With the amount of survival manga out there such as Cage of Eden, this genre of manga has it tough to set itself apart from others especially with respect to the originality of the concept. That being said Life is Money does not have the most original idea, however the development within the idea surpasses many other survival manga and thrillers.

We all have something we want to save, in the case of Meguru its his dying sister, with his mother dying trying to obtain enough money to save her daughter, a myriad cost of one hundred million yen is needed. Meguru being scammed countless times, and working hard for a majority of his life even leaving school tries to obtain such money but simply cant. While being depressed at a bar a man shows up and offers a chance to be able to receive the money, with one catch, and that was his life itself was at grave danger. Reluctantly he accepts after seeing his sister become sick once again and hearing she doesn't have time. A survival game starts between ten people, only 5 can survive.


All ten characters are developed relatively well, however to the point of the current fourteen translated chapters about half of the characters still require some development and back story. Many of the characters follow the typical variety of personalities, with one being intelligent and amazing with words, others outgoing and more. The game itself is not with violence, in fact there are many accommodations such as a hotel room, library and much more. The beautiful thing about Life is Money is that it is a purely physiological driven manga, and the killing occurs by people being driven to insanity, and dying when a specific heart rate is achieved.

The art is done extremely well, in scenarios in which one shows true despair, the mangaka does a very nice job in conveying the conflicting emotions of the person.

All in all anyone who enjoys thrillers or just a break from typical stuff should love this, after reading many romances this was quite the refreshing twist.