Jisatsu Circle Manga (Suicide Club)
From the award-winning movie of the highly-regarded horror film director and controversial poet, Sion Sono, Jisatsu Circle has many intriguing points that will unravel the truth beyond the trends of the media in the world today.
Jisatsu Circle or Suicide Circle is written by Usumaru Furuya, with the permission to use the title from Sono's original movie. Furuya initially decided to make the manga an outline of the movie, but Sono encouraged him to make his own.
The manga begins with 54 teenage schoolgirls gathered on a platform at Shinjuku Station in Tokyo. As the train approaches, they line up on the edge of the platform, join hands, and throw themselves in front of the train as it is arriving. This leaves the station in complete chaos as blood literally splashes on the platform from under the train. The reporters then say that they have found a survivor, Saya Koto.
Saya Koto was an ordinary teenage girl until she joined a certain club, as her best friend, Kyoto, had narrated. Saya started acting pretty strange, and worshiped the club's leader and founder, Mitsuko, even going to the point to sell her body to give money to Mitsuko. She hides this by telling Kyoto that she needs money because her father is sick.
When Mitsuko died on the train jump, Saya lost her happiness, and she started to gain many more admirers, considering she survived the mass suicide. When a girl was seen picking on Saya, it was reported that the very next day the girl allegedly committed suicide, but many speculate she was murdered.
Kyoto finally notices that Saya has so many friends now, and she, as best friend, is forgotten. She turns to her perverted teacher, Takeuchi, for help. Takeuchi has been digging information about the mass suicides since one of his students had been reported to have been Mitsuko.
Kyoto finally got it. Saya was becoming the new Mitsuko, she is now the leader of the suicide club. One member of Saya's club found Kyoto with Takeuchi, and reported it to Saya. Saya thought that Kyoto had betrayed her and the following day, it was reported that Takeuchi had committed suicide as well.
Kyoto mourns about this and she tells Saya that she knows the truth. She is seen as taken captive by the other suicide club members, and the following day her ear was pierced with the club's ceremonial tattoo.
Kyoto awakens and she finds herself joined hand in hand with Saya and some other girls, and they were on a rooftop, preparing for another mass suicide. As Kyoto was pulled down to jump, she and Saya talk for the last time, and Saya tells her she will be the next Mitsuko.
They all fall and die, but there is again, one sole survivor, Kyoto.
Graphics: The graphics and drawings are very vivid, they are well-drawn. The manga has some graphical content not suitable for younger audiences but the quality of the manga is 10/10.
Story: The manga covers a different plotline than the movie, but the manga is much more understandable and the characters are well developed. You could read this without watching the movie yet, since it contains no spoilers whatsoever.
Overall: Though the manga may lack the suitable plotline, it shows the most pressing concerns of high suicidal rates not only in Japan but worldwide. This depicts the influence of the media, peer pressure, and the generation gap. Like Saya Koto, who has no option but to turn to her club members, did not resort to her parents for help. This exemplifies the loss of huge contact between parents and children that are valuable to form the future of the child.
Overall, Jisatsu Circle is one intriguing manga, filled with the truths of the modern world. But to fully understand it, you have to keep an open mind that these situations are capable to happen in reality.
