I'm back again with another manga that was short lived. What I mean by short lived, is that the manga conclude in a few of volumes. I try to post about manga that are already finished but most of the series these days are very long. You will never hear me talk about Attack on Titan any time soon in a post because that manga will live on for as long as Naruto, Inuyasha, and Dragon Ball did. A manga that stopped living recently is called Livingstone.
Livingstone was written by Maekawa Tomohiro and drawn by Kataoka Jinsei. Maekawa created the series Deadman Wonderland which made waves in Japan and aboard even getting an anime which was featured on Cartoon Network's Toonami for a little while. I've only watched the first episode of the anime and haven't really taken the time to read the Deadman manga. Maybe one day.....
Livingstone is a name of a company that the two main character's, Sakurai and Amano work for. Everyone's life has a plan and we all have a soul that turns into a rock called a psycholith when we died. If that psycholith breaks then is will cause a stain that affect everyone who comes in contact with it. This strange couple must stop people who are about to die from messing up life's plan. If your too far gone before they can get to you, They might just help you get to the afterlife faster.
I picked up this title because i love grim reaper type stories. Also..... say what? I LIKE THE ART![insert me laughing.] Deadman Wonderland creator makes a new manga is bound to spark interest. I even bought volume one based a little fraction of Deadman that I saw. The story does well jumping right in to the life of these two boys. You notice right away that they have VERY contrasting personalities. In fact, One could be under the impression that these two are not partners at all. More like rivals who just happen to be working together. Amano doesn't give a fuck about much of anything. He just does his job. Sakurai has more of a heart and tries to think of the best way to handle each situation. Both are devil and angel united. Livingstone focuses more on the cases of people who go against life's plan while Sakurai and Amano clean up the messes. I quite loved each case as they let you see into different people's lives. The reason for why they wanted to end their life of why their life rate went down. The last two volumes deal more with the characters themselves than human cases. A lot of conflicts start to arise with Amano that will have you not knowing whether to be shocked or to cry. I'm surprised that this manga didn't stay around longer because the storyline could have gone on for more volumes but still a good storyline.
Deadman Wonderland and this manga have the same art style. It something about the way the artist draws the mouths, eyes, and facial structure that makes the characters look super depressed. All the character's eyes here look very vacant like the one's dealing with the people trying to die look dead already themselves. When I really sat down to think about it, Kataoka's covers remind me of mugshots the police takes of people they arrest to send to jail. Very few people smile in mugshots and if they do, its because they got a screw lose in the head. A story filled with slapstick humor and emotional relationships still insures despite the gloomy atmosphere of the art. The presentation is almost criminal at times but then your reminded how human even the most cold blooded person can be deep down inside.
I'm going to be more like Amano's personality. Some things in life shouldn't be given a second though. The notion really isn't worth the energy especially when dealing with people who don't care about you. Livingstone taught me to live life based on your own plan and don't sweat the small details. Continue living.
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