Blue Heaven

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Blue Heaven is a solid action pseudo psychological thriller. It's not long enough to be able to establish solid or well developed psychological themes but what it did a serviceable job. Focusing on the themes of what it means to live, and why one would continue to seek life despite struggle; aspects of classism, and what terror and violence mean to humanity. However, like I mentioned earlier this manga is incredibly short and doesn't have the ability to really let those themes set in.

In all the characters are mildly interesting too, but the antagonists are cartoonishly evil to the point that it can really take ... you out of the story. The crew members are solid though, and the main character Seiryuu was mildly interesting and definitely helped with carrying this story.

The art in this manga was honesty phenomenal. There are plenty of stand out, absolutely impressive scenes that are more than worth reading the manga just to check out. The way that the Blue Heaven was framed in each of the scenes where it's the main focus are utterly stunning and display the internal/external tension with it's physical destruction incredibly; and was very obviously a constant visual metaphor for the state of the world.

All in all, good manga but it doesn't try to be anything terribly special; and considering the length and the general quality of the writing I do think that is for its favor. If it was a longer story that had more time to breath it really would've been to it's benefit. I still do thoroughly recommend this read.

I went into Blue Heaven because it was recommended on a list of top horror mangas that lovers of the genre should read. Being a psychological thriller alongside drawn gore, I didn't expect too much from it but I really underestimated this. Although I wasn't in the mood to read psychological horror, the manga itself managed to put me in the mindset to fully enjoy it and that's somewhat rare for me - for a manga to take a toll and allow me to sit back and fully enjoy what it has in store.

The story in this is really enjoyable. It touches on dark tones ... of terrorism and racism but in an almost humane way. Takahashi does it in such a way that creates a tone of understanding from the things we see in the news and around us that makes this seem extremely humanistic in the hateful way things occur and in the way it makes you feel based on your own morals. The racist tones are also interesting to see - some mangakas do avoid them but I think Takahashi used it really well.
The plotline is gripping and it twists very quickly and often takes you off guard when it does. It was intense at times; it made me swallow quite nervously more than a few times but, ultimately, I feel like it was rushed over the three volumes that there were. I think if Takahashi had added one or two more volumes than the story would have flowed just slightly better rather than feeling like he was running out of time to get it done and published, but that's my only qualm.

The art in this is really well drawn; the expressions of characters are spectacular and some of it downright makes your skin crawl. I found the character designs interesting, curious, and some of them sickening which I really enjoyed. Takahashi has some real skill with his art and it's definitely gotten me interested in reading more of his works.

The characters felt real. There was a lot of human reactions to many events in this. It's interesting to see how characters moral compasses seem to change and how things affect them. I really enjoyed seeing how they changed and adapted as things went

Blue Heaven is a manga I think you need to be in a certain mood to get full enjoyment out of it. I was definitely in that mood and Takahashi has created a world that kept me intrigued and turning the pages, devouring chapter after chapter. My only qualm with it is that it did feel a little rushed which seems to be a bit of a common qualm. I wish Takahashi had strung this out one more volume so that there could have been more in this but I also think that the slightly rushed format of three volumes worked well; one more volume in this might have ended up with a winding story trying to fill another 200 pages.

Route 69 - Oneshot

This one-shot was a little confusing in how things worked out and some of the characters choices, for me at least. The characters were intriguing and even though some of the choices were confusing, it was enjoyable. I'd quite like to see more from Route 69 as its own story but this little titbit into it was enjoyable but not as enjoyable as Blue Heaven.

'Blue Heaven' is a manga that aspires to be a lot, but doesn't quite reach its potential. While it has solid artwork and an engaging plot with well-rounded characters, it's clear that much more could have been done.

[Story - 7]

The premise itself (a killer is brought onto a cruise ship and is unleashed) is rather intriguing (especially for a manga this short), but it doesn't quite reach the heights of tension it could have. This is due to the plot suddenly changing into, for lack of less spoilery descriptions, Neo-Nazis Reveal Themselves And Take Over. I don't mind plot twists like this (especially ones where ... such awful people get their comeuppance), but the original premise itself was enough to get my interest. I really don't see the point in such a change, and I found it rather lazy.

I can tell that the mangaka was going for themes such as 'are humans irredeemable?' and 'what will people do to each other when in a crisis?', but it doesn't feel like he achieved what he was going for. I don't quite know how to describe this, but it just felt like there was a lot more to be explored in this story, setting, and characterization than what was done.

The pacing was pretty good, though - thanks to the short chapter count, it made for a nice weekend read.

[Art - 8]

The art's really hit-or-miss in terms of aspects. Character design is distinctive but simple (such as different types of facial hair and hairstyles), while the backgrounds are either rather well-drawn or too minimalistic. The shading was REALLY good - perfect balance between moodiness and....the opposite of that.

[Character - 7]

The characters, like the story and themes, are intriguing enough but their full potential wasn't realized:

Ri Seiryuu is an interesting deuteragonist with a fitting, if edgy, backstory and a rather stoic characterization compared to everyone else; However, I felt that his 'arc' needed a more solid conclusion. I contribute this to the sudden plot twist, but it just felt really weird to have him still be in the story and it's clear that he doesn't match up well here when he was the initial antagonist.

Yoshiko is probably my personal favorite - she's really cute and provides some humour, but the way she was written as the mere 'observer' of the events on the ship was rather competent. The mangaka really captured the sense of desperation and despair someone like her would feel, and it was conveyed so believably.

Other characters, however, aren't so memorable or well fleshed out compared to those two. Security agent Sano is barely memorable due to his sudden removal and return (thanks again to the plot twist), Jyungo is a typical Nice Guy that Yoshiko likes, and.....I can't even remember the second half's antagonist besides him being a larger-than-life Genocide Lover who felt more like a parody than a believable antagonist.

[Enjoyment/Overall - 7]

This wasn't a terrible experience, and I did enjoy myself thanks to the tension and strong characterization of Seiryuu and Yoshiko. However, it's frustrating to see how much potential this manga had that wasn't appropiately realized. I would recommend this to anyone who wants a good thriller, but not if you want a thriller with lots of psychological/philosophical depth.