Believers (manga)

Japanese manga series

Believers (ビリーバーズ) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Naoki Yamamoto and is his first weekly serial manga created entirely without the help of any assistants. Believers was serialized in Shogakukan's seinen manga magazine Weekly Big Comic Spirits between May and November 1999 and published in two wideban volumes by Shogakukan. The plot to Believers revolves around themes of sexual desire and the line between dreams and reality.

"Believers" is the word for members of the "Smiley Face Center", a cult organization with the goal of achieving purity of self and reaching "the land of comfort". Believers follows the events of three such people that have been left stranded on a deserted island off the coast of Japan. The three "believers" are referred to only by their rank and they practice various activities in an effort to purge their bodies from the perceived evils that society has subjected them to, such as lust and possession. But the "believers" are not able to resist their past temptations so easily, and the faith in their "organization" gradually weakens as the "believers" begin to question what is right and eventually what is even real.

Naoki Yamamoto's first inspirations for Believers came after the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995. The attack caused him to become interested in researching the Aum Shinrikyo, the terrorist group behind the attack. However, the Aum Shinrikyo had thus far kept their members quiet, leaving little research material. This led Yamamoto to instead read a book on the Japanese Red Army, a different Japanese terrorist group that has former members who have written about their past experiences. After reading the book, Yamamoto began to wonder what would happen if a group of fanatics who believed radical ideology were isolated together. This thinking would eventually lead to the creation of Believers.

Written and illustrated by Naoki Yamamoto, Believers was serialized in Shogakukan's seinen manga magazine Weekly Big Comic Spirits from May 24 to November 22, 1999. Shogakukan collected its chapters in two wideban volumes, released on December 18, 1999, and January 29, 2000. 復刊ドットコム re released the series in two volumes on May 22 and June 23, 2012.

In February 2022, it was announced that manga would receive a live action film adaptation, directed by Hideo Jojo; it premiered on July 8 of that same year.