Suicide Island

Suicide Island is a manga that is set in Japan in the near future. In this Japan, the suicide rates had grown alarmingly high. The problem the government has is that people attempting suicide is expensive for them, as they have to cover medical expenses and spend money on programs to get these people on track. So, the government looks for an alternative solution. They send people who have attempted suicide to an island near Japan, and there people are allowed to do whatever they want as long as they do not try to leave the island.

The main character, Kei, after failing his suicide attempt, is asked by the doctor if he wants to live or not. He answers that he does not, so they send him along other people to the suicide island. Upon getting there some people jump to the opportunity to do what they want, literally, as they jump off cliffs to kills themselves. The group that is left realize that they have no roof or food to survive on the island, so they start to search for a water stream and fruits they can eat. As they walk one of the people in the group asks the question that I had been asking myself: why waste energy trying to survive? The reason they are in that situation is that they did not want to live anymore so trying to survive when they could perfectly kill themselves is illogical. None of them have an answer, but they still carry on their task.

They struggle every step of the way while they try to survive. Finding shelter, having water, getting food, people giving up, people committing suicide are their main problems at first. But as human beings their biggest enemies are other human beings. In this island there are no rules, you can steal things or kill someone and there is no law to punish those actions.

One thing that caught my attention is Kei's struggle with hunting. At some point of the manga Kei makes himself a bow and tries to hunt a deer, but when it comes to the moment in which he has to shoot, he freezes. He sees this animal that has never done any harm and is pure and full of life, and he starts to think of himself someone who did nothing with his life and was the worst of his society. He questions himself, because how can he take a life when he so readily threw away his? What gave him the right to decide the fate of other living creature when he did not want a future?

These questions are the ones that give him the strength to try to survive. He decides that he is going to cherish life and by hunting he becomes part of nature after being isolated from everything back in Japan. This reminds me a little to The Sun Also Rises, as both Kei and Jake felt truly at ease when they were surrounded by nature.

I think this manga has some elements of post modernism as throughout the story most of the characters are disappointed of themselves and humanity, they question values and rules and struggle to make their own to regulate the behaviour within the group.