsis: Kyoko and Saya have been friends since children, they exchange diaries there is no secret they hide from each other. After Saya’s father was sent to a mental hospital she started selling her body to pay the hospital bill, but this lead Saya to become unhappy and she started cutting her self as an expression of self-hatred. While Saya suffered Kyoko discovered love for the first time and was so happy, just to notice her friend is dying from the inside. After Kyoko abandoned her, Saya met Mitsuko; the leader of the Suicide Circle. A few months later the club organized a mass suicide in which Saya took part yet she survived making her only more miserable. What was the reason behind Saya’s miraculous survival?

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Disturbing. That is the first word I can come up to describe this manga. Based on a movie of the same name, this manga offers deep insight into modern Japanese teenagers that loose themselves for the others. And it unwraps this story in such a brutal manner, that it becomes horrific. Yet it also becomes confusing because of the flashbacks, that take us to different times, back and forth, of the friendship Kyoko and Saya held together.

The artwork is nothing beyond the ordinary and the character designs are bald and plain, if not ugly, there isn’t much else to say about the art so, one will think characters will be greatly fleshed out; but they aren’t, well not greatly, the amount of character development was barely enough that it couldn’t satisfied my need to fully understand Kyoko and Saya.

The pacing is acceptable; six chapters to develop such plot is enough. It never feels rushed or at ease, which extenuates the mood of the manga; depressing, yet the lack of interest for the characters was extremely disappointing. Not even in the dramatic end was I moved or touched by the characters, I guess that if could have cared less for the characters, than I did, I would have.

Now that I think of it, disturbing and mediocre are the best words to describe this manga. Disturbing because it gives insight to modern Japanese society and mediocre because it lacks emotions, this manga is supposed to be sad, but it even lacks sadness.