Jisatsu Circle

「自殺サークル」
Other Title: Suicide Club
Mangaka: Furuya Usa-maru
Genre: horror, one-shot

Synopsis: Jisatsu Circle is a dark, disturbing manga about troubled high school girls getting involved in a cult-like suicide club. The club's esteemed leader, Mitsuko-san, is fanatically followed with reckless, thoughtless, and religious fervor. Each teenager is desperate, burdened with her own set of problems, and Mitsuko-san helps each girl ease her pain. Through Mitsuko-san's guidance, they realize that death is a better, happier alternative to their miserable lives. They hold self-mutilation sessions before finally committing mass suicide.

Kyoko is concerned about her childhood friend Saya, who was the lone survivor of the most recent mass suicide. Saya is more devastated than ever: about her life, and about not being able to die with the rest of the club. Worse, Saya seems to be involved in a new suicide club; this time, she is taking a more active role by filling in Mitsuko-san's place as the new leader. Will Kyoko be able to save her friend?

Comments: Jisatsu Circle is just bizarre. The gore is comparable to Battle Royale, but while the latter was trying to be funny with its acerbic, sarcastic, dark humor, Jisatsu Circle is sheer drama. All the talk about wanting to die is unsettling but it does make one think. If Jisatsu Circle is supposed to be a spat at how wordly, immoral, and uncaring modern society has become, it does so in the creepiest, most extreme of ways.

The manga is based on the movie Suicide Club although I've heard the plots are slightly different.

Warnings: really graphic images of death; nudity

Scanlator: Omanga has scanlated all 6 chapters.