A total fun comic. I loved the way it was presented except the galley which began from last page and was all confusion. The graphics are wonderful and the story is cosy and interesting

Heaven's Design Team was an interesting read. I liked the illustrations, the humor and the educational bits. After every chapter there were educational blurbs with pictures of the actual animals that were featured.

However I didnt like that there was no structered story line. Everything was disconnected and there was no smooth flow. I think the main problem I had was that it didn't know what age range it was trying to appeal to. Some aspects seemed really childish and then the next page would be wildly inappropriate for a kid. I might try and read the second one just to see if I like it but it's a toss up from here.

Major props to the artist for making an entire series out of the questions everyone has had at one time or another when faced with a weird animal: How did that even happen?
This is fun, incredibly creative, and sneakily educational.
It's a great mix of a wacky and complex concept and real-life information relayed simply that combines into a surprisingly entertaining page-turner.

Happy thanks to NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for the review copy!

A funny, informative take on the biblical tale of god creating animals. Rather than being the one creating the animals, god found it too big a task and instead put the burden on a group of planet-named angels. Heaven's design team is a group of bumbling designers who come up with ideas for animals, each of which is based on god's guidelines for that animal. The banter of the design team, their interactions with other teams (like the insect department, and engineering). The introduction of Engineering and the showing of the prototypes was hilarious. I also loved how informative it was; the end result always being an actual existing animal made the ending of each chapter great, because they stand out from the absurdity of the proposed animals that were rejected. That being said, this isn't my type of manga, but I could really appreciate the originality of the manga and the imagination the creators of it have. I think this is going to be a big hit!

This was such a cute manga! I really enjoyed the design team and the banter between all of them. Watching them come up with all the animals was really entertaining. I loved reading the description of the animal and then being blown away by what animal they were describing (looking at you koala). Overall this was a fun manga and I'm excited to read more of it!

This appears to be the first in a quirky, fun manga series. It has an interesting premise - G-d has all of the animals created by "Heaven's Design Team". After each chapter that shows how the animals were developed, there are some true facts for the reader. A diverse "cast of characters" adds to the fun. I would recommend this for teens and older readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kodansha Comics. This is a voluntary review.

Fun(ny) and educational! Heaven's Design team focuses on a team of people (named after planets mostly) designing different animals that inhabit Earth. Some are familiar, some you probably haven't heard of. While mostly battling against one another or shooting ideas around the table, the animals they create are then shown and described after the chapter so you know what they look like in real life.

Also, Venus (Ven) uses They/Them pronouns! I haven't seen a lot of manga using those pronouns, and it's fantastic to see!

Heaven's Design Team continues the line of non-fiction information packed manga such as Moyashimon. We have a team of God's designers that are coming up with plans for new animal species. They all have their specialties and they discuss different kinds of blueprints in a sense and try to make the animals work so that they're plan would be accepted. The idea is to get the animal to live on Earth. The idea is fresh and interesting, but the execution doesn't work fully. The reason is the constant repetition of the same plot line. Someone comes up with an idea, then it's remodeled and then it's approved. The production line type of approach gets boring quite fast and this first part is only that. It's a shame, since this has so much potential!

I love the facts about the animals the most and why they are the way they are. The info pages are tight and very informative without too much stuff in them. The art works too, although it isn't anything out of this world, but I do like that the highlight is on the animals. The panels are a bit stuffed though and at times there's too much text, but gladly the manga is interesting. Heaven's Design Team isn't the easiest one to approach, but at least it's different and I do hope it will grow out of the repetition, since it's the biggest downfall if it continues.

'Heaven's Design Team 1' by Hebi-zou and Tsuta Suzuki with art by Tarako is a manga about the people that design animals.

There is a team in heaven responsible for designing all the weird animals in the world. Design specs are given and the team has to answer questions like 'why can't a unicorn exist?' or 'who wins in a fight between a bird and a snake?' Animal physiology comes in to play and each chapter ends with nice writeups on the featured animals.

Animals can be really weird, so this is a great premise for a series. It's also a sneaky way to learn while reading. The art is fun as are the fun design challenges.

I received a review copy of this manga from Kodansha Comics and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this manga.

Very reminiscent of Cells at Work, this is an educational, comedic manga on how the different animals of the Earth were created. The concept is absolutely adorable. God is the client and the Heaven's Design Team are coming with up with different animal ideas to please their client. It is Animal Planet meets HGTV essentially. Then, at the end of each chapter, the mangaka gives you the real information on the approved animals. Several of these animals you will definitely recognize. It was not as intensely educational as Cells at Work was, but the added real life facts to the way Pluto, Jupiter, Venus and the others come up with the ideas to the animals is wonderfully done. I would read another volume.

A super fun manga about God outsourcing the creation of organisms and animals to a design team made up of individuals named after planets. The story is light and full of humor and the animals included in the book are real animals found on Earth. There are even facts and information on the animals mentioned in the book at the end of each chapter. It made for both an interesting and humorous read!

So here's my issue, I read for pleasure and manga is a particular favorite of mine due to the frivolity, outrageousness, and fun. This should have been labeled as mainly an educational book rather than manga. I’m sure I would have enjoyed it a lot more. In the description there was just one mention that you could also learn something. That is an incorrect statement as it seems the main focus is educating people about animals.

The characters are not developed, there is no plot other than make new creatures in some sort of contest with no consequences. Nothing comes of the any of the activity other than an excuse to go into detail about an animal. This is literally a manga styled encyclopedia. Which would be fine if I had known that going in. I was waiting for the hilarity to unfold, but that never happened.

The art was good and there were a couple zingers in there, but I was still irritated. I feel like I did when my parents tried to hide veggies in other foods to try and trick me into eating it. Don’t hide that it’s entirely educational with a little humor thrown in. This would have been better for me had I known what I was getting into. It would be more aptly named Heaven’s Design Encyclopedia. I’m sure many other people will dig this, I just couldn’t get into it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Kondasha Comics for allowing me to read this for my honest and unbiased opinion.

This is a concept and execution born out of heaven. The eloquence of this work stems primarily from the comedy – dry, ironic, and witty. The combination of biology, zoology, genealogy, and creativity makes this all the more fantastic; understanding the mechanisms of how certain creatures operate, even if it were for comedic expense. For instance, Mars, the engineer of testing the proposed designs via simulation, points out the impracticalities of a Pegasus - its muscular stature and framework are not suitable for the current design’s wingspan neither will its capacity to defecate in the air be acceptable under any circumstances. These logically crude details make for a conceptually engaging feast for the reader – providing why certain creatures remain mythical. Case in point, the unicorn - while elegant, dies when its horn gets stuck onto a tree. As an alternative, another designer, Neptune, takes the horn and attaches it to a dolphin to create a narwhal (which eventually gets approved by God himself). And after each chapter, the work goes into detail about the featured animals.

The team comprises of eccentrics with their own sort of specialty, preference, and quirk. Saturn has a stubborn affinity for horses, Pluto crafts animals out of a morbid fascination – usually involving death or genitals, and Jupiter takes priority on appetite other than form when creating creatures – to name a few. Each has their own design philosophy and yet most have reasonable explanations. The latter, Jupiter, takes particular note of the musculature of the animal, notably the chicken where breast meat is a lot drier than thigh meat given the composition of the former of fast-twitching muscles (used for short bursts of energy). This is smart, educational writing combined with the child-like whimsy of a Zoo-Book for adults.

This is a work that I want to continue following. There are many creatures on this earth, and I look forward to seeing how the mangaka will adapt the creative spark into crafting the animals and overall the narrative.

This is an amazing manga that is unique, (I love that the stories are actually about real animals) the art is wonderful and it's such an original story. Heaven's Design Team comes up with proposals for animals we(the reader) get to find out how things will work in R&D and they go through a process where they are tested for environments, designs are investigated for best application in the fields and even taste. This is a wonderful, informative, beautiful to look at manga.

***eARC provided by Netgalley for honest review***

What would it be like if God told angel assistants to create all the animals of the world for Him? This is a humorous, fun, and educational manga where you learn interesting facts about various animals while they're being created in heaven. There's not a lot there plot-wise, and the character's are pretty flat, but I found it enjoyable to go along with the ride regardless.

The storyline is different. It is educational and funny, but it was not really my type of manga. And biology isn't really my favorite so...

This was hilarious. It was also surprisingly educational. On the educational side: I'm not sure I have ever seen a manga with a resources section & I'm giving it massive kudos for that. Illustrations were amusing as were the characters. All-in-all, I want more of this series. If anything to see if Mr. Saturn manages to pass through a Pegasus or a Unicorn (I'm rooting for you Mr. Saturn!) and to see what Kenta Saturn accidentally created. I must know!

For Libraries: While this seems to be classified as an adult comic, I don't see much in that would make me hesitate to place this in a YA Graphics section. Definitely what I would say is for Older Teens as there are A LOT of penis jokes and facts. But all of those are, strictly-speaking, scientifically accurate.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really fun read. Based on the idea that god is too busy (or perhaps lazy) to design every single animal for earth so has outsourced this project to the Heaven Design team. An eccentric cast of characters all responsible for design animals per spec for god with usually hilarious and unintended consequences.

It's also educational in parts as there are mini breakdowns and facts about each animal created and the art for the animals is, as far as I can tell, true to life. Which contrasts we'll with the cuter art style also used within the book.

I'm a sucker for light and funny manga, especially if it teaches and even more so if it's about animals! Definitely enjoyable.

This was a cute manga, and I really liked the additional pages at the end of each chapter detailing the actual creatures that were featured. I downloaded it because it looked adorable, but it turned out to be rather informational as well. Not for everyone, as it features a concept of heaven/angels/creationism and is rather glib about it. I could see that being a turn-off for the adamantly faithful or the stauncher atheist. But for many readers who are not in those categories this is a fun and breezy comedy. Advanced Reader Copy obtained from NetGalley.

Huge thank you to Kodansha and NetGalley for providing me an advanced copy!

The cover looks really good and teases the story well enough. The art is really pretty throughout the manga, I had no complaints. The characters look great and there are plenty of well drawn animals. I loved the horse designs a lot. Please give me a pegasus!

Content warnings
some fan service in the background, mention of reproduction and animal genitalia

The plot
The base idea is really funny, especially as a fellow office worker. What if God was too lazy to create all of the creatures for Earth and instead outsourced the tasks to an office full of designers and one very tired engineer? I wasn’t sure if this would be a full on gag manga or a bit more serious. While it has puns and running jokes, it falls more on the informative side. It teaches a lot of real life biology facts while putting them in a funny context. Like, what if the development of two creatures was spurred buy two designers trying to up each other and have their creatures win in a fight by coming up with the most nonsensical evolutions? What if someone was really into horses and tried to make a unicorn? Why do some animals have weird biology? It also pokes fun on office work, like when the customer requests stupid ideas but the team still has to solve it somehow.. A lot of fun questions are raised and answered, I learned a lot of new things about animals, even some disturbing facts. At the end of each chapter there is a little encyclopedia entry, explaining to you what are real life facts about the animals and what was fiction. If you like biology or know a kid who might be interested, give it a shot. Just make sure they are old enough to read the material as it touches on the food chain and animal reproduction as well.

There are a few jokes I did not like very much regarding genitalia, and there is a light fanservice for two out of the three female characters eg. characters in swimsuit who are wearing obviously too small tops and heavy cleavage. I don’t like fanservice especially as random background additions in stories that are not adult stories.

I love the extra story at the end about how the manga was born, it is really funny. And it’s great to know that there is actually a workload split, one artist who focuses on the animals and one on the human characters.

This was a fun and very informative read. I was not sure what to expect as I rarely read random manga titles. My interest was piked by the cover and I figured this would be more on the silly, gag manga side. This was a bit more serious for my own taste, focusing on being informative about animals. The characters have a few quirks but aren’t meant to be very deep and the story does not rely heavily on a bigger central plot line. I recommend it to anyone who likes reading about animals and wants a light reading with a silly narration.