Keidai Saeki, average Japanese high school student, remembers living an entirely different life as Sirix, a gladiator in ancient Pompeii; this means he has a hard time existing in the present, especially when no-one else seems to have memories of their own. Keidai exists in two worlds, one of which is long dead: His little sister in his past life is married to his former rival and they're now his parents, his male best friend is a cute girl with a crush on him, and his beloved wife Serena has been reborn as the short-tempered boy next door who's crushing on said best friend! And of course, Keidai is literally incapable of seeing them as anything but their past-life selves.
Life for Keidai is essentially a twenty-four-hour Mind Screw.
NG Life is a romantic dramedy by Mizuho Kusanagi, the mangaka responsible for Mugen Spiral, Yona of the Dawn, and Game×Rush. It ran in Hana to Yume from 2005 to 2009. Licensed for North America and published in English by TOKYOPOP, all nine volumes have been released as of July 8 2011.
This manga provides examples of:
- Age-Gap Romance: Shuna (17) and Souichi (22) are five years apart. When Souichi admits he made a move on Shuna, Keidai calls him out on pursuing a high school student. It's later shown Souchi felt attracted to Shuna since she was 10 years old because she's Aglaia's reincarnation.
- All Men Are Perverts: Serizawa's dad certainly thinks so. It becomes Hypocritical Humor when we discover that he draws ecchi manga as part of his job, and Keidai earns his respect by proving that 'girls in wet clothes are sexier than naked girls!'
- Always with You: Loleus' dying words to Sirix: "I'm not leaving you... Because no matter where you are... I'll become a light... And go flying to your side."
- Attempted Rape: In a side-story, Smyrna is assaulted by a suitor she repeatedly rejected. Fortunately, Sirix arrives and knocks the assailant away from her.
- Beta Couple: Souichi/Delos and Shuna/Aglaia have their own Reincarnation Romance drama to parallel the main Love Triangle. Like Keidai, Souichi remembers his past life and wants to rekindle his romance with his lover from his past life. His only real obstacle is that Shuna forgot her Past-Life Memories, while Keidai's love life is way more complicated because the two people closest to him changed gender when they reincarnated.
- Betty and Veronica: A convoluted example. Serizawa is a typical Betty; Girl Next Door pining after her oblivious best friend. The Veronica is Serena, Keidai/Sirix's gorgeous wife who he can't forget even after they died in Pompeii over 1900 years ago. The problem is Serena's reincarnation is a boy and Keidai is still straight, but he can't stop himself from seeing Yuuma as Serena and that's what's keeping him from returning Serizawa's feelings.
- The Big Damn Kiss: In Chapter 43, Keidai can't deny his feelings for Serizawa anymore and impulsively kisses her after they got Caught in the Rain.
- Bisexual Love Triangle: Played With. Keidai is frequently torn between his feelings for his female best friend Serizawa and his male neighbor Yuuma. However, Keidai isn't really in love with Yuuma, but he's the reincarnation of his past-life wife and that causes him to have conflicted feelings about becoming attracted to Serizawa too.
- Bodyguard Betrayal: Delos worked as a mercenary for Aglaia's family, but he was actually a spy sent by a rival house. He ended up betraying the Felix house, resulting in Aglaia being framed for a crime and Loleus' death.
- Bodyguard Crush: Delos was one of Aglaia's mercenary bodyguards and they had feelings for each other. Tragically, Delos was secretly a spy of a rival house and directly caused the circumstances that resulted in Aglaia's death.
- Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: Serizawa's father won't let any men near his daughter. He even fires his male manga assistants to keep them away from Serizawa. Since he knows Keidai and Serizawa have feelings for each other, he's especially hostile to him.
- Bridal Carry: In Chapter 16, an ill Serizawa collapses and Keidai carries her to the infirmary in his arms.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Serizawa refuses to confess her feelings for Keidai because she's afraid he'll reject her and they'll stop being friends afterwards.
- Caught in the Rain: In Chapter 43, Keidai and Serizawa are hanging out at the beach when it suddenly starts raining. They take shelter at a cave where in the heat of the moment, Keidai tells Serizawa they should stop being friends and kisses her.
- Childhood Friend Romance:
- Keidai and Serizawa first met on their first year of middle school and have stayed best friends up to high school. Serizawa has an obvious crush on Keidai, but he's Oblivious to Love and still pining over his past-life wife Serena. Slowly, however, Keidai starts to see Serizawa in a romantic light and they become a couple at the end of the series.
- Souichi and Shuna first met in their present incarnations when they were 15 and 10 years old respectively. Thanks to both having memories of their previous lives in Pompeii, they have strong feelings for each other. However, Shuna forgetting her past life complicated their relationship.
- Children Do the Housework:
- Keidai's mother is very bad at cooking. To help her out, Keidai taught himself how to cook.
- Since her parents' mangaka job keeps them very busy, Serizawa does most of the cooking and laundry around the house.
- Chivalrous Pervert: Shinogu. He's happy to have a harem of high school girls, but he doesn't take advantage of them, as some clearly want him to. Almost definitely a result of a) still remembering having been a woman and b) because he hated, and still hates, men like that.
- Crash-Into Hello: Loleus and Sirix first meet when they fell on top of each other.
- Cry into Chest: In Chapter 42, after an argument between Keidai and Yuuma, Reina pulls a tearful Yuuma to her chest as she comforts him.
- Dead Guy Junior: Shuna named her younger sister Reina after Serena. Since Shuna still had her Past-Life Memories back then, she called her newborn sister "Serena", but her parents misheard it as "Reina".
- Dead Person Conversation: Some reincarnations can talk to their past lives through their souls.
- In Chapter 17, Yuuma speaks to Serena when he passes out during a volleyball match. Although, he forgets about it when he wakes up.
- At the end of the manga, Sirix speaks to Keidai and thanks him for allowing their soul to find peace by asking Tina to be with Serena when Pompeii was destroyed.
- Death Equals Redemption: Delos forgoes escaping and dies in Pompeii, having remained behind to wipe out his family in revenge for their plot against Aglaia's house.
- Declaration of Protection: Loleus had decided that he'd live to protect three people: Sirix, Serena, and Lady Aglaia.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Both Smyrna/Shinogu and Reina begin to defrost after their interactions with Sirix/Keidai, and it's implied that both have one-sided feelings for him, not that they'd ever admit it. Especially not Smyrna/Shinogu.
- Despair Event Horizon: Keidai, unable to reconcile his feelings for Serizawa with his disappearing memories of Pompeii; Loleus, lying beaten and alone by the roadside.
- Determinator: When motivated by those he loves, nothing can stand in Sirix/Keidai's way.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: In the day of Mount Vesuvius' volcanic eruption, Loleus was fatally wounded in a fight against the Britius House and died in Sirix's arms.
- Disguised in Drag: In Chapter 8, Keidai and Yuuma go to visit a sick Serizawa, but must disguise themselves as girls because her father doesn't allow men in the house.
- Does Not Like Men: Serena's sister Smyrna was a notorious man-hater. After reincarnating as Yuuma's male cousin, Shinogu still detests men, but doesn't mind being one because he's now a Chick Magnet.
- Dreaming of Times Gone By: A standard part of Keidai's life is dreaming of his past life in Pompeii. He even daydreams of times gone by.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: Yuuma is a boy, but still has the same feminine face as his past life Serena, to the point he's often mistaken for a girl. He's very self-conscious about his girly looks and wants to become a manly man.
- Elegant Gothic Lolita: Reina dresses this way and affects a sarcastic demeanor more mature than her age.
- Engagement Challenge: Because of Smyrna's hatred for her sister's suitors, Sirix had to fight a lion to gain the right to Serena's hand in marriage.
- Everyone Can See It: Pretty much everyone but Keidai already knows his relationship with Serizawa isn't just friendship as he claims.
- Family Theme Naming: The Sakakibara sisters, Shuna and Reina.
- First Friend: Because of his Past-Life Memories, Keidai had a hard time socializing with people in his childhood and couldn't get close to anyone until he met Serizawa and decided to befriend her because she's Loleus' reincarnation.
- First Girl Wins: Aside from his parents, Serizawa was the first of Keidai's reincarnated friends/acquaintances to meet him in their new life. At the end of the series, Keidai chooses Serizawa as the one he loves in his current life.
- Friendless Background: Though he was befriended by Serena and appreciated her kindness, Loleus - as a slave - felt as if no-one would care if he died, until he met Sirix.
- From Dress to Dressing: In their first meeting, Sirix ripped off a piece of his cape to make a bandage for Loleus' injured hand.
- Gladiator Games: Everyone's past lives practically revolved around them: They were either gladiators themselves, worked as part of the games, or were part of families involved with the games.
- Green-Eyed Epiphany: For most of the series, Keidai is in denial about his romantic attraction to Serizawa until he sees Serizawa's childhood friend kissing her as part of a "rehearsal". Afterwards, he can no longer deny that he would hate it if Serizawa dated someone else.
- Group Picture Ending: The final page of the manga is a photo of Keidai smiling with his friends and family.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Aglaia pushes Sirix, who's carrying a wounded Loleus, to safety just before the tunnel collapses.
- Identical Stranger: Reina is a girl who mysteriously looks identical to Serena. At the end of the manga, it's revealed she's the reincarnation of a slave girl who wished to be beautiful like Serena.
- I Kiss Your Hand:
- Raoul used to kiss Serena's hand when flirting with her.
- Souichi kissed a 10-year-old Shuna's hand as he "pledged his loyalty to Aglaia" like he did in their previous lives.
- I'm Crying, but I Don't Know Why: After watching Keidai and Serizawa enact Sirix's farewell to Serena, Yuuma realizes he's crying, but doesn't understand why.
- Initialism Title: The series itself: NG Life = [Keidai's] No Good Life. After everything's sorted out, an epilogue chapter changes it to Nice Going Life.
- Interrupted Suicide: After being forced into a match to death against Sirix, Loleus chose to stab himself over killing the man he admired. Fortunately, he and Sirix were saved thanks to Raoul getting them treatment on time.
- Intimate Artistry: Serizawa's flashback shows her doing a drawing of Keidai when they were in middle school. Keidai mentions he likes to see Serizawa drawing him because Loleus was an artist too.
- Involuntary Battle to the Death: Sirix and Loleus are forced to face off in the arena. It gets subverted and both survive, though.
- I Owe You My Life: Sirix risked his life to save Loleus from dying at the gladiator's arena. In return, Loleus swore to dedicate the rest of his life to Sirix and ultimately gave up his life for him.
- Irony:
- Serena was reborn a boy because on her last day, she wished that she were a man, so she could accompany Sirix through crumbling Pompeii. At the time, Sirix smilingly replied that if that were to happen it would cause him problems; in their next life Serena is reborn as a guy, which does in fact cause Keidai problems.
- Smyrna hated men but was reborn as a man. Her reincarnation Shinogu turns out to actually be glad about this as it means he can skillfully woo pretty girls, but he still continues to hate all other men except for himself and Yuuma. (And secretly, Keidai.)
- It Was a Gift: Loleus treasured the strip of cloth Sirix used to bind his hand when they first met. His second-most treasured item was a gold headband Aglaia gave him after she saved him from the gladiator games.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy:
- Serizawa likes Keidai, but prefers to act as a supportive friend because she knows his heart still belongs to his past-life wife Serena. Meanwhile, Serena's reincarnation Yuuma likes Serizawa, but tries to help her become closer to Keidai to see her happy.
- Loleus had a double dose of this, as he carried feelings for both Sirix and Serena. This was basically why Loleus encouraged Sirix to pursue a relationship with Serena in the first place. Later, he says it almost word-for-word, no less.Loleus: "Sirix.... I want you to be happy. I want you and Serena... to be happy."
- I Will Wait for You: On the day Pompeii was destroyed, Serena refused to escape by herself and made Sirix promise to come back to her as she would be waiting for him. Sirix's biggest regret as Keidai is that he failed to return to Serena's side and let her die alone. At the end of the manga, however, Keidai sees that Tina guided Serena to Sirix's body and he can finally be at peace with knowing that Serena didn't die while waiting for him in vain.
- Jumping the Gender Barrier: Keidai/Sirix's best guy friend has been reincarnated as a cute girl with a crush on him. Too bad he's still hung up on his past-life wife, who's jumped the gender barrier in reverse. Once Keidai accepts he has to separate his current life from his past life, he falls in love with Serizawa and asks her to be his girlfriend.
- Just Friends: Sirix and Loleus were Heterosexual Life-Partners. After reincarnation, Keidai still treats Serizawa as his best guy friend despite her being a girl, unaware that she has a big crush on him.
- Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: The kind, angelic Serena was the Light Feminine and the harsh, devilish Smyrna was the Dark Feminine.
- Literally Loving Thy Neighbor: Subverted. Keidai was overjoyed when his beloved Serena's reincarnation moved next door to him, but then he found out Serena was reincarnated as a boy with a rude personality that he finds annoying.
- Look-Alike Lovers: In later chapters, Yuuma starts getting Ship Tease with Reina, his Identical Stranger who looks like a long-haired girl version of him.
- Love Confession: Once he realizes his feelings for Serizawa, Keidai has to do this about three or four times before she finally believes him.
- Love Triangle: Complicated in both past and present.
- In the past, Sirix and Serena loved each other, and Loleus was Sirix's best friend who harbored feelings for Sirix deeper than mere friendship, but Loleus also was friends with and loved Serena (though he completely disregarded the idea of pursuing her because he was a slave), and it's implied that it wasn't entirely unrequited either. In fact, it was because of Loleus's feelings for both of them that caused him to pair them up.
- In the present, Keidai's stubbornly hung up on his memories of Serena, but the fact she's been reincarnated into the very male body of Yuuma is a serious barrier for him. Serizawa on the other hand, has feelings for Keidai, but he's oblivious to both them and the fact that he's coming to have feelings for her too, because he can't stop seeing her as her past self, Loleus. And in the meantime, Yuuma develops a crush on Serizawa.
- Loving a Shadow:
- Keidai is in love with Serena who he has only seen in his Past-Life Memories. He wanted to marry Serena's reincarnation, but turns out Serena reincarnated as a boy named Yuuma. Keidai is infatuated with Yuuma's Serena-like looks, but is put off as Yuuma's irritable personality is nothing like Serena's. At the end of the series, Keidai finally lets go of Serena's memory as he accepts she was Sirix's wife, but not his. He then moves on to dating Serizawa who he loves for her present self.
- Souichi has feelings for Shuna, having loved her since their past lives as Delos and Aglaia. However, Shuna suddenly forgot her memories as Aglaia and refuses Souichi's advances because he keeps calling her "Aglaia" even though she's a different person now. It's even implied that Shuna chose to forget she was Aglaia to make Souichi love her present self instead of a memory of the past.
- Magnetic Hero: Sirix. Nearly everyone at least respected him, and Keidai has a similar effect on people, despite being somewhat less impressive on the surface.
- Meaningful Echo: "We'll meet again." You know, because... Reincarnation.
- After meeting Loleus, Sirix pretends to have 'forgotten' why Loleus treasures that scrap of cloth; in a similar fashion, Keidai pretends to have 'missed' Serizawa's reply to his final confession.
- The current lives of a number of characters turn out to be "meaningful echos" to wishes made by their past lives.
- Serena was reborn a boy because she felt that if she were a man, she would've been strong enough to remain by Sirix's side when he went off to rescue Aglaia in the midst of Vesuvius's eruption.
- Loleus was reborn as the girl who would become Keidai's best friend, confidant, and ultimately love interest, because as Loleus was dying he told a grieving Sirix that even if he died, he'd be a "light who'd fly to his side" no matter where Sirix was.
- Later we find out Reina is the reincarnation of Tina, a former slave girl who had a disfigured face and after being abandoned, was eventually rescued and cared for by Serena. She was reborn looking identical to Serena because she envied, admired, and wanted to be like her.
- Meet Cute: Keidai and Serizawa first met when he helped her open a window to let a bird out of the school gym. Keidai immediately recognized her as Loleus' reincarnation, hugged her and screamed when he realized she's a girl, much to her confusion.
- Mental Time Travel: In the closing chapters, Keidai possesses Sirix's body in the middle of Pompeii's destruction. However, he decides to not change history and merely asks Serena's friend Tina to not let her die alone.
- Mistaken for Gay: Keidai's goodbye message during Shinogu's stint as a substitute teacher apparently sounds like a Love Confession.
- My Greatest Failure: Sirix died regretting his failure to save any of his friends or even return to his wife's side on the fateful day of Pompeii's destruction. This terrible regret has carried over to his reincarnation Keidai, which is why he doesn't want to let his Past-Life Memories disappear.
- My Sister Is Off-Limits: Smyrna violently opposed to Sirix, or any men, proposing to her sister Serena.
- Near-Death Experience: Played for Laughs in Chapter 37; Keidai's Sick Episode. Keidai repeatedly imagines himself being ferried to the afterlife where Serena and Loleus are waiting for him at the other side of the Sanzu River.
- The Not-Love Interest: Loleus to Sirix. Loleus was Sirix and Serena's matchmaker, but Loleus and Sirix were mighty close friends who went through a lot together and cared deeply for one another. While confronting Delos, Loleus basically admits that Sirix is his most important person; Now in their reincarnated forms, Serizawa still puts Keidai before even her own feelings. Subverted in that their bond in their past life was what paved the way for Loleus to be reincarnated as Serizawa in the first place, and ultimately become Keidai's love-interest.
- Not What It Looks Like: In Chapter 8, while Serizawa is having a high fever, an embarrassed Keidai tries to simply button up her pajama. Serizawa's father walks in at the worst possible moment and misinterprets what he sees as a crossdressing creep assaulting his daughter in her sleep.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: Keidai at first couldn't remember Sirix's sister-in-law Smyrna because his memories of her mostly consisted of her whipping him, poisoning his food and trying to feed him to a lion.
- Past-Life Memories: Out of the reincarnations in the cast, only Keidai, Shinogu and Souichi clearly remember their past lives in Pompeii. Shuna originally had her memories too, but forgot all of them when she decided to focus on her present life and relationship with Souichi.
- Piggyback Cute: At the end of Chapter 8, Yuuma makes Keidai give him a piggyback ride on their way back home.
- Please, Don't Leave Me: Sirix says it almost word-for-word as he cradles a dying Loleus.
- Reincarnated as the Opposite Sex: Most reincarnations are the same gender as their past life, but there's some notable exceptions. Sirix's best guy friend Loleus' reincarnation is a girl named Serizawa, Sirix's beautiful wife Serena has been reborn as a boy named Yuuma, and Sirix's sister-in-law Smyrna is now Shinogu, Yuuma's male older cousin.
- Reincarnation: The centerpiece of the story is following the life of a Japanese teenager who is the reincarnation of a Roman gladiator who died during the volcanic eruption in Pompeii. He's also surrounded by the reincarnations of people he knew in his past life, including his best friend, his neighbor and even his own parents, but he's the only one who remembers his Past-Life Memories.
- Reincarnation Romance:
- A very complicated example. Keidai is still in love with Serena, his past life's wife, and dreamed of marrying her when he met her reincarnation. However, Serena's reincarnation is a boy named Yuuma who is creeped out and annoyed by Keidai treating him like a woman. To make matters more complicated, Yuuma is crushing on Keidai's friend Serizawa who has a crush on Keidai, but Keidai only sees her as a friend because she's the reincarnation of his Heterosexual Life Partner. At the end of the series, Keidai comes to terms with his past life and accepts it was Sirix who loved Serena, not him. Keidai moves on and starts dating Serizawa.
- In their past lives, Keidai's parents were Raoul and Aria, Sirix's rival and younger sister respectively. Aria had secret feelings for Raoul and he was something of a Ladykiller in Love for her, but they couldn't be together because of his political marriage and then the destruction of Pompeii. Serizawa thinks their mutual feelings from their past lives helped them fall in love in their present incarnations.
- Aglaia and Delos were reincarnated as Shuna and Souichi. They have strong feelings for each other from their past lives, but Shuna has lost her Past-Life Memories while Souichi still has his. Deconstructed as Shuna wants Souichi to only love her present incarnation and they only get together when he accepts that Shuna won't ever be Aglaia again.
- There's also the implied possible relationship between Yuuma and Reina. The ending of the manga reveals Reina's past life was a slave girl who was helped by Serena. On the day of Pompeii's destruction, Sirix (who was briefly possessed by Keidai) tasked Tina with staying by Serena's side in his place. Because of this, Reina feels instinctively inclined to be with Yuuma once Keidai finally moves on from Serena's memory.
- Rescue Romance: A side-story heavily implies that Smyrna developed feelings for Sirix after he saved her from being assaulted by a man.
- School Play: Serizawa, who is a member of the drama club, writes down a script from what Keidai has told her about his Past-Life Memories and the club makes a play about Sirix and Serena. Serizawa casts Yuuma as Serena and Keidai as Sirix, but on the day of the play, Yuuma pretends to get sick so Serizawa can play Serena.
- Sealed with a Kiss: In the final chapter, Keidai asks Serizawa to be his girlfriend and kisses her.
- Sequential Artist: Both of Serizawa's parents work as manga artists. A whole chapter is about Keidai and Yuuma becoming temporary assistants to help out with their manga.
- Shout-Out: Keidai and Yuuma pose for manga-artists working on 'a romance between an assassin and a female bodyguard,' a reference to the mangaka's previous series Game×Rush, in which the male bodyguard was originally meant to be female.
- Sibling Triangle: Both of the Sakakibara sisters, Shuna and Reina, have feelings for their mutual childhood friend Souichi. To Reina's frustration, Souichi refuses to love anyone but Shuna because he considers it his "fate".
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Serena was an angelically kind and gentle woman, in contrast to her older sister Smyrna who was a cruel and violent man-hater who was only nice to cute girls.
- Single-Target Sexuality: Serizawa never feels attracted to anyone but Keidai.
- Stupid Sexy Flanders: Keidai has to constantly remind himself that he shouldn't fall in love with Yuuma just because he has Serena's beautiful face.
- Survivor Guilt: A large chunk of Keidai/Sirix's unwillingness to move on is guilt; he blames himself for failing to save anyone and believes that his penance is to remember everything that happened, despite the fact that no-one could have predicted or prevented Mount Vesuvius' explosion and that Sirix just died last.
- Take a Third Option: When Raoul tells him that he can "only protect one thing" - go to Serena or rescue Loleus and Aglaia - Sirix refuses to choose. It... doesn't go so well and results in a form of crosslife Heroic BSoD.
- Those Two Guys: The group of slackers that Keidai teams up with for volleyball become recurring extras. Lampshaded often with asides next to them indicating who they are (i.e. "I'm ______!").
- Threesome Subtext: Runs particularly strong between Sirix, Loleus, and Serena. It's obvious how much Serena and Loleus mean to Sirix, and while Serena reciprocated Sirix's feelings of love, when Yuuma delves into the consciousness of his past life he notes that Serena likes Loleus. And then there's Loleus, who was the reason Sirix and Serena became a couple, and whose greatest wish was to protect Sirix and Serena so that the three of them could continue to be together.
- Together in Death: Keidai/Serix's biggest regret is that he couldn't be by Serena's side when they died in Pompeii. The ending of the manga brings a Double Subversion; thanks to the slave girl Tina, Serena did find Sirix's body shortly after he and Loleus died. She then spent her final moments in peace as she embraced her husband.
- Tragic Bromance: Sirix's best friend Loleus died while holding off the Britius House to give Sirix the chance to escape and get help for the imprisoned Aglaia.
- Tsundere: Yuuma and Shinogu are extreme Harsh Types towards Keidai. Particularly Shinogu exhibited identical behavior towards Sirix as Lady Smyrna. It's all but stated that bullying him with the Does Not Like Men persona is how Smyrna/Shinogu covers for actually caring about Sirix/Keidai.
- Umbrella of Togetherness: At the end of Chapter 6, Keidai shares his umbrella with Serizawa and Yuuma as he thinks how both of them are dear to him in both his past and current life.
- Wall Pin of Love: Souichi pins Shuna against a wall a few times. In one occasion, he even kisses her on the cheek to see if it'll make her Past-Life Memories come back.
- Will They or Won't They?: Keidai and Serizawa have obvious feelings for each other, but Serizawa doesn't want to make a move out of fear of rejection and Keidai is still clinging onto the memory of being married to Serena in his past life. As a result, their relationship doesn't make much progress until the final chapters when Keidai finally decides to let go of Serena and focus on being with Serizawa.
