Legendary Jean Giraud Moebius calls Koike a magnificent ronin a warrior without a master one of the rare authors who resist the cynical formatting of the current manga industry. And no doubt there are influences of Otomo and Moebius and drugs something he himself admitted to his publisher: Except peyotl I have tried almost everything: hashish heroin cocain acid magic mushrooms... But from a strictly graphical point of view LSD is far ahead ... He works as a lone artist which is laudable and an antithesis needed to all the demoralizing AI art dialogue going around. The staggering amount of meticulousness he puts into these pages make them more than just psychedelic relics. Here is a guy who loves loves loves what he does. Youll find a perfected organic style developed range in perspectives and anatomy his absolute will over them and a flow of narrative that never lets up never lets you take a breath with the drugged sway in the panels one page to the next suck and go whirlpool of lines ceaseless mounting of imagery awash with surrealism and absurdity on and on pretty much like this sentence a mixture of drowning and bottomless free fall. Storytelling structures are chosen with altered perception in mind. A scene transition doesnt consist of cut and change but a motifbased continuity: a droplet is a sweat rope is a lake swim is a zoned out bath. Its trying to mimic the nature of a junkies mind. I want to describe the moment when the boundaries between dream and reality blur. Very particular states of consciousness to which certain substances allow rapid access. All the difficulty then is to realize it. The words the common vocabulary the usual narrative logic are inappropriate. We have to invent other frameworks. Thats why my stories arent realistic theyre more trips . . . which explains why in three volumes of all the dream cream weve only gotten scattered tidbits of Kabus past. He has suicidal tendencies and is much of a clich addict. Youd think what an overused trope Nope not at all. Think of it like this in Koikes attempt to materialize hallucinations readers may need a familiar welltrodden road so as to not lose the way. To an extent coherence remains intact. Since in this futuristic world everything is artificial experiences can be loaned in small pumps or patches of drug doses. So everyone is a potential addict. Kabu loves the Peter Pan. Its a ah you guessed it childlike elationproviding hallucinogen. When he runs out of it a shady dealer finds him offering a freebie. The withdrawal makes it impossible to resist. Turns out its not Peter Pan but a superior more real than life itself trip inducing substance. Dreams within dreams. Paranoia imploding total selfworth. Triggered rubble of memories playing off each other. And I wouldnt want to give away too much. There are plot points and set pieces that appear to be created with something in mind. If so we havent seen what. Yes you read correctly in three volumes its not the whole story. It hasnt been officially discontinued either. I wish I could put a quote from Koike about it but I didnt find any. The future of Ultra Heaven hangs in an uncertain limbo. So is it worth it? Despite the uncompleteness? Of course it is. This is one of those rare instances where how a tale is told hypnotically envelopes what is being told. If youre a sucker for those youll love it.