Gamerz Heaven is a four-volume shounen manga by Maki Murakami, better known for Gravitation. It was serialized in Monthly Comic Blade from 2002 to 2005.
It tells the story of Suzuki Kaito, a game-obsessed teenager who one day found a beta game called "Gamerz Heaven" mysteriously sitting in his room. Once he puts the disc in, he meets the Navigator, later named Nata, and is transported into the world of the game. He learns that the game is a lot like the real world (dubbed the "second zone" within the game world), but with monsters and enemies. It turns out that if someone is killed in the game, they disappear from the real world as well, and actions in the game, such as wrecking a building, also affect reality. After Nata is kidnapped by area boss Rush, Suzuki, accompanied by his friends Kyouko, Ren, and Mio, set out to save him and to prevent the real world from being overtaken by the game.
This series provides examples of:
- Animorphism: Rush turns into a chihuahua (actually, he was originally a chihuahua). Nobody knows why it happens, he just randomly changes back and forth from chihuahua to human based on Rule of Funny and he cannot control it.
- Cliffhanger: The ending of volume four, after which the manga seems to have gone on an infinite hiatus. The ending of volume two, where the English translation left off permanently, is also a rather nasty cliff hanger plot twist.
- Comedic Sociopathy: Ren's treatment of his dog...leaving him in the woods wasn't abandonment, it was training!
- Cyberspace: Gamerz Heaven is a video game which Suzuki and his friends zap themselves into for adventures.
- The Grim Reaper: Lost Soul has a scythe and basically acts the part of The Grim Reaper and death in the game.
- Inside a Computer System: Sucked into the Gamerz Heaven game and console. Or at least they appear to be.
- Living MacGuffin: Well, sort of? Nata is a video game character, but he is nonetheless sentient and everyone in game needs him to open the portal to the real world.
- Love Triangle: Rio loves Kyouko, who loves Suzuki, who is infatuated with Nata. It seems that Ren may also have feelings for Suzuki, but this is played for comedy more than the other combinations.
- Machine Monotone: Possibly Nata, depending on what Suzuki means when he says Nata has a "dull voice."
- Ret-Gone: What happens if you or your game-self dies in Gamerz Heaven.
- Save-Game Limits: Due to being a beta, Suzuki can only "save" in Gamerz Heaven, and return to the real world, a couple of times before beating the game.
- Win to Exit: Played with. Technically, Suzuki has four saves that will let him close out of the game, but he only has that many and once he uses them all...
