Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit and the Totalitarian One-World Government & Mass Manipulation

Lately news media outlets have been printing out information on different media, books, movies and documentaries on viruses. Amidst this pandemic - a situation where there is a global alert halting the entire world, forcing everyone to stay inside - my mind went back through the numerous series I've consumed until I realized that we're not just talking about viruses here, but global control over human beings even in countries that appreciate freedom over anything else.

This line of thinking brought me back to this one Japanese manga series called Ikigami, written and illustrated by Motoro Mase. The series ran for 10 volumes from 2005 to 2012 in Weekly Young Sunday. The genre of this series is hard to put into words, it deals with drama and emotional weight caused by government control on its populace. It also works as a thriller and a psychological drama. Wikipedia mentions that the series is sci-fi, but I'm not so sure about that.

Ikigami takes place in an unnamed dystopian government (a government where one gets sentenced and rehibilated for committing "thought crimes") that resides near Japan in which all the children who enter primary school at a very young age get injected with syringes that have 1 in 10 000 of a chance of containing a nanocapsule. When these children age to adulthood, at random age between 18 to 24, the children that were injected with the capsule, die as the capsule reaches their heart.

The government of this story explains that the idea of injecting everyone while no one - except the government officials - knows who gets injected with the deadly chip, is that apparently the people of this nation will be able to live their life to the fullest as they will never know if they will be the ones to die. In other words the authorities feed their people propaganda about how great their morally wrong law is.

This is where the plot of this story takes place however. Ikigami themselves are not the name of the injected nanocapsule, but the notification that a government official has to hand over to the young adults who have been injected with the nanocapsule before they die. Our main character, Kengo Fujimoto, is one of these officials. Exactly 24 hours before the death of an injected person Fujimoto brings these "heroes of this national welfare law" their individual Ikigami, explaining how great their death will be for the country. These "heroes of the national welfare law" (i.e. victims of the government) are given a lot of freedom, however they tend to have a different mindset over what is going to happen to them as they tend to try to get revenge on people who did them wrong or commit other sorts of crimes.

While in its core this series's main idea is similar to to a fairly well-known movie called The Purge, which in turn is a live-action movie which takes place in a country where once a year all crime is legal - be it theft, break-in or even murder. Ikigami however throws a larger twist to the idea of this as it shows us the build up of the herd mentality to control people. It explains how we can use the idea of freedom to free us from government control while in reality feeding that to the masses is the control itself.
While the story might be questionable in its writing quality due to dealing with these types of hard-to-swallow propaganda mass manipulation concepts and crazy censorship, the presentation of the individual stories in this series are amazing. They are really emotional and pack a huge amount of impact. They exist to show us just how monstrous these types of Totalitarian One-World government laws are. 

Going into spoilers, the story at the very end brings up a very good point as it explains us that the purpose of the "national welfare law" injections was to control people into wanting to get rid of the nanocapsule, even if they don't know whether or not they have them. To offer this choice to the people, this government gives them a chance: go to war and you can pick any one person to get injected with a liquid that destroys the capsule. This controls the whole population to join the war to save themselves or their loved ones. A very grand-scale psychological control over people.

I believe now is the best time to read this series and think very carefully what is happening in the world. It is a very well crafted comic book series dealing with heavy subjects.

Detective Conan F699 - Tomorrow is There

"The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain." 
- Dolly Parton


This time I'll be going over Volume 67's File 699 of Detective Conan called Tomorrow is There. I've been meaning to reread this as it's one of the rare one-shot cases in the entire manga, and on top of that it's really well written as a meaningful piece of work. It's just one of those chapters that stick with me but I don't really know why; it could be the psychological aspect of the whole thing, but the case does bring a point about how you should never give up on your life for anything. I do believe that analyzing this case top to bottom is going to be very enjoyable and inspirational. I also really love the name choice Gosho Aoyama gave this particular very short case.


The Story of Tomorrow is There
The Detective Boys; Conan, Mitsuhiko, Ayumi, Genta and Haibara walk down a staircase leading from a bridge that crosses over a road in Beika city. Mitsuhiko reminds the rest of the group that tomorrow at 4:00 P.M. the final soccer match between Tokyo Spirits and Big Osaka happens [Reminder that the character Hideo Akagi - nickname Hide - is a pretty well-known soccer player from the Tokyo Spirits team]. You know, most Conan characters are pretty huge sports fans because the author Gosho Aoyama himself also loves soccer and baseball, etc. sports. Anyway, Haibara tells everyone that Big Osaka won the last match they had so she hopes that Tokyo Spirits takes the win this time. Genta tells them that Hide (Hideo Akagi) who is the Spirits' top scorer is out for the count due to an injury. It's hard to imagine Big losing when Spirits are missing their best scorer.

Haibara smirks and tells Genta that he's right - according to Haibara, most likely Higo will make a hat trick to become this year's top scorer and take Big to the championship [Reminder that Haibara is a huge Higo fangirl, there is a case with Kogoro and Haibara showing their affection towards their biggest idols where we especially see how much she loves Higo from Big Osaka]. Conan looks at Haibara and tells her that Higo's actually out of the game just as well; he got suspended for cumulative yellow cards. Haibara is shocked to hear this and asks Conan if he's completely sure. Conan tells her that he read about it in the morning paper. We see a headline of the morning paper, and it reads as follows: "Hide and Higo Out of Key Game Spirits, Big Face Off Without Top Players." This means that each team's most valuable player is benched.

 Haibara ponders and it's hilarious what she says to Higo being out: Haibara understands now what the commentators were upset about when Higo got a yellow card in his last game, and now Haibara thinks that Higo has been set up. Conan is also wondering if she really thinks he was set up. It's clear that Haibara has only gotten to sports recently as she's not familiar with all of the rules. Conan wonders how Haibara knows about hat tricks in soccer but not yellow cards.

Mitsuhiko is disappointed that they won't see the best of either team battle it out and Genta tells everyone that he has to go to a dentist to get a hurting tooth pulled. Ayumi looks scared as the pain is real from that. Then we get the the first important line in this short case: Genta is disappointed at Hide not being in the match and annoyed at his tooth problem, so he wishes that tomorrow would never come. 

 As Genta finishes saying that, a happy-looking elderly man appears and tells Genta that he should not be saying thing like that, as there's always hope for tomorrow! Especially for children. Genta asks who the man is and he introduces himself as an old retiree who's just out for a walk. We get an information box showcasing that the man is Kyozo Daita (63), a passerby.

Genta asks the old man, Kyozo, what exactly he has to look forward to, to which the man answers that there are so many things that he doesn't even know which to choose. He explains that he's going to Osaka for a soccer game the next day. After the game he'll be going back to Tokyo to meet his old friend whom he hasn't seen in a decade for drinks. After that he'll be watching the finale of his favorite drama. Oh, and there'll also be a huge summer lottery to which he's taking a part in; he bought a bunch of tickets for it, so it should be quite the experience.

Then, all of a sudden a man runs at Kyozo and steals his purse wallet. All of his lottery tickets fly around. Conan decides to give chase to the thief as the man runs into an alley between buildings. Conan tries to order the thief to stop but he keeps running so Conan has to pull off his inflating belt soccer ball and his super charging boots to take the robber out. Conan kicks the robber to the back with the ball and the perp drops the bag he stole but still manages to run away.
Conan gives Kyozo his bag back and the old man checks the insides to make sure everything's still there.

Inside Kyozo's bag are: his wallet, keys, day planner diary, soccer tickets, and Kyozo's glasses case. He then tells the DB's that nothing's been taken. Ayumi asks Kyozo what the sticker on the glasses case is. Kyozo tells her that the sticker is a photograph of her granddaughter who turns seven years old this year. The glasses case and its contents are a birthday gift for Kyozo from her granddaughter. The old man says that the glasses, the case, and the sticker photograph of her granddaughter are his greatest treasure.

The detective boys tell Kyozo that her almost 7 year old granddaughter is the same age as them. Ayumi then asks Kyozo which school his granddaughter goes to, to which he answers after hesitating a bit that he doesn't recall the school's name, which is a bit odd as he looks a bit concerned when saying that. Haibara then arrives to give Kyozo back the lottery tickets that fell off during the robbery as the Detective Boys picked them all up. Kyozo is surprised at hearing that the Detective Boys are friends with real police officers as well and he decides to treat these sleuths to a snack at a nearby cake shop down the street. Most of the Detective Boys are happy about it, but Conan seems suspicious about something.

Everyone is now eating at the cake shop Patisserie Musshy. Mitsuhiko asks Kyozo if the soccer game he's attending is the big match between Tokyo and Osaka. Kyozo says yes and shows the Detective Boys his ticket to the match; he even got a great seat. Kyozo says that he's a big fan of Higo & Hide and can't wait to see them face off in the match. Ayumi tries to tell him that neither of them are participating in the match but Kyozo gets a phone call from his friend Omi. He asks if Omi is ready to pull an all-nighter the next day but Omi says that something's come up and he's gotta leave at 10 P.M., so Kyozo and Omi are only able to meet for an hour. Kyozo then asks Omi if he wants to meet at 7 P.M. instead as they're both retired with time on their hands and his friend agrees to that. Kyozo tells him on the phone to not be shocked about how old he's gotten and Conan looks at him while thinking about something.

Kyozo takes out his diary and writes there that he's changing the meeting time with his friend to 7:00 P.M. After looking at the diary, Ayumi notes that Kyozo really has a busy day the next day. Haibara wonders why the notebook reads "Washing Machine" on the current day's schedule to which Kyozo answers that after eating at the cake shop he's going to Akihabara to buy a washing machine as his broke down a while back. He's used a laundromat for the past few weeks instead. Kyozo says that he'll miss grabbing loose change to visit the laundromat in his T-shirt and sweat pants while hanging out with a newspaper until the laundry's done.
Genta then notes that he's into a new Detective Samonji miniseries called the Laundromat Murders. Kyozo says that the Laundromat Murders is the TV series he mentioned earlier and can't wait to see who the culprit is; Kyozo theorizes that the perpetrator is the most friendly looking guy of the cast of characters.
Conan then says that he already knows who the culprit is - he knows because he's read the original novel that the series is adapting. Kyozo and the Detective Boys are surprised. Ayumi asks Conan not to spoil it and Kyozo asks Conan to whisper the culprit to him. Conan asks him if he's sure as the last episode is going to be on TV the next day to which Kyozo answers that he's going out with his friend and won't get home in time to see it. Conan wonders to him if he's not going to record it, so he's not going to spoil it as it'll be more fun to wait. After that the group leaves the cake shop. Kyozo tells the Junior Detective League thanks for everything and that his name is Kyozo Daita. Mitsuhiko says to the other kids about how likeable Kyozo was as he was so optimistic about everything.

Later one, at the TR Baker Station train station at 7 o'clock in the evening a train is arriving at Platform 2. We see Kyozo at the station, looking at his purse - or more accurately, looking at the photograph sticker of his granddaughter that's on the purse while drunk. His hands start to shake as he thinks to himself: "Yoshimi... hold on... I'll help you..." 

As the train is almost as Platform 2 of the station, Conan appears behind Kyozo and tells him that getting hit by a train isn't his idea of a fun night. Kyozo is surprised at hearing this. Conan tells him that he's planning to commit suicide in order to pay for his daughter's operation. Kyozo turns his face towards Conan while surprised and the train passes by. Conan managed to save the man already. Conan assumes that Kyozo has taken a huge life insurance policy. Kyozo asks how he knows something like that and Conan tells him that he kept talking about looking forward to tomorrow, but in reality he wasn't planning to be around by then.

The rest of the Detective Boys also make their appearance. Ayumi says that Kyozo had tickets to a big soccer game but didn't even know that his two favourite players weren't going to be there. Mitsuhiko explains that it also didn't make sense for him to promise to meet his friend at 7:00 P.M. when the game to the match starts at 4:00 P.M. as a soccer game is two hours long; he'd have to get from Osaka to Tokyo in a hour's time. Impossible. Genta tells Kyozo that when they picked up his lottery tickets, he didn't count them, which was suspicious. Haibara also joins in and tells Kyozo that it's very strange that he'd want Conan to spoil the big finale of his favourite TV show - it was as if Kyozo knew that he wouldn't be here to see tomorrow. That's how the Detective Boys knew that he was planning on committing suicide.

Conan explains that Kyozo went drinking to make it look as if he got drunk and stumbled off the train platform by accident, at least that was the plan had Conan not stopped him from jumping under the train. Haibara explains that life insurance policies generally have clauses against paying for suicide, so that's why Kyozo had to get drunk first.

Kyozo wonders how Conan knew about his granddaughter being sick. Conan tells him that he seems very close to her but still couldn't tell the Detective Boys which school she attends. That's because she doesn't go to school in the first place. Conan theorized that she's in a hospital somewhere. Kyozo tells him that he's right - his granddaughter has been hospitalized for the past six months. She was born with heart problems and Kyozo's family had finally found a skilled doctor overseas who's capable of operating on her, but the operation fee is so massive that there was no other choice but to try to get the life insurance money. Ayumi tells him that his granddaughter would want him to be around when she gets better. Genta also tells him that what he's going to do if one of his lottery tickets was a big winner to which Kyozo says that he couldn't possibly win 100 million yen (~1 million dollars) twice in a row. Kyozo tells them that he'd won 100 million yen at the end of the last month and thanked the gods when that happened, but what happened afterwards broke the camel's back as Kyozo went and lost the winning ticket.

Conan asks Kyozo if he'd read the lottery results in the newspaper while he was at the laundromat. Kyozo answers him that he's corect. The winning ticket was gone when he got home so he must've dropped it on the way. Conan asks him what he'd done with the other tickets and Kyozo answers that he threw them away at the laundromat.
Conan then realizes that Kyozo had put the winning ticket somewhere safe. He wouldn't just stuff it in his pocket, and it can't be his wallet either as he didn't take his wallet to the laundromat. Conan assumes thus that in his excitement, Kyozo put the ticket inside the one and only thing he had on him at the time - the glasses case his granddaughter gave him. As Kyozo opens the glasses case he sees the winning lottery ticket stuffed inside of there and gets very happy.

Haibara asks Conan why he even took his glasses case to the laundromat. Conan answers that he noticed Kyozo squinting when he made notes in his planner notebook. The glasses must be reading glasses. Kyozo explained earlier that he reads the newspaper every time he goes to the laundromat to waste time, it's all pretty logical. Conan tells Kyozo that when he thought he'd lost the ticket, he didn't want to open the glasses case because he felt so guilty towards his granddaughter.

Kyozo gives a sigh of relief and laughs, saying that for a while he thought of robbing a bank to pay for his granddaughters surgery. Then he tells thanks to the Junior Detective League and leaves while very happy. Genta and Mitsuhiko mention how the Detective Boys just were in a scary bank robbery situation so it's not funny to hear the old man joke about robbing a bank.
Ayumi tells Haibara that she remembers that she saw someone she knew in that bank. It was the man on the bus they were on a long time ago, the bus that got hijacked. Mitsuhiko and Genta also remember seeing the man at the bank - a man with narrow eyes and a burn mark on his cheek.

Conan tells the Detective Boys that he doesn't remember anyone like that on the hijacked bus but Ayumi tells him that the guy actually didn't have a burn mark when that happened - it's the guy with the black knit cap. When Conan hears this he gets shocked as he realizes it's Akai Shuiichi or someone like him as the case as well as the chapter ends.

This was an extremely rare one-shot case in the Detective Conan manga. But I wouldn't be writing about this case if I didn't think it was pretty incredible in its own right. I really like short stories and the fact that Gosho is able to compact this mystery about the optimistic old man with ill intentions in one mere chapter and use it to connect to the overarching plot at the end, is actually pretty impressive. In the past I didn't care for the case as it seemed to be basic but it is one of the more important cases when it comes to understanding how human psychology is used to build a case and explain certain actions. The lottery ticket part is also part of the whole and it does make sense when you actually think about it. My favourite part is when the train passes by the old man. That signals that Conan already managed to save his life then and there.

Tantei Gakuen Q / Detective School Q Volume 3 (F14-21) Review

Kamikakushi Village Murder Case

The second volume of Tantei Gakuen Q ended with Kyu and co. figuring out the case that happened on Kirisaki Island. The perpetrator there was actually Dan Morihiko himself and the case itself was simply the final part of the entrance exam. Figuring out the case allowed our main characters Kyu, Ryu, Megumi, Kazuma and Kinta to join the legendary retiring detective Dan Morihiko's Dan Detective School, and what's more, all five of them get to join the Q-Class (Qualified Class) which is directly taught by Dan Morihiko himself as he plans to find himself a worthy successor out of one of the five members of the Q-Class.

The first chapter of the third volume focuses on introducing us to the school's structure of DDS and the beginning of the volume also happens to build up to the next big case that lasts up to the 2nd to last chapter of the 4th volume. I like how well the overarching story has flown so far from case to case.
The Dan Detective School is actually a massive apartment with different classes, however the Qualified Class is in the woods, in the middle of nowhere nearby. The classroom for Q-Class is in an old apartment that's almost like a haunted house, but there's more to the story as the old worn-out apartment was the office of Dan Morihiko 40 years prior when he left the police force to become a private eye.
The Qualifies Class's classroom has a lot of sentimental value with Dan Morihiko himself as he remembers the times a skilled detective used to assist him as a partner and they solved many dangerous cases. Dan says that during a criminal investigation this skilled detective died, and if he were alive this day there would be no Q-Class as that detective would be his successor instead.

The second real case in the series is then referred from the police to Dan Morihiko, who then asks the Q-Class to solve it. The case is another intriguing one as it happened in a small, isolated village where several students went to, but suddenly one of them disappeared. The scene left was baffling as this student vanished into thin air on the spot. To solve this case is the first job of the Q-Class, and if they're not able to do it, the A-Class would get the case. Dan himself had already figured it out but he uses it as an exam in the school.

In DDS there's a Simulation Room with a slide project and models that are used to recreate the crime scene in the room. Sometimes the school uses a moving background to create the scene a more realistic feel. What's more, there is also a dojo where students train to defend themselves with martial arts like karate and judo. There's also a Computer Room with the latest models (like Windows 95 computers or something.. lol), and a Makeup Studio where the students practice disguising with rubber masks and wigs, a forensics lab with a fake corpse that is used to estimate the time of death.

The Kamikakushi Village Disappearance case

Some people may be aware of Kamikakushi from series like Higurashi no naku koro Ni. It means to be spirited away or disappear without a trace all of a sudden. It's part of Japanese folk tales. The authors are making the name of the village symbolize the case itself in which the student disappeared.

Anyway, in Kyu and co. get to become more familiar with the disappearance case in the Simulation Room. According to the police files, the friend of the missing student took pictures in Kamikakushi Village and sent them to the police. The DDS will use those photos with a projector to simulate the case.
The village has paddy fields that haven't been planted and it's very isolated place. The photographs show footprints that go to the middle of the muddy fields only to disappear in the middle of the field without a trace of going further.

The footprints started from underneath the window of the missing student's room. It's as though someone lured him out to the middle of the field and then snatched him from the heavens. When the footprints were discovered, the student's disappearance was not yet confirmed so no reports to the police were made yet. However the villagers started saying that "another person was spirited away because he violated the Taboo."

The footprints to the paddy field were first discovered at 7 A.M., before breakfast. Last time the student was seen was at 10 o'clock the previous night. The farmers went to the field by dawn at around 5 A.M. and didn't notice a thing.
Could it be that the student was murdered and the culprit intentionally created this disappearing footprint setup in order to make it seem as if the student was 'Spirited Away' if the villagers are so superstitious folk that they believe old legends? 

More hints to the case are the disappeared student's luggages which contained the following: a compass, thermos, cell phone, swiss army knife, a flashlight, a book of treasure hunting & guide, rrope, a camera, a shovel, a safety jacket, a folded rubber raft with plastic oar and a pump and a sleeping bag.


After figuring out how the footprints were created the Q-Class are given the DDS Detective Notebook. The notebook gives the students authorization to enter any crime scene. The notebooks have the D.D.S. logo and symbol on it and it would be bad if it got stolen or if it disappeared. What's more the notebook has more to it: it contains an area for notes as well as seven tools: a fingerprint kit, a multipurpose knife, a database for deciphering simple passwords, lock picks, etc.
The reason why the students are given the notebook is because their first task as students of DDS is now to leave for Kamikakushi Village and its neighbor, the Hyotan Village in which 7 people have disappeared in the past 10 years. To get to Kamikakushi Village, one has to walk from Hyotan Village for 30 minutes through a tunnel.
So, along with the disappearing student case the Q-Class has to figure out what happened to six other disappeared people- who and why did they get "Spirited Away."

People of Kamikakushi & Hyotan Village

This is not a normal rural area. Rumours say that because of a strange cult that believes in the God of Disease of epidemics as well as a legend about an old treasure from the Japanese Army, the Kamikakushi Village has become a popular topic to be talked about online.
Hyotan Village on the other hand is filled with TV program personnel who are included as the case cast. To enter Kamikakushi village everyone is forced to wear white masks with holes in them or they're risking themselves of being spirited away.

The Case Cast of the Kamikakushi Village Murders case

A group of people with white masks with holes in them play a prank on Kyu and co. to scare them. Ryu explains to us that the masks are supposed to showcase Smallpox disease. Smallpox is a plague that's been around since ancient times and it causes the victim's body to be riddled with pus-filled lesions. Most people inflicted by Smallpox die. Even though the disease was beaten in 1980's with the Smallpox vaccine apparently many large countries have still used the virus as a biochemical weapon. We also get to learn more about Ryu's character as he explains that researching diseases and poisons is his hobby. In this case we get properly introduced to the cast of characters to get to know them. The cast has personnel from the 'Adventure' program and goes as follows:

Azegami Rio (25), TV Reporter
Iwashimizu Hiroki (42), TV Producer
Anzai Kunihiko (29), TV Director
Oowada Susumu (32), TV Cameraman
Kagami Rei (25), Assistant Director

Each of the TV personnel are there to hunt for the legendary treasure and tension riles up between each of them as they consider each other rivals in the hunt.
But there are also more case characters of course:

Kuruzumi Kogoro (58), the Owner of Ryozanbaku Inn who explains that not even the villagers of Hyotan are allowed to enter Kamikakushi Village if they don't wear those creepy white masks the TV personnel used to scare our main characters.
Fuma Mio (17), Ryozanbaku Inn Hostess
Kirihara Masae (60), Ryozanbaku Inn Hostess
Kuruzumi Ryou (25), Branch Manager of Ryozanbaku Inn

What I like is that now three volumes in the story we finally get reminder name plates for the same case-only characters in multiple chapters.

So, the Q-Class this time has to figure out the mysteries including a small villages with a disease cult that wears a strange mask, a japanese army treasure, and the mysterious disappearances in Kamikakushi Village. The latest victim disappeared from the Ryozanbaku Inn annex in Kamikakushi Village, and that village itself is isolated from outside world and only accessible through a tunnel connecting from Hyotan Village.
Things of course aren't going to be that simple as the actual murders of the case begin, but before the first victim falls to the killer attacking her with a sickle, we get to learn of a clue showing the Infinity sign, or the Moebius Strip sign, that is supposed to be a hint towards the treasure or the missing student. Later on, the group manages to find the first victim hidden, buried in a grave with a skeleton, and then it doesn't take longer for another person to vanish - to get Spirited Away. The common line between all these disappearances and murders is the fact that they know the truth behind the mystery of the villages and the treasure before meeting their fate.

The third volume to the Kamikakushi Murder Case ends with the second murder being shown. It's a really intriguing one: one of the TV personnel is filming himself trying to find the legendary war treasure but as he was passing the fields, all of a sudden the camera shows the ground getting further and further away as if he started flying.'

Is the second murder a person being spirited away or just a person being lured into a deadly trap so that his body would never be found?

The third volume is a decent collection of numerous classic mysteries although we only got an answer to the first missing footprints mystery in the build-up case to the Kamikakushi Village Murders Case, and this case is a reeeally long one. In total it takes up almost two volumes. I'm not really the biggest fan of cases that are this long as the novelty does wear off but I hope the next volume brings something interesting to the table.
The most notable mysteries in the Kamikakushi Murders Case include the mystery of the ancient army war treasure, the mystery of people being spirited away, the mystery of the disease cult and the mystery of how the 2nd victim was made to fly.
I actually immediatelly see through the trick that's being done with the Hyotan and Kamikakushi villages, the foreshadowing makes it too obvious, but I hope the rest of the mysteries and how it all connects together will impress me. The mystery of the villages is actually something that would impress people who don't think of it as it's a cool trick in of itself. A similar type of trick was done in Zero Time Dilemma which is the final game of the Zero Escape trilogy.

One funny thing I noticed is that after the first corpse is found in the grave, we got police to arrive to the crime scene to investigate but they just disappear without doing anything in this volume.