Ayumu Shiiba has always struggled when it comes to her grades but decides to study even harder so that she can go to Nishidate High School with her best friend, Yuuko Shinozuka. When the results of the entrance exams came out, it turns out that Ayumu herself passed, but unfortunately, Shinozuka did not. Consequently, Shinozuka reveals everything she had felt about Ayumu—nothing but resentment.

Depressed that her closest friend has now deserted her, Ayumu finds a way to make her temporarily forget the loneliness: self-injury. As a result, she chooses to be alone and quickly becomes an outcast at her new school, refusing to socialize with anyone. Yet when her classmate Manami Anzai suddenly befriends her, Ayumu's world seems to brighten—but little does she know that something more horrible would start coming her way.

Life is the story of a certain girl's isolation, a tale filled with despair and persecution enough to bring any person to the brink of insanity. However, only the strongest will find the light at the end of the tunnel, no matter how impossible the odds may seem.

Life won the 30th Kodansha Manga Award in the Shoujo category in 2006.

The first nine volumes of the series were published in English by Tokyopop from April 11, 2006, to June 10, 2008, before the license was dropped. The manga was republished digitally in English by Kodansha USA from March 7, 2023 to November 5, 2024.

The manga was adapted into a live-action TV drama that aired from June 30, 2007, to September 15, 2007.