And yet, that line applies to every aspect of G Senjou Heaven's Door. Ostensibly about two high schoolers making a manga together, it's really about something else entirely. Growing up and maturing. Struggling with expectations, both from one's family and oneself. Complicated relationships and how they change over time, whether with one's father, a friend, or a love interest. About the intense act of artistic creation, and also decline and death. Substitute "manga" for any other endeavor, and it's also a work about the passion and devotion required to attain greatness at it.
This applies to every single one of the characters. At first glance, Machizo is a spoiled brat who hates his father and takes it out on others by being rude and cruel. But there is far more to him than that. Kumiko is the standard cold, violent, beautiful bitch so common in high school manga. But she is actually nothing of the kind. And there is more to the shy, kind Tetsuo that partners with Machizo than meets the eye, too.
I can't write too much since it would spoil the many revelations throughout the work, both of who these people really are and their relationships to one another.
I read the first 13 chapters of this manga when I was 22 and thought it was one of the most incredible works I had ever seen. Now at 31, I went ahead and read it through to the end, with the final 5 chapters available.
A decade older, I detected some rough edges and slightly immersion-shattering details I hadn't noticed the first time around. But as I read further, it hit all the same feelings in me it did when I was younger. The character emotions might be heightened, but they ring gorgeously, brutally true.
There is no other manga I've read like G Senjou Heaven's Door. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a mature masterpiece about life.
