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Life

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Description

All Ayumu dreams of is making it into the same high school as her best friend. But when she gets in and her friend doesn't, their friendship crumbles—sending Ayumu spiraling into depression. She finds relief in cutting herself but soon realizes that her scars may interfere with her budding high school life. Can she trust her new friend, Manami, who seems too good to be true? Or will Ayumu's apparent lack of comion and understanding get her tossed aside like she was before? And is there anyone else out there who could possibly love her for who she is? A melancholy coming-of-age story by Keiko Suenobu! (From Kodansha USA) 4i3m2o

Official English

Note: Won the 30th Kodansha Manga Award for shoujo in 2006.

Type

Manga

Related Series

Life 2: Giver/Taker (Side Story)

Associated Names

Life人生

حياة

ไลฟ์ (Thai)

ライフ

라이프

Groups Scanlating

Ame Scans

Cloudyness

Eclipse Scans

Hush

More...

Latest Release(s)

c.74-80 by Ame Scans 6 years ago

v.17 c.67 by Manga Yobai 13 years ago

v.9 c.35 by Eclipse Scans 14 years ago

Search for all releases of this series

Status in Country of Origin

20 Volumes (Complete)
13 Volumes (Shinsouban, Complete)

Completely Scanlated?

Yes

Anime Start/End Chapter

N/A

Reviews

N/A

Forum

2 topics, 4 posts

Click here to view the forum

Rating

Average: 7.8 / 10.0 (266 votes)

Bayesian Average: 7.65 / 10.0

32%

15%

16%

13%

Last Updated

April 20th, 2025 8:57pm PDT - 1 month ago

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Genre

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Categories

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Category Recommendations

Become a Girl at Night

UnOrdinary

Parasite Doll

Usagi Yojimbo

From Nightmare to Love

Recommendations

Vitamin (SUENOBU Keiko)

Mars

Cat Street

Bitter Virgin

Watashitachi no Shiawase na Jikan

Author(s)

SUENOBU Keiko

Artist(s)

SUENOBU Keiko

Year

2002

Original Publisher

Kodansha (2002; 2016)

Serialized In (magazine)

Bessatsu Friend (Kodansha)

Licensed (in English)

Yes

English Publisher

Kodansha USA (18 Vols - Ongoing; Digital)

TokyoPop (Canceled / 9 Vols)

Activity Stats (vs. other series)

(+83)

(+61)

(-91)

(-642)

(+332)

List Stats

On 786 reading lists

On 789 wish lists

On 433 completed lists

On 81 unfinished lists

On 302 custom lists

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Forum Posts Click to view the forum

Life the manga

13 years ago

Life by Suenobu Keiko

16 years ago

Comments [ Order by usefulness ]

depressing...

by xiguo
15 years ago

Rating: N/A

This is a pretty depressing manga. Just when you think things are looking better for the heroine, she falls into some other bad situation. I kept reading the Chinese version (I think maybe up to vol 13) hoping things will get better but they didn't...

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Ridiculous

by Name-Undecided
15 years ago

Rating: 2.0 / 10.0

See, it would be one thing if Ayumu was a normal sensible girl who changed after bullying, but she was angsting and cutting herself loooooong before the bullying started. In fact a lot of people at her new school made an effort to be kind and friendly and she rebuffed them all, then she got involved with a bad friend and now she's whining about bullies?

She's just WEAK, dumb and naive. I know someone who had the exact same experience where she got into a school her best friend wanted and the best friend didn't, and yes it was the end of the friendship but guess what. She didn't get depressed, she didn't start cutting herself, she didn't withdraw into a little shell because "no one needs me around." In real LIFE, sometimes people win and sometimes people lose. That's LIFE. Anyone who can't understand that is just weak, full stop.

Not to mention the pathetic way Ayumu keeps turning her life over to other people to control. She's one of those disgusting girls who latch onto one friend and invest their everything in that one person then get upset when that person turns out to be a . Not putting all your eggs in one basket is part of LIFE too. This manga is just bad, guys.

But at least the art is nice, so that's one extra point. I guess.

... Last updated 15 years ago

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Wow.

by MissRaw
16 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

Artists who like to draw action scenes should take note from this manga. The art is stunning... For many reasons. It really portrays the intensity of each action scenes. It really enables me to envision what it would look like if it was a movie.

There were some scenes that freaked me out, like further into the volume, when Manami becomes dopey and go crazy, she would appear out of nowhere and freak the reader out because we wouldn't expect her to be there (I'll let you read it).

My favorite characters would definitely be Ayumu and Hitori. 🙂

It's a shame not many people know about this manga. It's also a shame that it's not completely scanlated.

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realistic

by Dragoness57
16 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

those that dislike the weak character of the girl probably have never witnessed these type of situations in real life.

this is the hellish high school life that is actually quite common in asian countries- and i think that Life portrays it very well. the overdramatization only compels the readers to feel a bit of the life of a suffering girl- and even the exaggerated pages could not express the horror, i imagine.

i cried buckets in the last volume- because the series is so realistic that it cannot give the fluffy-everything-is-perfect conclusion.. yet it was enlightening and heart warming.

i think this is a series that everyone should read: female, male, and whatever age (except too young of course)- and everyone can learn something from this.

one of the few manga out there that really teaches humanity a life lesson.

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Not bad at all

by shoujo22
16 years ago

Rating: 6.0 / 10.0

I can understand why some people have a problem with how weak the heroine is in the beginning, but I don’t find her overbearingly dumb or anything-- so I can basically tolerate her. I mean seriously, in the real world, people are weak. That's the bottom line. Also, she's a teenager. Puberty is a bitch for some teens, so her timid disposition isn't so unbelievable. Um…The constant stream of horrid characters that the mangaka introduces is a bit of an overkill, but the bullying is pretty much dead on. I've actually had a few of my friends from Japan tell me that it can be much worse than that, so that aspect of the storyline has been done pretty well.

I haven’t read the entire series yet, so I can’t rate this higher than a 6 right now. Once I finish everything, I’ll decide whether to raise the rating or drop it. I do like this one though.

As always, I recommend giving it a try. My taste is my taste though, so take my review with a grain of salt.

... Last updated 15 years ago

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Do you like uplifting stories? If so, DO NOT READ THIS!

by kawaiiairbender
16 years ago

Rating: N/A

Kieko Suenbo can tell a very pungent story. If you want to read about bullying I suggest reading Vitamin. It's short and to the point. Yes it's sad and upsetting but it's a oneshot. Life on the otherhand will frustrate you beyond end and make you rage and it goes on forever! The main girls life is one of the saddest and upsetting things ever. The people in her life all need to be burned.
Now that I've thought of it, it really makes me upset that there are human out there like the side characters. :/

I strongly DO NOT recommend this for people that have weak stomachs. (Or need bright spots in manga THIS IS NOT FOR YOU)

... Last updated 16 years ago

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heh...

by hoasen
16 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

Never thought that I will bother to look at this but it is indeed very psychologically scary!!! (Probably resulted from me reading this at 2PM!) However, I think it is really good! Very unexpected! My brain kept yearning for some happiness will soon happen to Ayumu. *sign poor, little Ayumu!

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UPDATED.

by yumemiru
16 years ago

Rating: N/A

The beginning is so tedious. You have this weak heroine(which everybody's complaining about), but that's only for the first few volumes. After that, everything starts pulling together. I felt so horrible for Ayumu. Not only for her, but also the other students. Even the teachers. All of them. I feel like this manga in some way is a satire of the whole bullying issue. There's lots of commonly-held beliefs presented and challenged here: the one who cries is not always right(the boy who cried wolf, basically), majority overpowers minority(minority's fighting hard in this case), turning the other cheek. Maybe I'm giving this manga a bit too much credit(satire probably wasn't the intent at all), but I feel that this is the meaning that I'm getting.

I want to recommend this to everyone so that we can all understand that these ideas aren't always right. Shoujo readers, shounen readers, whatever. I think this is something we all could use learning from.

... Last updated 14 years ago

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Good Concept, Stupid Character

by Dragonfiremule
16 years ago

Rating: 8.0 / 10.0

Well, I can't STAND stupid/weak people, and I must say, Ayumu is REALLY frustrating. I just want to slap her on the face and yell at her, not to mention tell her to get her ass into gear. (I'm at volume 5 or so)

Other then that, its really great, and I like it a lot.
Its very interesting.

... Last updated 16 years ago

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One of the best mangas out there

by Kossette
16 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

This manga tells a story of a girl with a low self esteem that evolves into someone strong. The mangaka doesn't sugar coat on anything and it gives the readers a realer look at the characters and what they're going through. This shoujo manga isn't the cutesy fluffy love story that most shoujo mangas are, it's much more realistic.

FOR THOSE WHO LIKE THE TYPICAL CUTE SHOUJO MANGA I WOULDN'T RECOMMEND THIS TO YOU.

but to all those looking for a realistic story that deals with real life issues I HIGHLY recommend this manga.

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