Heaven!! by Shizuru Seino

Part two of the Shizuru Seino threesome. I'm still pretty light in the Christmas manga department, so I'm going to just do one next week and then one on Christmas itself. Unfortunately they are both one-shots so the reviews won't be very long but I blew through the Christmas manga long ago. I hope by next year I'll find a few more like I did this year...

*sigh*

Heaven!! by Shizuru Seino

Art and story (c) Shizuru Seino

Genre: Shojo, Supernatural
Length: 3 Volumes – 12 Chapters



           Like Girl Got Game, there is a little bit of messiness and looseness to the art at the beginning of this manga, but it settles quickly and gets into a good groove for what it will look like for the rest of the serial. The gags and the resulting expressions are, from what I remember, different than what is in Girl Got Game, too, there are things that are similar sure, but there are elements to the art and story that are separate from it as well. One that remains the same is the point and arm shake that people do, as illustrated by the below picture:

But otherwise there isn't a lot of things that remind you of the other story as far as the art goes. I don't remember any times that the characters looked the same as any of the others from the previous manga, either. Even the background characters that all looked the same in Girl Got Game have changed. The side characters are pretty thin in this story though and are quickly forgotten and turn to background characters at best. The backgrounds are a little lacking, and the clothes aren't spectacular in look or on the fit of the body frames. Still, the art is very clean and fun. Heaven!! was written pretty much right after Girl Got Game and they do share similar standards, but there is definitely some improvement and lots of differences in the art.
           Rinne is a strange girl who can see and exorcise ghosts with a giant paper fan, a

technique she cultivated with her own experience. Masaharu is one of her classmates, a delinquent who dyes his hair and scares everyone in class. The two have nothing in common except that they are the two who get in the most trouble, but one day, while chasing a spirit, Rinne accidentally involves Masaharu when he saves her from getting hit by a truck. Neither are hurt, but somehow Masaharu is separated from his body in the process. Unsure how to put a spirit back, Rinne promises to help except a spirit decides to take the uninhabited body for himself and stick Masaharu into a stuffed animal. From there, things really start to get mixed up...
           Of the three manga that I read this week from this author, this one is the most ridiculous, which is a pretty hard thing to achieve considering the madcap antics that go on in every single set of stories. Its also a little more rough in the progression of some elements. Rinne's shamanic powers are definitely thrown aside after the first volume and not brought back until the very end of the third one, making this manga more of a slice of life manga, albeit a bizarre one, than a supernatural manga. All the same it is enjoyable to

read and the short length makes it a good afternoon read, too. The trio of characters mesh well, and there's never a time where nothing is happening, even if it isn't anything but gags instead of actual story. Besides, who wouldn’t want to see a delinquent trapped in a pink monkey-shaped stuffed animal while his beautiful face is paraded around by a sex crazed god who came down from heaven? Obviously, not me, although it isn't as well pulled off as Girl Got Game's premise; its actually rather strange, the way things progress I mean. Some spoilers ahead, but the love story does not go like you may think it does at the beginning. Rinne does come off as annoying to some people, though, who can't stand her personality. Negative feedback I saw were mostly complaining that Rinne is too shallow of a character to be likable. Which is true, she is very shallow at a glance, still, maybe its because of the vehemence I had for Duck Prince's much worse handling of selfishness or that her reasoning for not understanding is that her gift has led to her not even knowing what friendship is, but I don't think its really true that she's totally self absorbed as she admits to loving him very quickly after she first denies it. Even when it could get cruel or mean for the poor boy in the monkey body, it stays light. For me the biggest problem is more of the ambiguous coupling at the end, but I always complain when they don't state right out who is going out with who so I think that’s probably a personal irk more than anything. Typically, people like Girl Got Game better, and I'm no different, the characters are completed faster and the hijinks are funnier in the previous manga, but Heaven!! still has a lot to love, even if it isn't as flushed out as the other, its a completely original type of story and there's never a dull moment or a crazy coincidence that puts a smile on the lips.




4/5 Not as good as Girl Got Game (Power!!) but still freewheeling fun.

Uhhh, that's not normal, bro.

P.S. All the sites I've looked on say that this manga is a spin off of Girl Got Game, but I am unsure of the actual connection to each other. Perhaps I'm missing something? If anyone who reads this sees the reason it's called a spin off, please tell me. I think it might be background characters, as if its the same school as in Girl Got Game (though the uniforms are different so I don't think that is it) but I can't find a concrete answer anywhere and I'm unwilling to state it outright with out knowing concretely what the connection is. I can be pretty clueless sometimes when it comes to small details because I read things too fast, so I'm just not sure at all.