Not Lives

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Japanese: NOT LIVES -ノットライヴス-

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Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 10

Chapters: 54

Status: Finished

Published: Jun 27, 2011 to Oct 27, 2016

Genres: Action, Comedy

Themes: School, Super Power

Serialization: Dengeki Daioh

Authors: Karasuma, Wataru (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 7.29¹ (scored by 2,635 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #5410²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #3351

Members: 7,477

Favorites: 111

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7.29

Ranked #5410Popularity #3351Members 7,477

MangaDengeki DaiohKarasuma, Wataru (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /10

Chapters: /54

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Synopsis

Mikami Shigeru is a video game genius―he can play and conquer any game, and just as easily program his own. While planning his next project, Shigeru discovers a strange oddity among his stack of research materials―a game disc labeled NOT ALIVE. Absorbing into his body, the disc thrusts him into a strange parallel reality where he becomes the "Player" of a real life video game, one where he controls the mysterious and skilled Amamiya Kyouka as his new female avatar. With rules to learn, other players to combat, and an omniscient GM overseeing the process, will Shigeru's gaming skills be enough to survive in this brave new digital world?

(Source: Seven Seas Entertainment)

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Background

Not Lives was published in English by Seven Seas Entertainment from March 29, 2016 to September 25, 2018.

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Characters

Amamiya, Kyouka

Main

Mikami, Shigeru

Main

Arima, Akane

Supporting

Reviews

Apr 5, 2025

HidamariSeashore

Recommended

One might glance at the cover of "Not Lives" and think it was a manga that involved dating sims more than it actually does. Believe me; that's what I thought when I first picked the first volume up at a certain bookstore back in 2016. Although the actual content of the manga wasn't exactly what I expected, I did enjoy it enough to buy the second volume later on. For some reason, however, I ended up stopping collecting the volumes there, and I never got around to reading the rest of the series....until now. I mean, just like how a lot of gamers like to ... 100% their favorite games, I've got to 100% a manga that I at least thought was decent, right? Anyway, I bought the last eight volumes and read the entire thing from the beginning. Now that I've cleared this manga, what do I think of it? Let's find out!

Not Lives primarily follows Shigeru Mikami, a high school student with a deep love and appreciation for video games. He doesn't like just playing games, however; he has developed quite a few games of his own, even a mobile game that his childhood friend had been playing without even knowing he made it. One day, while gathering research materials for a dating sim he was requested to develop, he stumbles onto a disc for a game called "Not Alive". One finger press to the middle of the disc later, he has taken control of a girl named Kyouka Amamiya, an avatar in a mysterious real-life fighting game. From there, Shigeru and Kyouka must work together to clear the game....which turns out to be a real fight for survival.

At the start, Not Lives seems like the kind of manga that would follow a specific formula. Shigeru and Kyouka get challenged to a fight, they win, and onto the next. However, sooner rather than later, the story starts getting into longer story arcs that actually introduce player-avatar teams that aren't just there to be an enemy to the main duo. Unfortunately, the supporting characters aren't too memorable either way, and although they seem like they'd serve a real purpose to the story, they aren't utilized to their fullest potential. It's even worse for characters that aren't a part of the game, such as Shigeru's aforementioned childhood friend, Itsuki; not having her somehow get caught up in Not Alive was a mountain of wasted potential, and her obvious crush on Shigeru never got properly explored, either.

What does get explored quite a bit, though, is the relationship between Shigeru and Kyouka, as well as their own characters. Okay, maybe not so much for Shigeru, but that doesn't stop him from being a very likable character; I really enjoyed his determination and his passion for games. Kyouka is, by far, the character who gets the most development; we get to see what her family life is like, her skillset in and out of battle, and bits and pieces of her backstory. In the end, there is a major reveal about who Kyouka really is, and while it definitely took me off-guard, I can at least say that it was properly foreshadowed. The relationship that forms between Shigeru and Kyouka, while not particularly substantial, was ultimately very sweet.

The battles in Not Lives are very fast-paced and well-drawn, although it can be a little hard to follow for those who are not seasoned action manga readers. The way the battles are drawn definitely adds to how fun they are to read through. Something that particularly interests me about these battles - well, the first two real battles, specifically - is how the defeated avatars are removed from the game; the way those scenes are drawn really utilize the medium of manga that the story is being told from. Another thing about the art that I liked is the character designs; Wataru Karasuma really has a talent for drawing cute girls and not-too-bad-looking guys. Yeah, that's all I really have to say about the art.

Overall, Not Lives isn't a game-changer of a manga, but it's a fun read nonetheless. I recommend it for anyone in the mood for a manga that gives off the same energy of fighting games. At the very least, you should read it for the bonus chapters at the end of some volumes, which pay homage to beloved titles in a way that a manga with a true love for video games can!

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May 2, 2020

hexashadow13

Recommended

tl;dr: A manga with a good though predictable plot with solid action, but pretty shallow characters.

This is a manga centered around the standard premise of featuring characters that live in the real modern world for the most part but occasionally have to enter into supernatural battles as a part of some sort of competition. As far as this goes, it felt that it didn’t use this setting all that well, in that it spent essentially all of its time past some parts in the beginning completely focused on the supernatural battles part. These early parts were pretty amusing with good comedy stemming from the strange ...

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Jul 1, 2020

TiLT-a-WhiRL

Mixed Feelings

I recommend this manga most highly for men who like battles and a bit of fan service, and who don't mind if the logic of how the combatants win is a bit fuzzy.

The shining star of this manga is its art. It's polished; there are a lot of great action shots, and the perspectives in many frames are really interesting and impressive.

Perhaps coming in second is the world in which it's set, specifically the game Not Alive. It's a death game scenario of sorts, but a fairly unique take on it, despite the prevalence of the genre. A few things in this area seemed ... weird and arbitrary to me, but they were eventually explained in a pretty satisfying way. The story completely ignores how such a game became possible, which I think is probably best. It wouldn't have been interesting, and I don't think any explanation would have held up under scrutiny.

I think the above two points are the main draws of the series.

The characters are... fine. Amamiya Kyouka is a fun character, and Shigeru Mikami is what he needs to be to drive the series. Amamiya's demeanor is probably her most interesting trait. It's a bit hard to predict how she'll react to things, especially at first. Her reactions are odd, but they're internally consistent, which makes them feel realistic. The only interesting thing about Mikami, apart from his role in the plot, is his use of his own game making experience to strategize in Not Alive. However, this is only mentioned occasionally without drawing any particularly interesting connections between his experience and his strategy. It would be more appropriate to say this could have been an interesting aspect of his character that wasn't really taken advantage of. The other characters are passably interesting, although I personally found some of them annoying.

The story is fairly standard. The main characters have to win to survive, and they have a couple other easy-to-understand motivations that are revealed as the series progresses. There are some twists that I actually thought were impressive and that I enjoyed, but otherwise it often feels like its incoherently bumbling its way down the obvious path regardless of whether it actually makes sense.

The incoherence is probably the worst part for me. It feels like some of the players in Not Alive are straight up cheating, but not getting called out on it, and they're doing so to such a degree that it would be impossible to win against them. The logical conclusion of this is that their opponent would either have to be absurdly good at the game, or they would lose. However, the players who should logically lose in this situation are supposed to win, because that's the plot. What ends up happening is that the players who should lose get extremely lucky, use some nonsense strategy that seems like it would only very questionably work, but it does anyway, or Dragonball Z their way through a fight by being insanely fast or strong. This makes the strategy aspect of the battles completely uninteresting to me. Also, the cheating characters are *extremely* smug, and seem to think they're the best despite being very lucky, which was really annoying.

Overall, I give it a 6/10. Anywhere between a 3 and a 9 wouldn't surprise me from others. I think this manga certainly has an audience, but not a huge one.

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Poll: Not Lives Chapter 54 Discussion removed-user - Feb 22, 2021	3 replies	by removed-user »» May 8, 2024 5:51 PM
Poll: Not Lives Chapter 35 Discussion Stark700 - Apr 3, 2016	1 replies	by removed-user »» Feb 22, 2021 6:14 AM
Poll: Not Lives Chapter 27 Discussion Stark700 - Feb 7, 2016	2 replies	by removed-user »» Feb 22, 2021 5:23 AM
Poll: Not Lives Chapter 26 Discussion Stark700 - Jan 31, 2016	1 replies	by removed-user »» Feb 22, 2021 5:06 AM
Poll: Not Lives Chapter 25 Discussion Stark700 - Jan 25, 2016	1 replies	by removed-user »» Feb 22, 2021 4:28 AM

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