Gamerz Heaven

(ADV Manga, 2004-2005)
™ and © 2003 Maki Murakami

Stories in which a protagonist gets sucked into a videogame were all the rage 10 years ago, and the only spin Gamerz Heaven puts on the genre is inverting the premise so the mysterious disc that game geek Kaito finds turns the entire world into a videogame. This innovation manages to up the ante, because, when a familiar locale is destroyed or the game version of someone from his class is killed, they stay gone when he stops playing.

Unfortunately, this bit of tweaking is the only drop of originality to be found in this bland by-the-numbers fantasy in which Kaito is revealed to have the heart of a hero and in which he gets a chance to use his useless set of skills to save the world. Besides the heady wish-fulfillment appeal of a kid being rewarded for wasting his time playing games (among them being the eye of an attractive classmate), there isn’t much to this one, best represented by characters who are every bit as sketchy as the art.

— S.A. Bennett

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#2

February, 2005
Cover Price: $9.99
1 copy available for $7.99

Maki Murakami