Alive: The Final Evolution

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We were alive on this planet, then they arrived.

Imagine The Happening turned into a shounen series. And not sucking.

Taisuke is an ordinary high school student who spends his days protecting his childhood friend Hirose from bullies while dealing with the scolding of his other childhood friend Megumi and his sister-turned-parent Yoko.

One day, reports start coming from all over the world of people gleefully killing themselves. Experts are referring to this as a 'suicide virus'. Taisuke is walking home from school when a girl happily jumps off a building and lands right in front of him. As she dies, Taisuke finds himself thinking, "I'm so jealous."

Things take a turn for the worse when the schoolyard bullies are found brutally murdered, and Hirose is the prime suspect. Taisuke then meets a psychotic boy named Yura, who mistakes him for a 'Comrade' before killing a bunch of people with exploding bubbles.

It seems that these Comrades are survivors of the suicide virus, gaining supernatural powers as a result. These Comrades are being recruited by a man named Katsumata, who aims to create a utopia by killing everyone on the planet. When Hirose is found to be a Comrade and is mind raped into joining, he kidnaps Megumi. When Taisuke tries to stop him, he learns that he is also a Comrade.

When Taisuke learns that the Comrades are gathering "up north," he leaves home on his bike, trying to figure out his powers along the way. Joining up with rogue Comrades Yuta and Nami, he sets out to rescue Megumi and Hirose, and may learn the true definition of "alive" along the way.

The Alive: The Final Evolution manga has been fairly successful, and was being made into an anime until the company doing it suffered economic problems and cancelled the project. The manga-ka, Tadashi Kawashima, passed away on June 15th, 2010 due to liver cancer. He managed to finish Alive while in the hospital however.

Tropes used in Alive: The Final Evolution include: