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Live-action version of Ikigami manga on DVD

MVM will release Death Notice: Ikigami, a live-action version of Motoro Mase's manga Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit, on DVD on 7th March with an SRP of £15.99. The manga and film envisage a Japan where the state routinely kills citizens, serving them with an “Ikigami” or death notice that they have 24 hours to live.

The role of Kengo Fujimoto, a civil servant who delivers the death notices, is played by Shota Matsuda. He previously appeared in the TV and film versions of another manga, Liar Game, in which he played the role of Akiyama Shinichi. Death Notice: Ikigami is directed by Tomoyuki Takimoto.

The film was released in Japan in September 2008, followed by a Japanese DVD release in April of the following year.

From the Associates website:

In the interests of national prosperity, in a near-future Japan all children are given an inoculation on their first day at school. One in every thousand of the injections contains a lethal nano-capsule, which will end the recipient's life some time between the ages of 18 and 24. Having been randomly selected to die, prior to their termination these citizens are given 24 hours' notification of their impending doom in the form of an “Ikigami”, a death notice allowing them one final day to say goodbye to loved ones and to come to terms with their fate.

Among those civil servants tasked with delivering the death notices is Kengo Fujimoto, a young man who secretly harbours reservations about the National Prosperity Law but who dares not speak out for fear of being charged with “thought crimes” against the state. Kengo's moral dilemma regarding the law compels him to breaking the rules of his job by becoming emotionally involved in the lives of the first three people to whom he delivers an Ikigami.

Death Notice: Ikigami is rated 15.