Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit by Motoro Mase is a manga that you shouldn’t pick up for light reading. It is anything but light reading.

While the manga itself is fast-paced and seamlessly written (actually, one of the most well-written manga we’ve read to date), it will leave you in one—or a combination of—three states: Grateful to be alive, depressed, or thoughtful.

That is because Ikigami deals with death in a unique and incredibly personal way. It tells the story of individuals between the ages of 18 and 24 who are told that they have only 24 hours left to live. There is no warning—there is simply the delivery of an “ikigami” 24 hours before their death that bears their picture, personal information, and scheduled time of death down to the minute.

It’s tempting to think that the murder of these individuals in the prime of their life is the work of a terrorist group or a supernatural being. It is neither. The death of these individuals (1 in every 1000, to be exact), is the work of their government, predetermined when each of these individuals received inoculations in first grade. Some of the inoculations were harmless, while others contained a nano capsule scheduled to kill the recipient sometime between the ages of  18 and 24 .

Their reasoning? To promote happiness and prosperity, and to teach the value of life to their citizens.

While the random killing of their young citizens may seem to produce the results the government desires on the surface, Kengo Fujimoto—the main character of the manga, and an ikigami delivery man selected by the government—begins to see cracks in their grand design. Read the full story