is a Japanese

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

series written and illustrated by

Maki Murakami is a Japanese manga artist most famous for the boys love manga ''Gravitation'', which, in addition to the ''Gravitation'' novel, is published in the U.S. by Tokyopop. Biography History She began working as an assistant to the older sister of on ...

. It was serialized in

Mag Garden is a Japanese publishing company that focuses on manga-related publications and is also involved in the development of anime and live-action adaptations. It was founded on June 5, 2001, by Yoshihiro Hosaka along with former manga artists of Enix ...

's manga magazine ''

Monthly Comic Blade was a Japanese shōnen manga magazine published by Mag Garden. It was first published in February 2002 and was sold on the 30 of each month until July 2014. It restarted in September 2014 as a free online magazine titled ''Online Magazine Comic B ...

'' from 2002 to 2005 and published in four volumes.

Plot

The story follows young gamer Kaito Suzuki, who one day discovers a video game that transports the player to a different dimension. Upon reaching this strange new world, Kaito discovers a boy known as the "navigator", aptly dubbed "Nata". Kaito soon discovers that everything that happens in the game affects the real world, which. Since ''Gamerz Heaven'' is a beta version, Kaito has a limited number of saves. Soon after starting the game, Kaito is attacked by the class president, Ogura. Ogura falls to Kaito and vanishes from the Second Zone. Afterwards, no one believes that Ogura ever existed except for Kaito's best friend Kawashima, who loves video games just as much as Kaito. Later, Kaito eventually convinces his other friends, Rio and Ren, who did not believe him until a "meteor" hits the center of Tokyo, which was actually the work of the first area boss of ''Gamerz Heaven'', Rush.

Publication

Written and illustrated by

, the series began serialization in

's manga magazine ''

'' magazine on September 30, 2002. It completed its serialization in ''Monthly Comic Blade'' in 2005. Its individual chapters were collected into four volumes. In March 2004,

ADV Manga A.D. Vision Holdings, Inc. (known simply as ADV and also referred to as ADV Films) was an American multimedia entertainment distributor headquartered in Houston, Texas, and founded in 1992 by video game fan John Ledford and anime fans Matt Gr ...

announced that they licensed the series for English publication.

Volumes

Reception

Mike Dungan of ''Mania'' praised the story, characters, and artwork, particularly the character designs. Liann Cooper of ''

Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and ot ...

'' felt that Murakami improved her character designs from ''

Gravitation In physics, gravity (), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction, is a fundamental interaction, a mutual attraction between all massive particles. On Earth, gravity takes a slightly different meaning: the observed force b ...

''. However, Cooper felt the series was "not especially poor, not especially good...just kind of there". In '' Manga: The Complete Guide'', Jason Thompson praised the artwork, though he felt the story was "confusing and dull".

Notes

References

External links

* {{anime News Network, manga, 3522 ADV Manga Adventure anime and manga Mag Garden manga Science fiction anime and manga Shōnen manga