Blue Heaven by Tsutomo Takahashi

Synopsis: The Blue Heaven, a floating city filled with luxury, seduction, magic, dreams and state of the art security systems. While on route, the crew members spot a fishing boat that looks desolated, immediately a rescue team is dispatched to look for survivors. Two people were rescued, but what intrigued Sano is that the walls of the ship were covered in blood. As soon as the survivors are brought back to the Blue Heaven, passengers and crew members start to disappear. What is going on inside the Blue Heaven? And why did one of the rescued men disappear?

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Right from the start I felt that I was in the presence of a familiar artist; Tsutomu Takahashi (Alive, Skyhigh), and in the presence of a dark and chaotic atmosphere. All thanks to his trademark use of light and camera, along with his exquisite and delightful dedication to detail. Blue Heaven offers a treat to the eyes that allow the reader to immerse himself in the manga to experience it to the full extent.

After the terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001, Tsutomu Takahashi decided to approach an actual topic; terrorism, mixed with those of Skyhigh (death) and Alive (fear). He deeply investigates and questions the reasons behind such inhumane acts that are performed by humans, but this questions are shadowed by the constant action scenes or long periods of unrelated dialogs.

The two main characters that approach the topic of terrorism have a complete background, but neither has a complete development. Why? Because the mangaka is concerned about topics that are difficult to answer or that are yet to be. And even when they aren’t fully developed they remain as wonderful characters, but wonderfully twisted and sick. As for the secondary characters, most of them have enough information to work through out the 3 volumes Blue Heaven lasts, yet don’t expect them to have the development the main characters lacked.

Overall, Blue Heaven is an ambitious manga, like the previous works I have read by the same mangaka, that presents the questions to us and leaves them in front of us waiting to be answered. With its gorgeous art and dedication to detail plus the action sequences, the main characters that leave an impression that works toward the real topic of the manga, there is no reason you shouldn’t buy this.