Limit part 1

Go With the Flow

Limit

by Keiko Suenobu

Graphic Novel/Manga
Paperback, approx. 200 pages, 4 1/2 x 7 inches
vol. 1 978-1-935654-56-8 Buy.
vol. 2 978-1-935654-57-5 Buy.
vol. 3 978-1-935654-60-5 Buy.
vol. 4 978-1-935654-64-3 Buy.
vol. 5 978-1-935654-65-0 Buy.
vol. 6 978-1-935654-84-1 Buy.
U.S.$10.95 / CAN$11.95

Mizuki Konno is your typical high school junior. She isn't too studious; nor is she too pretty. And like many teens her age when she has some down time she likes to fuss over fashion and make-up. While she may not be one of the class elites, Mizuki is fortunate to be on the right side of her class's idols. But that might not settle well with those who are in a similar academic status but not so lucky with their social lives. 

While  field trip, Mizuki's position in the middle will put her life in danger. A school bus accident was just the start of her troubles, as almost the entire class has been wiped out. With only five remaining girls are injured and lost in the wilderness, quickly a power struggle grasps hold of these teens, in an almost Lord of the Flies like fashion. Soon these girls begin to assert their wills against each other to try to survive while enacting a new class structure where looks and style is no longer the definition of influence. 

In of spite her age Keiko Suenobu is a veteran and decorated comic artist. Accepted around the globe for her thrilling and often tragic tales of modern day high school girl troubles, Suenobu is considered to be one of the most challenging comic artists in the business. Born in 1979 in the southern Japan town of North Kyushu, this shojo (girls) comicker is a graduate of the prestigious University of Tsukuba (a university known for it's ties to the sciences and economics). Suenobu graduated with a degree in Arts with a focus on Mass Media.

In 2006, Suenobu won the Kodansha Manga Award for Best Shojo for her work on the series LIFE.

"I can’t remember the last time I was this freaked out by a manga... Remember the hubbub over the 2002 non-fiction book, Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughters Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence by Rosalind Wiseman? Parents had quite the shocking wake-up call about what their little girls could really be like among their so-called friends. Limit strips away all that made-up glamour and privilege, and throws the girls into a brutal 21st-century Lord of the Flies-survival-of-the-most-desperate-setting. Thus the nightmare begins... I’m still shaking (and with that cliffhanger-ending, can hardly wait to see what happens next)." —The Smithsonian's BookDragon

"Suenobo manages to write a scary thriller that’s sophisticated and suspenseful enough to sustain an adult’s interest; the story’s occasional Grand Guignol touches add a welcome dash of camp, preventing the story from sinking under the weight of its Very Important Message. I can’t imagine what will happen in volume two, but I’m looking forward to reading it… with the lights on. Recommended." —Manga Critic

"I realize that even acknowledging the fact that Keiko Suenobu's Limit isn't your average shoujo story can alter expectations, but that needs to be said right up front. While many conventions are adhered to, going into this manga blind is best, so if you can go ahead and accept that Limit comes highly recommended, do yourself a favor and pick up the first volume with a clean slate. Don't even read the synopsis on the back and your experience might just end up mirroring my own." —Otaku USA