In every human being is a soul. Each soul has a "plan" that dictates the path that each person will take through life. If a soul is able to follow its plan correctly, then it will grow and move onto the next life. However, any deviations from this destined path will cause the soul stone, the "psycholith", to become corrupted and shatter. The shattered remains will linger and disrupt the plans of other souls, leading to a vicious cycle of death and despair.
That's where Sakurai and Amano come in. They work to cleanse corruption and prevent people from deviating from their soul's plan.
Written by Tomohiro Maekawa and illustrated by Jinsei Kataoka, Livingstone is published by Kodansha Comics.
Livingstone contains examples of the following tropes:
- Beware the Nice Ones: Normally, Sakurai is a polite and soft-spoken man. Get him angry enough and prepare for the lecture of your life.
- Brutal Honesty: Amano doesn't mince words. He often offends others, leading to him getting beaten up quite often.
- Butt-Monkey: Sakurai doesn't get much respect from anyone and frequently has to keep Amano in check.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Sakurai tries to keep Amano in check, often apologizing for the latter's often offensive comments. The poor guy suffers from stomach trouble from the stress of managing his partner.
- Driven to Suicide: What happens to those who stray from their soul's path.
- Feels No Pain: Amano doesn't respond to pain, possibly because he lacks a soul.
- Lack of Empathy: Because Amano doesn't have a soul, he's unable to relate to other people. He tends to be very blunt and comes off as callous and uncaring towards others.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Megumi Kanzaki, an embezzler and murderer, has her soul placed into the recently-vacated body of the man that she murdered.
- Magical Camera: It allows Sakurai to see a person's soul and determine how closely someone is adhering to their soul's plan.
- Our Souls Are Different: Each person has a "psycholith", a soul stone that determines 90% of a person's life. If a person deviates from this predestined plan, then their psycholith will become corrupted and shatter.
- A psycholith can be saved from corruption if extracted from its fleshy container early enough. However, that means that the person will die.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Sakurai wears a neat suit and tie. This contrasts with Amano, who is dressed much more casually.
- The Soulless: Amano lacks a soul, but instead contains something else. Whatever is in him draws corruption to him like a magnet. That makes it easy for Sakurai and Amano to find people that are deviating from their path.
- Soul Power: Both Sakurai and Amano can affect souls directly. Amano can clear corruption caused by corrupted psycholith fragments with magic spraypaint and remove psycholiths from people's bodies. Sakurai can use psycholith fragments to look into the past, allowing him to determine how that psycholith shattered.
