The Final Evolution: Alive Volume 1 by Tadashi Kawashima and Adachitoka

Taisuke Kanoe is in High School. He's constantly getting into fights, but it's mostly to protect a smaller classmate who is picked on by the bullies in class. Kanoe's sister Yoko also works at the school and tries to protect him, but at home, she makes him do all the work while she lounges around like a Princess. But it is her money that allows them to have a home and eat, so she feels she is entitled.

But as they walk home from school one day, Kano sees a girl commit suicide right in front of him. He is struck by the look on her face as she falls, a look of happy peacefulness, as if she was happy to commit suicide. It's a strange incident, but she wasn't the only one to commit suicide that day. That suicide was just one of thousands on this day, all across Japan, and all across the globe. Even one of the teachers confessed his love for Kano's sister, then killed himself in front of her.

As the days pass, more suicides occur, rising in number. Kano's sister, believing him to be emotionally scarred enough from witnessing the woman who killed herself in front of him, tries to protect him from the news that is happening across the globe, and for which nobody seems to know the reason why.

Then, Kano's friend Yuichi is spirited up to the roof by the bullies who always pick on him for another round of torture. Kano runs up to the roof to save him, but instead finds the roof empty of everyone save Yuichi. The roof is splashed with blood and the fence around it is partly destroyed, and the bodies of his tormentors are completely gone. But what happened up there? Kano can't believe what he sees, and his friend Megumi turns away from Yuichi, horrified by what she sees.

Yuichi is taken away by the police, and Kano wants to go see him. But he is not allowed to by the Police. He stays outside their door for days, barely eating and drinking, waiting with what seems like infinite patience to be let in. But the detective in the case says it isn't the police who aren't allowing Kano to see his friend. Yuichi doesn't want to see him.

As Kano finally heads home, he encounters a seeming madman who calls him brother, incites a crowd into following them, and leads them into an alley where he kills them with bubbles that pop out of the ground. The madman seems to think Kano has the same powers and will use them to kill people. But Kanoe doesn't want to kill anyone. What is really going on, and did Yuichi really kill his fellow students? Can Kano find out, and does he really want to know?

This manga sets up a great story with the mass suicides and what could possibly be causing it. Also, why have some people gotten killing powers from what might be the same source? We don't know, but we are given lots to chew on in this first volume.

Regardless of how interesting the setup was, I found it too dark and Nihilistic to enjoy. I didn't like the world, the characters weren't all that interesting, and the constant death and killing was very depressing for me to read.

I wouldn't recommend this one to anyone. But if dark and depressing situations are something you like, and people dying in grotesque and mysterious ways intrigue rather than sicken you, you might want to check it out. Otherwise, give it a miss.