Limit, The 1 [Paperback]

When it comes to manga lately, I feel like I've been living under a rock. I received this review copy, and wasn't familiar with the title at all. I love the cover, though, with the main protagonist standing defiantly, yet a bit battered, and staring boldly ahead. The cover is very simple and eye-catching, and I immediately sat down to read the book. Keiko Suenobu is also the author of LIFE, which was being released by Tokyopop before they shuttered their offices. I haven't read any of that series, but after reading Limit, I am tempted to track it down.

Limit is a Lord of the Flies type story. After their school trip goes horribly wrong and their bus crashes, Kanno and four of her classmates are stranded in the middle of the woods with only their wits to aid in their survival. With their teachers and classmates dead, the five girls must juggle their fear and panic with their feelings for each other. This is a diverse group of personalities, from the bullied Morishige, who has the only weapon and is brimming over with hate and resentment, to Kanno, who was part of the popular clique who made Morishige's life hell at school. Sakura, the ringleader of the clique, is dead in the bus, and Haru, one of the survivors, isn't dealing with her best friend's death very well. This is a powder keg of emotions just ready to blow, and only Kamiya realizes that it's going to take more than luck to survive until they are rescued. She immediately attempts to use diplomacy and get everyone to work together to ensure their survival, but she's not having much luck. There is a lot of resentment and so much ill-will to overcome, that things look bleak for our intrepid cast.

Limit focuses on the complex relationships the girls have formed over the years. Angry Morishige is delighting in her sudden ascent to the top of the food chain; she's got the weapon, and she hates everyone enough that she won't hesitate to use it. She casts everyone else in the pyramid beneath her, leaving Kanno and Haru to battle it out for the bottom rung of the ladder. With the weapon, Morishige also controls the meager food supply the girls have foraged from the wreckage of the bus. After being a bottom-feeder for so long, she is ecstatic to feel some kind of empowerment over the girls who constantly picked on her and made each school day so horrible.

I thought that this was a great introduction to the series. I reached the end and wanted more. The relationship dynamics bubble with emotion and kept me engaged in the book from the first page. Kanno isn't an extremely likable character because she always takes the path of least resistance. She's a sheep to Sakura's domineering personality, and once Sakura meets an untimely end, Kanno realizes how meaningless her other relationships truly are. Avoiding confrontation, kissing up to Sakura, and trying to hold a middle ground so she wasn't bullied didn't endear her to her classmates, she is learning the hard way.

I love Keiko Suenobu's expressive artwork. I never had to guess how her characters felt as they were maneuvered from one panel to the next. Emotions are deftly rendered here, and the visuals are as compelling as the prose. This is a great start to a series that will appeal to fans of conflict driven stories. I don't know how the girls are going to reconcile their feelings for each other and still survive all alone in the wilderness, with no food and only a cave for shelter. I am looking forward to the next volume!

Grade: B

I must start off by saying that I'm not usually a fan of Shojo-style manga, however The Limit appears to be the exception. The story is very intriguing, and the characterization is excellent. Though it is a shojo manga (and thus it's intended market is for female readers), I am a male and quickly became a fan of Ms. Suenobu's work.

If you've read Life, then you'll know what to expect in this as far as character interaction goes. If you're not familiar with Life, then let me warn you: Suenobu likes exploring the worst sides of society, especially the sides of society you see with high schoolers. In Life you had themes of self-harm, violence, and even rape. I've read the first volume and while this isn't as dark as Life could get at it's most depressing points, it's still fairly dark. I know that some readers don't prefer that type of read, so I'm warning you ahead of time. For more light hearted survival fare, I recommend Cage of Eden.

That said, on with the review. I will be revealing one or two minor spoilers, so reader beware. If you want to know whether or not to buy it based on my recommendation, I do recommend it.

One of the interesting things about this volume is that it deals with the concept of how people interact with each other, power structures within groups of people, and how that can all change depending on the situation. Suenobu takes a fairly interesting route with this series. While Life had a fairly easily identifiable "bad guy" Queen Bee, she decides to eliminate that character almost immediately in the first volume. I'm certain we'll see her in flashbacks throughout the entire series and someone else might step in to become the next HBIC ala Heathers, but it's interesting to see how various characters react to losing the person who essentially gave everyone else their orders and identities. The end result of this move is that as you'd expect, the entire power structure shifts. People who were highly popular are on the lower end of the totem pole while the "little guy" is on the higher end.

That, however, is really what you would expect from a survival series because it's a very common trope. Where this really shines is how well it is all put together. This isn't a happy-go-lucky series where everyone will cry, learn a valuable lesson, then have that iconic image where someone smiles brightly into a beam of sunshine while thinking about bright new days ahead. I honestly don't think we'll get that until the very end, if at all. You will see some nicer points to things, but what really makes this manga is how wonderfully flawed it is.

I did like Life, but I will say that I enjoyed this more. Life didn't take very long before it went from zero to 190, going to extremes that were sometimes so overkill that it almost ruined the points the series was trying to make. Limit takes things a little slower, so when things do his the uber drama fan it'll have more of an impact.

Overall I'm definitely going to collect this series as it goes on- especially since it is only six volumes long. Vertical did a pretty good job with this series, but that's generally what I've come to expect from them.