Skyhigh

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You are dead. Now, you have three options: accept your death and go to heaven, don’t accept it and stay as a ghost, and one more… haunt and kill someone in the world, but if you kill someone you will go straight to hell, and your suffering will never end. These options are presented by the long dark haired Izuko, the guardian of the gate for the murdered ones.

The art is creepy and far from what we consider a typical manga style - the brushes are blurred, the contrast between black and white is elevated to the maximum, ... connoting even a metaphorical level. Some illustrations at times seem to be just drafts but this rough style fits the subject of the manga pretty well. There are a lot of large frames and zoom in on the faces of the characters, since Takahashi likes to deform his lines when he’s picturing a deformed human heart.

Additionally, you can see some panoramic photos in the end of each chapter what always fits perfectly with the subject of it, and it’s a lot alike with the style that Takahashi used in ALIVE. There are also pictures of the city that make the reader reflect about his own life in a chaotic urban environment, with its sins and sadness; furthermore, Takahashi enjoys using ample black squares with only the assertion of the characters in big ideograms when the statements carry a lot of sentimental burdens.

The subjects are rape, murder, fake friends, suicide, voyeurism, bulling, vengeance, past, unemployment in times of crisis, unfulfilled dreams, child abuse. There’s no cliché here, only brutal reality. The morals aren’t what we are used to see like the power of friendship and idiotic things like that. The morals are surprisingly appalling. It’s a deep reflection about some Japan’s issues: people who isolate themselves, who fantasize with the filthiness.

I don’t think all the sex scenes were really necessary, at most of the time they were just fanservice, and that would be one of the few complaints that one can makes, but we are talking about a plot which involves some Freudian subjects so probably it’s inevitable. Besides, Takahashi links these scenes with some deep reflections about hypocrisy and the masks people wear. Actually, in some sense 90% of the manga talks about human hypocrisy. Hidden tears mixed with fake ones.

The ugliness of humanity presented with no fear, as well as the distant path to salvation which consists in the rebirth and trying once again, even with no promises that the same mistakes won’t be committed in this cycle of death and rebirth. The characters are almost like personifications of some dark sides of the heart, but we cannot call them takeoffs when the development is always far away from generalization.

The twisted art fits a narrative that distorts values: heroes become villains, victims become culprits. There’s no salvation, people just keep going down in the path of the hate. They could go to heaven, but they prefer to destroy themselves with dark feelings. The past is a chain that cannot be easily broken, and it consumes the prisoner. People have problems to move on when the unsettled things of the past come to meet them.

The chapters are episodic, always following a tragic ending of some poor human being. As the story always involves murders, there are some parts in which it seems like a detective manga, although the focus is more in the psychology of the characters than in the mystery.

Comparisons with Jigoku Shoujo are inevitable, seeing the plot, the episodic development, the vengeance subject, and the fact that Izuko looks like a grown Enma Ai, but as a matter of fact this manga came first. But Izumo still cannot use the internet Like Enma and that’s why Skyhigh doesn’t outstand here on MAL.

You’re tired of the same clichéd manga. Now, you have three choices: Move on and read something more intelligent, stay in the mainstream stuff… and one more: haunt and kill this reviewer, but if you kill someone you will go straight to hell and your suffering will never end - something to look forward to when you die.

I’m not sure why it is that whenever I chose a manga at random I seem to end up with something creepy and/or gory. Suffice to say Skyhigh, despite its somewhat misleading name, is probably the most gothic of gothic horrors I’ve come across since… er… Goth. Then again, seeing as it comes from the pen of the same mangaka who gave us “Alive”, "Blue Heaven" and "Jiraishin" maybe I shouldn’t be surprised.

The ten stand-alone stories that make up the two volumes essentially focus on the particular character’s death, events leading up to it and the choice they make upon meeting Izuko. Seeing as they’re ... arriving at the Gate of Grudges, it’s hardly likely their passing was a happy one, even though they are at first unaware of what is going on and rely on Izuko to fill them in.

Unfortunately, even though Izuko is the only constant in the stories, we’re told nothing of her background or why she’s the Gate Keeper. She just is, deal with it. It’s a shame really, because that could have provided an interesting side-story and fleshed it out into a few more chapters. This doesn’t mean that the overall story is lacking – anything but. You’re mired knee-deep in just about every negative human emotion and action imaginable right from the start. Envy, Hatred, Depression, Murder, Greed are all mixed together and served up with a liberal dose of vengeance.

Given it’s gothic roots, Skyhigh’s artwork is dark and stark and yet finely detailed at the same time. The mangaka fills each panel with effective imagery, especially when it comes to conveying emotion. However, and maybe it’s because I’m getting old, I did find it a bit heavy-going on the eyes after a bit.

Is there a downside? Well, it’s a gothic horror, so brace yourself for copious amounts of blood, nudity and sex (tastefully done, of course), as well as some fairly interesting plots. In that regard, it doesn’t really pull any punches, nor does it apologise for not doing so. If dark and gory isn’t your thing, I’d say avoid this. If you liked works such as Goth or Alive, you’ll probably enjoy this too. It’s certainly not one to read if you’re looking for something that’s feel-good or uplifting.

However, you could easily argue that without those elements present, it would lose its gothic and slightly surreal edge and become another “Jigoku Shoujo” spin-off (or precursor), which it very much isn’t. The individual stories also make the flow of the overall tale a bit stop-start, which could have been overcome by expanding on Izuko’s character and thus providing a bit more continuity to the stories., but that’s just me.

Overall? It’s grim, graphic, gory, gothic… and pretty darn good too.

Non-spoiler part of review: Skyhigh is a short manga, so it is worth it to read since it ends quickly but recomended in the sense of being essential or worth it for the quality? No.

The story is episodic, following what the characters will decide after their deaths (following what is presented in the synopsis already) and their reasons. It is a type of story that is known for being told by jogoku shoujo, which by itself is good since it has the potential to make up for a good manga or anime. However, what makes Skyhigh very supbar and lackluster is how unintentionally dull ... and funny the stories are in a totally not intended way, ultimately ruining not only the atmosphere but the whole fun/quality of the manga. The reasons are mostly very weak and shallow, the attempts are telling a message are void of a context that makes them resonate with the stories (i dont care for deep messages and deepness at all, but it just feels forced when it happens here for no reason). The whole plot feels very boring, jigoku shoujo (anime) came after this manga and is a much better rendition of this type of episodic story with a main character that navigates through it, the reasons that lead people to use the services of the hell girl are way better and engaging (not to mention the atmosphere is charming and not wasted).

End of non-spoiler review. Now some spoiler mentions of the bad in this manga below:

In one of the stories, the man kills his fiancé because he thinks she doesnt love him for real.... but because he has money (though there is no context for that, he is ugly but she seems like she really likes him. Still a goofy start). He kills her and then puts her below the bed of the hotel room where he killed her.... then he commits suicide out of regret. Then on spirit she sees him doing that.... then, at the end of that story, a random couple borrows that room with the bed where her body was placed and they start intercourse... so instead of going to heaven this killed woman decide to choose eternal damnation to... kill the couple.... for "having fun on top of her".... then it ends with her with a creepy face going to hell and the purgatory keeper girl tells her how bad it will be there. As it can be seen, it was a boring, goofy story that intends to be very serious and the other episodic stories follow the same route of quality (the one from the nonsense vengeful school girls, the melodramatic pointless brothers, the guy that saves the "asshole" woman and etc). The last story was the only one that was slightly better, though still bad. So that is it. I do not know if the other manga sequels to it are any better but i dont feel motivated to read neither. I will still read other works by the author that are not of the skyhigh series.